Kennebec Historical Society receives $5,000 trust grant

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The Kennebec Historical Society has received a $5,000 grant from the Morton-Kelly Charitable Trust to catalog the society’s growing collection, buy archival supplies and replace an aging computer. The society will use the grant to pay two interns who will address the backlog of donated materials and to purchase the protective archival boxes and folders necessary to properly preserve documents, photographs, scrapbooks, maps, manuscripts, books, and ephemera.

The Portland-based Morton-Kelly Charitable Trust was established in 1988 by Joan Morton Kelly and her mother, Mildred Duncan Morton, to facilitate their philanthropic activities, which include educational programs, cultural projects, historic preservation projects and environmental initiatives. The trust considers grants for public programming, capital expenses, and, in some circumstances, operating support, according to its website.

“I’m very pleased and excited that this grant will help assist KHS in preserving, cataloging, and digitizing the society’s collection of Kennebec County history,” said Patsy Crockett, president of the Kennebec Historical Society. She added, “Researchers will be more inclined to find what they are looking for if more items are cataloged.”

Each year, KHS accessions about 200 donations or purchases. An accession can contain from one to thousands of items. Many collections contain hundreds of items that have not been fully cataloged beyond a brief description. The grant provides funds to pay interns who will reduce or eliminate the backlog of donated materials, create more searchable items in the database, and therefore provide better results for researchers. A new computer will be purchased to supplement the society’s goal of replacing computers on a five-year cycle. Indirectly, the grant will allow KHS to continue to offer its free monthly historical programs and continue the production of its bi-monthly newsletter for members.

For more information, please contact Scott Wood, the society’s administrative director, at 622-7718.

Creates! accepted into Maine Master Naturalist Program

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Serena Sanborn in a historic re-enactment of Mattie (Martha) Wadsworth was one of the first women to publish in Entomological News. Born on July 26, 1862, Mattie was an amateur entomologist who lived in rural Maine. (contributed photo)

An exciting new chapter will begin in the new year for Serena Sanborn, education and outreach coordinator at Waterville Creates!, as she has been accepted into the Maine Master Naturalist Program! The Maine Master Naturalist Program is a nonprofit volunteer-based enterprise that trains people to become citizen-naturalists.

The graduates of the Maine Master Naturalist Program help enrich nature education in Maine. The program is quite extensive, with 100 hours of in-depth training and more than 200 hours of practice as students learn about topics varying from Maine’s ecological systems to conservation biology, animals, geology, and more!

The program extends beyond graduation, with students promising to volunteer their time leading nature walks and sharing their knowledge, becoming part of a nexus of naturalists around the state, and having opportunities to continue learning about Maine’s natural world through advanced seminars. Upon her completion of this course, Serena has plans to expand on her already popular guided nature walks, share her knowledge through fun activities, and design even more programming around nature education.

“I am delighted not only to expand my knowledge and participate in this program, but also for all the opportunities that this will allow me to bring back to the Waterville community,” says Sanborn. “I have always been an advocate for citizen science, involvement with the outdoors, and the connections to art, so I’m thrilled and honored to be accepted into a program that focuses on something so dear to my heart.”

Vigue promoted to master sergeant

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Michael A. Vigue has been promoted to the rank of master sergeant in the U.S. Air Force National Guard. Vigue is currently serving as Cyber Systems Operations Non-Commissioned Officer-in-Charge with 265th Combat Communications Squadron, South Portland,. He has served in the military for 15 years.

He is a 1982 graduate of Winslow High School, in Winslow. He earned a bachelor’s degree in 1987 from the University of Maine, Orono.

Navigating the onslaught of disinformation

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by Jeanne Marquis

We are now bombarded with more disinformation than ever before. Intentional misinformation can impact our day-to-day decisions we make about parenting, nutrition, finances and healthcare – anything in our lives in which we need to make informed decisions. Disinformation is not exclusive to politics and it is not a new phenomenon. It’s as old as the Trojan horse given as a “gift” to the city of Troy by the Greek army.

In his book Information Wars, Richard Stengel defined disinformation as “the deliberate creation and distribution of information that is false and deceptive in order to mislead an audience.” Misinformation in contrast to Disinformation, Stengel said, is false, though it is not deliberately deceptive. Misinformation is created inadvertently by a mistake. It is the deliberate nature of disinformation that makes it so harmful.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Roberts said in his 2019 End-of-Year Report,“ In our age, when social media can instantly spread rumor and false information on a grand scale, the public’s need to understand our government, and the protections it provides, is ever more vital.” Roberts warns us to beware of disinformation and not to take democracy for granted.

Democracies thrive on the free flow of information and the diversity of opinion. It is our dedication to free speech that makes it difficult to combat disinformation. So, what do we do as consumers of information? How do we, as individuals, heed Judge Roberts’ warning to not succumb to disinformation and protect our democracy?

Think of news as food for your brain. We know if we feed our bodies with poor quality food it adversely impacts our health, so we are careful to obtain our food from trusted sources and have a general awareness of the ingredients. Disinformation by its definition is intended to manipulate and adversely impact your thinking. That means we need to put as much thought into the information you consume in your head as you do for the food you put on your table. Granted, food comes with nutrition labels so you can easily know what you’re getting, but with a little research you can also obtain the source of your news and verify its content to determine if it is disinformation. Trust the news you consume.

Here are some tips to help you navigate the news and steer clear of disinformation:

Know the perspective of your source of news by using a reliable bias checker such as allsides.com or MediaBiasFactCheck.com. Their ratings are determined by blind surveys of respondents across the political spectrum and third-party data.

Trace the source of the money behind the publication or digital site. Look up the news source on Wikipedia to find the owner, CEO, editor and related business interests. These are oftentimes live links that can lead you to other pertinent information to reveal potential biases.

Verify the content of the story with a trusted fact checker such as factcheck.org, PolitiFact.com, apnews.com/APFactCheck, pointer.org/ifcn/, nytimes.com/spotlight/fact-checks, and washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker. Generally, if a story seems outrageous, it probably is disinformation. Creators of disinformation prey on the audiences’ emotions, either to stir up a sense of rage or injustice, in order to entice them to share the story with others. Use a factchecker for any story that raises your suspicions.

The final tidbit of advice to help you avoid disinformation, keeping with the food analogy, is to make sure you consume news from a wide variety of sources. You wouldn’t eat from one food group, so get a complete diet of daily news from several sources. You’ll feel better and so will those around you.

The Town Line will be following the important topic of disinformation with updates throughout the year. The next topic will be a non-partisan look at the impact of disinformation.

2019 State champion

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Kaleb Brown, a brown belt, of Palermo, earned State Championship titles for both Kata (forms) and Kumite (fighting) on December 7, 2019. This prestigious award is given to only the first place winners. It is an honor to hold such a title as it represents hard work, determination and commitment to the art. (contributed photo)

Unity College new degree programs to focus on animal health, climate change

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Online undergraduate programs offer students job-ready skills in growing markets

This fall, Unity College Distance Education launched two new undergraduate degree programs, which were created and designed to meet the growing interest of students and demand in the job market. The new programs, Animal Health and Behavior and Environmental Science and Climate Change, fit nicely into Unity College’s mission and offer students a wide range of careers after completing their degree online.

“These two programs are tailored to meet the needs of our students, giving them the job-ready skills they’ll need to be successful in either their careers or graduate programs,” said Unity College President Dr. Melik Peter Khoury. “These two programs in particular are giving place-bound students – those who can’t uproot their lives and attend our Flagship campus – an opportunity to turn their passions into careers. From our Environmental Science and Climate Change program, graduates can pursue careers in solar and wind energy, geographic information system science, or in policy-making and advising. Our Animal Health and Behavior degree will give them the foundation to either work in animal shelters, wildlife preserves, and rehabilitation centers, or they can choose to pursue the pre-veterinarian track and ultimately become veterinarians.”

“These programs were chosen and designed specifically for working adults or those seeking a meaningful career change to either complete or earn their bachelor’s degree,” said Dr. Erika Latty, Chief Learning Officer at Unity College. “There is high job market demand in these two fields, and our programs deliver a content-rich, high quality learning experience while providing for greater access and improved earning potential among students.”

Over the next 10 years, the projected growth for jobs like environmental compliance specialists, environmental technicians, environmental engineers, and energy engineers ranges from 6 to 12 percent, while the need for solar installers is projected to more than double.

“Solar and wind energy installation is a fast-growing field,” said Dr. Amy Arnett, Vice President of Unity College Distance Education. “This program is going to set students up with a very solid science background, which they can then apply to some really great job opportunities in renewable energy.”

Jobs for Animal Health and Behavior, including veterinary assistants and technicians, zoologists, caretakers, trainers, and veterinarians are projected to grow between 7 percent and 24 percent.

“Animal Health and Behavior is our answer to what many students have asked for. People want to work with animals,” said Dr. Arnett. “What we’ve created is a program that helps people understand animal science from both a physiological and behavioral perspective.”

For more on these new undergraduate programs from Unity College Distance Education, visit online.unity.edu.

McKenney tapped as 75th anniversary season Bomazeen camp director

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Julie McKenney, Camp Bomazeen director

Camp Bomazeen, home of Scout camping in central Maine for the past 75 years, will be led by Julie McKenney this summer following an announcement by Pine Tree Council in December.

McKenney, who lives in Belgrade five minutes from Camp Bomazeen, has served the camp in various capacities over the past seven seasons including as resident camp Shooting Sports Director, resident camp Program Director, and Program and then Camp Director for Cub Scouting programs such as Day Camp and Fun Pack Weekends.

The decision was made shortly before Christmas. Felicia Cates, of Mount Vernon, professional staff adviser to Camp Bomazeen, made the announcement. “Julie is full of energy and excitement with the passion, experience and knowledge to deliver a safe and exciting Scouting program at Bomazeen in 2020,” Cates said.

She works for RSU #18 at the James H Bean School, in Sidney, as an Ed-Tech 2 in the Learning Lab. “I’ve been with this school for three years now. Before I was at Williams Elementary for four years in the same role.”

“I wanted to be the director to continue the amazing traditions at our camp for wonderful volunteers and for our adventurous campers so they will have a place to continue their Scouting journey. I have built some great relationships with these Scouts and Scouters and love to see them grow.”

She has a deep wealth of Scouting and outdoor experience. “As a kid I did a lot of camping with my family back in Wyoming and so I learned a lot of great skills that I enjoy teaching to others,” McKenney said. “My stepfather was a park ranger for the State of Maine for many years and his love of camping rekindled my interest as a teenager and then when my first son came along I thought ‘here we go, we have got to go camping.’”

When her eldest son, Max, joined Cub Scouting, Julie joined with him. “I was a transitional Wolf Den Leader with Pack #654 when the leader was deployed in 2007. Then Cubmaster for Pack #453 in 2010.” When her son moved to Boy Scouts, Julie found opportunities to help there as well. She was an assistant Scoutmaster for Troop #453 and is currently the committee chairman for Pack #454 and Webelos Den Leader for Pack #1776 which is the all-girl Cub Scout Pack, in Sidney, where her daughter Elisha is a Webelos Scout.

McKenney has been successful both in her Scouting life and outside as well. She received the District Award of Merit and the Silver Beaver which are pinnacle awards in Scouting recognizing volunteer Scout leaders. She also was received the Spirit of America Award in 2014 for her community efforts, in Belgrade.

Now that she has been hired, McKinney will hire senior staff such as a program director, area directors, a cook, health officer and then junior staff. Next McKenney and several other members of camp staff will attend a week-long training program to prepare them to safely and effectively operate a Scout camp in compliance with state and federal laws and in accordance with Scouting requirements.

McKenney’s enthusiasm for Camp Bomazeen is evident. “I think the kids who join Scouting – both boys and girls – and attend camp have more of a full experience of Scouting. I think it gives them a chance to practice their skills. It gives them a chance to meet new people and make you friends. We all grow a little when we’re not always with people we know and Camp Bomazeen helps Scouts to become more independent and make choices and live with the outcomes.”

Fairfield Police Department holds another successful toy drive

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From left to right, Sgt. Matthew Wilcox, Officer Dakota Willhoite, Sgt. Patrick Mank, Officer Nolan Allen, Officer Jarrett Hill, Officer Shanna Blodgett, Chief Thomas Gould, Ret. Officer William Beaulieu, Officer Timothy MacArthur, Officer Matthew Bard, Officer Casey Dugas and The Grinch. Photo by Tawni Lively, Central Maine Photography

13th annual Cops for Kids program delivers toys to children at Christmas

This is the 13th year that the officers of the Fairfield Police Department have put on their Santa hats and gotten into their “sleighs” to spread Christmas cheer to the boys and girls of Fairfield. The officers prepare for this program all year long, making sure they check their lists once, twice and again once more. Pulling into a driveway and seeing the kids in a window with excited faces and huge smiles warms our hearts and reminds us what Christmas is truly all about. They all look forward to this one night, all year long.

JMG’s Giving Tree receives gift

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Dakota Hoffman, left, and Kevin Pelletier with all gifts. (contributed photo)

JMG’s annual Giving Tree at China Schools received a generous gift from the Dunkin’ on Western Ave in Augusta. Kelsey Morin, a China Middle School parent and manager at Dunkin organized the efforts. Kelsey added, “Each year my team and I give up all our tips for a week and ask customers to donate change to help us get Christmas presents for people in need. We set a goal of $600 and came out at $606. All of the money was spent on gifts for China Schools Giving Tree.”

Giving Tree gifts with Kelsey Morin, manager at Dunkin’

Six quick tips from Car Care Council for winter driving

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(NAPSI)—When it comes to winter car care, many motorists tend to think of antifreeze and batteries—but vehicles need extra attention in winter, especially when the temperatures drop.

“Making sure your vehicle is properly prepared for all of winter’s elements will help you avoid the aggravation of an unplanned road emergency,” says Rich White, executive director, Car Care Council.

The nonprofit Car Care Council offers six quick tips to help your vehicle perform at its best during cold weather months:

  1. Keep the gas tank at least half full; this decreases the chance of moisture forming in the gas lines and possibly freezing.
  2. Check the tire pressure, including the spare, as tires can lose pressure when temperatures drop. Consider special tires if snow and ice are a problem in your area.
  3. Have the exhaust system checked for carbon monoxide leaks, which can be especially dangerous during cold weather driving when windows are closed.
  4. Allow your car a little more time to warm up when temperatures are below freezing, so that the oil in the engine and transmission circulate and get warm.
  5. Change to low-viscosity oil in winter as it will flow more easily between moving parts when it is cold. Drivers in sub-zero temperatures should drop their oil weight from 10-W30 to 5-W30, as thickened oil can make it hard to start the car.
  6. Consider using cold weather washer fluid and special winter windshield blades if you live in a place with especially harsh winter conditions.

Drivers should also stock an emergency kit with an ice scraper and snowbrush, jumper cables, flashlight, blanket, extra clothes, bottled water, dry food snacks and needed medication. In addition, the Car Care Council recommends a thorough vehicle inspection by a trusted professional service technician, as winter magnifies existing problems such as pings, hard starts, sluggish performance or rough idling.

The Car Care Council is the source of information for the “Be Car Care Aware” consumer education campaign promoting the benefits of regular vehicle care, maintenance and repair to consumers. To order a free copy of the popular Car Care Guide, visit the council’s consumer education website at www.carcare.org.