Where’s the gun?

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A similar statue in Winslow with the gun in hand (left), and the statue in Vassalboro missing the gun (right). (Photos by Isabelle Markley)

Where’s the gun on the Civil War statue in Vassalboro?

The white granite statue dedicated to the memory of soldiers from Vassalboro who lost their lives in the Civil War, 1861-1865, stands in Monument Park on Route 32, between the China Lake boat landing and the old Vassalboro School, now a town museum.

The soldier’s hands are seen gripping the muzzle, but the stock end of the gun from the statue’s belt to the ground where it should be resting at his feet is missing. Compare the Vassalboro statue to a similar model in Winslow’s park at Halifax and Monument streets to see where the rifle would have been. If you have any information please contact The Town Line (townline@fairpoint.net).

Palermo scouts meet military medal of honor recipient

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Pictured from left to right are Scoutmaster Roy Lucier, scouts Nickolas Christiansen, Parker Potter, RJ Nelson, Timmy Christiansen, Wyatt Bray, Kaleb Brown, Atilio Delgado, Bo Johnson, Assistant Scoutmaster Barbara Files-Lucier, and Logen Bolduc. Ssgt. Ryan Pitts stands in back. (Contributed photo)

On November 8, Palermo Boy Scout Troop #222 met Medal of Honor recipient, Ssgt. Ryan Pitts, at the University of Southern Maine campus, in Portland. Ssgt. Pitts lectured on the role of leadership.

Caitlyn Denico joins Army National Guard

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Caitlyn Denico, 18, of Vassalboro (Contributed photo)

Caitlyn Denico, 18, of Vassalboro, recently enlisted in the Army National Guard. The senior, honor student, at Erskine Academy, in South China, will be attending basic military training in Missouri, and follow that with advance individual training, in Mississippi, specializing in construction, with a concentration in masonry. Caitlyn is the daughter of Rick and Cindy Denico, of Vassalboro.

Jefferson food pantry announces December openings

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On November 14 the Jefferson Area Community Food Pantry supplied food to 56 families, representing 125 family members. The largest attendance to date. In addition to fresh produce from Twin Villages Food Bank Farm and Good Shepherd Food Bank, non perishables, fresh eggs, bread, pumpkin pies, turkeys, plus additional assorted meats were available.

Generous donations were received from several churches and community citizens and are greatly appreciated during this holiday season. If you would like to donate food, please call the number below. Monetary donations can be sent by check and made payable to St Giles Church, PO Box 34, Jefferson, ME 04348, with “JACFB” written in the memo area.

The December opening dates are two weeks in a row this year. Wednesday, December 12 and Wednesday December 19, 4 – 5:30 p.m., at St Giles Church, 72 Gardiner Road (Rt 126), Jefferson. For more information, call 315-1134.

Two gifts from the Hermitage: fruitcake and stillness

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Sister Elizabeth Wagner of the Transfiguration Hermitage, in Windsor. (photo by Jeani Marquis)

by Jeani Marquis

Hidden from view on Windsor Neck Road behind a stand of tall pines is a monastic community named the Transfiguration Heritage. As you drive up past those pines, you get an immediate feeling of peace, perhaps it is because of the expansive idyllic view or perhaps it is the atmosphere established by women who have dedicated themselves to the contemplative life of the St. Benedict Order.

Contemplative lives do not mean they are not busy every season of the year, as this is a self-sustaining order. Their busiest season comes during Advent, their fruitcake season. This is when they put the finishing touches and gift box the fruitcakes they have expertly nurtured for most of the previous year.

These are traditional English fruitcakes handmade by centuries’ old methods, laden with fruits and nuts, aged for months while soaking thoroughly in brandy. These are not the fruitcakes you may have remembered that brought on jokes about doorstops or bricks. The brandied fruitcakes from the Transfiguration Hermitage are rich, moist and warmly mellow. A gift of this fruitcake is genuinely welcomed throughout New England by mail order. It is also available locally at the heritage gift shop as are six varieties of cookies, homemade jams, rum cakes, traditional stollen, a hot sauce and a French herb mixture they call Herbes des Landes.

St. Moira’s Retreat House

Guest room at the St. Moira’s Retreat House at the Transfiguration Hermitage. (Photo by Jeani Marquis)

When the sisters are not in the middle of fruitcake season, they are busy in their gardens or attending to visitors at St. Moira’s Retreat House. The inviting house offers four single rooms, a small conference room, a kitchenette for making breakfast and enjoying other meals prepared by the sisters. The weather-tight, passive solar house is fully handicap accessible and offers the seclusion visitors seek. Each room has peaceful views of the natural setting as inspiration for meditation, reflection and meaningful prayer.

Sister Elizabeth explains that people come to the retreat as a way to recharge themselves or perhaps they are in a point in their lives where one is faced with a major decision. The reasons why guests come are almost as varied as the visitors themselves. During their stay, guests have the supportive presence of a praying monastic community and are invited, but not required, to join the sisters in their daily prayer services.

A retreat offers the opportunity for a person to get away from their hectic lives and clear their minds of the everyday, anxious thoughts. Quieting one’s mind is not easy, even Sister Elizabeth admits she struggles. “Stillness is a gift,” she says.

In her book Seasons in My Garden, Meditations from a Hermitage, Elizabeth Wagner writes:

“God is greater than all that is, so is found in the stillness that is beyond feelings, beyond words, beyond concepts, or images or thoughts. Stillness is a contemplative posture, a waiting for God’s Word to be quietly received in the stillness of heart and mind and soul.”

Guests are welcome from all faiths to stay at St. Moira’s Retreat House and are only requested to leave a nominal fee of $50 per night. During the holiday season, the gift shop is open daily 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at 205 Windsor Neck Road, Windsor, Maine.

Traditional English fruitcake soaked in brandy and other items from the Hermitage gift shop. (Photo by Jeani Marquis)

Erskine’s Field Service club to hold craft fair

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The American Field Service club trip to Costa Rica in 2014 (photo from Erskine Academy)

The American Field Service club, at Erskine Academy, in South China, will be hosting a first ever Christmas Craft Fair at Erskine Academy on Saturday, December 15, from 8 a.m. – 2 p.m. They are giving children in the community an opportunity to get their picture taken with Santa, write letters to the North Pole, buy Christmas gifts, and do their own crafts.

Admission is $3 a person, or $10 a family (3 persons.) All the proceeds will go to the AFS Club’s new humanitarian project in Guatemala: Casas Esperanzas. They are creating their very own house building organization and are building the first house in March 2019. The money raised will go towards tools, lumber, cement, and shipment fees. They are also looking for crafters who would like to sell their product at the Christmas Craft Fair. It is $10 a table, which includes a table and comes with a free breakfast.

For more information, contact Erskine Academy.

Annual Parade of Lights on tap for Friday

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Young elves participate in the annual parade last year.

The 13th annual Parade of Lights is scheduled for Friday, November 23, at 6 p.m., in downtown Waterville. The annual parade will assemble at Head of Falls, and travel down Main Street, and will continue to Castonguay Square where the giant spruce tree will be lighted for the holiday season.

Santa will arrive at Kringleville and get ready to welcome children leading up to Christmas.

The event is now under the stewardship of the Children’s Discovery Museum.

The parade takes place rain or shine.

Community garden seeks seed money grant

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The Palermo Community Garden last summer. The group is seeking matching funds for a grant. (Contributed photo)

From November 15 to December 15, the Palermo Community Garden is seeking matching funds for a small grant to buy seeds, replace worn-out garden tools, procure organic soil nutrients, and generally upgrade the 22,000 sq. ft. garden that provides fresh produce for the Palermo Food Pantry. The Community Garden features 32 cedar log raised beds, raspberry and blackberry patches, and 18 kinds of perennial fruits and vegetables, including fiddlehead ferns. A spectacular grape arbor graces the north end of the Garden, which is a favorite place for holding all sorts of barbecues and celebrations.

Master Gardener Volunteer Connie Bellet cares for the gardens, with help from her husband, Phil White Hawk and occasional volunteers. “This is a ‘sweat-equity’ garden,” explains White Hawk. Anybody can come over and put in an hour of weeding and go home with all the produce their family can use. Bellet has planted some 140 varieties of edible vegetables, herbs, flowers, and fruit. “We try for at least one kind of exotic, weird, and colorful new plant every year, just to see if it will grow here,” she says. “We want people of all ages to come and join the fun!” Now, even with snow on the ground, everybody CAN jump in.

There’s not much time to do this, but please go to our donation page and donate whatever you can spare. “We are not trying to break the bank, but we do need your support, and we need it today, while you are thinking of it. Your timely donation is very important to us and highly appreciated. Thank you so very much for helping us meet our challenge of $800,” said Bellet. “All of us at the Palermo Community Center wish you and your family a holiday season of joy and abundance.”

China for a Lifetime kicks off volunteer initiative

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More than two dozen residents turned out to hear about volunteering in China. (Photos by Eric Austin)

by Eric W. Austin

The China for a Lifetime Committee held a public meeting on Saturday, November 17, at the China Lake Camp and Conference Center to launch a volunteer initiative as part of their mission to improve the lives of residents through community activism.

The committee had identified 18 areas where volunteers can help to make the community better and support our most vulnerable citizens. Those areas included: drivers, home repair, shopping, shut-in check-ins, snow shoveling and firewood help for disabled and elderly residents, volunteers for litter clean-up, tutoring/mentoring, substance abuse support, help with the “free” building at the transfer station, a welcome wagon team to greet new residents, a fire department maintenance team, volunteers for the China and South China libraries, a phone tree for getting the word out about important announcements, and help with the China School Forest.

The committee is also looking for volunteer coordinators to help organize tasks and volunteers. Sign-up sheets for each category were available at the meeting on Saturday for people to express their interest in working on one of these initiatives.

Twenty-nine people from China attended the event and spoke about the needs and opportunities for volunteering in the China area.

Christopher Hahn, chairman of China for a Lifetime Committee, addresses residents who attended the meeting.

Christopher Hahn, chairman for the China for a Lifetime Committee, spoke about the mission of the committee to promote community activism, and encouraged everyone to join the “Friends of China, Maine” Facebook group, which has been setup by the committee to facilitate communication between residents.

Lois Rogers and Jodi Blackinton, representing the China Food Pantry, spoke about the need for volunteers to help at the pantry, particularly between the hours of 9:30-10:30 a.m., on Fridays and Saturdays, when boxes of food are carried in. The China Food Pantry serves around 75 families a week, and gave out nearly 60 turkeys to needy families this Thanksgiving.

Anita Smith, representing the China School Forest, spoke about the need for help maintaining the forest trails and emphasized that, despite its name, the China School Forest is owned by the town, not the school district. After storms they often have fallen trees that need to be cleared.

Jenny Claire spoke up about the need for a local support group for parents of disabled children. This is a particular need for parents of older children who no longer benefit from the support they receive as part of the public school system.

China Town Manager Dennis Heath spoke about the improvements made recently to the town office website, including a new calendar feature, listing town committee meetings, and a new service they’ve implemented which provides live video streaming for active meetings. It is his intention that all meetings in the central conference room will be recorded and stored for future reference. An archive of recorded meetings can be found by going to the town website and clicking on “Live Stream” in the menu on the left-hand side of the homepage.

Heath also mentioned that he sees a need in the community for free financial management counseling for some residents. The CFAL committee will add that to their list of volunteer opportunities.

Finally, Rick Hansen, Camp Director for the China Conference Center, spoke about the role he hopes the conference center can play in the community. Currently, the center hosts a Healthy Heart Walking program on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 7-10 a.m. in the gymnasium.

The China for a Lifetime Committee meets the third Thursday of every month at 6:30 p.m. at the town office. The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, December 20, at 6:30 p.m. Residents of China are welcome to attend.

The committee is still looking for volunteers and if you would like to help, please email your contact information (name & phone number), along with the volunteer category you are interested in, to the committee at ChinaforaLifetime@gmail.com.

Thanksgiving: a time for reflection, giving thanks

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by Gary Kennedy

Well, it’s that time of year, again. I am sure most of us don’t give Thanksgiving much thought. It happens every year and we tend to do the same things for each and every one of them. Generally, we join family and friends, those we love and care. It’s generally a time of joy and well being. It’s a time of sharing those tasty treats that we all believe are better than anyone else’s. Of course, all present will compliment and state that they have never tasted better. Secretly, they will say, “It’s good but mine is a little better. Oh well, that is just part of our competitive nature, no harm intended.

Lately, being an international volunteer, I have been giving a lot of thought to the word, “Thanksgiving.” Was the word intended that way or was it intended to actually be two words, Thanks and Giving? What we do know is that it was a pilgrim thing and became synonymous with the meal of the time, turkey. It has become more evident as of late why that happened. The little critters have been reintroduced to Maine and have become extremely prolific. They are everywhere, it seems. Soon they will be eating out of your hand. There are mixed reports on how they taste.

Anyway, that being said, let’s get back to the word Thanksgiving. It seems it’s a word saying thank you and a word suggesting giving. It seems to me it should be GivingThanks Day. In any case, what does it mean to you? It seems to be indigenous of the United States with origins in the original colonies; or is it? Can you imagine how tough the times were back then? They had drafty log cabins, open wood fires, handmade clothes and food was very hard to come by. Still, they created Thanksgiving Day, a day of reflection, thanks to the Creator and for what little they had. It was a time of celebration with family, friends and neighbors. It was a time of collective participation and the sharing of the foods that they had available at that time.

Well, times have changed and the population is far greater than those times. However, has the spirit of this great holiday been diminished? If so, then it is time we got back on track and remember what we have been given and also be aware that even in this day and age there is still the drafty cabin and lack of food among us.

Take time during this holiday season to think of others. Make your holiday a great one in the knowledge that you have made someone else happy. Find a way to give to some family you don’t even know. Doesn’t just the thought bring a smile to your face?

As we know Thanksgiving here had its ups and downs. President George Washington was in favor of the holiday, but later, President Thomas Jefferson eliminated it during his time in office. He felt that public demonstrations of piety to a higher power, like that celebrated at Thanksgiving, were inappropriate in a nation based in part on the separation of church and state. Subsequent presidents agreed with him. In fact, no official Thanksgiving proclamation was issued by any president from 1815, until October 3, 1863, when Lincoln took the opportunity to thank the Union Army and God for a shift in the country’s fortunes. In the meantime, the concept continued in the hearts of many, and was continued on a personal level. Later, in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving a legal holiday, on the fourth Thursday of November.

Actually, one of the first Thanksgivings for us was held in Virginia in 1620 and later in 1621 by the Pilgrims and the Native American tribes such as the Wampanoag. There were 90 Native Americans and 53 Pilgrim at the Virginia event. There were originally 102 Pilgrims that landed on Plymouth Rock by mistake, intending to join with the settlement in Virginia. However, they stayed and more than half died during the first winter. The second year, with successful crops and the help of the the Native Americans, they prospered, and began the official Thanksgiving that we know. Remember this event was giving thanks to God for all his blessings.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention some religious information here. In John 10:22, Jesus Christ was present at a Jewish celebration feast of dedication which was a Thanksgiving of the purification of the temple. Thanksgiving Day is a day that is set aside for the enjoyment of family and friends while at the same time thanking God for the blessings of his bounty. King David wrote in Psalms, “Let us come before his presence with Thanksgiving.” Verses you could review are: Psalms 95:3, 100:4, 107:1, 8-9;  also Phil. 4:6 and Eph. 5:20. These are some of the many ancient religious citations pertaining to our Thanksgiving. I use the word OUR as there are several Thanksgiving events of not only religious but also Pagan origins. I mention the above citations so that we can remember other true reasons why we use the term Thanksgiving. I personally, firmly believe that forgetting this would be a very costly mistake.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving from all of us but don’t forget to give praise and thanks for all we have and enjoy. Always realize during festive occasions of celebration that some of us have more than others. Believe me, sharing with others who have less than you will bring you and yours joy, great happiness and blessings. Happy Thanksgiving, and please be safe.