Malcolm Glidden post presented with DC flag

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Hagen Wallace, left, presents a flag to Malcolm Glidden American Legion Post #163 Post Commander Clayton York that has flown over the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, DC. Wallace obtained the flag while attending Boys National. (Photo by Gail Pottle)

On September 18, the Malcolm Glidden American Legion and Auxiliary Post #163 held a special meeting honoring a few long time members and presenting certificates to the Boys/Girls State delegates sponsored by the Legion.

George McKenney was presented with a 50-year membership certificate and pin for his long time involvement with Post #163. Stephen McPherson received a 30-year membership certificate for being involved with a legion!

Beverly McKenney was presented with a 50-year membership certificate and pin. Beverly has been very much involved with the Legion and Auxiliary and is well known for her mince meat pies and all the cooking she has done over the years.

Janet Potter also received a 50-year membership certificate and pin. Janet has been an active member with the Legion and Auxiliary over the years and is well known for her lemon meringue pies and crock pot Mac N Cheese.

Sharon McPherson received a 30-year membership certificate for being involved with an auxiliary for 30 years!

The Legion sponsored Hagen (Joki) Wallace and Cam King, from Erskine Academy, in South China, to attend Boys State 2018. Joki did amazing things while attending Boys State, at Thomas College, in Waterville. He was a party chairman and also Speaker of the House of Representative. At the graduation he was awarded the Gavel Award as Speaker, the Directors Award as well as best leader and delegate. He was also chosen as one of two delegates from Maine to attend Boys National, in Washington D.C.

Joki attended the September 18 meeting to thank the Legion for sponsoring him and presented Post #163 Commander In Chief Clayton York with an American Flag that has flown over the White House.

The Ladies Auxiliary sponsored Elizabeth Sugg and Willow Throckmorton, from Erskine Academy, for Girls State. Girls State is held at Husson University, in Bangor. Elizabeth attended the meeting also thanking the Ladies Auxiliary for sponsoring her. She really enjoyed Girls State and learned a lot about how our political system works. She received the Dirigo Award for her involvement and participation with everything happening. Elizabeth hopes to attend Girls State in 2019 as a counselor.

Submitted by Mary Haskell.

It’s time for pumpkin patches and corn mazes

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Fred Nassar has been growing pumpkins for over 20 years on his Garland Road farm, in Winslow. He also has a 10-minute walk through the haunted woods to the pick your own patch. (Photo by Isabelle Markley)

by Isabelle Markley

Halloween is coming, and if you haven’t found the perfect pumpkin there is still time to stop at a roadside farm stand or pick your own site and cross the orange gourd from the shopping list. There are pumpkins small enough to be carried by a young child or so large that it may take more than one person to load it into the car. Some pumpkins are giants requiring a fork lift to move them. The giants are often seen at summer agricultural fairs where growers compete for blue ribbons and the title of largest official Maine pumpkin. Check the Maine Pumpkin Growers Organization’s website for the weight and the grower of each season’s top pumpkin. The site is also a resource for seeds and information on how to grow giant pumpkins. Currently the 2017 title is held by a 1,756 pound pumpkin grown by Elroy Morgan, from Charleston.

During the 2018 Windsor Fair’s giant pumpkin/squash weigh in, South China resident Carrie McGrath placed fifth in the adult pumpkin class with a white pumpkin weighing 57 pounds. It was grown from seeds given to her by friends. McGrath and her husband James, own the McGrath Farms on Lakeview drive, in China, where they grow strawberries and pumpkins. “I just threw the seeds at the edge of the garden. I didn’t do anything special except to cut off the smaller pumpkins leaving only the big one on the vine,” she said during a phone interview. Her 37-pound entry won first place in the Jack O’ Lantern division. Also winning ribbons in the adult division at this year’s Windsor Fair were pumpkins weighing 931 pounds grown by Richard Powell, of Nobleboro; 363 pounds grown by Quincy Perry, of Damariscotta; 130 pounds grown by Cody Wood, of Jefferson, and 63.5 pounds grown by Bette Barajas, of Windsor.

Getting the fall portrait at the photo spot at Lemieux Orchard, on Priest Hill Road, in Vassalboro. Left to right, Lucas Farrington, Andrew Perry, Dylan Saucier, Bella Farrington, Lexis Perry and Brandon Gregoire. (Photo by Isabelle Markley)

For a pick-your-own adventure go to the Haunted Pumpkin Trail on the Garland Road, in Winslow. Drive past the Albion Road cut off and continue until you come to a lawn filled with pumpkins of all sizes. The trail begins behind a tent-covered pumpkin display, leads downhill through trees decorated with ghosts and witches and ends in an open field. Pick your pumpkin; stop at the hay bale “take your photo here” spot; carry the pumpkin back through the woods to the tent at the trail’s start and find the price by placing your pick against a row of white paper plates showing sizes and prices. “The trail is free and open during daylight hours,” said farm owner Fred Nassar, the trail’s designer. “I’ve been doing this for 20 years. It’s a place where families can come for an adventure close to home.”

Test your sense of direction by walking through the corn maze ($3 per person or $10 per family) at the Lemieux Apple Farm, on the Priest Hill Road, in Vassalboro. The level dirt path between rows of towering corn stalks leads in circles with several escape exits along the way. Stop for a photo in front of the gigantic hay bale bear and then take a tractor pulled wagon ride into the orchards to pick your own apples. End the adventure with pumpkin and apple doughnuts from the farm stand inside the barn.

Sample fresh pressed cider and apple cider doughnut holes in the barn at the Apple Farm, on Back Road, in Fairfield. Then visit the processing room behind the barn to watch some of Maine’s oldest apple varieties – McIntosh, Northern Spy, Golden Russet, Pearmain, Winter Banana – being blended and bottled for a cider taste that is distinctive to this farm. On the weekends take a horse drawn wagon ride, through the orchards. Borrow an apple picker (a metal basket on a long pole) from the barn and head into the orchard to pick your own apples. Or try your aim at the “apple sling shot” to see if you can hit the pumpkin target at the end of the shooting range.

And if you just want to buy a pumpkin, check out the side of the road stands on Route 32, in Vassalboro; Ben and Molly’s Spooky Pumpkin Patch, on the Hansen Road, in South China; Bailey’s Orchard (pumpkins and over 50 varieties of apples in the barn), on the Hunt’s Meadow Road, in Whitefield; or County Fair Farms (wagon rides through the apple orchards on the weekends), on Route 32, in Jefferson. There is still time to find the perfect pumpkin for decorating the front steps, carving into Jack O’ Lanterns or baking into a homemade pumpkin pie.

Local youth waiting for Big Brothers and Big Sisters

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Nine-year-old Briannah is patiently waiting for the news that she has a Big Sister. She’s anxious to talk with her new friend about her interest in geology, maybe find unique rocks together in the Skowhegan community where she lives, and is especially excited to share her love for animals. Her mom, a single parent, hopes a one-to-one relationship with a female role model will give her daughter self-confidence, raise her aspirations and set her on the path to success.

Briannah is among 25 youth facing adversity in Kennebec and Somerset counties currently waiting to be matched with positive, adult role models to serve as community-based mentors through Big Brothers Big Sisters of Mid-Maine. According to Gwendolyn Hudson, BBBSMM executive director, about 60 percent of those waiting are young boys.

“It is not uncommon that women tend to volunteer to mentor more often than their male counterparts,” Hudson said, citing national BBBS of America statistics, but said the agency hopes to change that trend by finding caring, compassionate males in the community ready to share a little bit of their time to help change the life of a child.

BBBSMM recently started a “Waiting Wednesday” social media post on their Facebook and Instagram platforms, highlighting youth waiting to be match with community mentors.

Big Brother Richard Behr and his Little Brother, Jaxen, have been meeting every week for more than four years. Jaxen, now a teenager, was nine years old when they first met, and unsure what it would be like to have a Big Brother. His mother said he had intense anxiety in new situations and as a working parent with other young children at home, she recognized he wasn’t getting the one-on-one time with her that he used to. He was interested in outdoor activities, but didn’t have anyone to go with him. She said she hoped having a mentor would help Jaxen increase his confidence and give him the motivation to try new things.

Today, the match between Richard and Jaxen has brought them together to hike, snowshoe, fish and take on fun building projects together.

Adults interested in learning more about becoming a community-based mentor should contact Big Brothers Big Sisters of Mid-Maine by calling 207-370-1674 or emailing reneeigo@bbbsmidmaine.org. For more information about how you can change the life of a child through volunteering or supporting Big Brothers Big Sisters of Mid-Maine, visit bbbsmidmaine.org.

National Fire Prevention week

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Jordynn Mann and Micah Waldie learn about the personal protective gear that firefighters wear in a fire environment with call firefighter and president of the Winslow Fire Association Nathaniel White. Winslow Fire & Rescue held their annual open house on Sept. 29, in preparation for National Fire Prevention week, Oct. 8. (Photo by Tawni Lively, Central Maine Photography staff)

Lawrence boys soccer team shows support during National Breast Cancer Awareness month

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(Photo by Missy Brown, Central Maine Photography staff)

The Lawrence High School boys soccer team took to the fields this week wearing pink and black jerseys to show their support during Breast Cancer Awareness month in October.

Unity Rotary Club taking fruit orders as fundraiser

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Jan, left, and Ron Cropley, are taking fruit orders for the Unity Rotary Club. The club will be offering 20-pound cases of oranges or grapefruit for $25 per case, and new this year, mixed packages of a variety of choices for $20. The deadline for ordering the fruit will be the week of November 5-9 for expected delivery to start the first week in December. (Contributed photo)

Ron and Jan Cropley, of the Unity Area Rotary Club, are working hard, along with the other members of the Unity Area Rotary Club, taking calls and messages for fruit orders.

Unity Area Rotary Club’s very first fund raiser was the sale of citrus fruit. The chairman then was Max Gillette (1992 – 2017) who continued as its chairman for 25 years. Ron Cropley, of Troy, currently serves as the fundraiser’s chairman and Jan as his secretary.

Unity’s Rotary club will be offering 20-pound cases of oranges or grapefruit for $25 per case, and new this year, mixed packages of a variety of choices for $20. The deadline for ordering the fruit will be the week of November 5-9 for expected delivery to start the first week in December.

For more information, contact Ron or Jan Cropley at (207)948-2524, message the club through their Facebook page (Unity Area Rotary Club) or any other member of the club.

Square dancers hold summer outing

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Pictured above are Cindy Fairfield and Bob Brown, of Newport, in back are Larry and Kathleen Hillman, of Fairfield, and Margaret and Bruce Carter, of Ellsworth. Contributed photo

Pictured here are just a few of the Central Maine Square Dance Club members who attended this year’s club picnic. It was held on Sunday, July 29, at the summer cottage of Gary and Myra Chaloult, in Smithfield. The weather was very cooperative and the water was nice and cool, perfect for the day. The food was outstanding as was the opportunity to meet so many of friends off the dance floor. The Central Maine Square Dance Club meets every Tuesday night from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., at the Waterville Jr. High school on the West River Road (Rte. 104), in Watervillle. A brand new season has started with new beginners classes. Call Bob at 447-0094 or Cindy at 631-8816 for more details .

This group also traveled to Cornwall, Ontario, Canada, for this year’s 10th anniversary festival which took place from Friday, August 24 – 26. That weekend saw almost 400 dancers attending to dance various levels of squares and also included round dancing. Those attending came from 17 U.S. states and five Canadian provinces of Canada. It’s always nice to see friends whom we haven’t seen in quite a while and also meet many newer friends.

Author Mark Allen Leslie to speak about new book at Winslow Library

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Winslow area families put their lives and fortunes on the line connecting to the Underground Railroad

Maine’s connection to the famous Underground Railroad that helped free runaway slaves in the mid-1800s does not begin and end with Harriet Beecher Stowe. Indeed, people from Kittery to Ft. Fairfield, including Waterville-Winslow, Augusta, China and Vassalboro, conspired to break the law — the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 — forming a network of “safe houses,” hiding slaves from slave hunters and scurrying them to Canada. If caught, these Underground Railroad “conductors” faced fines and jail.

At the Winslow Public Library at 6 p.m. on Oct. 18, author Mark Alan Leslie will weave the tale of the brave families who housed and fed slaves in hidden rooms, attics and elsewhere en route to the next secret “way station” on the “railroad.”

Former Morning Sentinel reporter Mark Allen Leslie

“Some called slavery ‘the absolute power of one person over another — the vilest human behavior and institution,’” said Leslie. “Others called it ‘essential to our economy and prosperity’ and even ‘a humane institution which provided food, shelter and family’ to the African race.”

“Slavery was the one issue that has been able to tear America apart, and that included Mainers,” he added.

And slavery remains in the news. The Treasury Department plans to add Harriet Tubman, a heroine of the Under­ground Railroad, to the $20 bill. Also, the Brunswick home of Harriet Beecher Stowe, a National Historic Landmark since 1962, was placed on the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. The former parlor room, where it is believed she wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, is open to the public as “Harriet’s Writing Room.”

Publisher’s Weekly hailed Leslie’s novel, True North: Tice’s Story, about a slave’s escape over the Underground Railroad through Maine, naming it a Featured Book for 2016. The Midwest Book Review cited Leslie’s “genuine flair for compelling, entertaining, and deftly crafted storytelling.”

And AFA Journal called Leslie “a seasoned wordsmith” whose contemporary novels are “in the class with John Grisham.”

A longtime journalist whose career started as a reporter for the then-Waterville Sentinel, Leslie first burst on the literary scene in 2008 with his novel Midnight Rider for the Morning Star, based on the life of Francis Asbury, America’s first circuit-riding preacher.

Since then, in addition to True North he has written The Crossing about the Ku Klux Klan in Maine in the 1920s and three contemporary thrillers: Chasing the Music about the hunt for King David’s music of the Psalms, The Three Sixes about Islamic terror cells in America, and the just-released The Last Aliyah about the Jewish escape from America when the United Nations bans Jewish emigration to Israel.

A book signing will follow Leslie’s presentation.

Winslow holds public safety open house

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Winslow Fire Department’s Open House builds community spirit.

by Jeani Marquis

On Saturday, September 29, the Winslow Fire Department hosted their second annual open house showcasing the equipment and the people behind the scenes who keep their community safer. The day included representation from Winslow Fire Department, Winslow Police Department, Maine Forest Rangers, Delta Ambulance, Winslow Firefighters Association, Winslow Public Library and Miss Teen Winslow International 2018.

Winslow Firefighter Nathaniel White demonstrates how quickly a firefighter can get into their protective gear. White said it is important to show children that professional firefighters are not to be feared. They see that a person is beneath all the equipment.

Spokesman Firefighter Scott Waldie explained, “Generally the public meets us in the worst possible circumstances. This event is a chance to see us in a good environment.”

The atmosphere was indeed positive with young children interacting with safety professionals and families enjoying the bake goods purchased from the Firefighters Association bake sale to fund scholarships. Booths were set up to promote local services and organizations to the public including the Winslow Public Library, Winslow’s Miss Teen International and the advocacy group for foster children Project Sparrow.

This community outreach event was an opportunity for the public, especially young children, to learn about fire prevention and how to escape from a fire. Children and their parents were shown a demonstration of how fast a firefighter can get into their protective gear. When asked why they give this demonstration, Firefighter Nathaniel White said, “It’s important to show kids that professional firefighters are not to be feared. They see I am a person beneath all this gear.”

Another teaching opportunity happens in the Winslow Fire Department Smoke Trailer, which travels to local schools on a regular basis for fire prevention presentations. The interior of the trailer is set up as an average house with a kitchen and living space. Visitors to the trailer are challenged to identify fire hazards which could be found in any home, even theirs. The trailer can also be filled with smoke to simulate the lack of visibility and demonstrate how to safely escape the situation. Firefighters with infrared glasses coach the children safely through the smoke-filled trailer.

The intent of the event was to heighten the public awareness of the public safety services in the Winslow area. That mission was accomplished. To get involved the rest of the year, the Winslow Fire Department offers the Raider Brigade for youth aged 14 through 17. Local adults are encouraged to inquire about employment opportunities in the public safety services.

The Winslow Fire Department smoke trailer where demonstrations are held on how to evacuate a burning building.

Fundraiser planned for Serenity “Blueberry” Bunn

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Serenity “Blueberry” Bunn

 

On Saturday, October 13, a fundraiser will be held to help with the care of a little girl named Serenity Bunn, affectionately known as “Blueberry,” from Windsor. At age two, Blueberry was diagnosed with stage 4 Refractory Neuroblastoma. Two years later, after multiple rounds of chemotherapy, tumor removals, and immunotherapy, her family has been informed by doctors that the cancer has stopped responding to treatment. They are now looking to try and spend as much time with her as possible. They have been given a year but told not to count on it.

The event will take place at the American Legion Post, 79 Legion Memorial Drive, in South China, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. There will be a BBQ (brisket as long as it lasts), hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, a beverage, and many more goodies. The cost is $10 per plate with a discount for younger children.

You should know that for someone so young and having been through so much, Blueberry is still full of sass and love. She is sweet and funny and definitely runs the roost. Blueberry loves to watch all the Disney movies her Nana has provided her and dress up like a princess. She gives the best hugs and has the sweetest smile. She loves her twin sisters, Faith and Hope, and playing with her uncles. Blueberry has a love for animals, but cows are definitely her favorite. She’s full of life and she brings so much joy to everyone that knows her!

A link has been provided to an article regarding Serenity done in Montana before she moved to Maine for the experimental treatments: http://www.mtpr.org/post/you-dont-take-things-granted-ever.

Submitted by Heidi Badger, family friend of Blueberry.
10/07/2018: Updated to include the time and place of the fundraiser.