Petersen earns degree from University of Vermont
Melissa Petersen of Augusta, graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in anthropology during commencement ceremonies on May 21, 2017, at the University of Vermont, in Burlington, Vermont.
Kennebec Historical society monthly meeting
The Union Meeting House is on the National Register of Historic Places primarily because of the famous well preserved trompe l’oeil murals by Charles Schumacher, of Portland, done in 1866-68. The building was built in 1827-28 and is said to be one of the oldest brick churches in Maine. The presentation will focus on the murals and discuss steps being taken to preserve this historic, artistic and cultural landmark.
The speaker, Marius B. Peladeau, is the president of the Union Meeting House, director emeritus of the Farnsworth Art Museum, former executive director of the Theater at Monmouth, former exhibition curator at the L.C. Bates Museum, in Hinckley, former director of the Maine League of Historical Societies and Museums. He was an accredited White House correspondent and press secretary to a U.S. Congressman. Marius also holds B.A., M.S., and M.A. degrees and is the author of six books on art, history and culture.
The Kennebec Historical Society August Presentation is co-sponsored by the Lithgow Public Library and free to the public (donations gladly accepted). The presentation will take place on Wednesday, August 16, at 6:30 p.m., at the Lithgow Public Library, located at 45 Winthrop Street in Augusta.
Volunteer from Augusta brings water to Palermo gardens
Orin Anderson with the water crate he built and installed in his pickup truck. The crate holds about 100 gallons of water, and has a hose fitting.
After learning that the Palermo Community Garden and the Frizzell residence had been cut off from their water supply, Orin Anderson, of Augusta, built a plywood box to haul 100 gallons of water from his house to Palermo. Anderson has been a long time friend of Connie Bellet and Phillip Frizzell, who care for the Community Garden. “We help each other out,” said Anderson. “That’s what friends are for.”
Anderson has a woodworking shop in his home, so he built a crate and sealed it up, and then installed a hose fitting so the water could be fed into Frizzell’s garden hose and drained out by gravity feed from the back of Anderson’s pickup.
Phil Frizzell watering the raised beds in the Palermo Community Garden using gravity feed from Orin’s pickup truck.
Contributed photos
“It takes about an hour or so to water the raised beds in the back garden,” said Frizzell. With the help of frequent rains, the garden beds seem to be thriving. Another friend, who was doing some work for Frizzell, brought over two large rain barrels, which store rooftop runoff in between rainstorms. These are used for flushing the toilets at the Community Center as well as the Frizzell home. The Living Communities Foundation, which runs the Community Center, is presently asking for funds to drill a well on Foundation property. Costs are estimated to be around $10,000, as other wells nearby have been over 400 feet deep. The LCF is a registered nonprofit and donations are tax-deductible.
Gingras selected for Religious Studies Honorary Society
Isaac H. Gingras, of Augusta, was inducted into the St. Lawrence University chapter of Theta Alpha Kappa, the national honorary society for religious studies and theology, in Canton, New York.
Gingras is a member of the class of 2018 and is majoring in government. Gingras attended Cony High School, in Augusta.
Lasell College names Augusta resident to dean’s list
Lasell College recently named Benjamin Allen of Augusta, to the Lasell College dean’s list for the Spring 2017 semester, in Newton, Massachusetts.
Allen, whose major is sports management, is a member of the class of 2019.
SVAC champions
Pictured, front row, from left to right, C. Lamoreau, K. Douin, S. Flannery, M. Marshall, J. Lemelin. Back row, Coach R. Flannery, Coach D. Hayes, D. Hayes, B. Kieltyka, C. Maclean, K. Stred, K. Douin, Coach J. Douin.
The St. Michael boys middle school baseball team, in Augusta, posted an undefeated, 11-0, season. They won the championship game against China, 12-0, on June 8, and are now the Sheepscot Valley Athlletic Conference champions.
Contributed photo
Area observances of Memorial Day
All gave some…some gave all: Flags line all the graves at the Maine Veterans Memorial Cemetery, in Augusta.
Photo by Kevin Giguere, Central Maine
by Central Maine Photography Reporter/Writer Jessica Laliberte
Local service organization leaders pose at the veterans memorial in South China. From left to right, Rick Fischer, Jeff Zimmerman and Neil Farrington.
Contritured photo
Hundreds of volunteers including Scouts, veterans, civilians and other civic groups joined forces to place a flag on the grave of every soldier buried in the cemetery, about 15,000 in total, on Saturday, May 27.
As the volunteers dispersed to the graves with flags in hand, the bagpipes playing Amazing Grace echoed in the chilly morning air.
The flags were purchased through donations. According to Donald Simoneau, a past state commander and organizer of the event, about 750 veterans die each year and are buried at the Maine Veterans Cemetery.
If you would like to donate you can make checks payable to the American Legion “Grave Flag Program,” P.O. Box 900, Waterville, ME 04901.
In honor of their service: Derek Fennell, a Marine veteran from China, with his two sons, Kamren and Evan, places flags at the Maine Veterans Memorial Cemetery, in Augusta, on May 27.
Photo by Kevin Giguere, Central Maine Photography staff.
Hayward inducted into Spanish National Honor Society
The World Languages and Cultures Department at Eastern Connecticut State University, in Willimantic, Connecticut, recently held its annual induction ceremony for Sigma Delta Pi, the national honor society for Spanish.
Kirstin Hayward, of Augusta, was one of the inductees. Hayward’s major is Continuing Education.
Sigma Delta Pi is a member of the Association of College Honor Societies..
Local law enforcement honors those fallen in the line of duty
A color guard consisting of various law enforcement agencies carry the colors during the ceremonies in observance of National Police Week, in Augusta, on May 18. Photo by Mark Huard, owner Central Maine Photography
by Jessica Laliberte
Central Maine Photography staff
Law enforcement officers, family and friends gathered in Augusta on May 18 to honor the more than 80 police officers, wardens and troopers who have died in the line of duty in the state of Maine. The event, part of National Police Week, has been held annually for 26 years. It is sponsored by the Maine Chiefs of Police Association.
“We are a country built upon the foundation of law and rules. As a civilized society, it is imperative that all of us recognize these laws and understand the small and fragile line that separates us from chaos and lawlessness,” said Falmouth Police Chief Edward Tolan, who is also the president of the Maine Police Chiefs Association. Tolan and Attorney General Janet Mills addressed a crowd of more than 100 people including many state legislators and other state dignitaries.
Maine State Police Colonel Robert Williams, of China, left, and Maine Game Warden Service Colonel Joel T. Wilkinson, salute the fallen. The game warden service has suffered the most in-the-line-of-duty fatalities than any other Maine law enforcement agency. Photo by Mark Huard, owner Central Maine Photography
Both praised police officers for “accepting danger everyday.” Tolan continued by saying what cannot be tolerated is “lack of respect some people show police.” The ceremony featured many police honor guards, the Maine State Police Pipes and Drum Corps and dozens of police officers from all over the state. A roll call of the names of the 84 law enforcement officers who have made the ultimate sacrifice was read by retired chief Darrell Malone, Sr. No new names were added to the memorial this year. The most recent death was Game Warden pilot Daryl Gordon, who died in a plane crash in 2011. Gordon was the 15th game warden added to the wall, which is more than any other agency. The names of 10 troopers from the Maine State Police also appear on the wall. Nationally, 45 police officers have been killed in the line of duty so far in 2017;145 police officers were killed in 2016. Their names were etched into the National Police Memorial in Washington, D.C., earlier in the week.
Kennebec Historical Society receives grant to preserve history
The Kennebec Historical Society emphasizes the collection of Kennebec County family and organizational documents and photographs. Twenty years ago, the society’s catalog was entirely on paper. At this point, however, it has been moved to a computer database available for interested researchers at their headquarters at 107 Winthrop Street in Augusta.
To stay current and useful to our clients, the Kennebec Historical Society believes that the next step is to move its database to the internet and offer not just indexes but also scanned images of complete documents, transcriptions of handwritten and printed documents, and images of photographs and other objects.
Although it will take some time and financial resources to get to that point, the KHS collections committee believes that now is the time to take steps in preparation. This means that as well as indexing documents using key words denoting subjects, locations, organizations, events, type of items, and names, so called this meta data, we need to start “digitizing” our items; that is, scanning photographs, using optical character recognition to convert printed items to text documents, and transcribing hand written documents. If we start doing this now, we won’t have to go back and do it later when we are ready to move to the internet. But this adds considerable time to the act of cataloging items. We have found that we are building up a backlog of uncatalogued materials as we purchase items and receive them as donations.
In February 2017, they applied to the Maine State Archives for a grant from the Historical Collections Grant Program, funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, to hire interns to help in the cataloging for the internet effort and therefore reduce or eliminate backlog. In March, they received notification that the request for $3,628.26 had been approved, in full. The request will cover hiring interns for the spring and fall and purchasing of supplies and computer hardware to support the “digitization” effort. Combining this with donations they receive to support summer interns should move them well on their way to elimination the immediate backlog.
Current researchers at the society will immediately see the results of this effort as records of newly cataloged items will contain full text transcriptions that can be read and/or printed at the society. Photographs will also be available for printing as will scans of documents.