SOLON & BEYOND: Pine Tree Club, historical society news

by Marilyn Rogers-Bull & Percy
grams29@tds.net
Solon, Maine 04979

Good morning, dear friends. Don’t worry, be happy!

The Solon Pine Tree Club met on September 15 for the final meeting of the year. After the meeting everyone enjoyed a trip to pick apples at North Star Orchard.

On Sunday, September 23, 18 members, parents and leaders enjoyed a rafting trip from Solon to North Anson, Moxie Outdoors supplied the rafts and Kate Stevens was one of the guides.

Eleven members exhibited at four fairs this year and did a very good job at each fair. At Skowhegan State Fair the members got first on their educational exhibit on “How Does Your Garden Grow.”

The members are displaying some of their projects at the Coolidge Library in observance of National 4-H Club Week which is the first week of October.

On Saturday, October 13, the club will be reorganizing for next year at 9:30 a.m., at the Solon Fire Station.

The Solon Congregational Church will be having a Harvest Supper on Saturday, October 20, from 5 to 6 p.m., at the Solon Masonic Hall.

Leslie Giroux has accepted a new job, so she has given up the position as Solon Municipal Clerk and Tax Collector; her last day was October 1. Selectmen have appointed Christy Jablon, of Embden, to replace her and she will run for the position at town meeting in March. The selectmen have been accepting applications and conducting interviews for a new treasurer.

The next Embden Historical Society meeting is scheduled for Monday, October 8, at the Embden Town house (751 Cross Town Road). There will be a brief business meeting at 6:30 p.m. and the program will be at 7 p.m. Tom Moore will be talking about the Sandy River Rangeley Lakes Railroad. Refreshments will follow. All are welcome.

Solon Volunteer Fire Department and Auxiliary spaghetti dinner. Saturday, October 6, 4 to 7 p.m., at the Solon Elementary School. Get served by our firefighters! Free door prize!

This is from Solon Elementary School entitled: Attendance Matters! As the new year begins, we hope to see all our students set a goal to have a good rate of attendance. Unless students are ill or there is a family emergency, need to be in school. We ask that parents try to schedule routine doctor or dentist appointments after school hours and family vacations during school vacation weeks as often as possible.

If your child is ill or needs to miss school for an appointment or family emergency please contact Mrs. Weese so that we can log that day as an excused absences. If we don’t hear from you, we have to log the day as an unexcused absence. After seven unexcused absences, the state considers your child as truant. So please help us to document your child’s absences correctly.

After 18 absences ( 10 percent of the school days in a year) whether excused or unexcused, your child is considered chronically absent, in addition to MEA test scores, the percentage of chronically absent students in our school is a factor in whether the state decides that our school is making academic progress. Of course, sometimes students are out for extended illnesses, chronic health conditions or family emergencies, and those can’t be helped. So we are working to reduce the absences of our students for other reasons.

Punctuality is also a key to a successful school year. Our buses arrive between 7:20 and 7:40 in the morning. If you bring your child to school, please be sure that he or she arrives by 7:45 a.m. in order to be ready when teachers start their classes at 7:50 a.m. A student who arrives late misses important learning time. So let’s work together to make sure your child gets the maximum benefit from his/her school experience this year. Attendance matters! Thank-you for your cooperation.

And now for Percy’s memoir taken from a little book entitled, Good Advice for a Happy Life, and it says, “Rule Number 1 is, don’t sweat the small stuff. Rule Number 2 is, it’s all small stuff. And if you can’t fight and you can’t flee, flow.