NORTHEAST HARBOR, ME – We invite you to watch this video portrait of the Mission medical team’s Covid vaccination work on remote Maine islands earlier this year. This video is part of a Walgreens public service announcement series depicting Covid-19 responses in different parts of the nation.
This story features Island Health Services Director Sharon Daley, RN – who co-led the Mission’s Covid-19 medical response team, with Douglas Cornman, Island Outreach Director and Chaplain – and supporting nurse, Maureen Griffin.
CHERRYFIELD, ME – I joined the Mission in 2005 as a Site Coordinator for the EdGE Program, worked until 2008 when I pursued other adventures, before returning to the Mission in 2011. I have worked here since. Currently I am Director of the EdGE Program. The strength of the relationships and connections the Mission makes with children, families, and communities brought me back to Maine and the Mission.
Having grown up in Maine, there are many beautiful places that I have enjoyed. Recently my favorite place is simply getting outside with the family, being able to see the excitement of my toddler as he explores. From looking at birds in the backyard to discovering what is underneath seaweed near the ocean. His excitement makes those places my favorite place to be.
Mission Director of Island Outreach and Chaplain Douglas Cornman.
In 2016, when I was first introduced to the Sunbeam, Island Outreach Director and Chaplain Douglas Cornman, the only crew member aboard, gave me a tour of the boat. I remember walking from the wheelhouse onto the top deck. Douglas explained to me that the two white cylindrical hard-shell cases affixed to the roof held life rafts. If the cases ever hit the water, Douglas said, they open, and the rafts inflate, automatically.
Also affixed to the deck, near the cases, were stainless steel tie downs. Those, Douglas said, secured coffins when the Sunbeam traveled to or from funerals.
Funerals? Yes, funerals are an unsung service provided by the Sunbeam crew for islanders. Here, for the first time, Douglas Cornman, the Sunbeam crew member who officiates funerals, talks about what he says is “one of the most profound aspects of my work.”
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NORTHEAST HARBOR, ME – I have officiated over 11 funerals on the Sunbeam or on island since I started with the Mission in 2014. Now, these are only the funerals for which I’ve officiated the service. The boat has participated in other funerals since I joined the crew.
Who is eligible for a Sunbeam funeral? Islanders are eligible. There are no hard rules around this. The funerals I’ve officiated, or the Sunbeam has participated in, in some capacity have been for islanders from islands frequently visited by the Sunbeam.
The majority of funerals I’ve officiated have been on Matinicus where the Sunbeam plays a significant role in the life of the island. Matinicus doesn’t have a minister living on the island. It’s also a challenging island to get to because of it’s distance from the main land. I’m the island’s chaplain which is why most of my work officiating funerals is on this island.
In 2014-15, when I was still an interim Mission employee, Mission President Rev. Scott Planting asked me to do a fairly comprehensive assessment with islanders regarding what kind of Sunbeam crew member was needed to succeed Rob Benson, who had moved to the Bar Harbor Congregational Church as their minister.
I learned islanders want to know who’s going to marry them, and who’s going to bury them.
So I’m asked to officiate funerals for families where the Sunbeam or her crew, including the chaplain, has played a significant role in the families’ life. The islands that ask me or the Sunbeam to be involved typically do not have a year ‘round clergy presence.
The islands we serve all have active cemeteries, really sacred spaces on islands. No one desecrates an island cemetery.
There are people on Matinicus who, every summer, go to the cemetery and clean the grave markers so the lichen doesn’t cover up the names and destroy the markers. People really respect these places. They’re extremely important.
With a burial on land there’s a permanence because, whether it’s a full body burial, or a cremation; an urn with cremated remains, you know the essence of that person is permanently placed there. And a marker will always remind people that the person is there.
I’ve only dispersed ashes during burials at sea, never a body. I watch the ashes disperse. I watch them touch the water and the waves just carry them out into the sea where even the remains of the ashes, the shape they create, disappears, and once again becomes clear water. It’s as if the spirit of the person is truly released into the water, rejoining the universe. Because you just watch the ashes fade into the water and become part of the sea.
The Sunbeam crew gets involved in all kinds of ways. The boat can get involved in helping people grieve and transition when a family member has passed.
I think we all need to grieve in our own ways. But grieving doesn’t necessarily equate to sadness. People assume they should feel sad when a loved one dies. But I don’t know that sadness is the emotion that’s always felt.
Grief, if grief is an emotion, I think grief is the emotion that’s felt. I’ve been a part of funerals where there has just been so much laughter and joy. And that’s the emotion that is expressed through the grieving process.
Something that surprised me. I officiate over weddings and funerals. When I started this work, I thought I would find weddings to be more profound than funerals, but it’s the other way around.
I find officiating a funeral or a celebration of life really to be one of the most profound aspects of my work. I really get to know families. I listen to their stories, their grief, their memories. Then we come together. The time we take is really powerful. There’s something really special about walking alongside a family honoring the death of a loved one.
Even if I don’t intimately know the person who’s died, I find myself joining in the family’s grief. I think it’s the depth of emotion that families share with me that’s really profound. It’s a gift and I feel fortunate to receive it.
Journey Program Manager Dakin Hewlett (right) tends a campfire and shares stories with a Journey student.
By Dakin Hewlett, Journey Program Manager
Reflecting on the past three months I’ve shared with students in the Journey program I found myself rooted. Rooted to what, I’m not exactly sure. You most likely don’t know my name. We probably haven’t met since my arrival in Maine from Pennsylvania to step into the role of Journey Program Manager in late May.
I didn’t know what to expect from this dense landscape I was moving to, or how I would engage as an individual from away with the community. My story isn’t new. People often move to different places and must learn to navigate the “first time” feeling. An activity as simple as ordering a drink at the local coffee shop turns disorienting while figuring out where to stand in line.
Learning about a community and your place in it takes time. I wondered how I would connect with Downeast students, how to begin building relationships, and how to lead programming that would resonate with their life experiences.
In June, 7th grade students arrived at the Mission’s Downeast Campus in Cherryfield for our session together. It felt like the first day of school. My voice wavered at times. The group was quiet when I, a stranger, asked them to share a little bit about themselves.
The Journey program is a diverse group of students tethered by shared values. Each cohort identifies group norms that will help guide us through our years together, such as:
be kind
try new things
communicate
listen to others, and
be supportive
It can be difficult to share your own story. But over the next few months, I was humbled to hear many stories told by our forty-plus students. Stories told during hikes, campfires, swimming, car rides, community service, fishing, cooking and in other situations. Students shared their experiences, passions, hopes, dreams, fears, and worries. With each story I felt more connected to place. They shared their deep roots with Downeast, which allowed me to begin establishing my Maine roots.
Working with Journey students gives me a front row seat to community building, resiliency, hard work, grit, and creativity. The students are connectors, seed sowers, believers, dreamers, and innovators.
As summer ends and another school year approaches, I know each student will step into that feeling of “first day,” and meet it – just as all the Journey students did when asked to challenge themselves to discover something new. Whether it was saying yes to a ropes course, pushing to reach the top of Tunk Mountain, sharing their perspective with peers, or stepping forward to lead an activity, each student pushed further outside their comfort zone.
Experiencing those moments with them is a wonderful reminder for me to embrace this new challenge, and to not be afraid to adapt along the way.
NORTHEAST HARBOR, ME – This photo from Jillian, taken in the Sunbeam salon, is “a picture of Laura Venger, teacher at the K-8 Frenchboro School on Frenchboro island. She is delighted to receive a bag of apples from Island Outreach Director Douglas Cornman for a school project.”
As an aside, it’s nice to see the Mission’s Summer 2021 issue of The Bulletin in the wall wooden magazine rack. You can download or read it online here.
