No Man is an Island: Sunbeam V and the Maine Seacoast Mission
August 2016
By: Dr. Lisa Belisle
Photograby by Matt Cosby
The Sunbeam V is only one part of the Maine Seacoast Mission, which benefits roughly 3,000 people on eight islands and in numerous coastal communities. Based on West Street in Bar Harbor, the Maine Seacoast Mission has an additional campus in Washington County. With a staff of 30 full-time employees (and 80 part-time teachers), the organization offers an impressive range of services, including a Christmas gift program, food pantries, after-school and summer initiatives for youth, healthcare, counseling, funeral transportation, and emergency financial assistance for necessities such as heat and electricity. “We respond to needs and concerns as we see them,” says Planting. “Knowing people, knowing concerns, knowing people’s strengths and responding to them: that’s how we have always grown.”