The Mission is accepting scholarship applications for the 2025-2026 academic year starting Wednesday, January 1. Applications can be submitted until Saturday, March 1. Mission Scholarships are open to graduating high school seniors, and adults who have completed the HiSET or GED, who live in Washington County, Hancock County, or on a Maine outer island served by the Mission. The Mission’s scholarships are available for individuals entering trade, technical, two and four-year colleges. 

Each year approximately 20 new scholarships are awarded to students based on not only their academic achievements, but also because of the students’ commitments to their communities, perseverance, and future aspirations. Because our scholarships can be renewed for multiple years, the Mission has nearly 100 active Scholars in any given year. 

The first Mission scholarship was awarded in 1911. Today, more than 3,000 students have received scholarships to support their college and career aspirations. Last year, 92 Scholars received $224,500 in scholarships to study biology, nursing, social work, psychology, and engineering among other areas. Scholars are enrolled at colleges including Husson University, University of Maine, University of Southern Maine, Bowdoin College, Southern Maine Community College, Central Maine Community College, Connecticut College, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Dartmouth College, Wheaton College, New York University, and more. 

The Mission has also partnered with the Shelby Cullom Davis Charitable Fund to offer the Davis Maine Scholarship. This scholarship offers full, renewable, four-year scholarships for first-generation college students at three Davis Maine partner colleges. This application process is separate from that of the Mission’s Scholarships, with high school juniors being invited to apply in March.  

In addition to offering financial support, the Mission provides guidance throughout each Scholar’s transition to college and during their academic career. EdGE Secondary and Post-Secondary Program Director Christy Oliveri adds, “The Mission offers regular workshops for our Scholars once they enter college, on topics ranging from time management to graduate school.”

The application period is open for new Scholarships Scholars from January 1, 2025 to March 1, 2025.

For inquiries about Scholarships, email [email protected] or call (207) 546-5852. 

Sunbeam Steward Siobhan Harrity shares more about the Sunbeam’s Christmas trip this year. 

Christmas by the numbers: 76 cookies, 32 scones, three pork tenderloins, two breakfast strata, and one spice cake with cream cheese frosting. Told another way: 40 knots of wind, six to nine-foot seas, two sick crew members, and one very sticky ramp.  

It’s a real testament to the crew of the Sunbeam (which this week included Derrick, a lobsterman from Isle au Haut, as stand-in deckhand) and to the islanders themselves that the two days still felt so joyful. Our time on Matinicus coincided with the arrival of the fuel barge, a once-a-quarter event that brought nearly the whole island down to the dock to fill up their barrels and gas cans, and many of them joined us on the Sunbeam for a festive brunch. We distributed gifts and received some ourselves, including delicious homemade chocolate truffles and some ornaments for our tree.  

Then we headed off to Isle au Haut, where a Christmas surprise awaited us: the ramp to the float had just been resurfaced with tar, which Sunbeam Nurse Simone and I learned the hard way when we tried to leave the boat. Stuck aboard the Sunbeam in our sock feet, the crew ate dinner together and laughed at the unpredictable nature of the work. By the next morning, luckily, the tar had cured, and we were able to come and go freely, dropping off gifts and food. A strong west wind meant we had to leave before the island’s potluck and pageant, events that I was sad to miss. But the islanders know that Christmas with the Sunbeam means a mix of tradition and improvisation.  

We may be bringing the same white paper packages tied up with red string that families have been receiving for generations, but every year the seas and the wind will be different, or something will arise to alter our best-laid plans. As we pulled away from the dock, we were in for one last surprise: an urchin dragger in the middle of the thoroughfare was preventing us from taking the quicker and more protected route home. So, Mike backed the Sunbeam up, and we turned and headed out onto the high seas, spray covering the pilot house windows, cushions sliding from the benches, and, above it all, our Christmas lights shining brightly.  

Learn more about the work the Sunbeam does as well as the Mission’s Christmas Program. 

Every year, the Mission partners with organzations across Maine and beyond to provide services, education, and more to communities Downeast and on Maine Islands. For the past few years, Ann Backus has joined the Sunbeam crew to outer islands to provide outreach to fisherman. We interviewed her on a trip to Matinicus, Isle au Haut, and Frenchboro. 

What is your name? What organization do you represent? 

My name is Ann Backus and I work for the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. I work in occupational safety and health and environmental health, all of that is under the Department of Environmental Health. I am funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences. 

Who does it serve? Tell me about the people who will benefit? 

We work with both children and fisherman. For children, we had coloring books that are put out by the Shaw Fund, and I share those with the communities I visit. I also have a stability exercise with a card stock boat, where students add paper clips or rubber bands above or below the center of gravity and they see if they can balance the boat. Then we talk about the real-life implications of that.  

For adults, I focused on a number of different things. One thing I was interested in was talking about carbon monoxide emissions from the boats. We discussed whether they have a dry exhaust or a wet exhaust and the difference. There is a back draft concept, that if you have a wet exhaust, the carbon monoxide from the emissions can circle back onto the boat and get caught under the overhead. If people are working at the stern of the boat, they might get a headache or feel a little woozy. And if that’s the case, they should stop the boat and get some fresh air before they continue.  

What drives you to do the work you do? 

One thing I am driven by is a type of equity, because rural populations just don’t get the same information that the big cities or big ports do, or even fishermen that have more access to professional organizations like the Maine Lobstermen’s Association.  

What do you hope to accomplish? 

I hope this visit brings the fisherman some idea about the importance of thinking about safety around their work and how to keep themselves both healthy and safe on the boat. I hope to reinvigorate their thinking around safety and bring what we call in the in the business, the safety culture. 

What has been a memorable moment of the trip? 

I think seeing the kids get excited about ideas in the realm of safety and having them realize that they do have a vocabulary and if they didn’t before they do now. The other fun thing was seeing how these communities came together. 

A few minutes after the Sunbeam tied up on Frenchboro, islanders made their way onto the boat. They were there for Covid and flu vaccines. While some islanders just stopped by to get their shots and maybe grab a cookie, others stayed to enjoy lunch or dinner and chat with the crew and other islanders. 

The Mission’s short time on each island went a long way for each community. During the winter months, with some island populations dropping to around 20 people, the Sunbeam provides a welcome respite. And it was clearly a celebration: on Frenchboro, a young boy came on to play with the toy pirate ship, expressing joy that it was back. Sometimes both tables in the salon were filled with people discussing the latest island news. On Matinicus, one resident joked that the whole island stopped by to see the boat. When the Sunbeam is in port, it becomes an unofficial community center, with neighbors catching up with each other. With many islanders wearing multiple hats, they often lack the spare time to socialize; yet a visit from the Mission gives them a chance to pause and get together. 

Learn more about the Mission’s Island Health program and the Sunbeam.