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Maine Mission Boat In Need of Repairs
By A.J. Higgins • Jul 21, 2018
“In boat years, the Sunbeam is 23 and that makes her middle-aged,” says Maine Seacoast Mission president, Scott Planting.
“So we were making a decision at this place in her life. Do we refit the boat or do we replace the boat? And after a pretty extensive survey of the boat, we made the decision to do a major overhaul.”
MATINICUS, ME — Thank you, Island Health Director Sharon Daley for this photo taken aboard the Sunbeam while leaving Matinicus island 7/11/18. Matinicus is one island included in the Sunbeam’s travels working visits by Director Daley and Island Outreach Director Douglas Cornman.
Photos courtesy Island Outreach director Douglas Cornman and Ready by 21 Mentoring
NORTHEAST HARBOR, ME — Outreach director Douglas Cornman reminds us that May 15th, the Sunbeam carried a group of 25 young men and women and their adult mentors from the Deer Isle/Stonington area to Isle au Haut.
Each May, as one of Ready by 21 Mentoring “Real World Trips,” a sophomore class travels with the Sunbeam for a day of community service. Once the group is on Isle au Haut, they will work with rangers from Acadia National Park to clean debris from the island coastline.
Ready by 21 Mentoring is a Maine based program. According to its web site it “seeks ways to create safe, quality opportunities for youth beginning at age 14 thru 21 to develop multi-generational relationships that allow them the opportunity for growth, self expression and views of their highest potential.”
“The Sunbeam has collaborated with Ready by 21 Mentoring each of the four years I’ve served as outreach Director,” said Douglas Cornman, who is “pretty certain” the Ready by 21 Mentoring and Sunbeam partnership precedes him.
Learn more about the Mission’s Island Outreach programs.
BAR HARBOR, Me — When the Sunbeam is in dry dock for it’s annual upkeep, Mission Island Outreach director Douglas Cornman, and Island Health director Sharon Daley, RN rely on alternate transportation to continue their work on unbridged islands. Beal & Bunker Mail Boat & Ferry “Sea Queen,” photographed by director Cornman, is one much appreciated alternate ways of moving among the islands and mainlands.
Photo: Health pros head toward the Sunbeam for the “Meet Your Providers” event. (Courtesy Doreen Willett, Executive Director Island Connections www.islconnections.org)
BAR HARBOR, ME — Tuesday, April 10, the Sunbeam eased away from it’s home dock in Northeast Harbor on a special telemedicine trip that turned out to be more special than anyone imagined.
Island Health director Sharon Daley, RN and Island Outreach director Douglas Cornman have earned islanders’ trust in matters of health care. Over the years the two Sunbeam crew members have served as — in director Sharon Daley’s words — “a bridge from islands to health providers.” Quite often directors Cornman and Daley find themselves explaining to islanders the services of certain mainland health providers.
Then why not host a “Meet Your Provider” event aboard the Sunbeam? Mainland providers could introduce themselves to islanders. Islanders could ask health providers direct questions about their services. So the Sunbeam’s first stop Tuesday morning was Great Cranberry Isle (GCI). Eight mainland health providers met the Sunbeam at GCI ahead of interested islanders who would come to the event from GCI and Islesford.
That’s when the serendipity kicked in. While waiting for islanders, “The providers were so busy talking to each other and networking. Most of them didn’t really know each other or what each other did,” said Sharon Daley.
Photo: Island Health director Sharon Daley (foreground) and Island Outreach director Douglas Cornman (background near staircase) listening to islanders and health providers in Sunbeam salon. (Courtesy Doreen Willett, Executive Director Island Connections www.islconnections.org)
Out of that networking came the first inkling of the providers seeing first-hand the relationship Sharon and Douglas have with islanders. “That insight helps providers integrate what they do with the Sunbeam’s work,” Cornman said.
Coupled with their own networking, the health providers learned where their own services were unique, where services might overlap, and where services are lacking. Plus, said Cornman, “Islanders were able to put a face to the agencies,” he and Sharon talk about. “This will help islanders,” said the Island Outreach director, “feel more comfortable if and when they decide to use agency services.”
Elise O’Neil took part in the Sunbeam “Meet Your Provider” event. Ms. O’Neil, a registered nurse, is Mt. Desert Nursing Association Nurse Administrator. O’Neil, too, thought the event “was a wonderful networking opportunity” for MDNA, which provides home health care to Islesford, Great Cranberry, and other islands. O’Neil said in an email, that her health organization is looking “forward to collaborating with the Seacoast Mission and others. There is so much potential to build upon what the Seacoast Mission has already accomplished,” O’Neil said.
The April 10 Sunbeam telemedicine trip was special for another reason. Acadia Family Center in Southwest Harbor had its executive director, Dr. Dan Johnson, aboard at the “Meet Your Provider” event. But, Dr. Johnson stayed on board, traveling with Sharon on the Sunbeam for the three days (April 10-12).
On Isle au Haut, Frenchboro, and Matinicus, Dr. Johnson offered islanders his know-how with a talk on “Forming Habits: Both Good and Bad,” including Johnson’s exploration of addiction.
“The rest of the trip,” Johnson said, “was a great chance to see how valuable the Sunbeam is to the outer islands. It is amazing to watch islanders come to the boat — almost as a floating community center.”
Maine Seacoast Mission is grateful to the all of the health providers invited to take part in the April 10 “Meet Your Providers” Sunbeam event:
Learn more about the Sunbeam‘s Island Health and Island Outreach programs.
Sunbeam at Matinicus Island, Easter 2018
Sunbeam Easter Trip: March 30-31, 2018
Isle au Haut, Matinicus, Frenchboro
“Mercy Ship”
Draft Easter Sermon by Seacoast Mission president C. Scott Planting
Scripture Lesson: Mark 16. 1-8
The history of the cross painted on the bow of the Sunbeam is recent in the story of the Seacoast Mission. The cross was painted on the bow of the newly commissioned Sunbeam III in 1940. The world was at war. The cross meant that the Sunbeam was a “mercy ship,” a military designation similar to hospital ships with red crosses painted on their hulls. These were humanitarian ships not to be attacked by enemy vessels.
But the meaning of the cross goes deeper. The Seacoast Mission was founded in 1905 by two brothers, Angus and Alexander McDonald, both congregational ministers. They founded the Seacoast Missionary Society in 1905.
The McDonald brothers were acquainted with island fishing communities, lighthouse stations and life saving stations. They knew from visiting these places directly about hardships of living far out to sea. The first Mission statement — 1906:
To sail a sloop in a parish extending from Kittery Point to Quoddy Head, along the broken coast of Maine, in all kinds of weather, is not a small undertaking. To enter the coves and harbors, to call on the families on isolated islands, to visit the light-keepers and the life saving stations, is a task of greater magnitude.
They knew about difficult living conditions — terrific isolation, no schools or churches, teachers or doctor. A diet of cod and potatoes. From the beginning they understood their mission to address often deplorable living conditions — both physical and spiritual. The cross in this deeper sense was a Christian witness to serve people with a gospel message — that each person was a child of God, made in the image of God worthy of dignity, respect and care.
Arthur Sargent was a lay pastor assigned to Jonesport in the 1930’s-40’s. He was a tall, wiry man, and who loved to walk from house to house, village to village visiting neighbors. In his journal, Sunday, April 1, 1934, he describes Easter at Moose Neck Basin, “Neck attendance 23 offering 64 cents. I walked home to Jonesport and called on 14 families and ate dinner with Helen and William Garnett.”
It’s a bright line from these tireless Mission workers to today’s Sunbeam crew — who bring the boat with the cross on the bow in all kinds of weather, winter and summer, to isolated places, walking with Ma Peasley and Arthur Sargent — not away from this world in search of a better, but precisely the opposite to walk unreservedly towards “the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings” (Albert Schweitzer) with the people they serve.
Sixty years ago Neal Bousfield, the great Mission superintendent, talked about the ministry of the Sunbeam.
“This is a ministry made up of little things, time-consuming things with individuals where only the Lord knows the amount accomplished… We trust we have planted seeds, have encouraged growth and will be able to continue to do so. We do not expect great changes to take place immediately but deep changes that will have a lasting effect on the lives now and in generations to come. Our people are the salt of the earth and are very good to us.”
Bousfield says , “Our people are very good to us.” I believe there is a deep sense of gratitude from islanders for the generations of service provided by the Sunbeam. Wherever we go we are so well received. As the boat has cared for people that love is shared with others. I remember a few years ago, aboard the Sunbeam visiting Matinicus. I was mourning the death of a friend, a fisherman invited me over to his home to watch a Patriots game with him. A simple act of kindness. The boat’s life is integrated within the rhythm of giving and receiving.
The Easter gospel is simple. The first witnesses to the resurrection are told, “Go back to Galilee where you walked with Jesus, and do as he did, shape your life after his. Live completely in the world as Jesus did. And there in the world with all its duties, problem, and troubles you will receive from the Spirit of the risen Christ the courage of Jesus’ kind of suffering love and you will learn in your own experience who Jesus is.” The cross painted on the bow of the Sunbeam stands for the courage of Jesus’ kind of love that gives life to the world. This love is seen every time the Sunbeam enters the coves and harbors to call on the families of isolated island communities.