CHERRYFIELD, ME — Jillian, who serves as Steward aboard the Sunbeam, and is quite active in Mission activities at our Downeast Campus, has also a soft spot for uplifting quotes on road signs. In fact, the Weald Bethel Community Center inner walls on the Downeast Campus were once adorned with an exhibit of Jillian’s photo collection of road sign inspirations.
“This sign lives in the center of our 1/2 mile strip of downtown Cherryfield on the lawn of the Legion,” wrote Jillian. Hearing Mission President John Zavodny speak this bit of inspiration, Jillian added them to this sign and snapped a photo.
A new Mission initiative we call Project ReachOut will play an important role in the days ahead.
ReachOut is based on a simple idea; we are all better off when we connect. A kind word and a simple “how can we help?” can make all the difference. Through Project ReachOut, Mission staff and volunteers call Mission friends and neighbors to check in, offer a word of support, and ask how we can help.
If you want to help connect, to make phone calls for Project ReachOut on behalf of the Mission, please fill out and submit your volunteer application online here. Or you email [email protected] or call 207-546-5860 and ask for the volunteer application.
Staying connected, helping out, and focusing on good people in a time of crisis. Let’s do that.
As my mother-in-law, Nancy, says when we’re all together as a family, “We’re making memories.” A few memories from the early days of COVID-19 will forever stay with me: a welcoming “Drive Thru” Food Pantry sign made with love; a photo of a single resilient volunteer in a well-stocked food pantry; a gallery full of resilient and helpful Mission staff on my computer screen.
Change and uncertainty are the constant in COVID world. Restrictions evolve in response to the progression of the disease and Mission programs adapt almost as quickly. What seems certain is that the new Mission initiative we call “Project ReachOut” will play an important role in the days ahead.
ReachOut is based on a simple idea; we are all better off when we connect. A kind word and a simple “how can we help?” can make all the difference. Through Project ReachOut, Mission staff and volunteers call Mission friends and neighbors to check in, offer a word of support, and find out how we can help. Sometimes the call is enough. Sometimes we can help in other ways. Always, the personal connection is important. So far we’ve made about 150 calls—150 connections—and we’ve got many, many more to make.
If you want to make phone calls for Project ReachOut on behalf of the Mission you can fill out and submit your volunteer application online. Or you may email [email protected] or call 207-546-5860 and ask for the volunteer application.
Nancy is right, we’re making memories—lots of them these days. By staying connected, by helping out, and by focusing on the beautiful response of good people in a time of crisis, we can make more good memories than bad ones. Let’s do that. I think Nancy will approve.
CHERRYFIELD, ME — One of the Mission’s first acts to guard against the spread of COVID-19 was to get creative with our Food Pantry and Seniors Commodities program. Food security is a key focus of Maine Seacoast Mission. COVID-19 meant adding new measures of food security.
In this video, Mission President John Zavodny, speaking last week from our Food Pantry in Cherryfield, ME, describes in some detail the creative steps started there just a few days ago by Mission staff and volunteers.
You can learn more about the Mission’s food programs and services here. For viewers who would like to help use do this work with a donation you and do so here with our gratitude.
BAR HARBOR, ME — All Maine Seacoast Mission’s EdGE in school programs are currently suspended. Our instructors are developing at-home alternatives for our wonderfully creative students.
We are also working with school partners who have asked us to help ensure healthy food for our students during this time of social distancing.
Mission President John Zavodny said, “We love our EdGE kids and will do everything we can to help. The one-thousand students and their families who rely on us, can rest assured we remain here to support them through this tough time.”
Maine Seacoast Mission will be ready to resume after EdGE school programs for our students as soon as it is safe to do so.
