CHERRYFIELD, ME — EdGE Summer Camp. Budding young artists explore foam and Gelli plate printmaking techniques with instructor Olivia Dyer. Thank you, EdGE Site Coordinator Jennifer Kearns for these photos.
Learn more about EdGE Summer Camp.
With just three weeks to go before MissionTogether, we want to thank our wonderful sponsors for their generous support of the Maine Seacoast Mission’s fundraising event in support of our community.
Today, help us thank our Copper sponsors!
Again, our thanks to Front Street Shipyard for this July update:
SUNBEAM gets a few sunbeams on her bow for the first time in a year as she emerges from the shed.
SUNBEAM gets a few sunbeams on her bow for the first time in a year as she emerges from the shed. pic.twitter.com/wM4cNVktgU
— Front Street Shipyard (@FrontShipyard) July 21, 2020
Douglas Cornman meets with students on Frenchboro in 2018.
www.islandinstitute.org
July 22, 2020
The Sunbeam holds its course
OUT OF THE WATER AND ONLINE, MAINE SEACOAST MISSION’S CONTINUES
By Frances Mize
Built in 1995 and operated now by the Bar Harbor-based Maine Seacoast Mission, the 75-foot long, steel-hulled Sunbeam V clears harbors of ice in the winter months, and in all seasons serves as a place of fellowship and communion for those unbridged islands of Maine that support year-round populations.
Douglas Cornman, director of island outreach, whose work ranges from leading worship services to arranging an anthology of creative works from the islands, notes that “the boat’s never locked, the coffee is always hot. Folks are welcome on board, and we’ll just sit and chat.”
While the rest of the world struggles to fall into the rhythms of Zoom meetings and a life wrenched online, this sort of digital connection is nothing new for the Sunbeam. In addition to serving as a space for community, telemedicine equipment aboard the ship ensures that islanders have access to quality, reliable healthcare.
Director of Island Health Services Sharon Daley travels to the islands and performs routine checkups herself, but islanders are also put in touch via video call with physicians and mental healthcare providers on the mainland.
It’s Thank you Thursday and today’s shout out of Mission Love goes to the Area Interfaith Outreach Pantry and Emergency Services.
AIO was started 30 years ago by a group of congregations in the Midcoast who came together around the idea of creating a supportive place for Knox County residents who need of food or energy assistance to go.
When Covid-19 prompted much less to-and-from traveling to Maine’s unbridged islands, AIO worked with Maine Seacoast Mission and Penobscot Island Air to keep the North Haven and Matinicus Island Food Pantries restocked and residents in need fed. When your food pantry is 22 miles at sea from the mainland, fresh food availability is all the more essential.
The Mission Island Health Services Director Sharon Daley said, “AIO and Penobscot Air have gone out of there way to make these food deliveries happen and are willing to think out side the box to do so. When fog came in Penobscot Air had to store the food in their freezers, transport it to a ferry, and load it on a truck. Getting food there is a team effort of AIO, Penobscot Air, and island volunteers.”
The Mission greatly appreciates AIO’s mission to respectfully and compassionately support those in need in Knox County with food and energy assistance.
CHERRYFIELD, ME — Scott Shaw, Maine Seacoast Mission’s Housing Rehabilitation Manager, is a partner with the Downeast Maine Tiny House Project. Thank you, Scott, for this update and photo:
Check out the great post by Bob Washburn at Essex Bay Cabinetry, Georgetown, MA. He has been a volunteer with the Mission Housing Rehab Program for years. Bob has built and donated all of the kitchens in our past mobile home rehab projects.
When I asked if he and his business partner would be willing to build the kitchen for the Downeast Maine Tiny House, there was no hesitation. He just answered “Absolutely.”
Visit the Downeast Maine Tiny House Project Blog.
