Maine Seacoast Mission, in partnership with Northern Light Health,Spectrum Generations, and AgeWise Maine Initiative, will offer Covid vaccinations on Maine’s unbridged, outer islands this late November and early December. Vaccinations will be given aboard the nonprofit’s boat, the 74-foot Sunbeam, and at designated facilities on the islands. These vaccine clinics will take place between November 28 and December 5 on Matinicus, Monegan, Isle au Haut, Frenchboro, Great Cranberry, and Islesford.
“The Mission has a tradition of bridging the healthcare gap in our island communities,” says Mission President John Zavodny, “Made possible by our fall 2023 partners, this next round of clinics is our fifth effort in helping residents receive care without leaving their island.”
In consultation with the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, county officials, hospital administrators, pharmacists, and island health workers, the Mission became a vaccine provider in winter 2021. To date, the Mission has administered over 1,000 Covid vaccinations. While the Mission’s health professionals conducted island vaccine clinics in the past, Northern Light will administer the vaccines this fall.
This effort is a collaborative partnership with Northern Light Home Care and Hospice, AgeWise Maine, and Spectrum Generations, the Area Agency on Aging (AAA) based in Augusta. Northern Light and AgeWise Maine offer immunization clinics in Maine communities. Thousands of residents can stay healthy and focused on doing the things they love.
AgeWise Maine, powered by USAging grant funding, is a collaboration of the state’s Agencies on Aging. Its mission to educate every Mainer age 60+ about the importance of staying up to date on immunizations, including Covid-19, Flu, RSV and Pneumonia vaccines. Northern Light Home Care and Hospice’s vaccine program targets vulnerable populations and underserved communities who cannot easily travel to traditional vaccination sites, including homebound individuals, children, remote communities, the unhoused, and non-English speakers. Spectrum Generations, the Area Agency on Aging (AAA) based in Augusta, collaborated with the Mission and Northern Light Health to create a solution to bring vaccines to Maine’s rural island communities.
Islanders interested in receiving a Covid vaccination should contact Sunbeam Nurse Simone Babineaux by email sbabineaux@seacoastmission.org before Tuesday, November 28. Please be prepared to share their name, island of residence, and whether they have insurance. All residents are eligible for the vaccine.
Learn more about the Mission’s Island Health program and the initiatives offered on Maine’s outer islands.
The Mission is listening to our communities. Over the past year, the Mission hosted 17 listening sessions for residents Downeast and on unbridged outer islands. Community members shared their worries and their hopes, and how the Mission could help. These listening sessions and what the Mission heard are the feature of this fall’s The Bulletin.
In his letter that opens The Bulletin, Mission President John Zavodny shares his experiences attending these listening sessions. He learned and heard a lot but what came out of these sessions was an overwhelming focus on the importance of community.
He writes, “People love where they live and are committed to making community work for the good of all. Kids on Swan’s Island love the quarry and each other. Children in Milbridge love their EdGE teachers and peers. Just love them. Seniors in Cherryfield love the spirit of community they feel on the Downeast campus. Everyone loves the feeling of community on the Sunbeam.”
The Bulletin also features updates on the Mission’s Downeast Project, with work on the planned improvements to the Mission’s Cherryfield campus getting underway earlier this fall. The work has facilitated the temporary move of the food pantry across the street to the EdGE building. Downeast Director Jenny Jones shares what this move has meant to patrons and how the Mission is working to meet the needs of more visitors.
There is also an update on the work being done by Sunbeam Nurse Simone Babineaux as she spends more time in the position. And as we begin the busy holiday season, The Bulletin highlights the work of the talented knitters and crocheters who make thousands of mittens, hats, scarves, and more that are included in every Christmas gift the Mission provides.
Two of our newest staff members EdGE Secondary and Post-Secondary Program Director Christy Oliveri and Chief People Officer Sally Clinton are introduced in the pages of The Bulletin and in the digital version, viewers can watch corresponding video interviews.
Finally, at the end of this year’s edition, the Mission thanks our Corporate Sponsors, who support our work year-round. There is also a Save the Date for the Sunbeam Award Gala which will happen on Thursday, August 15, 2024.
To view the digital version of The Bulletin Autumn 2023 issue, please visit our Publications page.
Join the Mission for two Christmas events in December. Visit the Mission’s Colket Center during the Northeast Harbor Christmas Festival to make crafts, enjoy a festive atmosphere, and welcome Santa and Mrs. Claus to town. Then travel Downeast to Cherryfield to celebrate Christmas with crafting, a hot chocolate and s’mores bar, cookie decorating and much more.
At the Northeast Harbor Christmas Festival on Saturday, December 2, join the Mission from 2 to 3 p.m. for craft activities, face painting, and light refreshments at its offices at 6 Old Firehouse Lane. The Mission’s flagship boat, the Sunbeam, will deliver Santa and Mrs. Claus to Northeast Harbor’s marina. In the evening from 5 to 7 p.m. at 6 Old Firehouse Lane, the Mission’s Christmas Open House will offer holiday cheer, light appetizers, and hot cider as well as crafting opportunities for kids.
Friday, December 15 from 4 to 6 p.m., the Mission’s 63-acre Cherryfield campus will host a Christmas celebration for the community. During this event, children and adults can create Christmas crafts, decorate cookies, and make a constellation viewer. In the Weald Bethel Community Center, there will be light refreshments as well as a hot chocolate bar. Outside, there will be a campfire and s’mores bar. To round out the event, the Christmas sheep will be back for photo taking opportunities and there will be fun Christmas photo stations as well.
Both events are free and open to the public. To learn more about the Northeast Harbor Christmas Festival and additional activities offered that day, please visit the Mount Desert Chamber of Commerce website. For more information about the Cherryfield event, contact the Mission at (207) 546-4466.
Nancy Neu, a well-known Downeast resident who both volunteered and worked for the Mission, passed away on Sunday, October 29. Nancy moved to the region in the 1970s and spent more than 30 years working and volunteering Downeast. It was during this time she started helping out at the Mission. She was always ready to lend a hand and cared deeply about the Downeast community, especially those facing hardship.
Many Mission staff and volunteers will remember Nancy as a passionate advocate. Alongside her son, she began volunteering to unload deliveries for the food pantry. She was passionate about childhood hunger and during her time with the Mission, Nancy championed the backpack program, assisted in creating pantries at local schools, and ran the Summer Meals Program, which provides a breakfast and lunch to all students in EdGE summer camp.
In a 2019 interview about her work, Nancy expressed hope that she could make a difference in others’ lives. She knew what it was like to struggle to make ends meet both as a single mother to three children and later as a senior. Diagnosed with cancer five times, she never saw a challenge as too big or too hard, and she kept moving forward.
That meant supporting the community who had supported her. She gifted the excess vegetables to friends and neighbors, and she also took care of the gardens at Loaves & Fishes Food Pantry in Ellsworth. While the pandemic kept many people inside, Nancy started gardens at Narraguagus Estates.
Each year, she supported families around the holidays, providing what they needed to have a meal on their table. This year, Nancy wanted to support the whole community with a Thanksgiving Downeast Table of Plenty (DETOP) meal on the Mission’s Downeast campus. She was working on this event at the time of her passing.
Nancy will be remembered as making the lives of those around her better. The Mission invites the Downeast community and those who knew Nancy to join the DETOP meal she planned on Sunday, November 19 from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. The event will take place at the Weald Bethel Community Center on the Downeast campus in Cherryfield. With produce provided by Folklore Farm, the meal will include turkey, stuffing, gravy, ham, vegetarian dishes, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, pies, and more. Nancy arranged for the Tunk Streamers, a six-piece Cajun band, to provide live music. There will be a remembrance area where people can display photos or other objects to remember her by.
Postscript
In the days since we published this post, we have received notes from people who knew Nancy about her impact and her memory. We are sharing a few below.
From Bob:
Nancy’s good deeds were well known 600 miles south where she grew up. We, the members of the Wissahickon High School Class of 1972, admired her courage and her heart. We were so fortunate that she was able to attend our 50th reunion last October.
You know how sometimes there are forces that we simply do not understand or cannot explain. I administer our high school scholarship fund for graduating seniors each year. Out of the blue in early October, Nancy contacts me and says she wants to give. Part of me thought “Nancy, why don’t you wait.” The other part of me thought “Maybe there is a reason.” I said nothing and am so happy to have complied with what Nancy wanted.
Nancy Neu is someone people talk about for years and years because there was such beauty in her genuine love and care for others. Few have what she had.
From Stephanie:
Nancy was absolutely lovely and I enjoyed every meeting with her. I wanted to share a poem that Nancy shared with me, that so perfectly captures her beauty.
Can you hear my voice? Poem by Sara Brading
Can you hear my voice? It’s there for all to hear It may not be a usual one Not always very clear Some days it’s hardly there at all But frustrating as it may, I have to persevere, you see As I have something to say
It’s gone The box, the vocal chords They took it all away But can you shut me up? Well, no! As I have something to say
One thing Is that I’m still here With opinions you can be sure Equally as important As they ever were before They may not come across the same Intonation’s not always good But I ask for you to listen, please In a way I can be understood
So here’s the thing, I know I look and sound a different way But I am still me, be patient, please As I’ll always have something to say So if I’m in mid-sentence And I stop, it’s not by choice So I’ll ask you again, in a different way Can you hear my voice?
Maine Seacoast Mission elves are already working on this year’s Christmas program. Thanks to you, last year we distributed over 11,000 gifts to more than 1,500 people. We are hoping you’ll help us again this year!
If you’re mailing items, please send them by Friday, December 1 to Maine Seacoast Mission Christmas Program, PO Box 428, 39 Weald Bethel Lane, Cherryfield, ME 04622.
Mission President John Zavodny and Director of Island Services Douglas Cornman chat on-stage with Penobscot Theatre’s Artistic Director Jonathan Berry.
Walk into any Penobscot Theatre production and prepare to be floored. Mission staff were in mid-October when invited to be the Theatre’s community partner for an upcoming production called Dirty Deeds Downeast. Written by playwright Brent Askari, the play a comedic murder-mystery set on an unbridged island in Maine. At its heart, the play explores the depths of relationships that exist in a small community.
In August, the Theatre’s Executive Director Jen Shepard reached out to the Mission with the request. As co-founder of nonprofit Improv Acadia and a former longtime MDI resident, Jen remembered the Mission’s work with island communities.
The Theatre identifies a community partner that can join a Q&A session and provide context and delve deeper into the themes for each performance, the Theatre looks for a community partner.
Dirty Deeds Downeast centers around a fictional island’s lone police officer solving a resident’s mysterious disappearance. Peppered with witty one-liners, the show goes beyond mystery to touch on community ties, identity, mental health, and other topics.
“Something I love about Dirty Deeds Downeast is that it defies classification,” says Jonathan. “I appreciate art that embraces and celebrates the multitudes that exist in our day-to-day life. So often, we look for an easy classification because it can feel reassuring to have something reliably “known.” But within each person, we play multiple roles (mother, daughter partner, boss, etc)…Like Gerard, the cop at the center of our story, we all seem to be searching for a place to feel at “home” where we can feel both seen and accepted as our full selves.”
Following a packed performance, Mission President John Zavodny took the stage alongside Director of Island Services Douglas Cornman. Both sat with Jonathan to discuss hallmarks of island life as well as answer audience questions. They also provided background about the Mission and its service to Maine islands for the past 118 years.
While some characters in the play want to leave the island, John and Douglas remarked that reality is quite different. Residents take pride in their islands and form tightknit communities that stretch back generations. In the Mission’s work, staff observe islanders sometimes fighting to stay put despite systemic challenges they sometimes face such as housing, healthcare, education, and transportation.
When Douglas asked audience members who had visited a Maine unbridged island, hands flew up. Isle au Haut, North Haven, Swan’s Island, and Islesford were some places they had visited. Theatregoers shared their observations on the islands, noting residents’ resilience, independence, and friendliness.
Dirty Deeds Downeast runs through Sunday, November 5. Reserve tickets today at Penobscot Theatre’s website. Based in the historic Bangor Opera House on Bangor’s Main Street, the Theatre is celebrating its 50th season. As an Actor’s Equity theatre, PTC delivers seven productions annually and draws between 30,000 and 40,000 theatregoers in a single year.
