CHERRYFIELD, ME — Another thank you to ‘Sunbeam V’ Steward Jillian for shooting and sharing this photo of “our community supper dish crew” from last Sunday’s Downeast Table of Plenty (DETOP).
“Everyone loved the squash soup, roasted beets and beautiful vibrant purple slaw grown by Geri. She hooked us up with bounty from her root cellar,” Jillian reports.
The Weald Bethel Community Center at the Mission’s Downeast Campus, Cherryfield, ME holds a DETOP community supper every Sunday. During winter months, harsh weather may cause a DETOP cancellation, but such cancellations are R-A-R-E and posted on the Downeast Campus Facebook page.
You learn more about DETOP online here, or you can experience it yourself Sunday.
CHERRYFIELD, ME — Director of Service Programs Wendy Harrington writes, “Videographer Galen Koch made a short video of Nancy Neu and her VISTA work with the Mission. We finally received the okay to post it publicly and Nancy would like to see it posted on the Facebook page.
Nancy Neu’s VISTA video profile includes this paragraph:
Meet Nancy Neu, an AmeriCorps VISTA serving in Cherryfield, Maine with the Maine Seacoast Mission. The Maine Seacoast Mission has been working in Downeast Maine for over 116 years. In 2017, their food pantry and meal programs for children and seniors provided 187,936 meals in Washington County. With only 3 ? full time staff members, these Maine Seacoast Mission hunger prevention programs rely on volunteers and an AmeriCorps VISTA.
CHERRYFIELD, ME — As Downeast Campus Director of Service Programs Wendy Harrington tells the story, there was a moment last year when the Downeast Campus crew saw the Campus indoor and outdoor faciliites as an opportunity to offer community families winter fun activities on Saturdays, when the Campus was usually quiet. So, the EdGE Family Celebration of Winter Fun Days were born offering local families the ice skating rink, woods trails, scavenger hunts, and plenty more indoor/outdoor activities.
The Fun Days were such a hit last year, they have returned in 2019 as EdGE Family Winter Fun days. Saturdays, from January 12 through February 15th, the EdGE Building will be open from 10 am to 2 pm. Depending on the weather, families will be able to enjoy the Maine winter outdoors, come inside to warm themselves and grab a bite to eat, and then head back out.
Find directions to the Mission’s Downeast Campus and EdGE Building here.
CHERRYFIELD, ME — The Maine Seacoast Mission is gearing up again for the 2018 Christmas season. We could not brighten Christmas for the people in our communities without your generosity.
To ensure donations will arrive in time for Christmas 2018 they must be here no later than December 10, 2018. Donations arriving after Dec. 10 will be saved for Christmas 2019.
Please direct all donations to the Mission’s Downeast Campus in Cherryfield.
Maine Seacoast Mission Christmas Program
6 Weald Bethel Lane
PO Box 428
Cherryfield, ME 04622
Our office in Bar Harbor is for sale. We are not receiving Christmas gifts at that address this year.
Here is our suggested 2018 Christmas Wish List. The Wish List is also available for downloading and distribution in PDF format. Click Here. We like to stick to traditional, imagination powered toys, basic clothing, and personal care items. We try also to be good environmental stewards with a less-is-more approach to gifts and packaging.
With limited storage space gift cards are especially helpful. They. also allow us to buy items in short supply or to ensure, for example, a pair of boots fits.
Many elderly people receiving Christmas gifts are in nursing homes. Basic and practical items are very welcome, i.e. lap robes, nightwear, toiletries, puzzle books, or music.
Please get in touch with me if you have any questions about our 2018 Christmas season arrangements. Call me at 207-546-5867 or send me an email at [email protected]
IMPORTANT: Please include your full name and address on any package or letter you send us so we can properly acknowledge them.
Marilyn Nickson, Mission Christmas Program Coordinator
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Maine Seacoast Mission Christmas Wish List 2018
Please Do Not Send:
Food, Summer Clothing and Toys, Toy Guns, Over the Counter Medications
Southern Harbor House, Elder Care home, North Haven, ME
BAR HARBOR, ME — Southern Harbor House on North Haven is a new assisted living facility among a network of eleven Maine island communities. Elder care workers from these communities meet each year to discuss challenges, resources, and to make action plans at an Elder Care Conference hosted by the Mission’s Island Health Director Sharon Daley, RN.
Director Sharon Daley attended Southern Harbor House’s “Opening Event,” Saturday, July 7. In a later phone conversation, Daley said Southern Harbor House “makes four islands with these small, wonderful elder care homes.” Daley’s home island, Islesboro, has an elder care home. So do Vinalhaven and Chebeague.
“It’s really the way care should be given,” Daley said, who also credits The Genesis Community Loan Fund, Brunswick, ME for its “huge help.”
Southern Harbor House Administrator Lindsey Beverage is a member of the Elder Care Conference network. She was a community Outreach Worker “with a dream of building [an elder care facility] on North Haven,” said Daley.
At the “Opening Event,” “Lindsey recognized the Mission’s Elder Care Conference and the connections she made there. The knowledge and support of other Conference administrators was such a help in navigating Southern Harbor House through to completion,” Daley said.
“The North Haven community pulled together to make this home possible. Somebody donated the building and land; raised the money. Lindsey pointed out that some people gave $25.00; some gave $250,000 — and all of it was important,” said Daley.
“But really,” Daley added, “the islands pulled together and helped with all of this. That’s a story in itself.”
Sharon said Islesboro’s elder care home, Boardman Cottage, developed much the same as Southern Harbor House, with ”all the volunteerism. People landscaping, cleaning-up, painting — all of that.”
Sharon remembers first reading about Vinalhaven’s Ivan Calderwood Homestead assisted living home around 2001.
“The Sunbeam was on Vinalhaven. I walked to the home, asked if I could look around. They said, ‘Somebody else from Islesboro just asked us for information about how we started, our policy books and all. We copied everything. Could you take it to them?’”
That “somebody else from Islesboro” and Sharon “had our first meeting, got others involved, formed a Board, and that’s how [Boardman Cottage] got started,” Daley said.
Today the network of elder care home administrators is quite effective. Sharon said, between Elder Care Conferences they “have monthly phone calls. Two or three times a year we meet in Augusta with State people involved in licensing and regulations. Island elder care homes got a 15-percent MaineCare increase when we proved it costs more to run an elder care home on an island,” she said.
“There’s just so much good about the island elder care homes,” Daley continued. “You get a great feeling when you walk into them. They are homes.
“Staff are often taking care of their own grandmothers,” said Daley. “They’re trained and licensed to give medications, diabetic care, oxygen therapy — the training they need. It makes great year-round employment for staff, and it’s rewarding care.
“Sometimes it’s really hard. We lost three residents in a short period of time. Staff and residents — they’re like family,” said Sharon.
Our conversation ending, Sharon added, “It’s wonderful for people not to have to leave the islands. It’s not only good for them, but also their family members. One visitor comes to visit somebody, they end up visiting everybody — because they know everybody.”
“I think the islands are ahead of their time in providing this kind of care,” Sharon finished.
Learn more about the Mission’s Island Health activities.
