Island boy and Douglas Cornman, excited by Christmas 2019.
NORTHEAST HARBOR, ME — Island Outreach Director and Chaplain Douglas Cornman is extra busy these days working as liaison between the Mission Christmas Program and island communities. The Christmas program provides white paper packages tied up with red string to the islands’ children and teens, as well as to island elders.
Douglas hopes to remind island communities of something else. “The Mission’s Christmas Program is meant to be more than just handing out gifts – mittens and toys for the kids, and puzzle books and lap blankets to the elders. It’s also about carrying on a century old Christmas tradition. Mission gifts symbolize our care for the folks who are really the essence of the islands,” Douglas added.
While telecommunications and modes of transportation for the islands are better than ever, Douglas points out Maine island communities “in many ways are still very isolated.” That, he says, “is why we’re doing what we’re doing.”