Two Simple Gifts at the Heart of Maine Seacoast Mission’s Work

Two Simple Gifts at the Heart of Maine Seacoast Mission’s Work

December 8,2016
by Scott Planting, Maine Seacoast Mission President

The Mood of Christmas book coverAt Christmas I take down from the book shelf a precious book that I purchased in Farmington, Maine, December 1, 1975, my first Christmas in the parish in Western Maine I served for 35 years.  The book is a collection of meditations called The Mood of Christmas by Howard Thurman.  Here is an excerpt from “The Gift of Grace”:

This is the season of Christmas.  For many people, in many places, it is a time of great pressure and activity, a time when nerves are tense, and when a great deal of anxiety hovers over the common life.  And this is just the reversal of what the mood and the meaning of Christmas really are.  I would like to suggest, then, that for those who care deeply about the meaning of your own lives and the significance of high celebration, that you would do two things during this season.  One, that you will seek reconciliation with any person or persons with whom you have, at the moment a ruptured or unhappy relationship…find a way by you can restore a lost harmony, so that your Christmas gift to yourselves will be peace between you and someone else.

The second is just as simple. Will you with your imagination, with your fancy, will you conjure up into your minds a gift of grace that you might give to someone for whom you have no obligation.  It may be just to pick up the telephone and call someone whose life is not tied to yours in any way…and say a word of reassurance, of comfort, of delight—so that you will feel that out of the fullness of your own hearts, you have conferred upon some unsuspecting human being a gentle grace that makes the season a good and whole and hale and happy time.

I believe these two simple gifts are at the heart of the work of the Maine Seacoast Mission restoring lost harmonies and the gentle grace of bestowing delight upon unsuspecting people.

Wishing you gentle graces at Christmas,

Scott  Planting

Small Animal Clinic Wins 12th Annual Maine Seacoast Mission Open Tennis Tournament to Benefit EdGE Program

Small Animal Clinic Wins 12th Annual Maine Seacoast Mission Open Tennis Tournament to Benefit EdGE Program

September 12, 2016
For More Information
Contact: Scott K Fish sfish@seacoastmission.org

Small Animal Clinic Tennis Tournament Winners

Small Animal Clinic of Ellsworth, Tournament Winners: (L-R)  Phid Lawless, Theresa Green, Bridgett Babine, Alan Toothaker, Kelly Fitzpatrick, Alec Toothaker, Ben Beverly,  Misha Mytar

 

BAR HARBOR – A team assembled by the Small Animal Clinic in Ellsworth, captained by Dr. Alan Toothaker, won the 12th Annual Maine Seacoast Mission Open Tennis Tournament on Saturday, September 10, at the Northeast Harbor Tennis Club.

The tournament benefits the Mission’s innovative EdGE (Ed Greaves Education) youth development program and attracted over 80 players and 50 guests. The Mission’s EdGE program runs after-school, in-school, and summer programs in Washington and Hancock Counties to give youth the tools and resources they need to succeed in school and life.

Mission President Scott Planting said after the Tournament, “Thank you to everyone for supporting this great EdGE program for Downeast kids. Several of the players I spoke with said this the best run tournament they participate in. They love the venue, the quality of tennis, and the hospitality.”

The day before the tournament, EdGE kids from Washington County received tennis lessons from guidance of Dan Granholm, Jaime Weir, and Ed Fogarty at the Bar Harbor Club. EdGE kids then took part in a cook-out and overnighter at Mission headquarters in Bar Harbor, and were on hand Saturday to watch the some fast paced tennis at the EdGE Benefit tournament.

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EdGE kids from Washington County at Tennis Camp

The four teams advancing to the Tournament semi-finals were Small Animal Clinic of Ellsworth, Machias Business Group, Dead River Company, and MDI Hospital. The team sponsored by the Small Animal Clinic captured the championship in a final match with the Machias Business Group team. This was Small Animal Clinic’s third straight Mission Open Tennis Tournament win.

Bar Harbor Savings and Loan was Court Sponsor. Team Sponsors were Bar Harbor Bank and Trust, Big Red Tomatoes, Dead River Company, John Williams Boat Company, Machias Business Group (including Charles Dorr, D.D.S., Whitney’s Originals, Tom’s Mini-Mart), Machias Savings Bank, MDI Hospital, Small Animal Clinic, and Connie Greaves Bates.

The Mission also gave special thanks to Northeast Tennis Club for the use of their courts and facility, the Causeway Club and Ben Rowell, Director of Swim and Tennis, for tennis balls, The Docksider for coffee, bagels, and donuts, Hannaford Supermarket for food and beverages, Side Street Cafe for lunch, and Mount Desert Spring Water for water.

The EdGE provides in-school, after-school and summer programs for over 700 children in 17 Downeast Maine communities.

Sunbeam Award Gala 2016: Thank You for Celebrating With Us…

Sunbeam Award Gala 2016: Thank You for Celebrating With Us…

Maine Seacoast Mission Thank You as it appears in the August 25, 2016 MDIslander.

Thank You for a Successful Gala 2016

A very Special Thank You to our Sunbeam Award Gala 2016 In-Kind Donors for

Ruth M. Colket
Kvetina Gardens and Wildscaping
Queen Anne’s Flower Shop
George Soules Photography
Nancy K. Ho
Jeff Dobbs Productions
The Dan Granholm Trio
The Sunbeam Society
Bar Harbor Club
Bar Harbor Congregational Church
Mary Ellen Martel
Jennifer Judd-McGee, Swallowfield
Edith Wells
Blueberry Basket
Kelly Cotiaux – Sephone Interactive Media
Mark Nason – New England School of Communications Husson University

Carl Little Lecture Continues Mission’s Robert S. Neuman Ship to Paradise Exhibition

Carl Little Lecture Continues Mission’s Robert S. Neuman Ship to Paradise Exhibition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 8, 2016
For More Information:
Contact Anna Silver, 207-288-5097 or asilver@seacoastmission.org

Carl Little Lecture Continues Mission’s Robert S. Neuman Ship to Paradise Exhibition

Carl Little (Photo by Gabe Souza)

Carl Little (Photo by Gabe Souza)

BAR HARBOR — The Maine Seacoast Mission, as part of its Robert S. Neuman Ship to Paradise exhibition through September 9th, 2016, is hosting a lecture at the Colket Center, by Carl Little on Wednesday, August 24th, 5:30-7:30 p.m. The Mission’s Neuman exhibition focuses on the artist’s surrealist illustrations for an edition of Sebastian Brandt’s The Shyp of Fooles, a 15th century allegory on the foibles and folly of man. Robert S. Neuman’s Ship to Paradise Series is the artist’s personal exploration of this same theme.

Carl Little has written about Neuman’s work for shows at College of the Atlantic, Wheaton College in Norton, Massachuetts, and the Heckscher Museum of Art in Huntington, New York. He is the author of more than 25 art books, most recently, Jeffery Becton: The Farthest House and Wendy Turner—Island Light. His book Eric Hopkins: Above and Beyond won the first John N. Cole Award from Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance in 2012. He edited his brother David Little’s first book, Art of Katahdin, and co-authored with him Art of Acadia, 2016.

Ship to Paradise 4 (1980)

Ship to Paradise 4 (1980)

Robert S. Neuman began spending his summers in Maine in the early 1960’s, when he was a professor at Harvard University. Originally “summering” in Ogunquit, Allan Stone, the collector and friend, offered Neuman a home in Northeast Harbor in trade for paintings. Neuman enjoyed hiking the trails of Acadia, sailing and was inspired by the natural beauty of Mount Desert Island.

The Artist’s Ship to Paradise works can be found in both private and corporate collections, including the Boston Athenaeum, Boston, MA, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, MA, New York Public Library, New York, NY, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, ME, Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME, Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH, The Art Complex, Duxbury, MA, and the National Art Gallery, Australia.

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