by maineseacoast | Oct 23, 2019 | Island Health, Island Outreach, Maine Seacoast Mission, News, Sunbeam
Director of Island Outreach Douglas Cornman visiting with Maine unbridged island students. (Photo by Tristan Spinski.)
Stories of Giving Back
Maine’s nonprofit community provides helping hands wherever there’s need, and offer much to say thanks for this season.downeast.com
Hope Floats
By land and by sea, Maine Seacoast Mission offers a lifeline to residents of islands and Down East coastal communities.
From the moment Brenda Clark stepped foot on Isle au Haut, she loved the feeling of peacefulness she felt there — surrounded by ocean, 6 miles from the mainland. Her love of island life hasn’t ebbed in the two decades since she moved. But now that Clark is 65, it has gotten more complex. Getting medical attention off-island can be expensive and time-consuming. “It can be a real hardship,” Clark says.
For Clark and other year-round islanders, Maine Seacoast Mission offers a critical lifeline. Its M/V Sunbeam V, a 74-foot floating support vessel, stops on 10 unbridged islands regularly providing food, fellowship, and healthcare. Sunbeam Steward Jillian serves meals. Island Outreach Director and Chaplain Douglas Cornman offers counseling, activities, and classes. Island Health Services Director Sharon Daley, RN performs routine health screenings, hosts telemedicine visits with primary care doctors and other medical professionals, and she comes ashore to visit homebound islanders.
Director Daley is also active with several island health workers in helping island elderly have the option of aging in place within their communities. Daley hosts an annual Island Elder Care Conference sponsored by Maine Seacoast Mission
Full Story
by maineseacoast | Aug 1, 2019 | DETOP, Downeast Campus, Maine Seacoast Mission, News, Weald Bethel Community Center
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Down East Magazine buffet
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Bob
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Roberta
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Judith prepping beer can chickens
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Brian
A huge thank you to Down East Magazine editors Brian, Bob, Judith, and Roberta. We were honored the four of you would come to Cherryfield to host a Table of Plenty dinner, and we so appreciate the time and effort you put into the meal. I will never forget the toppling chickens and delicious entrees you prepared. It was a feast and lots of fun.
Some DETOP firsts: beer can chicken and more guests than our supply of plates and silverware. Down East Magazine was a big draw!
Again, thank you for including the Table of Plenty in Great Maine Scavenger Hunt. We have made many new friends through the Hunt, and had a wonderful time hosting, and getting to know, the volunteers. Their help every week has been a tremendous bonus. We have come to rely on them. Like you four, they bring new life and great energy to our community meal.
With gratitude,
Wendy Harrington
Maine Seacoast Mission Service Program Director
by maineseacoast | Jul 24, 2019 | DETOP, Downeast Campus, Maine Seacoast Mission, News, Weald Bethel Community Center
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Judy and friends at DETOP
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Healthy Acadia teens prepare DETOP meal
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Heidi and family at DETOP
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Betty and Ted at DETOP
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David Wrinkly and Sarah M at DETOP
CHERRYFIELD, ME — Last weekend was a “big weekend” at our Downeast Community Campus for Down East magazine’s Great Maine Scavenger Hunt volunteers, said Mission Service Program Director Wendy Harrington.
The Hunt’s purpose is to send “Down East readers out to explore all 35,385 square miles of Maine — from mountains to sea, from potato fields to city streets — in pursuit of the best Maine summer ever.” One item on the Hunt’s list is to be at a “Community Supper in Cherryfield.”
“We had nine participants help prepare and serve the meal on Sunday,” said Director Wendy Harrington. “Teens and staff from Healthy Acadia’s Teen Ag Summer Program harvested, prepared and served a delicious spaghetti supper with lots of delicious salads and vegetable stir fried dishes,” Harrington said.
Learn how you can attend and/or sponsor a Table of Plenty Community Supper. Click here.
by maineseacoast | May 20, 2019 | DETOP, Downeast Campus, Maine Seacoast Mission, News, Weald Bethel Community Center
Wendy Harrington (center) with Cathy Ames and Valerie Hill.
CHERRYFIELD, ME — Mission Service Program Director Wendy Harrington sends a note and news of the arrival of two ladies taking part in Down East magazine’s The Great Maine Scavenger Hunt.
“Cathy Ames and Valerie Hill were awesome helpers and wowed our diners with four homemade pies and a big pot of baked beans,” writes Wendy Harrington.
The Hunt’s purpose is to send “Down East readers out to explore all 35,385 square miles of Maine — from mountains to sea, from potato fields to city streets — in pursuit of the best Maine summer ever.”
One item on the Hunt’s list is to be at a “Community Supper in Cherryfield.” What better than our Downeast Campus’s “Table of Plenty” Community Supper?
Learn how you can attend and/or sponsor a Table of Plenty Community Supper. Click here.
by maineseacoast | Nov 20, 2018 | Christmas, Maine Seacoast Mission, News
BAR HARBOR, ME — A big “Thank you” from the Mission to Down East magazine and Victor Stanley for the beautiful “Christmas 1968” essay, and for the many great memories Rev. Stanley includes about Maine Seacoast Mission.
We encourage you to pick up a copy of Down East magazine’s December 2018 issue for Rev. Stanley’s full piece. https://downeast.com/category/issues/
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Downeast Magazine – December 2018
Christmas 1968
by Victor Stanley
The story of my childhood reads like the beginning of a Steinbeck novel, but it’s all true. Times were tough in the mid-1950s in Down East Maine. Jobs were scarce and people were desperate.
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…I got off the school bus and walked into the kitchen. My mother grabbed me and gave me a big hug. “Your prayers were answered,” she proclaimed, waving a white envelope over her head. “The Maine Seacoast Mission sent us $50 for Christmas!”
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On Christmas Eve, we…went to church… [E]ach of us…received a present…. Once again, the gifts were from the Maine Seacoast Mission.
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Fifty years have passed since…. Scholarships from the Maine Seacoast Mission made it possible for me to go to college and seminary….
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…[The] Mission still…help[s] families through long and cold Maine winters. It still provides scholarships for thousands of hard-working students and has expanded its ministry with after-school programs and medical care.
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