by maineseacoast | Nov 29, 2020 | Christmas, Maine Seacoast Mission, News
Sunbeam crew Christmas 2018. (Photo not part of MDIslander piece.)
mdislander.com
Christmas events continue despite pandemic
November 28, 2020 by Ninah Gile on Arts & living, Lifestyle
Mount Desert Maine Seacoast Mission
On Dec. 5, the Maine Seacoast Mission will be lighting up the Sunbeam from bow to stern, with a decorated Christmas tree in the salon. Its new headquarters in Mount Desert will be festively lit up, along with the rest of the town. Folks can stroll past the headquarters to see lights as they shop or walk down to the marina. In addition to what is happening in Northeast Harbor, the Mission is continuing the tradition of delivering their “White Gifts” (Christmas gifts) to children and elders throughout the community, including the outer islands, around Christmas. For more information, visit seacoastmission.org/what-we-do/christmas-program/.
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by maineseacoast | Oct 7, 2020 | Maine Seacoast Mission, News, Sunbeam
Photo courtesy MDIslander.
www.mdislander.com
Sunbeam back home after major rehab
October 5, 2020 by Dick Broom on News, Waterfront
MOUNT DESERT — Following an absence of nearly 18 months for repairs and renovations, Sunbeam returned to its Northeast Harbor home last Friday and will be back in action within a few weeks.
The Maine Seacoast Mission uses Sunbeam to deliver health care and other services to islands and coastal Downeast communities.
It was taken to Front Street Shipyard in Belfast in May 2019 because rust was starting to eat away at the inside of the steel hull. The furnace and two generators needed to be replaced, and the crew’s very small and rather spartan living quarters needed to be reconfigured and spruced up. The galley needed new appliances, and the floor in the salon area needed to be ripped up and replaced because of rust.
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Sunbeam serves a trio of functions.
“We take the nurse around, we take the chaplain around and we are also like a floating coffee house,” [Capt. Mike] Johnson said. “When we show up on Isle au Haut, for example, people come aboard to get coffee and play cribbage and mingle with their neighbors.”
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by maineseacoast | Sep 24, 2020 | Colket Center, Maine Seacoast Mission, News
The plaque is mounted on a pink granite rock from Kenarden, the Colket’s home. PHOTO COURTESY OF BH FIRE DEPT
mdislander.com
Colket: firefighter and benefactor honored with plaque
September 23, 2020 by Anne Kozak on News
BAR HARBOR—In recognition of Tris Colket’s many contributions to the fire department as a volunteer firefighter and benefactor, firefighters on Wednesday placed a plaque at the base of the flagpole in front of the fire station honoring Colket, who died in July.
In September 1974, Colket joined the department as a “call firefighter” and kept a plectron (an emergency alerting radio receiver) in the front hall of Kenarden, his home on Lower Main Street. Earl Brechlin, who worked for the Colkets, recalled that Colket kept his boots and helmet in his Jeep so that he could always respond quickly to a fire.
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In 1972, the Colkets donated LaRochelle, his childhood summer home, to the Maine Seacoast Mission and in 2005 established a $2 million endowment to support its maintenance. With the blessing of the Colkets, the Mission sold LaRochelle to the Bar Harbor Historical Society in 2019 in order to use funding from the sale to enhance its many programs….
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by maineseacoast | Mar 27, 2020 | COVID-19 Updates, Island Health, Island Outreach, Maine Seacoast Mission, News, Sunbeam
L-R: Director Douglas Cornman, Director Sharon Daley, Steward Jillian
MDIslander
Mission works to keep islanders connected, safely
March 27, 2020 by Liz Graves on News, Waterfront
BAR HARBOR — In some ways, residents of unbridged island communities are ahead of the curve with the changes brought by the virus epidemic, since they already rely on remote and online connections for important services.
But in other ways, they’re especially vulnerable.
On March 13, the team of Maine Seacoast Mission staff that usually visits islands aboard the Sunbeam (or this year, the replacement Moonbeam while work is being done on the bigger boat) decided to suspend their regularly scheduled visits.
“Each island community has asked that people not come out to the islands (so they can) make the best use of what limited resources they have on the island,” said Doug Cornman, director of island outreach and chaplain. So we want to honor that … If people start to not feel well, this would decimate an island.”
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