It’s Thank you Thursday. Today’s shout out of Mission love goes to BettyAnn and Ben Haskell of Brewer, ME for preserving a lovely piece of Mission island history and gifting it back the Mission.
Ben Haskell’s father, Reverend Stanley Haskell, was a Sunbeam Boat Minister (1974-1985).
“When dad retired,” said Ben Haskell, “the women of the various island churches presented” father and mother, Ethel, “with an amazing goose down quilt, exquisitely handmade, with each panel telling a story of the local church, the Sunbeam visits, and the coast of Maine.”
“For over 15 years the quilt hung on a wall of my parents’ home,” Mr. Haskell said when first presenting the quilt BettyAnn Haskell had restored to original condition, after the Reverend’s passing. Ben Haskell described the quilt as “this incredible piece of island craftsmanship and message of love from the churches to my father.”
After a bit of time in storage, as the Mission moved from Bar Harbor to the new Colket Center in Northeast Harbor, it was a great moment this summer when Island Outreach Director & Chaplain Douglas Cornman – Rev. Stanley Haskell’s successor – was able to bring the quilt to the Sunbeam where it now brings a smile to the faces of many islanders – a great topic of conversation and a warm symbol of shared history, island to island.
This is what community looks like.