Retired Doctor Hikes Entire Appalachian Trail in Five Months

Nathan Gagnon met his father, David, at the end of his long journey (courtesy photo)

 

By Timothy Gillis

SOUTH BERWICK –

David Gagnon, a retired family doctor who lives in South Berwick, recently completed a very long journey. He hiked all 2,184 miles of the Appalachian Trail, from Georgia to Maine. He completed the trek in five months, staying at hostels and shelters and camping along the way.

His travels were inspired by a gift from his daughter, Nicole, last year, and when giving it to him, she probably had little inclination her present would expand exponentially.

“My daughter got me a stay on Mount Washington for Father’s Day a year ago,” Gagnon said from his home this week, recuperating and planning his next voyage.

“I hiked thirteen miles and felt pretty good, so that planted the seed that I’m not over the hill yet.”

Gagnon’s Mount Washington experience solidified his resolve to take the longer trip, so he made plans and departed this past March. He took the “midnight train to Georgia,” said Susan Gagnon, his wife. He rode the Crescent Line, from Boston to New York to Philadelphia, and then on to Gainesville, Georgia, where he made his way to the start of the Appalachian Trail. Then began the epic trip, with Gagnon carrying his 40-pound backpack along the way.

He was a family doctor with a practice in Eliot until he retired last September. His wife, Susan, works as a nurse at Marshwood High School.

“She’s supporting me,” he joked. In fact, his entire family has been supportive of the trip. His daughter inspired it, and his son, Nathan, met him at Mount Katahdin to hike the last leg of the journey with him. Nathan, 28, and Nicole, 30, both went to Marshwood High School. Nathan went to the University of Vermont and now works at Northeastern in their curriculum planning department. Nicole went to Brown and the University of Southern Maine, and then followed in her mom’s footsteps and went into nursing.

Gagnon’s hike offered him a fair share of adventure.

“On the third day out, I had my food bag rifled by a bear,” he said. “So I had to get new supplies and a new waterproof bag the next day.”

That bear became a recurring visitor to Gagnon and his fellow hikers. “The bear came back two or three times. We kept trying to hang our supplies higher but we weren’t successful.”

He started the trip hiking with an Englishman nicknamed “Hop-along” as he had a funny way of walking, Gagnon said.

“We met the first day and hiked for the first few days together. He was very brave. He would run out and scare the bear away,” Gagnon said. “The trick to is don’t make eye contact, but try to scare them away. Don’t let them get used to hanging around with humans.”

Gagnon said he heard the story of the recent fatal bear attack in Denali National Park, the first such attack in the park’s history, so he knows full well – despite its rarity – of the possibilities of such trouble and the dangers inherent in wilderness walking.

Doctor Dave, as he is known on the trails, was separated from Hop-along soon into the trip. “It was raining, and I wanted to keet hiking but he stayed put,” Gagnon said, adding that people often get trail names from some quirk of their personality.

He returned home on August 12, when he met his son and wife at Mount Katahdin. He finished the journey by hiking to the summit and back with his son.

While on the trail, Gagnon said he had a cell phone, but there were days - even weeks - when he didn’t have cell service. Up next for the intrepid traveler is a more intellectual pursuit – he’s writing a book.

Submitted to potential publishers before he departed, he is now working with Vantage Press to fine-tune the work, a fictional account “about the things that happened to me as a doctor over the years.”

While the book doesn’t include any aspects of his journey, he is going to talk to his editor about possibly adding a chapter. “They say the book works pretty well as it is, so shouldn’t need much editing,” he said.

Memorial Bridge – First Builder Connected to Current Designer

The Atlas passing under the Memorial Bridge. Without a lift bridge, the river traffic on the Piscataque would be choked off.

Story and photo by Bill Moore

Staff Columnist

KITTERY & PORTSMOUTH -

Once upon a time, there was this bridge carrying up to 14,000 cars and trucks a day back and forth across the Piscataqua River on the Post Road between Kittery, Maine and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. That structure, the Memorial Bridge, was opened in 1923, and over the past six months -- because it failed a critical safety inspection on July 27, 2011 -- it was pulled down to make room for an innovative first-of-its-kind new bridge that will open in the summer of 2013.

That opening will be accompanied by a grand celebration that you won't want to miss.

In the coming weeks we will be putting a human face on the Memorial Bridge, providing something on its history and the evolving construction of a replacement structure. We'll give you interesting photos and facts about the ongoing work, all the major moments in the birth of this new and historic monument.

Before we go forward, let's go backward a bit to put the whole thing into perspective.

Leonardo da Vinci, the Italian sculptor, painter and architect, first conceived of a lift-bridge back in the 15th century, the idea being that the main span would be lifted upward so river traffic could travel either upstream or downstream under a bridge. Bridges, instead of being barriers to river traffic, became gateways to commerce.

That concept was expanded upon over the years, and a Canadian civil engineer trained at Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute in Troy, New York, named J.A.L. Waddell, perfected the idea and built hundreds of lift bridges around the world, including the Memorial Bridge.

And, as an extra interesting fact, the company that Waddell founded in 1914 formed the basis of the company -- HNTB -- that has designed the replacement bridge as well. The company doing the construction work is Archer Western.

At this point the 89-year-old bridge has been removed, and preparation is under way for the new, modern structure.

While the work going on right now is fairly dull from a visual standpoint, things will get busy at the end of this year as a new span for the Portsmouth side of the river is assembled at the New Hampshire state dock. That first span will be pieced together aboard the huge barge Cape Cod. Sometime in December, that first span will be floated down the river and placed on the Portsmouth side of the river -- as Mother Nature lifts the barge and span into position with the rising tide, the first step in having a new bridge will be started.

Because there are a lot of facts to digest, there are several links you'll want to check.

The first is brought to you by McFarland Johnson, the public relations company handling the overall presentation of information to the media. See that here: http://www.memorialbridgeproject.com/

The second important site to check is this: http://www.portsmouthwebcam.com/.  It provides you with a real-time look at the work being done on the bridge.

York County Community College Loses a Great Leader

Dr. Charlie Lyons, 68, dies after battle with cancer

SCARBOROUGH -

Dr. Charlie Lyons, president of York County Community College, died this past Wednesday after a battle with cancer.

“It is with great sadness that I notify you of the passing of Charlie Lyons, president of York County Community College,” said Dr. John Fitzsimmons, president of the

Maine Community College System. “Charlie passed away this morning after bravely facing the challenges of cancer. He was a devoted husband and father who always put his family first. Our thoughts and prayers are with his loving wife Barbara and their children.”

Lyons proudly served as a university and college president in Maine for seventeen years, and held various other leadership positions in higher education for twenty-two years. He was recognized as an advocate for students and a cheerleader for the importance of higher education in the lives of the people of Maine.

“Today, a family lost a husband and a father, and the state of Maine lost a great leader. We will all miss the energy and joy he brought to anyone in his presence,” Fitzsimmons said.

He had been appointed president of York County Community College in Wells in 2006. Described as a “dynamic and high energy leader,” Lyons was instrumental in transforming the college into a successful academic example.

He was former chair of the Maine Higher Education Council, chair of the Board of Visitors of the Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland, and a senior member of the Clinical Research Review Committee at Maine Medical Center. He had also chaired the Maine Higher Education Partnership, a group of six UMS and MCCS presidents charged with creating seamless articulation agreements among the fourteen institutions that comprise the University of Maine and Maine Community College Systems.

When he was hired by YCCC in 2006, he was selected from a field of sixty candidates following a national search. The father of five, Lyons graduated from Madison High School in Maine and was living in Scarborough. His wife is Barbara Lyons, a special education teacher at Sanford Junior High School, where she has worked for the past twenty-three years.

Concert in Kennebunkport to Benefit Wounded Warrior Project

--> 

KENNEBUNKPORT –

The First Congregational Church of Kennebunkport, 141 North St., is sponsoring the only State of Maine appearance of the Sharon Concert Band of Sharon, Massachusetts. Under the direction of Stephen Bell, this benefit concert will feature a variety of music, which will include some patriotic pieces, on Sunday, September 9, 3:30 to 5 p.m. outside at the Consolidated School, (in the gym if it rains). Bring your lawn chairs or blankets. The concert is being held to honor all who have served in the military in Iraq and Afghanistan and to honor the memory of those lost on September 11, 2001. Participating in this event will be the Kennebunkport American Legion Post 159 Color Guard. The cost to attend will be your donation of any sum, with 100 percent of the donations going to the Wounded Warrior Project. Anyone unable to attend may mail a donation to the church address, or make an online donation to the Wounded Warrior Project    https://supportwoundedwarriorproject.org. Active members of the military may attend free of charge. First Church members will be providing a concession with proceeds going to the church. A reminder: the school property is a drug and alcohol free zone and this event is an alcohol free event.

The Sharon Concert Band was founded in 1988 by the late Roy Scott, under the auspices of the Sharon Recreation Deptartment in Massachusetts. The band has grown from a handful of Sharon residents to a large group of musicians ranging in age from teens to seventies. Members come from Sharon and area towns in Greater Boston and Rhode Island. Members include students, adults who picked up their instruments after many years, professional musicians, and music teachers. The Sharon Concert Band offers one of the best opportunities in the Boston/Providence area to make quality music in a collegial atmosphere. The band maintains an active performance schedule throughout the year. For more on the band, www.sharonbands.org.

Bell is in his fifth year as musical and artistic director for the concert band and the Roy Scott Big Band. He has served as the Director of Instrumental Music at Eastern Nazarene College, in Quincy, Massachusetts, where he directs two ensembles and instructs various instrumental method classes. A former music educator and director of music with the Rockland Public Schools, Bell is a recipient of the Lowell Mason Award presented by the Massachusetts Music Educators Association. For more information, contact church member Jan Dicey at 207-967-0641 or Beachhikers@roadrunner.com.

Run for the Fallen this Weekend in Ogunquit

Tributes and flags from last year’s Run for the Fallen (courtesy photo)

By C. Ayn Douglass

Staff Columnist

OGUNQUIT -

On Flag Day, June 14, 2008, a group of runners made it their goal to run from Fort Irwin, California, to Arlington National Cemetery to commemorate the lost lives of servicemen and women who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Since then, the Run for the Fallen has been an annual event in many states and is locally supported by many towns.

On August 19 in Ogunquit, the fifth annual Run for the Fallen will take place with an expected 200 runners covering the forty-two miles between the town square and the end point in Portland.

While the energy and excitement of the event is spectacle enough, the run is a staging point for a  more sobering and deeply felt commitment held by organizer John Mixon and his dedicated group of volunteers and supporters. Their mission doesn't begin or end with the Run for the Fallen. It is a year-round labor of love.

Mixon, a military veteran himself, realized that the pain from the sudden loss of a family member on foreign soil doesn't end with the funeral. It goes on and takes the form of emotional and financial upheaval. In Maine, the lives of the families of eighty-one servicemen and women have been changed forever as a result of that loss.

“The biggest thing we do is raise awareness and make a great day for them,” Mixon said. “Not only a great day; a no red-tape lifeline when they have a need.” Those needs are quite basic such as fuel oil, medicine, funeral expenses or vehicle repair. “Throughout the year, we know they are legitimate (needs) because they're sent to us by Survivor Outreach, a program run by the National Guard.”

The project also set up a scholarship fund for surviving children of veterans. This year, five $1,000 scholarships were awarded to family members. “All who applied got one. Same as last year,” Mixon said.

In addition to helping with financial needs, Mixon has helped to create an emotional support network within the Maine families, many of whom will be at the event on August 19 either at the start or the end of the run. He calls the families the 'silent sufferers.' “We, who haven't experienced that, can't understand. It's real-life stuff and you're touched by it.”

He sees the difference between the Vietnam-era culture and that of today.

“The country has done a 180-degree turn from the 60's and 70's. I can't turn back the hands of time, but we can make it better for this generation of soldiers,” he said.

Mixon said he expects a good turnout for this year's run and doesn't ask or encourage anyone to attempt to run all sixty-five kilometers. “We have no expectation that everyone will finish.”

It's enough, he said, that the soldier's family will see the runner and recognize the tribute that he or she is paying to the fallen soldier. There is no one-size-fits-all description of a participant. Mixon said many families, military people, or people who just want to walk have taken part on event day.

Mixon relies on a dedicated team of volunteers who assist him throughout the year including more than 100 on event day alone, as well as a core group of individuals who assist him the rest of the year.

Though 2012 is the final year Mixon and his volunteers will organize the Run for the Fallen, memorializing the servicemen and women and honoring their families in the future may take a new form, perhaps as a 5K run, Mixon said. Also, he is working with Governor Paul LePage to create a non-profit acquisition of land in Kittery to build a memorial to all Maine veterans.

“It's the start of the Gold Star Highway,” he said. It would tie it all in and permanently honor Gold Star Families and Maine veterans.

Ogunquit Playhouse & Maine Children’s Cancer Program Team Up

Jillian Dumais with Damn Yankees cast member Justin Flexen

Kids get chance to play ball with Damn Yankees cast

Story and Photo by Timothy Gillis

Staff Columnist

OGUNQUIT – The Maine Children’s Cancer Program visited the Ogunquit Playhouse this past Sunday, August 12, to catch a matinee edition of “Damn Yankees” and then play ball with the cast. It was a special day for several children as they got to meet the actors and actresses, team up with them in the field, and take their cracks at the bat.

The event, which took place on the field beside the playhouse, provided young cancer patients and their families a day’s respite from the ongoing battles.

“It was a fantastic day,” said Timothy Boynton, development manager for MCCP. “The families had a great time.” Also taking part in the festivities were physicians, board members, and staff members.

“The kids liked the play so much,” he said. “It’s all they’ve been talking about.” Part of the purpose of the event was to “keep cancer from getting in the way of kids being kids,” according to Boynton. “It’s great for them to be able to take a day off from thinking about being sick.”

The event is one of more than thirty that MCCP plans each year. Their big, annual walk is September 15, and they participate in the Maine Marathon, held on September 30.

Boynton was quick to point out that, contrary to most of their other functions, Sunday’s play and ballgame were not fundraising events, but the start of an important partnership.

“It’s the beginning of a relationship with the Playhouse,” he said. “We are a comprehensive cancer research center. We see fifty to sixty new children a year. We are currently treating 275 children with cancer right now, mostly from Maine. What’s unique about MCCP is that we focus on the whole family. Once someone is diagnosed with cancer, the whole family is diagnosed with cancer. So we try to see the whole picture.

Lead Role on Injured Reserve for Ballgame

Sam Prince, who plays the lead role in Damn Yankees, had hurt his back during a scene in the performance when he jumps into a crash pad.

“It’s very safe. I just tweaked my back. I wish I could play, but I’m taking it easy.”

The minor injury was enough to keep him out off of the baseball game with the kids, but he could be seen cheering from the sidelines.

Prince, a 25-year-old actor from Garden of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, is in his first production at Ogunquit Playhouse, and is visiting Maine for the first time as well. The scenic surroundings have certainly made an impression on him, though.

“I love Maine,” he said. “It reminds me of the north shore in Minnesota.” Prince received his musical theater degree from Oklahoma City University, where he studied opera.

Speaking about the baseball game with the children, Prince said this was one of the very reasons he got into acting.

“I wish we could do more of this, where we have theater and then talk to the kids after. It’s how I got started. Kids get starry-eyed,” he said. “It was cool to see myself in them.

Next up for Prince, he will head to New York where he’s got some leads on some acting contracts. Prince said national celebrity Carson Kressley, who plays the devil, has been fun to work with.

“He’s a great person, a very nice man. We’d had good times on stage and off.”

Prince said he has eaten lobster every other day since he’s been here for the play’s run.

Fireball Run Contestants Plot Strategies for Upcoming Race

Leanne Cusimano and Robert Levinstein with their 2006 PT Cruiser, dubbed Ogunquit-a-GoGo

Story and photo by Timothy Gillis

Staff Columnist

OGUNQUIT –

The team of Leanne Cusimano and Robert Levinstein have jumped in the Fireball Run race, joining Bill and Valerie Sowles of Yarmouth, and Timber Tina Scheer and Carolann Ouellette of central Maine. Cusimano, who owns Café Amore and Amore Breakfast, and Levinstein, executive producer of 22Q Entertainment in New York City, are trying to raise awareness for missing teen Ajariana Ouftt, from Brockton, Massachusetts.

The new team invited their Maine competitors to dinner last week to share strategies and prepare for the epic, eight-day race.

The Sowles, who will be trying to increase awareness for the search for Aydriana Tetu of Lewiston, joined Cusimano and Levinstein at Amore Breakfast in Ogunquit for some fresh Maine lobster and to share a heaping helping of strategic advice. (Bill Sowles owns Morong Brunswick and Morong Falmouth with his brother, Peter.)

Scheer, a world champion lumberjill, and Ouelette, director of the Maine Office of Tourism, could not make the dinner. Scheer’s nightly lumberjill show and Ouellette’s busy Monday precluded traveling south for the evening. Their team will be raising awareness for the search for Ayla Reynolds, of Waterville.

The new team of Cusimano and Levinstein has had some success already. The first child they were linked with was considered a “cold case.” Levinstein plugged her name into facebook and found her profile. He made a friend request, and was pretty startled to have it accepted a few days later.

“Her page said things like ‘Where are you?’ and ‘What happened?’ so I was pretty sure it was the right child,” Levinstein said. He alerted the organizers of Fireball Run of the discovery, and they connected the team with Ouftt, hoping to help create a greater awareness of her absence.

Levinstein, who was associate producer at Ogunquit Playhouse for six years and stage manager before that, was back in New England for a wedding, so he took the opportunity to link up with his racemate. Even though the Sowles are technically competitors in the race, the four participants shared strategies during the meal, with a constant eye on the real purpose of the contest – to help locate missing and endangered children from all over the country.

The Sowles have also made progress on their search. They talked to Tetu’s mother and discovered that the girl is a runaway and doesn’t want to be found.

“She had leukemia as a child,” Bill Sowles said. “She ran away, they found her and brought her back. She ran away again. Her mother just wants her to go to the hospital for a blood test to find out how she’s doing.”

The teams will begin in Independence, Ohio, and travel more than 2,000 miles in eight days, through fourteen cities. The trip stops in Ogunquit and Sanford on Friday, September 28, and ends in Bangor the next day. They will complete hundreds of missions, locating items of local, historic nature or something from pop culture. The teams race to collect points for achieving a mission, and then find out what the next mission is.

The four talked about using the internet and a network of pre-established friends to help with each task. “We wake up each morning with a CD with our next tasks slipped under our door,” Bill Sowles said.

The first stop on the trip in Jamestown, New York, Cusimano’s birthplace and the hometown of funny lady Lucille Ball. Cusimano’s café and breakfast place are filled with visual references to the comedienne.

The race is also filled with feel-good stories. Thirty-eight children have been located because of Fireball Run’s efforts since its inception in 2007, thirty-nine when you count the recent facebook find.

Last year, the event helped locate twins at a homeless shelter.

“The father of those two children is doing the run this year,” Valerie Sowles said.

Next year, no new racers will be able to join, as the popularity has caused participation to swell to capacity.

“Next year, it will only be for alumni,” Cusimano said. Asked whether or not they will compete in 2013, the two teams seemed focused on making it through this year’s epic road rally first.