Local Inventor Lands Deal with Major Motion Picture

Buoy Bat, invented by South Berwick resident and bought in bulk by Adam Sandler (courtesy photo)

Sells bundle of his “Buoy Bats” to Adam Sandler

SOUTH BERWICK –

It’s been just over two years since South Berwick resident and inventor Bill Page decided to turn a wayward lobster trap buoy into a novelty baseball bat. Since then, thousands of people have taken notice of this fun and innovative product including Manchester, New Hampshire native and Hollywood actor Adam Sandler, who recently approved the purchase of 640 custom made Buoy Bats for gifts to the cast and crew of his upcoming movie “Grown Ups 2.” The film was shot on location on the North Shore of Boston over the summer.

“My wife answered a call in June and almost didn’t give me the message. The caller wasn’t forthcoming about what he was looking for and she thought that was odd,” said Page. “I called him (Kevin Grady) and after some due diligence on his part, he filled me in on why he was calling.” It turns out Grady works for Sandler, had seen Buoy Bat in a store in Marblehead, and if properly produced, thought it would make an excellent “Cast & Crew Gift” for the New England-themed movie.

Page traveled to Tyngsboro, Massachusetts, where the Columbia Pictures production was shooting a scene for the movie, due out in July of 2013, to show several samples of the bat. The scene they were working on called for four famous actors to quiver at the edge of a quarry’s cliff, being bullied by frat brothers from the local college.

“Sandler, Kevin James, David Spade, and Chris Rock were all there with dozens of extras and hundreds of crew,” Page said. “And there I was with my Buoy Bat feeling a lot out of place but very excited to be auditioning for a ‘role’ in a major motion picture.”

At the end of the shoot, Page and Grady waited for Sandler to review the footage before calling a wrap. At that point, Grady handed Sandler the sample Buoy Bat painted in a red, white, and blue, stars and stripes theme and branded with the “Grown Ups 2” logo. Sandler held the bat, looked at it for a second and said, “That’s cool… I don’t get it.”

 “It’s a baseball bat made from a lobster buoy,” Grady said. Sandler walked off toward a waiting all-terrain vehicle, and Grady said to Page, “Come on, he likes it. We’ll wait by his trailer and when he comes out, we’ll let him try it.”

While waiting for Sandler to reappear, Page and Grady played Buoy Bat in a corral of campers and studio work trailers. During the wait, many cast and crew members gave Buoy Bat a try including teen heartthrob Taylor Lautner, whom Page did not recognize. Sandler eventually came out of the trailer and took the Buoy Bat from Grady as if on queue to test the proposed crew gift. Page played outfield, and Sandler stood taking swings as Grady wound up. Sandler hit a squibber off the end of the buoy on the first pitch. Page cringed and said to Grady, “Give him a meater.” Grady obliged and Sandler ripped a line drive over some trailers on the next pitch. Sandler replied with, “Yah, that’s cool” and Page breathed a sigh of relief.

Page said the sales pitch was exciting for business prospects, but also a great time seeing life on a Hollywood movie set. Page told his daughters, Katherine, 11, and Sydney, 9, about the impromptu ballgame, and they certainly knew who Lautner was. Page and his wife, Susan, also have a son named Harrison, 7, and the family enjoys take the Buoy Bat on beach outings. Page has also developed a Buoy Bat Go Fetch to use with your pooch.

He recently landed a contract deal with Orvis, which sells the Buoy Bat on its website for $45. Kittery Trading Post sells it for $25. Business has been great, but Page is not ready to quit his main job, ice rink manager at Churchill Rink in Durham, New Hampshire.

The Buoy Bat is made of a typical wooden baseball bat, with a foam buoy stretched over it for the hitting end. The ball that comes with Buoy Bat is made of foam and covered with a polyurethane skin. It’s “face-friendly,” according to Page, “doesn’t break windows and is waterproof.”

York Woman Shares Story of Survival

 

By Pat Sommers

Staff Columnist

YORK -

A single telephone call prompted Jean Smith to begin shaping a “new normal” in her life.

 “My doctor called me and said I probably had breast cancer,” Smith said of that phone call twenty years ago. 

The York area woman had just undergone a routine mammogram.

The film image produced by the mammogram immediately raised concerns with the physician who reacted quickly. A biopsy was ordered and was subsequently performed by a surgeon.

“Three or four days later I had the bad news,” Smith recalled. The diagnosis of breast cancer was confirmed. She was just forty-five.

A wife, mother of two and a registered nurse, Smith was promptly scheduled for a mastectomy and for reconstructive surgery. Six months of chemotherapy followed.

In observance of October as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Jean Smith agreed to share her experience with breast cancer and its treatment and to emphasize to other women the importance of self-examination and scheduling regular mammograms.

“It saved my life,” she said of the screening procedure which aids in early detection of breast cancer. Early detection can be a critical factor in successful treatment.

“If I hadn’t had a mammogram,” Smith said, “I might have gone three or four years until I felt something in my breast.”

Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women, according to the Maine Cancer Foundation. It ranks second among cancer deaths in women, falling right behind lung cancer in current statistics.

As a nurse, Smith said she knew of breast cancer patients who had undergone treatment and “were fine.” But thoughts of the side effects she knew sometimes accompany chemotherapy were unsettling.

“I was horrified at the idea of being sick all the time,” she admitted. But the nausea she anticipated was limited, and Smith was able to continue working at her part-time job at York Hospital. “I worked the whole time,” she said.

The diagnosis was difficult for her entire family, she said, noting daughter Courtney was only sixteen at the time, and her older daughter, Jennifer, was a college freshmen about to take end-of-semester exams. “I got the diagnosis during finals week,” Smith recalled, “and I didn’t want to put that pressure on her. I called one of her friends to find out when her toughest exams were and then I waited until they were over to tell her.”

Smith’s husband of forty-two years accompanied her to appointments for doctor visits and treatments in Portland where cancer care facilities were based at that time.

 “It was rough for them to see me go through it,” she said, “but our faith made it easier. We managed it as a family.”

Those insights are a part of what she shares as co-facilitator of the York Hospital Breast Cancer Survivors Group. The group, with just under 100 members, meets monthly for sessions she said are both fun and valuable, particularly for newly diagnosed women coping with the enormity of the illness and the demands of its treatment.

“You find a new normal in your life,” Smith advises these women. “You change your priorities.”

Smith, who has been cancer-free for two decades, made such a change when at age fifty she returned to school, enrolling at the University of Southern Maine and becoming a nurse practitioner. She now works for a private family practice in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

She also takes part in an annual Walk for Hope sponsored by the survivor group. The volunteer-run summer event benefits York Hospital, the Maine Breast Cancer Coalition and the Women’s Cancer Fund of the Maine Cancer Foundation, all of which provide services to the women of the Pine Tree State.

Medical experts in Maine anticipate that about 1,100 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during the next year. A similar number of new cases is expected to be reported in New Hampshire. That is why hospitals and other health organizations in the region are offering a variety of events and services to help Seacoast women and others learn more about their personal wellness and manage it effectively.

“We are providing several opportunities for the community to become better educated about breast health,” said Nancy Notis, associate director of marketing and public affairs for Portsmouth Regional Hospital in New Hampshire.

As part of its observance of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the hospital will offer a free lecture, “Taking the ‘Scary’ Out of Your Diagnosis,” on Saturday, and a “Teacher’s Event” mammogram party on October 17. The hospital launched the observance on Monday with a community lecture on breast reconstruction.

Families First Heath and Support Center, a community health center and family resource center serving the Seacoast region of New Hampshire and southern Maine, will offer a free breast and cervical cancer screening clinic this month, according to Margie Wachtel, communications director.

Families First, which also provides affordable primary health care for people of all ages, prenatal care, dental care and parenting and family programs, will offer screenings on October 24 for women age forty and over or who have not had a pap examination for at least three years, who have no health insurance or are covered by high-deductible policies, and who meet income guidelines, according to Wachtel.

All women should have a baseline mammogram by age forty, said Jane Cummings, a registered nurse with Families First. This initial screening provides experts with an image with which the results of subsequent mammograms can be compared to detect changes in breast tissue. After the baseline screening, women should schedule mammograms every year or two, depending on personal history and the advice of their healthcare providers, experts say.

Cummings, who is handling appointment requests for the October 24 event, said the fear that sometimes prompts a woman to delay having a mammogram is unfounded.

“Certainly some women have heard tales of the discomfort in having a mammogram,” she said. “Others are just afraid of learning the results.”

But healthcare providers are increasingly aware that “there is a lot of anxiety” associated with mammograms, and improvements have been made, she noted.

“It really has been improved, and it is more comfortable,” she said of newer breast screening equipment that may be bolstered with soft padding or warmed slightly where surfaces touch delicate skin.

“They certainly try to make it more comfortable,” she said of mammogram technicians, and results are available more promptly, often within twenty-four hours, which eliminates the days of worry many women experienced.

Follow-up treatment is included in Families First care, Cummings noted.

Appointments for the October 24 should be made with Jane Cummings at 603-422-8208, extension 222. Space is limited but should a need be indicated a waiting list will be assembled, Cummings said, and additional clinics will be scheduled.

Korean Musical Gets Local Touch

Jayme McDaniel, associate producer of Ogunquit Playhouse, will choreograph “Rebecca” in Seoul, Korea (courtesy photo)

 

OGUNQUIT –

Jayme McDaniel, associate producer at the Ogunquit Playhouse, is taking his skillset on the road, to Seoul, Korea, where he will choreograph the musical “Rebecca.”

The production is based on the novel by Daphne du Maurier, which was made into a 1940 film by Alfred Hitchcock.

The show presents some challenges to McDaniel, beyond having to fly across the world to get to work. The musical is German, and is being translated into Korean. McDaniel will have an interpreter with him at all times to help ease the communication difficulties.

The production will be at the LG Art Center in Seoul, opening on January 15, 2013. McDaniel leaves for Korea on November 9.

“This is the first time it’s being done in Korean,” McDaniel said. “Theater is a little different there. On Broadway, for example, when a show starts a run, they hope it goes forever. In Korea, they will have a limited run, and then take the show on the road. They produce a show for three or four months, then they’ll take it off the boards and tour it. Then in a year or two, they bring the show back.”

McDaniel will be there for the limited engagement but won’t take the extended tour.

“When they remount show, I would return and restage it,” he said.

The story of “Rebecca” features a mysterious death, and another production of the musical has encountered some mysteries of its own. The New York version of the musical has been postponed indefinitely, “due to the unfortunate withdrawal of a crucial investor,” according to that show’s website. “All current performances have been cancelled and ticket holders will be fully refunded. The producers wish to thank everyone for their continued support and remain committed to bringing this wonderful and unique musical to Broadway in the future.”

That future has been cast in doubt since the investor, Paul Abrams, died of malaria in London, according to Ben Sprecher, producer of the New York show. Some are wondering if the investor ever even existed, and the mystery is now part of a criminal inquiry by the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

McDaniel’s musical in Korea is not related to the New York production in any way, and he is happy that travel and translations will be his main concerns. He is also using the trip to offer himself some much-needed vacation time, as he has just finished a busy and successful season at Ogunquit Playhouse.

McDaniel is returning to the United States after “Rebecca, the Musical” runs in Korea, and he will stage “Always: Patsy Cline” in New Jersey.

“It’s a combination of work and vacation,” said McDaniel, who is also traveling to Thailand and Cambodia.

His involvement in the production stems to Vienna, five years ago, when he saw “Rebecca,” which has also been produced in Budapest, Tokyo, and is currently running in Stuttgart, Germany.

“I was with my good friend, Robert Johanson, artistic director of Papermill Playhouse, the state theater of New Jersey,” McDaniel said. “We were in Germany together in the spring, saw it together and immediately talked about how we would stage it.”

For the last four years, Johanson has been the lone director for EMK, the company producing the show.

“When EMK decided to produce it, we talked again,” McDaniel said. The schedule fit well with his work at Ogunquit Playhouse, he added. “Brad Kennedy and the board gave me the okay, so I’m going off to do it.”

While Korea is new to him, it’s not his first foray into foreign language.

“In 1994, as an actor, I did a production of “Chicago,” touring German cities, and the work was done mainly in German,” he said. “I’ve done some work on operas and their translations. But this is the first time with a whole company of non-speaking actors, and my first time working in Asia.”

Bush Daughter to Speak at UNE

(photo courtesy of UNE website)

 The Power of Compassion and How it Can Change Lives

BIDDEFORD - Jenna Bush Hager, daughter of former U.S. President George W. Bush and Laura Bush, will speak at the University of New England on Monday, October 8, at 5:30 p.m. Her talk, on “The Power of Compassion and How it Can Change Lives,” will be at the Harold Alfond Forum on the Biddeford Campus.

Hager is a correspondent for NBC News. The graduate of the University of Texas, where she received a degree in English, covers a variety of human interest and feature stories.

In 2006, she traveled to Latin America as an intern with UNICEF. During her journey, she was inspired to write “Ana’s Story: A Journey of Hope,” a New York Times bestseller based on the life of a 17-year-old single mother living with HIV and determined to shield her child from the abuse and neglect that riddled her own childhood. Hager is still very involved with UNICEF and is currently the chair of UNICEF’s Next Generation, an initiative dedicated to reducing the number of preventable childhood deaths around the world.

In addition to “Ana’s Story,” Hager is the co-author with her mother of “Read All About It!” The educational children’s book was inspired by Hager and her mother’s mutual love of reading and teaching.

The 2012 Bush Distinguished Lecture coincides with Family First for a First Family – The Ties That Bind: A Family Album, an exhibit honoring the life and times of the 41st President, at the George and Barbara Bush Center Gallery on UNE’s Biddeford Campus. Family First for a First Family is a photo essay conceived as an inspirational tribute to a marriage and family life that have known not only extraordinary acclaim, success, and joy, but also disheartening trial, tribulation, and tragedy.

This is the third speaker in the George and Barbara Bush Distinguished Lecture Series, an annual event honoring the legacy of President and Mrs. Bush as political and community leaders. Last year’s lecture, which was attended by George and Barbara Bush, featured Andrew H. Card Jr., who served as White House chief of staff under President George W. Bush from 2001 until 2006.

The lecture and gallery are free and open to the public. The Bush Center Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

“Shark Girl” Visits Berwick Academy

Jillian Morris filming a tiger shark in the Bahamas (Photo by Duncan Brake)

 

SOUTH BERWICK –

Jillian Morris is a marine biologist, videographer, shark lover, and ocean advocate. Originally from Maine, she now resides in the Bahamas and loves talk to kids about sharks. Recently Jillian spoke with students at Berwick Academy and shared the plight of the declining global shark populations and to encouraged kids to get involved to help the sharks.  She talked about her love for sharks and highlighted the many benefits of a healthy shark population to the world’s oceans. “Often kids think that they cannot do anything because they are too young,” Morris says.  “I want kids to know that they can do so many things to help our sharks and our oceans. They have voices that are powerful and as good junior scientists they can ask questions.”  Morse enjoys the time she spends in classrooms as much as the time she spends in the water with sharks.  She feels it is important to give the next generation the tools they need to help protect our oceans and she firmly believes that each child can make a difference.

When Morse is not busy speaking to schools she travels the world with her husband filming for various media outlets including BBC, Animal Planet, Discovery and National Geographic. They recently filmed the fifth season of Animal Planet’s “Whale Wars” aboard the Sea Shepherd vessel Brigitte Bardot.  Morse says, “It was a wild ride and an experience I will never forget. Antarctic waters are raw, wild, and gorgeous. There is no place on the planet like it. I feel very fortunate to travel and experience these adventures. I also feel fortunate for the opportunity to speak to kids all over the world about sharks and our oceans.  Fins up Berwick Academy for loving sharks!”

Wells High School Senior Becomes National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist

Zoë Onion, semi-finalist in National Merit Scholarship Program (courtesy photo)

WELLS –

Wells High School senior Zoë Onion has learned that she is a semifinalist in the 58th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.  She achieved semifinalist status by scoring highly on the 2011 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test or PSAT/NMSQT.

Annually, 1.5 million high school juniors and seniors throughout the United States take this standardized test.  Based upon test results, 16,000 are selected to become Semifinalists.

Semifinalists have the opportunity to compete over the coming months to be among the 15,000 finalists selected in the spring to qualify for over 8,300 National Merit Scholarships, worth more than $34 million. 

“About 90 percent of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and more than half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title,” according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

“First, it’s great to have this opportunity available for students and second it is great to be recognized for all the work I have put in through the years,” said Onion about becoming a semifinalist.

At Wells High School, Onion is on the Math Team, school newspaper, and Student Council.  In addition, she participates in the jazz, marching (this year she is a drum major) and concert bands and plays piano for the school chorus. She also plays on the softball team at school in the spring. Currently, she is in the cast rehearsing for the upcoming fall play at WHS, “And Then There Were None.”

Onion says that she has not decided on a college to attend after high school but says that she would like to study molecular biology and do research.  In the summer of 2012, Onion inspected incoming boats in Mount Vernon for invasive species such as milfoil and hydra.

“We’ve been very lucky to have several students qualify each year in the National Merit Scholarship Program,” said WHS secretary Lil Lagasse.

The National Merit Scholarship Program is administered by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation of Evanston, Illinois. It is a non-profit corporation established in 1955.  Scholarship money awarded by the NMSC comes largely from corporate and college sponsorship. 

Story and photo by Reg Bennett

Hilton Winn Farm Offers Fall Fun Day

Kids decorate pumpkins at last year’s Fall Fun Farm Day (courtesy photo)

CAPE NEDDICK -

The Youth Enrichment Center at Hilton-Winn Farm will be hopping again this year on Saturday October 6. The whole family can enjoy a beautiful day on the farm with games, nature hikes, arts and crafts activities, scarecrow making, pumpkin painting, and more. The farm is located at 189 Ogunquit Road in Cape Neddick.

The Youth Enrichment Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to positive youth development, nature-based education, and stewardship of the unique agricultural landscape of New England. It s based at Hilton-Winn Farm, a King’s Grant farm dating back to the 1600s.

Over its 400+-year history, the Hilton-Winn Farm has been a witness to the changing cultural and environmental landscape of southern New England. Its early inhabitants were likely participants in the colonial French and Indian Wars, and since then the property has supported a range of economic activity that reflects Maine history. It has been used variously to cultivate many different kinds of vegetables, fruit orchards, raspberries, and blueberries, to run a logging sawmill and a blacksmithing operation, and to raise chickens and dairy cows, among other activities. Today, it provides the perfect setting for the Youth Enrichment Center.

The land that comprises the Hilton-Winn farm has a rich history, starting with the first known inhabitants: the Algonquian-speaking Armouchiquois tribe of Native Americans who were based in what is today Saco, Maine, according to its website.

The farm’s site first came under English colonial influence in 1620 through a land patent from King James 1 to the Plymouth Council for New England. It appears that English settler Edward Winn acquired a royal land grant of the property in or about 1640, and by 1710 his grandson Josiah Winn had settled 10 acres of land there. The property—which grew to over 200 acres—was farmed by eight generations of Winns, and then Clifford Hilton (Ada Winn’s son) purchased the farm in the 1940s.

In the 1990s, as the rural qualities of southern Maine life were being threatened by rampant development, Ethel Hilton, the 9th generation of the Hilton‐Winn family, was dedicated to preserving the woodlands, wetlands, and agricultural character of this historic property for future generations to enjoy. In 1998 she donated 185 acres of the property to the York Land Trust, which now forms the Hilton‐Winn King’s Grant Conservation Area.

In 2002 Youth Enrichment Center executive director Nancy Breen purchased the remaining central forty-eight acres of rolling fields and forests with one goal in mind: to establish a safe, peaceful, and fun environment for children to connect with the land, learn about the science and art of farming, and be transformed along the way.

The Fall Fun Farm Day is one of many offerings that looks to achieve this mission.

Admission for the Fall Fun Farm Day is $5 for adults and $3 for kids; the day starts at 10 a.m. and goes until 4 p.m.