“I Will” Movement Comes to Maine

Nationally, 33 million joined movement last year

YORK COUNTY –

The Maine Commission for Community Service invited area citizens this week to join the 9/11 tribute movement called “I Will” to commemorate this relatively new National Day of Service and Remembrance.  Organized nationally by My Good Deed, a foundation started by family members of 9/11 victims and first responders, “I Will” calls on each citizen to pay tribute to those remembered on 9/11 by performing a good deed, a personal act of service, an act of “neighboring.”

Maryalice Crofton, executive director of MCCS, said the tribute movement was a way to honor those who died on 9/11 and also to begin to look at the day in a positive light, somehow.

“Families spent ten years to get 9/11 as a day of service and remembrance,” Crofton said. “In 2009, it finally happened as part of the Serve America Act passed by Congress.” The act reauthorized the American service programs, AmeriCorps and Senior Corps, and affirmed all the national days of service including the new one, she said.

This is the second year in a row that Maine has participated in the national campaign.

“People design or pick out their own way of remembering,” Crofton said. “Some of the things people did last year: there were a couple of classrooms who wrote letters to active military stationed overseas, some people collected food for a food bank, some helped out neighbors who didn’t have family close by. It’s a wide range of things to do. It’s called neighboring. And it gives an opportunity to let folks highlight what they do.”

“Neighboring is the informal volunteering we do to help out in the community,” said Pam Zeutenhorst, the Commission’s coordinator for volunteer sector initiatives. “It is the food we bring to a sick neighbor, the community drive to refurnish a family whose house burned, and the citizen who keeps an eye on seasonal camps for their owners during the winter.”

The MCCS has registered Maine's “I Will” tribute as a single, statewide project with the national movement. Each citizen wishing to participate decides what personal act of service will be the tribute to 9/11 victims and first responders and then registers the pledge of service at VolunteerMaine.org by September 11.

Zeutenhorst noted that neighboring complements formal volunteering. Both connect residents to each other, make communities stronger, and foster mutual respect and responsibility. In rural, under-resourced communities throughout Maine, neighboring and formal volunteering flourish side-by-side, tackling serious local needs.

Schools, clubs, town councils, faith communities, and fraternal organizations can organize a “pledge drive” among their members. Posters and pledge cards with instructions on how to participate are available from the Commission. Group leaders can obtain these at no cost by emailing service.commission@maine.gov or calling 207-624-7792 during business hours.

All Maine pledges of service recorded at VolunteerMaine.org will be bundled and reported to the national organizers by September 15. Last year, through the efforts of the “I Will” campaign, thirty-three million people observed 9/11 by engaging in charitable activities that ranged from simple good deeds to organized volunteer work. The results far exceeded the national organizers’ hopes for ten million people undertaking volunteer activity. For more information and pledge registration details, visit VolunteerMaine.org.

Native American Speaker Looks to Refocus Perspectives

 

Dana Benner, the Native American speaker, is the Kittery Historical and Naval Society’s next feature (courtesy photo)

KITTERY-

The Native Americans who once called the Kittery area home will be the topic of the next program at the Kittery Historical and Naval Society. Dana Benner, a well-known expert in Native American studies, will present a fascinating look at the people who were here long before we were, their lifestyle, social structures, and their relationship to the ocean.  In addition to a power point presentation, Benner will offer several static displays of Native American interest. He hopes to shift the typical focus on Native American studies, away from war, disease, and death, to a better personal understanding of the way these Native people lived on a day-to-day basis.

“The battles and conflicts between Native peoples and the Colonials could fill libraries, but people know very little about those that called that area home,” said Benner. “I try to talk about - not the conflicts - but the Native people themselves, how they lived their social lives, how they survived the winters.”

Benner, a Manchester, New Hampshire, resident is Native, himself. He’s part Penobscot, Piqwacket, and Micmac. When he speaks to groups of people, he tries to make his talks more natural than the traditional library lecture.

“I hate going to lectures, I hate lecturers, and I hate lecturing,” he said. “But I’ve been doing this for twenty five years.” Benner teaches a history of New England course at Granite State College, in Concord, New Hampshire, and an adult ed course called “Native Peoples of New England” in Concord, Exeter, and Nashua. Benner received his BA in US History and Native Culture from Granite State College, and is in the last course for his Masters of  Education in the Heritage Studies program at Plymouth State.

“I often start by asking how many people in the audience are Native American. Then I ask ‘how long have your families been in the New England area?’ Some say ‘500 years.’ Well, ten to one they’re part Native, especially if they’re French Canadian: that’s almost a ‘gimme.’ It gets people talking,” he said. “It’s the people in the audience that will govern how this lecture goes. I could speak for hours on something they don’t want to hear, but if someone asks a question, that leads to a discussion of what’s in their interests.”

The essence of the hour-long lecture is new perspective. “My main thing is to educate people about the Native people as a people, not as a date in a history book where a battle took place.”

Benner will speak at the Lions’ Club building on State Road on Tuesday, September 11, at 7 pm. The Kittery Historical and Naval Society meets quarterly, March, June, September, and December. There is no admission fee and the public is always invited and encouraged to attend. For further information, contact the Kittery Historical and Naval Society at 207-439-3080.

Soccer Player from Wells Scores 1st Collegiate Goal

Abbigail White, from Wells, who scored her first collegiate goal, a penalty kick for Nichols College (photo courtesy of nicholsathletics.com)

WELLS –

Abbigail White, of Wells, slammed home a penalty kick to score her first goal for Nichols College. The tally wasn’t enough, however, as Nichols fell to Emmanuel in overtime, 3-2.

Emmanuel senior Megan Zerba (Cumberland, R.I.) deposited a feed from sophomore Amanda Roberts (Hudson, N.H.) just 1:51 into overtime to lift the Saints past host Nichols, 3-2, on a rainy Tuesday afternoon in a non-conference women’s soccer match. With the win, Emmanuel improves to 2-1-0 while the Bison move to 0-1-1 on the season.

Nichols struck first as junior captain Julie Monroe (Whitman, Mass.) sent a free kick into the back of the net from 30 yards out 56 seconds into the match for her first collegiate tally.

First-year player White extended the Bison lead with the penalty kick that found the bottom right of the goal in the 13th minute. Less than a minute later, Emmanuel converted on a corner kick as junior Lindsey Garvey (Warwick, R.I.) knocked in a header that was put into play by senior Lauren Foley (North Andover, Mass.). The Saints led 18-5 in shots and 4-0 in corners for the frame.

In the 61st minute sophomore Alyssa Tosti (Douglas, Mass.) drilled the ball into the post and collected her own rebound only to have Emmanuel’s rookie goalkeeper Jenna Marcello (Hopedale, Mass.) made an outstanding save.  Emmanuel then netted the equalizer as Garvey sent a long feed to junior Darcey Sullivan (Dalton, Mass.) at 62:29. The second half saw a closer shot margin with the visitors holding an 11-7 advantage as both squads took a trio of corner kicks.

Marcello (1-0-0) picked up the win for her scoreless relief effort that included a pair of saves. Senior Jessica D’Ottavio (Pawling, N.Y.) surrendered both markers in the opening half and made two stops.

Rookie Bison backstop Melissa Toomey (Saugus, Mass.) collected a game-high 11 saves in the defeat.

Both squads returned to the pitch on Thursday, September 6. Nichols hosted the United States Coast Guard Academy at 4 p.m. while Emmanuel ventures to Fitchburg State for a 7 p.m. match.

York Family’s Inspirational Story Becomes National News

Chris, Lauren, and Jason Durkin (photo courtesy Durkin family and ABC News)

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By Pat Sommers

Staff Columnist

YORK –

Sharon and Michael Durkin felt as if they were living a bad dream in 2006 when son Jason, then 18, was diagnosed with a rare disorder that affects the blood and bone marrow.

That bad dream became a recurring nightmare for the York parents.

Doctors subsequently discovered that their younger son, Chris, was suffering from the same condition, myelodysplastic syndromes, or MDS. He was 15.

Then, in 2009, daughter Lauren, now a senior at York High School, received the same diagnosis.

The story of the York family’s courage in coping with the potentially life-threatening illness was spotlighted this week on ABC’s “Good Morning America” television program. Robin Roberts, an anchor for the popular morning show who successfully battled breast cancer five years ago, announced recently that she has MDS. The disorder, she said, was triggered by her cancer treatment.

In MDS, the blood marrow does not make enough normal blood cells for the body. Red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets may all be affected, and the course of the disease is different for each of the 10,000 to 15,000 Americans who are diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndromes annually.

Though MDS can affect people of any age, at least 80 percent of all cases occur in people over 60, making the case of the Durkin siblings more startling. The disorder is more common in men than women.

In reporting on Roberts’ diagnosis and the upcoming bone marrow transplant that will be part of her treatment for MDS, ABC noted the extreme rarity of the genetic form of the disorder for which Jason, Chris, and Lauren were treated.

According to Dr. Inga Hofmann of Dana-Farber/Children’s Hospital Cancer Center, the Boston facility where the Durkin children received treatment, only about 4 in 1 million children in the U.S. are diagnosed with MDS. Having more than one child in a family diagnosed with the disorder is exceedingly rare, she said.

Jason was diagnosed after his ice hockey coach noticed the boy seemed to be lagging in tryouts. ”Something just didn’t seem right,” Sharon Durkin told ABC. A trip to the family doctor and subsequent blood tests led to the discovery of MDS.

As doctors searched for a matching donor for an urgently needed bone marrow transplant for Jason, they tested his brother. Chris was a perfect donor match, but the tests indicated he also had MDS.

Both young men received successful bone marrow transplants in 2007and, as part of the treatment regimen, both were quarantined for a full year to protect their fragile immune systems from infection. Similarly, Roberts is expected to take a leave of several months from her post on the morning show.

Treatment immediately prior to the bone marrow transplants essentially strips the body of all its immunity, Michael Durkin explained. The donor bone marrow is then introduced into the body where it starts to strengthen. “It’s sort of like getting a whole new immune system,” he told The Weekly Sentinel.

Lauren Durkin, whose tests for MDS were negative during the two years of her brothers’ treatment and recovery, received a positive result in 2009. When efforts to find a transplant donor match came up empty, she received a blood cord transplant of stem cells. A high fever and infection at one point severely threatened the teen’s life, but she fought her way through and is ready to resume classes at York High, where she is a member of the varsity hockey team.

Durkin said there is really no way to explain how the family handled the fear and anguish they felt during the past six years. “We just took it one day at a time,” he said. “That’s all you can do.”

The three children were “very strong” through the entire ordeal, their father added.

Comforting to the Durkin family was the response of friends, neighbors and total strangers.

“The community of York was absolutely fabulous,” Durkin said, noting that drives to register area residents as potential bone marrow donors for the Durkin children and others in need attracted about 800 people.

Both Sharon and Michael Durkin are community minded. They have both been active in sports organizations for children, serving in administrative capacities and assisting in efforts to coach area teams.

Their hard work was rewarded in the many events hosted on their behalf during the family’s time of crisis. “Community members were tremendous in their response,” Michael Durkin reiterated.

All three Durkin children are “now stable,” according to their father. Jason, approaching his 24th birthday, is an honor graduate of the University of Maine and has launched a career. Chris, 21, is a college sophomore. Lauren, ready to begin her final year at York High, is eying a career as a pediatric oncology nurse.

They are all healthy, enthusiastic, and optimistic.

And they shared that exuberance this week with ABC’s Roberts, each offering a personal message of encouragement and good wishes as she begins her own fight with MDS.

Thornton Academy Extends Global Reach to 16 Countries Recent Graduate Starts Life at an American College

Teddy Laing with new roommate, John, at Florida Southern College. Laing was a Thornton Academy Homestay student, who lived with the Trues of Saco for two years. (courtesy photo)

By Timothy Gillis

SACO –

Thornton Academy, in the fourth year of its foreign outreach program, has seen a steady increase in the number of participants, as well as the involvement of several countries from all over Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

In fact, Mark Powers, director of admissions, is so busy flying around the world on recruiting trips that TA has added an admissions associate to help with the workload. Thornton just hired Abigail Swardlick, who will be “helping out to expand our reach worldwide,” said Powers. “Her first trip is to Latin America this fall.”

The program, which started with forty students, has grown each year.

“There will be 136 students (this year) on campus in our dorms or in our homestay program,” Powers said this week. “They hail from sixteen countries, including China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Spain, and Brazil.”

Powers’ job requires him to fly around world, learning about other cultures and sharing the prospect of American culture, in the form of a high school in Saco, with the people he meets.

“I’ve pretty much touched down all over the place,” Powers said, adding that he often travels with representatives from other Maine boarding schools, like Maine Central Institute and Hebron Academy. “My most recent trip was to China to do some recruiting and find out more about the country.”

Foreign students now comprise ten percent of Thornton’s total population, he said, necessitating the building of an additional dormitory last year. The new housing is named after retiring headmaster Carl Stasio, Jr. (Rene Menard, a TA graduate who taught there and become associate headmaster in 2007, is the new headmaster.)

Four teachers and their families supervise the dorm, living there full-time, Powers said. They engage in all the family-style activities one would imagine of any other family - during evenings and on weekends – joining the students in various activities coordinated by Kelli Corrigan, director of residential life.

The on-campus housing has expanded, and participation in the Homestay Program has likewise ballooned over the past four years.

Karen True was one of the first parents to participate in the program, and she recently flew to Florida to visit Teddy Liang, the student she hosted for two years.

“I wanted to make sure he was safely settled into his new school,” True said of Laing, a freshman at Florida Southern College.

She first heard about the hosting opportunity three years ago from her daughter-in-law, Tracie, a math teacher who moved from Thornton Academy High School to the TA Middle School, on the same campus.

“She decided she wanted to become involved in the dorm program, and she mentioned they were looking for Homestay parents,” said True, who added that she loved the experience and would gladly host another student.

“This young man did research online, found Thornton Academy, came to the US, all with no parental help,” she said. Laing lived in the dorm as a sophomore, then moved in with the Trues. “He had been in a boarding school in China, had never lived in a home environment.”

True said her family loved Laing’s “great personality,” and he loved being part of their family. “He integrated well into the things that we did. He’d even come with me on location to shoot commercials,” said True, a freelance film and commercial television producer.

Laing was planning to study business, at first, but is changing his major to study psychology. “He was fortunate enough to find international students at his college who speak Mandarin Chinese,” she said. “I became attached to Teddy and making sure his needs were met, as if he were my own child. I had to make sure his college experience is a positive one.”

True’s two children both graduated from TA in the 1990’s, and Laing’s arrival reminded her fondly of those days.

“Teddy's roommate is John from Nashville TN,” Trus said. “I spoke with Teddy last night, and he said that he is having fun and has already made some friends he is hanging out with. If you knew Teddy and how shy he is you would realize what a big step this is. I can't say enough nice things about Teddy. He truly became part of our family and brought us a great deal of joy. He only went home during summer vacations so he spent all holidays and vacation time with us too,” said True. “If my husband could have had the time off from work, he would have been in Florida too.”

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.