Hoorah for the Edgecomb Eddy Fourth Graders! Highest Maine Education Assessment math scores in the State! Meanwhile the school has received a Coordinated Approach To Child Health (CATCH) grant for an all-out effort to improve children's health and fitness. The school will be working closely with the Boothbay YMCA to enhance kids' physical activity, nutrition knowledge, and awareness of bad practices such as smoking. Hand in hand with all this, the second and third graders had a tour of the new Shaw's in Wiscasset, to emphasize the foods available for healthy choices, as well as dental care and other health-enhancing features, and to show children how a major supermarket works.
The Town Hall floor refinishing project has been completed. A few lingering fumes from the urethane coating, but we certainly glisten! The work was done by Midcoast Wood Floors in Damariscotta. They tell us this is the last time these floors can be safely sanded, they are so thin. So we must be careful to clean our boots off before treading on them, to minimize gravel tracking on the finish. And please, no cleats! We are now planning for new carpeting and a coat of paint over the concrete floors of the downstairs meeting room, kitchen and rest rooms.
Last Saturday a workgang turned to to put the Town Hall back together again. Thanks to Evelin Brown's kids, who stuck felt pads on the legs of the benches so they don't scratch thefloor. Thanks to Evelin, Tex Blake, Bruce Cameron, Dabney Lewis and Rodd Hopper for lugging the benches back upstairs and arranging them.
Speaking of Tex, she has earned her certification as a Certified Nursing Assistant! Her practicum has been with St. Andrew's Village, where she will shortly start regular work in their Alzheimer's Disease unit. Well done, Tex, and well doing!
For Edgecomb's Congregationalists, Sunday, Dec. 26, will be the last worship service conducted by Rev. Iris Burnell. She will be moving to Florida in January. She expects to continue her association with the United Church of Christ in a variety of ways.
We are all invited to the Edgecomb Congregational Church at 7:00 p.m. on Friday for "The Christmas Story and the Lighting of Candles for All Ages," a Christmas Eve Community Candlelight Service. "Bring along bells of any kind with you to the service!" says the invitation card! For making a joyful noise, of course!
Welcome to Edgecomb and the world! To little Matthew Allen Ward, son of Steve and Jeanna!
Bears in the Schmid! Earlier this fall, Elaine Wooster thought she had seen a bear, and bear scat, in the Schmid Preserve, but called on a state game warden to verify this. The warden reports there are at least three bears in the Preserve! While we celebrate this indication of major wildlife diversity, it obviously calls for a degree of caution, particularly in the spring when they rouse from hibernation and realize they are feeling hungry!
Happy Christmas! My personal welkin will be ringing loudly with children's and grandchildrens' voices! Whoopee! From 234 River Road, 633-2978, bonesukl@midcoast.com. This column appears in several local papers, and at www.Edgecomb.org.