CHIP Ahoy! Jump aboard Community Cares Day 2006 on Saturday, Sept. 9! If you want to help the needy in a down-to-earth, practical way, gather at the Second Congregational Church in Newcastle at 7:30 a.m. Since 2003, the non-profit, inter-denominational community organization, Community Housing Improvement Project, Incorporated (CHIP, Inc.), has arranged an annual one-day effort to repair a dozen or so homes in selected towns within their Lincoln County service area during September. Typical work projects, from painting and yard cleanup to roofing and structural repairs, are slated for low-income families whose homes are in dire need of help. This year CHIP, Inc. will visit 11 homes in Waldoboro, Damariscotta, and South Bristol. So they need 11 able crews to do the work. All told, there will be approximately 120 people volunteering. In addition to crews in the field, there will be a support team handling food, water and supplies. For information on how to join in with contributions of labor and/or money, call CHIP's toll-free assistance line at 1-800-924-9571 or Mariellen Whelan at 563-3160. The mailing address is CHIP, Inc., PO Box 6, New Harbor, ME 04554.
Backpacks loaded for the return to school? Parents should also make sure their teenagers' immunizations are up to date. When was the last time your kids got measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox or hepatitis B shots? If college-bound, see about vaccinations against meningococcal disease. And once every ten years of our lives, everyone needs a tetanus shot. Call Maine Care, 1-877-543-7669, for more information, especially if you have no health insurance. You can find preventive health guidelines and immunization schedules at www.anthem.com.
You're advised to make reservations! August's Edgecomb Congo Supper will be lobster and all the fixings, to benefit the Church's partnership with the Norton United Church of Christ in Norton Town, Zimbabwe! Monies will go toward a self-help project, to set the area's desolated women up in a business making and selling school uniforms and clothing for adults. The initial goal is $3,500 for a sewing machine and a knitting machine as well as fabric and yarn and other supplies. So, once again, let's all troupe over to the ECC on Saturday, August 26, from 5:00 to 6:30 pm., lobster for adults $14.00, or BBQ chicken for $7.00, and a meal for children under 12, $3.00. "A five-star experience at a bargain price!" For anyone who wishes to help out with preparation or clean-up, call Gail Boudin, 882-7972, or the Church office, 882-4060. For reservations, call the Church or the Hardinas, 563-5236.
Bruce and I spent a couple days last week exploring Vinalhaven with friends. One serendipitous experience, the sumptuous stained glass circular windows in the Rockland Ferry Terminal! They portray all kinds of maritime species from bluefish to herons to plankton, created in 1997 by Lincolnville artist Janet Redfield. Once on board, the morning was cold, rainy, very foggy. A small flock of scoters bobbed along the top of the water as we passed. As we neared Vinalhaven, small islands would appear suddenly in the ferry windows, dark green/black spruce over stark weather- rounded granite, and then disappear in shrouds of mist.
Vinalhaven's chief industry today is lobstering. But back in its history, granite was the principal product, until reinforced concrete was invented. The landscapes around the island are very Cubist, full of scraps and imperfects of dressed stone, used astutely as riprap in places, barrier walls in others, yard demarcations. The quarries themselves, spring-fed, are splendid swimming holes. We hiked through several town parks and Vinalhaven Land Trust preserves, enjoying botanizing and birdwatching. Sorry if we sinned, VHLT, but wherever we found ripe huckleberries, we ate them!
Squaring away for a week with grandson Ben at 234 River Road, 633-2978, bonesukl@midcoast.com. This column appears in several local papers, and at www.Edgecomb.org.