March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

1997 made cheerier by many acts of kindness

As 1997 draws to a close, we pause to recognize acts of kindness, volunteer efforts that help make our lives better, and occasions that are cause for pride and celebration.

Karen Austin of Vassalboro and family members Kim LaHaye, Alicia Gray and Linda Hunt of China are grateful for the help of the Dixmont Fire and Rescue squad, members of the Maine State Police, and owners of Orcutt Variety following an October accident in Dixmont Center.

They thank everyone, including a woman who offered her car for warmth and transport, who were so “very kind and helpful.”

We congratulate the Penobscot Chapter 75 Royal Arch Masons on its 50th anniversary year. The chapter was instituted Feb. 11, 1947, shortly after 37 Masons met at the Hampden Masonic Hall to form a new Royal Arch Chapter.

Nearly 300 people attended the installation when Companion Robert Bridges became the first high priest.

The chapter’s 89 members are active with Masons throughout the world who support the Royal Arch Research Assistance (RARA) for Auditory Research at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo. The foundation helps children with central auditory processing disorders.

Contact High Priest William French, 862-3890, for information on RARA.

Anne Kenniston of Bangor can’t say enough about the people who helped when her car stopped dead on State Street by Wing Park and the emergency entrance to Eastern Maine Medical Center.

She thanks the staff at Lougee and Fredericks and Wing Park Day Care for use of their phones; a man from WLBZ-TV who radioed for help; another from Hall Security who pushed her car out of the way and the men who pushed it up a hill into the Wing Park parking lot.

She thanks a young woman who stopped to help and others “too numerous to mention. … This city is full of wonderful people who went out of their way to help a stranger in trouble.”

We salute the Ostomy Association of Eastern Maine which celebrated its 25th anniversary this year.

According to President Barbara Sproul of Brewer, “Our nonprofit volunteer organization trains persons with ostomy surgery to visit new patients having similar surgery to offer support during their recovery.”

She offers OAEM as a source of information and support for anyone living with a disease that “can result in a temporary or permanent ostomy.” You may reach her at 989-5772.

We applaud the tireless efforts of 8-year-old Andre Winters of Orono who raised more than $1,400 for Manna Inc. from Thanksgiving to Christmas to help feed and clothe the needy.

With the support of Bangor Mall Manager Roy Daigle, Andre played his trumpet often there during the holidays, raising money for Manna to purchase turkeys for Thanksgiving and boots for Christmas.

People of Piscataquis County can be proud of five individuals who are the first in that county to complete the Hazardous Material Technician School.

Dover-Foxcroft Fire Department members Harry Webber, director of the Piscataquis County Emergency Management Agency; Joe Guyotte, DFFD/PCEMA; DFFD members Mike Curtis and Allan Snyder; and Teresa Emery, PCEMA, took time off from work for the 40-hour course. Emery, the first female in that county to receive training, may be the first in Maine.

She said the training allows them “to go in, with the proper equipment, and try to plug holes where chemicals are leaking” in situations such as a train derailment or an overturned truck.

Webber believes the training benefits the area. He is “looking forward to more participation in these schools.”

Dick and Sally Pendleton of Bangor thank their November good Samaritan who stopped “in the early morning hours” with a chain saw and cut a tree that had blown down in their front yard.

The tree was cut “into manageable pieces” and put “where we could take care of it. We didn’t even hear the chain saw or we would have thanked him personally. … It is nice to have good citizens in the area, always.”

We recognize Maine credit unions and credit union chapters which raised $104,750 in the 1997 Credit Union Campaign for Ending Hunger.

Since 1990, when the organization joined with Camden-based Hand to Hand, the campaign has raised more than $578,000 for Maine hunger organizations.

All money raised here, stays here. Most is distributed as grants to organizations participating in Hand to Hand’s “Ending Hunger Week” campaign.

Participating chapters include Bangor with credit unions in Bangor, Hampden, Brewer, Bucksport, Woodland, Orono and Belfast; Northern Penobscot with credit unions in Millinocket, East Millinocket, Lincoln and Old Town; Aroostook with credit unions in Fort Kent, Madawaska, Grand Isle, Houlton, St. Agatha, St. Francis and Caribou; and Kennebec Valley with credit unions in Augusta, Dexter, Waterville, Pittsfield, Skowhegan, Winslow, Vassalboro and Winthrop.

Also, the Jeannette G. Morin Chapter which includes Rockland; the Norm Nolette Chapter in the Lewiston-Auburn area; and the Alex Ferguson Chapter in the Portland area.

Needy youngsters and their families are grateful for the work of the Maine Real Estate Managers’ Association and the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve which raised more than $10,000 in cash donations along with hundreds of toys for the annual Toys for Tots and Teens fund-raiser.

MREMA member Corinne Van Peursem of Bangor thanks all who made it possible for the program, with the help of the Department of Human Services, to assist 150 foster families in Lubec, Machias and Eastport.

With the help “of the United Way, Salvation Army, area health nurses and Christmas Daddies, we reached hundreds of families in Bangor, Presque Isle, Houlton and Caribou” and surrounding towns, she wrote.

“I continue to be humbled by the good will of the many people who so generously give to the needy children that they will never meet.”

Van Peursem thanks our readers “for making a difference in the life of a needy child” and wishes you and your families a wonderful New Year, “filled with much love and happiness.”

The Standpipe, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402; 990-8288.


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