Open house
The Walter T.A. Hansen Memorial Library will hold an Open House on Saturday, Feb. 9, from 2-4 p.m. Featured will be fine art photographer Linda Griffith of Blaine and her beautiful photographic shots of Mars Hill from 2002. Drop by the library to visit with Linda and view her collection, which will be on display at the library.
Many thanks go to The Rose and Samuel Rudman Grant and to Linda for making this collection possible. Refreshments will be served.
Winter Mania
The Mars Hill Rotary Club is holding five Winter Mania raffles for a Dead River card worth $100 for gas, oil or food. For $5, you will have five chances to win one of these cards. The drawing will be held on April 15, so be sure to get your ticket now.
Contact any Mars Hill Rotarian to purchase your ticket.
Winterfest
The Mars Hill and Blaine Winterfest plans are under way for March 14-16. The events will include a spaghetti supper, gospel/variety show, St. Patrick’s Day breakfast, cribbage tournament, food booths, baked potato bar, peewee games, Easter egg hunt, spring fling, clowns, face painting, horse and snowsled rides, the Kardboard Klassic, fireworks and more. A full schedule of events will be available soon.
Those interested in alumni basketball games should contact Dave Collins at 429-9040. It will depend on the amount of interest whether this will happen on Saturday afternoon.
ACI/CAHS reunion
Plans for the ACI/CAHS reunion for 2008 are under way. Many events are being planned including dinners, a parade, motorcycle rodeo, Maine National Guard Band, a variety show, gospel concert and dance. Make plans now to be around on July 24-26 for all the activities!
Community Cupboard
The Mars Hill Community Cupboard is in need of volunteers. They are looking for people interested in serving their community and those in need by volunteering in the monthly food distributions. Volunteers are needed to bag groceries or fill out paperwork at the monthly two-hour distributions a few times each year.
Anyone interested must be a responsible individual who respects clients’ confidentiality. If you are interested, please contact Cathy Cropley, chairman of the Mars Hill Community Cupboard, at 429-8043.
Rotary Club
The Mars Hill Rotary Club met at the Aroostook Health Center on Tuesday morning at 6 p.m.
The slate of officers for the 2008-2009 year are: President Bruce Hussey, Vice President Steve Hitchcock, Secretary Richard Watson, Treasurer Dana Crory and Sergeant at Arms Steve Milliard.
The special speaker was Roger Shaw, superintendent of SAD 42. He spoke about the Consolidation Plan and his continued opposition to it. He believes it is misleading for the state to discuss cost savings and mandated school consolidations in the same conversation. It does nothing more than shift costs from the state to the towns, which will mean an increase in property taxes.
He believes that the law has ended up being unworkable and unrealistic, creating considerable havoc and animosity between neighboring towns. The petition campaign has gathered over 50,000 signatures to date and will continue in the effort to bring the issue before the voters.
Mr. Shaw feels that the real victims in the consolidation plans are the citizens, communities and especially the children in rural Maine.
He urges those concerned with this issue to contact their legislators.
Birthday Calendars
The Rotary Birthday Calendars have arrived and are available for purchase. Due to the increased cost, the price of the calendars is $6 this year.
Calendars will be available from any Rotarian, at the Mars Hill and Blaine Town Offices and at the Mars Hill Katahdin Trust Company. If you received your calendar last year through a Rotarian, they may be contacting you again this year.
For any corrections or additions, please contact Tomi Henderson at 429-9126.
Pageant director
The Mars Hill Rotary Club is searching for a director for the Little Miss Mars Hill Pageant. Anyone interested in this is asked to contact Bruce Hussey, the Rotary Club president at 429-9815.
Book Club
The Tuesday Book Club has selected “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini as its current reading selection.
The Tuesday Book Club will meet next on Feb. 12 at 6:30 p.m. at Walter T.A. Hansen Memorial Library.
All are welcome to participate. For more information, please contact Rita Kingsbury at 429-9359.
Reading Hour
The Walter T.A. Hansen Memorial Library is pleased to continue with Co Co’s Reading Hour for children ages third grade and up on Thursdays from 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. The current book is “Castle in the Attic.” This program will run every Thursday at the library.
Library
The Walter T.A. Hansen Memorial Library would like to encourage its supporters to stop in at the new Savings Bank of Mars Hill and vote for the library in the bank’s giveaway. They will donate $25,000 to various charities in town, depending on who receives the most votes. Please stop in and vote for the library!
The library is also continuing with a book sale. Cost for the books is .50 for hard covers and .25 for paperbacks. There are also bags available to fill for $5.
Old and new copyrights for adult and children are available. Fiction, nonfiction, westerns, science fiction and romance are among those currently on hand. There are also children’s books for sale, so plan to stop and check things out. Stock up now for your winter reading! Monetary donations will also be accepted.
BHA book sale
Would you like to buy a copy of “The History of Bridgewater”? To raise money for their sesquicentennial events, the Bridgewater Historical Association has copies of the book, “The History of Bridgewater” by Annie Rideout for sale. The book has a hardcover and sells for $35 each ($29 plus $6 S/H). To avoid the shipping costs, books can be picked up at a BHA meeting.
During the winter, the BHA meets the first Monday of the month at 6:30 p.m. at the Civic Center on Main Street in Bridgewater. Only prepaid orders will be accepted. For more information, contact Denis Gagne at 429-8290 or Jann Votaw at 425-7901. Orders with a check for $35 can also be sent to: Bridgewater Historical Association, P. O. Box 341, Bridgewater, ME 04735. Information on the BHA can also be found at www.bridgewatermaine.org.
“The History of Bridgewater”
The Bridgewater Sesquicentennial Committee has just received copies of “The History of Bridgewater, Maine” written and originally published by Annie E. Rideout in 1953.
The Henrietta Bradstreet family and Helen Rideout, heirs to the copyright of the book, graciously granted written permission to the Sesquicentennial Committee to have the book reprinted as part of the town’s celebration activities planned for July 21-26. The Committee received the permission just before Henrietta’s death this fall, and an acknowledgement to the heirs of Annie Rideout has been included in the reprint of the book.
Net proceeds from the sale of this copy of “The History of Bridgewater, Maine” will be donated to a charity designated by the Rideout heirs in memory of Megan Bradstreet, Henrietta’s great-granddaughter, who died in a tragic accident in 2005.
The cost of the book is $25 plus $1.25 sales tax plus $5.25 S/H for a total of $31.50. Anyone wishing to purchase a copy can e-mail Diane Clough at e&dclough@ainop.com, Rita Kingsbury at rmkme@ainop.com or call Rita Kingsbury at 429-9359.
Tomi Henderson is the correspondent for Mars Hill, Blaine, Bridgewater and Westfield. She can be reached at 429-9126 or e-mail tomihen@yahoo.com.
