Bowdoin students have museum connection

16 years ago

By Karen Donato-Duff
Special to the Pioneer Times

    LITTLETON — Eleven Bowdoin College students spent two and a half days learning about Aroostook County and the farming way of life at the Ag Museum in Littleton this past week. There were nine freshmen and two leaders that were upperclassmen.
ImagePhoto courtesy of Karen Donato-Duff
ROAD TRIP NORTH — Eleven Bowdoin College students spent two and a half days learning about Aroostook County and the farming way of life at the Ag Museum in Littleton this past week Kneeling are, from left: Sasha Cruz, Erin D’Agostino, Christina Matulis, Lily Shapino and Ginger Leone. Standing: Randy Kring, Dr. Allen Delong, Alexander Conant, Sam Love, Ricky Cui, Michelle Cupid and Elizabeth Maybank.
    This is the third year the Bowdoin group has made the trip to Aroostook with Dr. Allen Delong, a member of the Bowdoin College faculty and former resident of Monticello. As part of the Brunswick-based college’s freshmen orientation program, new students are able to choose five adventures and list them in order of their interest. From this list the students are assigned to individual groups. The program’s main emphasis is to expose the incoming students to the State of Maine and to cultivate new relationships with their peers.
ImagePhoto courtesy of Karen Donato-Duff
A LITTLE ELBOW GREASE — Volunteers from a Bowdoin College student orientation group that recently toured and did service projects at the Southern Aroostook Agricultural Museum brighten up a one-row horse drawn potato digger.

    The leaders shared with me that after their own orientation trip last year that they did not feel so alone in the student population. They now could find a familiar face in the dining halls, or seek out a member of their team if they needed something on campus. This experience sometimes leads to lifelong friendships.
    The students enjoyed a welcoming tour with Dr. Delong’s father, Walter and were introduced to the many items in the museum. The students were quite impressed with the advances of technology and the stories of how hard the early residents had to work on their farms. Several shared their impressions of visits to other museums, but agreed that none of them were like this. Several commented on the informality of the museum, and felt that the museum was more personable than those they were more familiar with. They especially enjoyed the personal stories attached to many of the items.
    Michelle Cupid from the Bronx, enjoyed the “Our Old House” exhibit and was curious to find out more about the child that slept in the cradle and the young woman who had worn the wedding dress.
    Ginger Leone, one of the leaders, from Canton, Mass. hopes to bring her family here. She loved the sled collection and the vintage signs. Ginger is interested in pre-med and is thinking about practicing in a rural area.
ImagePhoto courtesy of Karen Donato-Duff
COLLEGE CREDIT — Ricky Cui, left, and Sam Love, visiting students from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, touch up the “Old Plow” by the road sign at the Southern Aroostook Agricultural Museum in Littleton.

    Christina Matulis from Needham, Mass. was impressed by the friendliness of everyone here in the area and the welcoming that they received. She loved the one room school.
    Erin D’Agostino of Manhasset, N.Y. had already heard about the museum from her older sister who had come the first year of the Bowdoin program. She hopes to come back in the future and see more of the county.
    Randy Kring of Bedford, Mass., another one of the leaders, had been to Limestone on a band exchange program. He enjoyed working in the barn and learning about the tractors and the antique vehicles housed in that building. Other students came from Texas, Maryland, Illinois, Colorado and South Carolina.
ImagePhoto courtesy of Karen Donato-Duff
PITCHING IN — Lily Shapino washes windows in the Ross School.

    To complete their community service project for the orientation, the students spray painted some of the equipment on display outside, washed windows, swept and vacuumed inside, as well as hanging some photos and a variety of antique license plates in the barn.
    The Bowdoin group had the opportunity to visit Houlton and attended the Houlton High School Band Concert held in Monument Park. They were all impressed with the concert and the number of students involved in the music program. They shared that many of them came from much larger high schools but did not have the participation in the band that Houlton does. They thought the turnout of spectators was remarkable. They also enjoyed ice cream from the Houlton Farms Dairy Bar and were pleasantly surprised at the extraordinarily low prices compared to prices in the cities where they came from.
    Some of the students were guests in the History classes at Houlton High School on Friday morning. They shared their experiences of the application process, their college interviews and introduction to Bowdoin College. They answered questions from several of the college-bound high school students.
    The students were interviewed by WAGM- TV news following their last day of work and were included on the evening news. They may be the only group to have been featured on a local TV station. The students received canvas bags from the town of Houlton and the Chamber of Commerce provided a variety of local literature for each student to take back to campus.
    The museum volunteers were very appreciative of all the work they accomplished and as the old saying goes “Many hands make light work”.