Race to be held in Phipps’ memory

By Gloria Austin  
Staff Writer
    Once in a while, someone special touches your life. You can’t explain it. It hits from out of the blue. That’s what Peter Blood found with Ena Noyes Phipps.
    Phipps owned a camp near Blood’s grandparents’ camp and she knew them well.
MEMORIAL RACE — Peter Blood, left, stands with Ena Noyes Phipps prior to Phipps’ death in January. This year, the Island Falls summer canoe/kayak race will be held in her memory.
    “I enjoyed listening to her talk about a time when my mother was a child,” Blood said. “She had great stories.”
    Phipps and Blood teamed up for the Island Falls Lake Association Canoe/Kayak Race two years ago, and they won the mixed recreational canoe/century division, as their ages added up to 140 years.
    Last year when race time rolled around, Blood knew his partner wouldn’t be paddling with him, as she battled a sickness that in the end would overtake her. She died on Jan. 29.
    This year, the Island Falls summer canoe/kayak race will be held on July 31 in memory of Phipps, a longtime lake association member, camp owner on Pleasant Lake and friend.
    Blood will have his partner along with him in spirit, as he will enter the race, “as if Ena was going with me,” he said. He will have her picture and flowers on the bow seat, just as he promised her two weeks before her death.
    “I urge all of Ena’s friends to get a kayak or canoe, as well as regular competitors, to be a part of this memorial,” Blood said.
    Registration will be on Saturday morning at 9-9:45 a.m. and the entry fee is $10. All registration fees are donated to the Southern Aroostook Dollars for Scholars chapter.
    For more information, call 463-2811.