On June 11, the Islesford community met at the Neighborhood House for a pot luck dinner and a celebration of Ben Stevens’ graduation from the Islesford School. Ben’s mom, Sally Rowan, had gathered slides of Ben to show after the supper. Ben’s dad, Skip Stevens, gathered his wife and musical friends, Bill McGuinness, Hugh Smallwood, and Kate Chaplin to join him in singing his own lyrics for Ben to the tune of a familiar Bob Dylan song. (Skip reported having asked Bob’s permission, and receiving the reply, “Don’t think twice, it’s all right.”)
After younger classmates made presentations, and after he received his diploma, members of the community stood up to tell their stories of Ben and to congratulate him. At the end, Skip stood up again to thank everyone and to say how much it meant to their family to have Ben graduate from the Islesford School.
Most people who have moved to Islesford have had previous links to the island. Once in a while, someone finds their way here with no prior connections, and they successfully weave themselves into the fabric of our close-knit community. In the last three decades, three of the teachers who came here as newcomers have stayed. David Thomas arrived in 1973 to teach for two years and has been a lobster fisherman ever since. Amy and Steve Philbrook, newly married in 1989, came to Islesford so Amy could teach school. Steve got a job as a sternman for Bruce Fernald. Current Islesford teacher, Lindsay Eysnogle, came here to teach in 2004, and married islander Jason Pickering last summer.
The close sense of community was a driving force for the Stevens family to move to Islesford. In 1998, Skip and Sally were living in Baltimore when they heard about a rental on Islesford. Their only connection was that Skip’s sister Jean knew Anna Hathaway through a musical contact in Pittsburgh. They rented the house sight unseen and fell in love with the island. Ironically, it was the same year that Skip started to develop on-line courses as part of a pilot project for Coppin State University in Baltimore. When Skip took a sabbatical from the University of Maryland system in 2001, the family spent the fall here so his son Ben could experience second grade in the Islesford School.
By the time Arthur and Anni Fernald’s house came on the market in 2004, Skip was teaching some of his English courses via the Internet. Sally and Skip came up to see the house in September, and spent the rest of the fall discussing how a move to Islesford could work for them. They bought the house in December and moved to the island in January 2005. Skip’s attempts at using his home dial-up service for teaching were futile. He needed high-speed access for teaching success. Fortunately, a T-1 line was in place at the Islesford School and Skip had permission to use his wireless access. Skip’s silhouette in the blue glow of his laptop, while sitting on the school steps, became a familiar sight of autumn evenings in 2005. From the front steps of the school, to the T-1 line at the Islesford Library to the recent RedZone service at his house, Skip has successfully continued his job as an English professor at Coppin State University, from Islesford. He admits to being more accessible to his students here than when he had office hours in Baltimore. Sally has made considerable contributions to the community by training as a First Responder and following up with receiving her EMT certificate. Even without an original island network, Sally and Skip have clearly found a way to make island living work for them and their family.
Another couple who came to live on Islesford, sight unseen, is Bill McGuinness and Sonja Moser. In the summer of 2002, Bill and Sonja were traveling around the country making a documentary film when they visited Acadia National Park. On a whim, they decided to look at the Cranberry Isles to see if they could find a place to live for the winter. They first stopped at Great Cranberry, where they found a beautiful island, friendly people, and a lack of enthusiasm about available winter rentals. Undaunted, they boarded the next ferry to Islesford, where they went to the pottery shop and met Marian Baker, Cindy and David Thomas and Lil Alley. When they expressed an interest in a winter rental everyone got excited. David Thomas, a board member for the Cranberry Isles Realty Trust, encouraged them to walk up and take a look at the newly built affordable housing. “This will work. There’s a place for you,” he said.
They moved to Islesford in October of 2002 and quickly found a variety of jobs. In the summer of 2003 Sonja worked as the dessert chef for the Islesford Dock Restaurant and Bill worked as a sternman. For the couple, 2004 was a big year. She was hired to teach at Bowdoin College, they bought Phyllis Colson’s house on the island, and they got married.
Bill became the first Facilities Maintenance Supervisor for the Town of Cranberry Isles, holding the job for two and a half years before being hired by the Island Institute as its policy specialist in spring of 2007. Last year, Sonja was made chair of the Department of Dance and Theater at Bowdoin.
She and Bill have done a lot of commuting lately but they have found a way to make island living work for them. Bill credits the openness of the Islesford community for making their island life possible.
We all know the importance of networking, but it is nice to know that it’s possible to find your place and be welcome in an island community without a prior connection. It helps to be self-employed or willing to take on any job. And let’s face it, serendipity plays a big part too. When I asked Bill about the status of their documentary, he said the project was on hold for now. He smiled and said, “Did I ever tell you what the title was before we even came to Maine? Driving Home.”