The Island Institute announced a new award of almost $800,000 from the National Science Foundation for a two-year extension of its Community for Rural Education, Stewardship & Technology (CREST) program. Launched in 2005, CREST currently provides hands-on Information Technology (IT) education and IT career-awareness opportunities to nearly 100 teachers and students from 11 middle and
Bond issue would protect commercial waterfront access
It’s not grabbing headlines, but a statewide referendum on the Nov. 6 ballot includes funding that could help preserve coastal property for fishermen. If approved by voters, the Land for Maine’s Future (LMF) program would receive $3 million for protecting the state’s shrinking working waterfront. It’s part of a proposed $35.5 million conservation bond, of
Matinicus fellow becomes a “sternman” – on land
Last January was a little nerve-wracking: The Island Fellows Program had just placed its first-ever fellow on Matinicus, the most remote Maine island, with an assignment to work with the new teacher and the school board and develop curriculum and standard procedures for the school. Usually, fellowships are filled by the preceding July, with on-island
Gospel group livens up a Saturday evening
The Evergreen United Methodist Church was rollicking on the evening of June 23rd with the sounds of Voices of Hope. This group, based out of Rhode Island, travels around New England performing their gospel songs and giving words of hope to all who will listen. After 10 years together, they are winding up their performing
PEI agriculture runoff blamed for shellfish deaths
On the heels of a fish kill in two Prince Edward Island rivers, Lloyd and Donna Lewis discovered an 11-acre lease of oysters all dead at the end of July. They said a form of seaweed native to PEI, known as Enteromorpha, took out their lease within seven short days. “We put out all new
Seashells
Photographs by Josie Iselin & text by Sandy Carlson New York: Abrams, 2007. The Benificence of Beaches Calling to my nieces to go for a walk when they visit me on Vinalhaven, I ask, “Wanna go shopping?” They’ve learned that for me, island-bound, “shopping” means beachcombing. We give ourselves a list of what we’d like
The Trouble With Lobsters
When lobstermen began receiving crustacean demands in writing last spring, they thought of it as a joke. In an effort not to take any of it seriously, they claimed to be unable to read the handwriting. Lobsters were impugned as bad spellers, practically illiterate. All they were asking for was more respect. Well, that and
Proposed centers would help former inmates adjust
When their jail terms are up, inmates at Ellsworth’s Hancock County Jail are released at 6:00 a.m. Getting out of jail usually isn’t carefree, said Judy Garvey, director of Volunteers for Hancock County Jail Residents. Most former jail residents still must deal with the addictions and mental conditions that helped land them in jail. Many
Revealing the Power in Place
The term “power of place” is a nice variation on “sense of place,” that term used to evoke an individual’s special connection to a pond, a town, an island. “The Power of Place: Three Views of Maine” at the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor features the work of a painter, Robert Pollien, and two photographers,
Norumbega NavigatorsEarly English Voyages to New England and the Story of the Popham Colony
Bath, England: Wilson Publications, 2007 Paperback, $25.00 “Rich pickings were easily acquired” To the student of English and colonial history during the turbulent 16th and 17th centuries, this book will be a delight, filled as it is with accounts, descriptions, biographies, maps and illustrations connected with the various “adventurers” who undertook explorations in the New