Season of goodwill shines in communities

The spirit of Christmas is being shared in acts of neighborly goodwill in Washington County. Donors of all ages and many faiths made the extra effort to help make this holiday season a happy one for others.

Keeping children warm and happy
“ We do what we can. This year we've raised in the area of $8,000," reports Rhonda French who heads "Let's All Have a Merrier Christmas," a program that provides gifts of toys and warm clothing to needy children in Washington County.

In 2004, the program donated to 292 needy children with $9,000 worth of toys and warm clothing, and it looks like it will surpass both of those figures this year. "We're at 314 children," says French. "We say December 1 is the deadline, but we always accept names after that date."

"Let's All Have A Merrier Christmas" was begun 22 years ago by French's father, Philip Huntley, and it is truly a family affair; French's 22-year-old daughter Denise has been helping for the past six years. "A lot of stores and churches donate," notes Denise. "The Ellsworth and Calais Wal-Marts help out a lot."

"We've always had enough donations, so that we've never had to turn anyone away," adds Rhonda. "But we have so many children to buy for, we have to cut the age limit off at 15. People like to shop for little children, so I try to make sure the teenagers aren't forgotten."

This year Machias Dentistry and Down East Community Hospital in Machias are being recognized as Shining Stars for giving above and beyond. "They've provided us with awesome help," stresses Rhonda.

Supporting victims of domestic abuse
We get lists of needy families and help them out at Christmas," reports Laurie Fogelman, executive director of the Next Step, which has been assisting victims of domestic violence in Washington County since it opened offices in Machias and Calais two years ago. Its parent agency has been serving Hancock County for 12 years. "The lives of these families have been affected, in some way, by domestic violence. There's usually separation issues and there's not much money for living expenses, let alone Christmas presents."

"We've been getting wonderful stuff," she notes. "We accept cash and toys, and if anyone has an interest in buying a specific item, that's okay, too."

"The numbers of families we're helping is changing from moment to moment, but there will be 15 to 20, at least," adds Fogelman. "And I'm always so touched by people in our community. They're not rolling in money, but they want to make the season brighter for the less fortunate."

"We [at the Next Step] get the gratitude and smiles when we deliver the gifts, but we're accepting them for everyone who helped us out."

Christmas dinners delivered
Students from Nick Gamertsfelder's U.S. government class at Shead High School delivered over 110 food baskets to families in Perry, Dennysville, Edmunds, Pembroke, Charlotte, Whiting and Eastport on Thursday, December 22. The food baskets contained the makings of a holiday meal, including a turkey or chicken (depending on the size of the family), potatoes, stuffing, squash, carrots, onions, canned vegetables, cranberry sauce, rolls and margarine.

Participating churches and organizations included St. Joseph's, St. John's and St. Ann's; Christ Episcopal Church; Unitarian Meetinghouse; Congregational churches of Eastport, Dennysville, Perry and Robbinston; Blakey Memorial and North Perry Methodist churches; Full Gospel Assembly; New Beginnings of Eastport; Grace Chapel of Pembroke; and the Greater Eastport Ecumenical Churches Association (GEECA). The turkeys and chickens were supplied by the November 10 community Turkey-a-thon and a local businessman, and an anonymous donor contributed the potatoes.

Gifts of fruit are appreciated
Cornerstone Baptist Church in Eastport provided 100 fruit trays throughout the community this year, something the members have been doing for 25 Christmas seasons. "Everybody was very happy to be remembered and thought of. That's what's most important," stresses Diane Hicks, one of the congregation's volunteers who got together on December 10 to assemble the fruit trays at her home. "And the people who did the work C they enjoy it too. We had 17 adults and children helping."

Hicks says that delivering the trays takes a good part of the day. "We try to remember the widows first, and then people who have had a difficult time this year, financially or emotionally. They don't have to be church members."

"This is our outreach into the community," she adds.

Children receive Silent Santa gifts
The Silent Santa program in Eastport was still in full swing when The Quoddy Tides went to press, but one of the organizers, Susan Brown, reports that it will be another successful year. She and other volunteers have been soliciting gifts and funding to purchase presents for youngsters in the Eastport area.

Competition for food drive
Once again, the four classes at Shead High School in Eastport competed to see which one could collect the most food for GEECA's Labor of Love food pantry, and the winning students were treated to a pizza party. When the food products were weighed on December 21, the Class of 2006 was the winner. Food drive organizer Nick Gamertsfelder says this is the second year that class has won that competition. "They were challenging everybody. They had bragging rights."

Operation Santa
Nick Gamertsfelder reports that this year Operation Santa has raised enough money to purchase 84 gifts that were wrapped and tagged by students in his U.S. government and U.S. history classes at Shead. "I want to thank everyone in the community for their support," he says.

On the morning of December 22, Santa Claus (Jeremy Farley) and four elves (Ashley Ramsdell, Ashley Murphy, Fawn Cummings and Shelly Theriault) rode over to the Eastport Elementary School aboard an Eastport fire truck and delivered the presents to students in grades K4 through 5.

Visit the elderly
In Lubec, the members of the After School Club got together on December 15 to go caroling at the two elderly-housing complexes in town. Last year, the group went on a haywagon ride while the members sang, but this year, the carolers wanted to get closer to their audience.

Schoolchildren in Charlotte learned carols, baked cookies and created cards and ornaments to take to shut-ins in Calais. Instead of holding all-day Christmas parties on December 22, the last day of school before vacation, the youngsters were divided into four groups, each led by a different eighth-grader, either Joshua Gillespie, Jeremy Carr, Stephanie Day or Shayne Pope, and taken to Atlantic Rehab and Washington Place.

The Charlotte Elementary School students also held a penny drive during the holiday season and raised approximately $100. Mrs. Priscilla James' students in pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and Grade 1 brought in the most money. The youngsters are also still collecting school supplies for the hurricane-damaged Mississippi schools they've adopted.