Briefs: School news, Pool Party, Mini-Golf Tourney for Ambulance Service, Osprey Cam, Library Talk and More
JUN 12, 2024
Every week we collate a few briefs all together and send them out, hoping that we don’t inundate your inboxes quite too much. This is one of those days.
COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC CELEBRATES COMMENCEMENT
BAR HARBOR — The College of the Atlantic class of 2024 celebrated with approximately 700 friends and family from near and far, trustees, faculty, staff, and students at COA’s 51st Commencement Ceremony Saturday, June 8.
The Anah Highlander bagpipers led the opening procession, followed closely by 2024 Grand Marshal Dru Colbert, who retires this month after teaching arts and design at COA for 21 years. Remarks by keynote speaker Dr. Yuria Celidwen, COA President Dr. Darron Collins ‘92, and several members of the graduating class, along with a welcome from COA Board of Trustees Chair Beth Gardiner, highlighted the ceremony, which was held under a large tent on the school’s North Lawn.
Celidwen, an Indigenous scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, emphasized the importance of listening to Indigenous voices and the natural world, while highlighting the urgency of the environmental crisis, the need for collective action, and the value of self-empowerment.
Celiwen urged graduates to “welcome the possibility of opening, to engage in very deep observation and reflection. To find those insights that we need for belonging, and transcending the narrow idea — the narrow story — of humans alone, and become real ecologists of a larger Mother Earth system, a way of relationality that awakens all to reverence, love and sacredness. Don’t be afraid of bringing these words into your life,” she said. “Stay with that love and stay with the complexity. Embrace both.”
A total of five members of the senior class spoke as part of the ceremony. Antoine Croquelois ’24 offered welcoming remarks and Sophie Chivers ’24 introduced Celidwen. Sharing student perspectives were Wilson Boyle ’24, Ananya Singh ’24, and Juliana Trujillo Mesa ’24.
“What makes this place unique isn’t really TAB [the dining hall] or Gates or even the ocean. It’s what happens inside of those places. It’s the people. All of us collectively are the special sauce,” Boyle said. “Everyone here today, whether you’ve been at COA for years or just a couple of hours, can take a little part of COA home with you. And I implore you to do just that. Share a meal with someone. Ask to borrow something. Make conversation with a stranger. Dance in the rain. Give something to the people around you that you might never get back. And I promise you — you will.”
Collins encouraged seniors to transcend over-classification and binary thinking about the issues we are all facing in the world in order to embrace a holistic approach to problem-solving. He urged listeners to avoid oversimplifying the dynamics between opposing groups of people and instead recognize their unique qualities and motivations.
“When as human ecologists we attempt to make change in the world, we are, I hope, confronting problems and projects with doing and thinking forever united with inseparable body and mind,” Collins said. “We human ecologists must always remember and practice our trickster qualities, transcending the divide between art and science, between thinking and acting, between oppressor and oppressed, between good and evil, and between underdog and top dog.”
A grand feast at the center of campus followed the ceremony.
College of the Atlantic was founded in 1969 on the premise that education should go beyond understanding the world as it is to enabling students to actively shape its future. A leader in experiential education and environmental stewardship, COA has pioneered a distinctive interdisciplinary approach to learning — human ecology — that develops the kinds of creative thinkers and doers needed by all sectors of society in addressing the compelling and growing needs of our world. For more information, visit coa.edu.
Southwest Harbor – Tremont Ambulance Service’s 2nd Annual Mini Golf Tournament Fundraiser
SOUTHWEST HARBOR—The Southwest Harbor – Tremont Ambulance Service will host its annual mini golf tournament on Saturday, June 22, from 2 – p.m., rain or shine, at the Golf of Maine course, 55 Main St. in Southwest Harbor.
This second annual event and fundraiser for a vital community service will feature fun competition and great prizes, an opportunity to meet emergency medical personnel and tour an ambulance, plus good food, music, and a huge raffle. Prizes will be awarded for Best Team Score, Best Individual Score, Most Holes in One and Best Team Spirit. Teams of four are encouraged, but individual players are also welcome. The cost is $20 per player or $60 for a team of four.
Register here and choose a tee time:
Or just show up to play and have a great time. Fun for all ages! Shotgun starts scheduled every hour from 2:00 to 8:00. The Battle of the Badges, with area first responders putting for glory, prizes, and island-wide bragging rights, is scheduled for 6 P.M.
The service extends many thanks to its host: Golf of Maine!
Jeff Prentice, funraiser and master of ceremonies presiding.
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The Southwest Harbor – Tremont Ambulance Service is a private, non-profit organization serving the two towns on the southwestern side of Mt. Desert Island with the cooperation and support of our mutual aid partners. The Service answers about 500 calls a year and is grateful for the support of the towns’ administrations and taxpayers as well as the enormous generosity of individual donors.
Questions: minigolf@swhtas.org
Public Hearings 6/18 on Shared Accommodations and Employee Living Quarters
BAR HARBOR—The Bar Harbor Town Council will hold Public Hearings Tuesday, June 18, 2024 at 6:30 p.m. in the Municipal Building Council Chambers to consider the following applications:
Shared Accommodations License renewal for 278 Main Street
Employee Living Quarters License renewal for 119 Eden Street
For more information about Shared Accommodations and Employee Living Quarters licensing, contact the Planning and Code office at 288-3329. For information about the Town Council hearings, contact the Town Clerk’s office at 288-4098.
LIVE MUSIC AT THE FINBACK IN BAR HARBOR THIS WEEK
YMCA POOL PARTY
MOUNT DESERT ISLAND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS OF THE MONTH
MCLA INSTRUCTIONAL COACH OF THE YEAR
Author Talk with Teri Anderholm – Inn Mates: An Innkeepers Memoir
BAR HARBOR—Join us at the Jesup Memorial Library on June 20th, 2024, at 7:00 PM for an author talk with Teri Anderholm, author of Inn Mates: An Innkeeper’s Memoir. Teri will share passages from her debut memoir, a lively and humorous account of two Boston corporate escapees who embarked on an adventure to own a luxury inn in Bar Harbor, Maine. The memoir captures their experiences with five-star hospitality, along with the lessons of gratitude, humility, love, and laughter they learned from their guests. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear Teri’s entertaining stories and participate in a lively Q&A session. Copies of Inn Mates will be available for purchase and signing courtesy of Sherman’s Maine Coast Book Store.
Praise for Inn Mates
“Hugely entertaining! Brightly written and full of eye-popping tales of human frailty and hubris, this memoir reads like a suspense novel. I couldn’t put it down.”
—Monica Wood, author of The One-in-a-Million Boy, When We Were the Kennedys, and Any Bitter Thing
“Inn Mates is a beautifully written account of the innkeeping life. Hilarious and heartbreaking. Full of wisdom, wit, and whimsy. The best memoir I’ve read in a very very long time.”
—Claudia Hunter Johnson, author of Stifled Laughter: One Woman’s Story About Fighting Censorship, winner of the 2023 Best Book Awards in the Current Events category, and Hurtling Toward Happiness: A Mother and Teenage Son’s Road Trip From Blues to Bonding in a Really Small Car
Free and open to the public. Register here: https://www.jesuplibrary.org/events/anderholm
CONNERS EMERSON NEWS
BAR HARBOR—Two staff members received awards. Mary Mackay won the MDI Rotary’s Golden Apple Award.bCarol Rosinski won the 2024 Volunteer Champion Award from the Maine Women’s Lobby.
Students have been watching the MDIHS Osprey Cam during their lunch times.
“It is getting exciting with 3 eggs getting ready to hatch any day now!” Principal Dr. Heather Weir Webster wrote on Tiger Talk.
You can check out the osprey cam here: MDIHS Osprey Cam
Also this week, Webster wrote, “We are looking to start a new tradition which is to have the formers tigers that are graduating from high school visit Conners Emerson in the cap and gowns. On Friday, we had a group walking through the halls to the cheers and claps of our K-8 students. It was amazing.”
Other news:
- “First graders were movers and shakers this week. They went to the Oceanarium in Bar Harbor to learn about fishing, lobsters, and other sea life. they when to Birds’ Acre in Ellsworth to lean about protecting and rehabilitating wild birds. On Friday, Miss Abby from the Jesup came to CES to read two summer stories and share summer programming opportunities with our students.
- “Grade 5 is getting ready for the rocket launches on Wednesday. They have been testing and perfecting their designs.
- “Grade 7 is making video documentaries in ELA about plastics in our ocean.
- “Grade 8 scaled Cadillac Mountain last week on an absolutely beautiful day.
- “Grade 4 had a great field trip to the Carroll Homestead in Southwest Harbor.”
According to Webster, class placements and classroom/student supply lists will be listed later on in the summer.
“If your child is interested in music and pursuing opportunities outside of CES, please check out the MUSIC BOOSTER SCHOLARSHIPS. We have such an amazing community that supports the performing arts so please take the time to check this out,” she wrote. “The PTSA is helping to collect ART supplies for next year’s 7/8 Art Club. Do you have anything to donate: sketchbooks, knitting needles, crochet hooks, yard, lightly used drawing and painting tools? There is a bin right by Taylor’s office, thank you!”
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