How a Bake-Off in Bar Harbor Is Helping Neighbors Show Up for One Another.

Batter Up! Sugar Showdown Serves Up Frosting and Fundraising Carrie Jones Feb 16, 2026 The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by First National Bank. BAR HARBOR—By the time you stepped in out of the wind to head into the Sugar Showdown, your cheeks tingled and, if you’d parked half in a snowbank, your boots were damp clear through; it was the kind of February chill … Continue reading How a Bake-Off in Bar Harbor Is Helping Neighbors Show Up for One Another.

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news

When Love Is a Verb.

88 Blankets, 100 Valentines: How Mount Desert Island Loves Over and Over Again. Carrie Jones Feb 14, 2026 BAR HARBOR—It began with a really good Polartec fabric sale. Unable to resist, artist and Bar Harbor Historical Society’s Director of Engagement Nikki Moser ordered almost 400 yards. “I needed to do something that felt like direct action, and so many people are cold,” she explained. The next … Continue reading When Love Is a Verb.

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news

Glamour in the Fast Lane

Seal Cove Auto Museum’s Speakeasy Revs Up for 2026 Carrie Jones Feb 09, 2026 The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by First National Wealth Management. SEAL COVE—It begins with the cars—gorgeous, antique, gleaming, historical cars—but it doesn’t end there. For years, the Seal Cove Auto Museum has hosted an annual speakeasy, rolling out the red carpet and the history in a night of dancing, fun, … Continue reading Glamour in the Fast Lane

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news

Families Say This Bar Harbor Swim Coach Changes Lives

For More Than Two Decades, Jim Willis Has Turned a Small-Town Swim Team Into a Family Carrie Jones Feb 08, 2026 The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by The Witham Family Hotels Charitable Fund. BAR HARBOR—Somewhere between the concrete walls of the MDY YMCA, the bleachers and the six lanes of its pool, Coach Jim Willis quietly walks and counts and notices things. In a … Continue reading Families Say This Bar Harbor Swim Coach Changes Lives

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news

Games, Art, Beer, and Belonging: A Winter Saturday in Bar Harbor

Winter gatherings bring warmth, community and smiles. Carrie Jones and Shaun Farrar Feb 01, 2026 BAR HARBOR—Just outside the Bar Harbor Congregational Church in downtown Bar Harbor, Saturday afternoon, a bundled up family member tried to get a baby stroller over a parking lot snowbank so that it could go onto a sidewalk and then out into Main Street. It wasn’t going easily. The carriage’s front wheels … Continue reading Games, Art, Beer, and Belonging: A Winter Saturday in Bar Harbor

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news

Built to Last: 60 Years of Love and Kindness from Cliff and Kathy Olson.

MDI couple celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary today. Carrie Jones Jan 22, 2026 NORTHEAST HARBOR—Sometimes the best news isn’t the hard news. It’s the quiet stories of triumph and long-lasting love and lives that make huge impacts in not just a couple’s family, but in an entire community. Cliff and Kathy Olson have a story like that, and today, it’s their wedding anniversary where they … Continue reading Built to Last: 60 Years of Love and Kindness from Cliff and Kathy Olson.

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news, schools

Where Learning Has Roots: Inside Mount Desert Island’s Community School

Carrie Jones Jan 17, 2026 SOMESVILLE AND BAR HARBOR—In a yurt, the children sit on a braided rug, hands on their hearts, excited to answer a question from their teacher Kreg McCune. “Let’s think of that word, ‘was,’” Mr. Kreg says. “If you can think of a way to use ‘was’ in a sentence, put your hand on your heart.” “There was a dinosaur a … Continue reading Where Learning Has Roots: Inside Mount Desert Island’s Community School

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news, schools

Where Politics Met Paint, Song, and Community in Bar Harbor

“Let’s Do Something That Feels Right.” Carrie Jones Jan 13, 2026 The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Window Panes Home and Garden. BAR HARBOR—On a dreary winter late afternoon beneath the high rafters of the Hidden Barn Bookstore, voices rose, hands moved, cameras clicked, and sea shanties shifted from lamentation to wry callings. Nearly 80 people gathered, not to debate politics, but to make something together: … Continue reading Where Politics Met Paint, Song, and Community in Bar Harbor

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news

MOUNT DESERT ISLAND HAD A REAL SANTA CLAUS

And it still does. Carrie Jones Dec 24, 2025 This story was originally published in 2022. It’s been updated. THE NORTH POLE AND BAR HARBOR—In 1920, Dr. J.B. Ells came back from World War I and he returned to Bar Harbor. One of his first greeters when he arrived home was a 15-year-old boy who had been paralyzed. While the doctor was away at war, … Continue reading MOUNT DESERT ISLAND HAD A REAL SANTA CLAUS

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features, news

From Santa to S’mores, a Witham Family Hotel’s Charitable Christmas Tradition Brings Holiday Magic to Nearly 1,000 in Bar Harbor.

How a Maine Hotel Has Turned Giving Into an Annual Holiday Celebration. Carrie Jones Dec 14, 2025 BAR HARBOR—The lights came first, then the ornaments, then the sound of children laughing as parents lingered near craft tables, many realizing—perhaps all at once—that they had stepped into a tradition that had quietly become part of their family’s winter. “This is a really beautiful thing,” one woman … Continue reading From Santa to S’mores, a Witham Family Hotel’s Charitable Christmas Tradition Brings Holiday Magic to Nearly 1,000 in Bar Harbor.

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