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Bonus!

Creative Development These events are helping drive the economy across our region

A Piece of Maine:

Machias

Movers & Shakers EMHS’s Miles Theeman

Kitchen Confidential

Cappy’s Chowder House

Seniors super

Inside:

Mutt Nose Best Senior Sex UMPI’s Jim Casciano

$5.95

Three area seniors show us how great it can be to grow older

May 2014

Your people, your region, your magazine.

CELEBRATING OUR FIRST ANNIVERSARY IN BANGOR!

Thank you for a fantastic first year from the entire team at The First.

We’re glad to have helped so many fine folks in the community with their financial needs. And we’re sponsoring some of the city’s most exciting cultural attractions, like the new Maine Basketball Hall of Fame and Broadway’s Best in Bangor!

145 Exchange Street Bangor, Maine 207.974.5001

Great community. Great team. Great banking! (l-r) Courtney Brehaut, Assistant Vice President, Branch Manager; Jeremy Daigle, Vice President, Business Relationship Officer; Cynthia Fogg, Vice President, Senior Mortgage Loan Officer; Nazrin Dixon, First Advisors Portfolio Manager; Lacy Massengale, Branch Supervisor

FirsT To open: Drive-ups open at 7:00 a.m. Monday-Friday Bangor • Bar Harbor • Blue Hill • Boothbay Harbor • Calais • Camden • Damariscotta • Eastport Ellsworth • Northeast Harbor • Rockland • Rockport • Southwest Harbor • Waldoboro • Wiscasset

A Division of The First Bancorp • 800.564.3195 • www.TheFirst.com • Member FDIC

MAY 2014

contents

features loyalty and service / 13 Miles Theeman has spent his entire career at EMHS, and he couldn’t be happier.

Age and Intimacy / 18 Sexually active seniors need to take precautions to protect their health. super seniors / 22 Mike Opitz, Dave Jackson, and Gloria Young show us how good it can be to grow old.

Photos: (top and bottom left) melanie brooks; (bottom right) ronah baillargeon

strutting our stuff / 30 Three communities showcase their region to the rest of the world.

A Piece of Maine: machias / 36 This historic town in Downeast Maine is a perfect summertime destination.

A Taste of Adventure / 50 Abby Curtis shares the flavors of Spain in her Belfast kitchen.

22 36

Cappy’s Chowder House / 52 Peter Gelman leads the kitchen in this Camden hot spot.

50 www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 1

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in every issue TaLk of the Towns / 8 Wood pellets in Millinocket, a generous donation from Presque Isle, and an animal lover in Bangor.

Biz Buzz & sightings / 10 People and businesses on the move. eye on industry / 14 Mutt Nose Best.

Metro sports / 42 Basketball stories from Presque Isle and Old Town.

What’s happening / 44 Your guide to what’s going on in May.

Perspectives / 56 Britney Layne’s colorful magic. savvy seniors / 59 Spring is the best time to de-clutter. unsung hero / 64 Rusty Brace from United Mid-Coast Charities.

21

columns Metro Wellness / 21 Reflecting on the cycle of life. woods & waters / 58 Bear hunting hangs in the balance. last word / 62 A trip to the doctor shouldn’t be so complicated.

2 / Bangor Metro May 2014

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Photos: (top) Beth Morin; (MIDDLE) AARON D. PRIEST/WWW.AARONPRIESTPHOto.COM; (BOTTOM) Arman Zhenikeyev/thinkstock.com

contents

Now, this is what we call a chat room.

Instant messages, tweets and online chats are great, but nothing can substitute for celebrating your closeness in person. So pick up that smart phone and do a smart thing: go to FlyBangor.com, book online, and this time - send yourself.

Scan for BGR Online Booking

Nonstops, connecting flights, competitive fares and friendly customer service.

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www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 3 8/9/11 10:54 AM

editor’s note

M

Melanie Brooks, editor

4 / Bangor Metro May 2014

The Bangor Metro Region

Photo: Kate Crabtree

y parents have been card-carrying senior citizens for 10 years now. It boggles my mind you are considered a senior at the age of 50, in the eyes of AARP. In the U.S., you are officially a senior citizen at the age of 65. I know plenty of “senior citizens” who scoff at retirement. One of them happens to be Gloria Young, an octogenarian who is featured in our 5th annual Super Seniors story on page 22.

My parents are very active. In fact, my father is probably at my house right now spreading joint compound on the walls of my hallway. He is helping me renovate my house, room by room. No matter the task, he never complains. He just asks for some ibuprofen.

We recently celebrated my father’s 60th birthday with a Mardi Gras party, complete with paper chains made by yours truly. My niece Ayda, who is 7, guessed he was turning 39. Her younger sister thought he was turning 3. My grandmother, who celebrated her 87th birthday in February, can barely believe how old she is. “I don’t feel that old,” she told me. I can hardly believe it myself.

My problem with age starts with the fact that I still feel like a twentysomething. My friends and I lament, “How did we get so old so fast?!” If I had a child the year I graduated high school, that kid would be going off to college this fall. It blows my mind.

Through the wrinkles and age spots, I try to see the silver lining of aging.

I know my parents look forward to retiring. I know there are projects—my house not included—my dad would like to do but can’t while he’s working fulltime. My mother, who loves to cook, garden, sew, and travel, will have more time to do just that. They are both very active with their grandchildren, and their summers will be filled even more than they are now with camping trips. No need to wait for the weekend to take off to Bar Harbor for a couple of nights when you don’t have work in the morning!

Gloria Young is just one of the three people we featured in our Super Seniors story. The other two are pretty wonderful, showing us all that age really is just a number.

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“our legacy is helping local children become successful adults.”

—Walt and Lianne Harris, Orono

W hat W i l l yo u r l e g a c y b e ? Many of us may feel that we will never be remembered for great works or heroic deeds. but there are simple ways you can leave a lasting legacy, and be remembered as someone who made a positive impact on individuals in our community. an endowment through eMhS Foundation is one of these ways. an endowment is a fund created to fulfill a vision defined by you, the donor. With an endowment through eMhS Foundation, you can support healthcare at eMhS member organizations in bangor, blue hill, greenville, Pittsfield, Portland, Presque isle, or Waterville. The money invested in the fund provides both continuous income and long-term growth, with a percentage of its annual earnings solely designated to fund the vision for

which it was established.

For Walt and lianne harris of orono, creating an endowment was an ideal way to ensure mental health services would be available for local youth into the future. “We have learned, through our own family experience, the importance of early diagnosis and intervention,” they note. “We established the Endless Possibilities endowment fund because we believe it is imperative to support programs at acadia hospital that provide children and adolescents with the tools that will allow them to become successful adults.”

Whatever your vision for supporting local healthcare, eMhS Foundation will work with you to create a personalized plan to achieve your goals and leave a lasting legacy.

A subscription to Bangor Metro magazine is the perfect gift for anyone on your list!

For a no-obligation consult with an EMHS Foundation professional, please contact us at:

Complete the gift subscription card in this issue or call 207-941-1300 x121 207.973.5055 • 866.839.4483 Or visit our home office at: www.bangormetro.com One Cumberland Place, Suite 300 • Bangor

www.emhsfoundation.org

MayoPractice Associates™ ONE CONTACT. MANY LOCATIONS. 564-1224 CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Corinth Medical Associates Family Practice Dexter Internal Medicine

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Dover-Foxcroft Family Medicine Internal Medicine | Family Practice | Pediatrics

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Emilie Brand Manhart

Jane Margesson

Mayo Rachel Rice

Chris Quimby

Regional Hospital

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Offering expanded care and services where you need it most—close to home.

CONTRIBUTING Photographers & Artists

The Mark McCall

Britney Layne

Dave Brown

Bangor Metro Magazine. May 2014, Vol. 10, No. 4.

Copyright © Metro Publishing LLC. Bangor Metro is published ten times annually by Metro Publishing LLC. All rights reserved.

This magazine may not be reproduced in whole or part in any form without the written permission of the Publisher.

Bangor Metro is mailed at standard rates from Portland, Maine.

Opinions expressed in either the editorial or advertisements do not represent the opinions of the staff or publisher of Bangor Metro magazine. Advertisers and event sponsors or their agents are responsible for copyrights and accuracy of all material they submit. Bangor Metro magazine to the best of its ability ensures the acuracy of information printed in the publication.

Inquiries and suggestions are welcome and encouraged.

Letters to the editor, story suggestions, and other reader input will be subject to Bangor Metro’s unrestricted right to edit and publish in the magazine both in print and online.

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Cover photo: Mark McCall

Independence you want, the Support you need Assisted Living & Memory Care

Birch Bay Retirement Village has an extraordinary assisted living community dedicated to helping residents and their families through the transitions of later life.

Residents live in their own apartments supported by professional caregivers. Days are busy—filled with activities, art & crafts projects, exercise, fitness programs and regularly scheduled outings.

If that’s the kind of positive, upbeat secure setting you’ve been seeking for your loved one, look no further.

We currently have Memory Care & Assisted Living private suites available for immediate occupancy.

Call (207) 288-8014 for your personal tour. www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 7

Warmth Through

Wood Pellets

8 / Bangor Metro May 2014

Millinocket: Winter in Maine is harsh. Heating a home— not to mention an entire hospital—is expensive. That’s why Dave McLaughlin, director of plant operations at Millinocket Regional Hospital, has been researching ways to ease the hospital’s dependence on No. 2 heating oil.

McLaughlin not only wanted to save money, he also wanted to keep money spent on fuel close to home. When the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act made Wood2-Energy grants available, McLaughlin thought it would be a good fit for MRH. Wood pellets could be sourced locally and are environmentally friendly.

The hospital’s recent conversion to a biomass boiler system is predicted to save the 70,000-square-foot facility $149,000 each year. Maine Wood Pellets of Athens is providing the 665 tons of pellets MRH is expecting to use each year. The pellets are being stored in an on-site silo.

The great thing about the system is that it can be monitored anywhere there is access to the Internet, McLaughlin says. The full price tag of $5 million was cut in half for MRH, thanks to a $258,000 Wood-2-Energy Program grant. The return on investment for the hospital is expected to be achieved in two and a half years. “It’s just a win-win for us and the local community,” McLaughlin says.

photo: Aaron d. priest/www.aaronpriestphoto.com

talk of the towns

A Critical First Step Statewide: Andy Shepard, president and CEO of the Maine Winter Sports Center, has been busier than ever, raising funds for the nonprofit organization that promotes year-round outdoor sports throughout Maine.

The Libra Foundation, a well-endowed private philanthropic foundation that has been supporting the MWSC for the past 15 years, announced in February it would be ending its financial relationship in April.

The Libra Foundation has contributed about $550,000 each year.

Thanks to Mary Barton Smith, a Presque Isle native who now resides in Florida, the MWSC is close to filling that gap. Smith has given the MWSC a $100,000 donation and additional $400,000 matching grant. “The steps are now in place to secure operations for next year,” Shepard says. “While this is a critical first step, it is just that—a first step.”

The MWSC needs about $1 million of funding a year, Shepard says. “What many people don’t realize is that we’re not just

about winter sports. We have year-round programming in over 140 communities across the state. We have a full green season curriculum. We’re heavily involved in paddle sports, mountain biking, and hiking.”

From coaching competitive sports, such as biathlon and cross-country skiing, to

running Healthy Hometowns, the community development arm of the MWSC, the organization’s nine employees are helping Mainers get out and enjoy the great outdoors. “What we do is very important to many people across the state,” Shepard says.

photos: (top) courtesy MWSC; (right) ngothyeaun/thinkstock.com

Animal Lover bangor: The late Shann M. Gillespie, an animal lover, bequeathed $395,000 to the Bangor Humane Society, to ensure continued care for the homeless cats she loved so much.

“Mrs. Gillespie was a longtime volunteer at the Bangor Humane Society, helping to care for and socialize homeless pets at the shelter for many years,” says Emily McIntosh, president of the Bangor Humane Society board of directors.

The Bangor Humane Society is planning to do something special with Gillespie’s donation and not use it for the organization’s $925,000 yearly operating budget. Because of Gillespie’s love and devotion to cats, the Bangor Humane Society will direct the bequest to honor her passion, perhaps for improvements on the feline portion of the facility.

“Her commitment as a volunteer was unyielding, and now, in her passing, it is evident her compassion and dedication to homeless pets will be a permanent part of her legacy,” McIntosh says.

www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 9

biz buzz On the Move The Katahdin Trust Company in Houlton promoted two of its employees. KATE GOODWIN is now the bank secretary act (BSA) officer.

Goodwin joined Katahdin Trust in 2010 as a BSA/ compliance assistant and was promoted to BSA manager in 2012. LESLIE M. GARDNER is now the vice president of retail lending. She has over 17 years of experience with Katahdin Trust. She joined the bank in 1996 as a receptionist in the Patten office and was named retail loan assistant in 1998 and retail lending supervisor in 2001. In 2009 she was promoted to assistant vice president and retail lending officer, the position she held until her most recent appointment. www.katahdintrust.com KYLE JOHNSON has been

hired by Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems as vice president and chief information officer.

Johnson previously worked as the vice president, chief analytics and integration officer at Trinity Health/CHE, based in Livonia, Michigan. She has more than 30 years of experience in health care, 16 of which was with her last employer, the second largest Catholic health care delivery system in the nation. www.emhs.org Attorney BLAIR A. JONES has joined Rudman Winchell, Counselors at Law in Bangor. He will put his 21 years of trial experience to work and focus his practice on litigation, primarily in products liability, trucking, construction, commercial litigation, personal injury, and premises liability. www.rudman-winchell.com SHELLY BEALS of the F.A.

Peabody Company (FAPCO) has been promoted to Hampden office supervisor. She has worked in the insurance industry for 31 years and has been with 10 / Bangor Metro May 2014

FAPCO since 1992. She most recently worked in the personal lines arena, as an agent in charge of new business development. www.fapeabody.com ROBERT THOMPSON, MD, has joined Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems as the senior vice president and chief medical officer.

Previously, Thompson served as the chief quality and medical officer at Asante Health System in Medford, Oregon. He has more than 20 years of experience practicing medicine, as well as 20 years of administrative experience that spans the patient-care spectrum. www.emhs.org S. CATHERINE LONGLEY has been

elected to serve as a member of Camden National Corporations board of directors. She is the senior vice president of finance and administration and treasurer at Bowdoin College in Brunswick. She currently serves as a trustee of Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts; a director of Maine Employers Mutual Insurance Company in Portland; and is a member of the Subscriber Advisory Board of United Educations in Chevy Chase, Maryland. www.camdennational.com STEVEN NADEAU has been promoted to chief financial officer of Bangor’s Varney Agency. He joined the organization in May, 2013, and most recently served as financial manager.

Nadeau has nearly 20 years of accounting experience. Prior to joining Varney Agency, he was the accounting manager at Sunbury Medical Associates in Bangor. www.varneyagency.com MARJORIE PERONTO has joined

Healthy Acadia’s board of directors.

Peronto is a professor for the University of Maine Cooperative Extension and has been teaching courses in food production and ecological landscaping in Hancock and Washington Counties for 22 years. www.healthyacadia.org Downeast Packaging Solutions, a fulfillment and packaging company owned by Whitney Corporation, hired RICK HELLER as director of business

development. Heller has more than 30 years of experience in the packaging industry, with expertise in business development, project management, offshore procurement, logistics, and product and packaging development.

He and his family reside in Machiasport. www.whitney-corp.com DANIEL WILLIAMS of Orono has been

appointed to serve a two-year term as interim executive director of the Collins Center for the Arts at the University of Maine. Williams replaces John Patches, who retired in January. Williams has served in leadership roles in marketing, fundraising, community outreach, and performing arts at UMaine since 1986.

He is a faculty member in the School of Performing Arts and has served on the Collins Center for the Arts advisory board since 1993. www.collinscenterforthearts.com Healthy Acadia, a community health coalition working in Hancock and Washington Counties, named ELSIE FLEMINGS as its new executive director.

Flemings has worked at Healthy Acadia for the past five years, serving as the community relations and development director for the past three years. She has also served as the state representative for District 35 in Hancock County for two terms. www.healthyacadia.org RHONDA SAWYER joins Bar Harbor

Savings and Loan as a mortgage loan specialist. She brings more than 20 years of experience to her new role and will be involved with all aspects of the bank’s mortgage lending. She is a native of Mount Desert Island. www.bhsla.com

Awards MERRILL ENTERPRISES in Ellsworth has

been awarded with the 2014 Top Drawer Award from the Ellsworth Area Chamber of Commerce. This award is given annually to a chamber member who has made substantial contributions to the growth, development, and improvement of the chamber region. www.merrillfurniture.com The Maine Community Foundation has awarded JAN VARNUM of Bar Harbor

Eastern Maine Community College

Great College. Smart Choice.

with the 2013 Elizabeth Fritz Thorndike Award. This award honors an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the field of social work on Mount Desert Island. www.mainecf.org N. LAURENCE WILLEY, JR., a senior

partner with Willey Law Offices in Bangor, has been listed in the most recent issue of New England Super Lawyer’s Magazine as a trial lawyer. This is the fourth time Willey has been listed in the magazine. www.larrywilley.com The Greater Bangor Convention & Visitor Bureau and presenting sponsor, Hollywood Casino Hotel & Raceway, announced the winners of the 2014 Tourism and Hospitality Eagle Awards.

DENNIS FOOD AND PAPER SERVICES

won the Organizational Achievement Eagle Award, GEORGE BROUNTAS received the Lifetime Achievement Eagle Award, LARRY KILLAM received the Individual Achievement Eagle Award, and the BANGOR POLICE DEPARTMENT received the GBCVB Impact Eagle Award. www.visitbangormaine.com The United Way of Eastern Maine recently recognized several organizations and individuals for their commitment and support in 2013.

LANCEY WHEATON of Dead River Company was recognized as the Employee Campaign Manager of the Year. KAY ALLCROFT of CES, Inc. was given the Irene Gray Award. VAL ANDRICK of L.L. Bean and BANGOR VERSO PAPER were presented with the Live United Award. The Outstanding Agency Award was given to the BANGOR HOUSING AUTHORITY. www.unitedwayem.org BANGOR SAVINGS BANK has been

recognized as a J.D. Power and Associates 2014 Customer Champion, one of only 50 companies nationally to earn this honor. J.D. Power and Associates evaluated more than 600 brands. This group of 50 represents the highest performing U.S. companies that deliver service excellence. www.bangor.com

Technical Career & Transfer Education

TAMMY TYLER , a registered nurse in

Blue Hill Memorial Hospital’s emergency department, has earned the hospital’s Rock Star of the Year Award.

The award is given to a hospital employee who goes above and beyond his or her normal work duties. www.bhmh.com

Summer Sessions at EMCC

Grants The Avon Breast Health Outreach Program has awarded a $19,500 grant to CARING CONNECTIONS, a cooperative women’s health program between the Bangor YMCA and Eastern Maine Medical Center. The funds will be used to increase awareness of the life-saving benefits of early detection of breast cancer. www.bangory.org/caringconnections COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC received a

$589,300 grant from David Rockefeller as seed funding for Peggy Rockefeller Farms, one of the college’s laboratories for understanding and experimenting with the human ecology of food systems. The grant will aid in the development of a demonstration center for COA’s Sustainable Food Systems while acting as a resource for members of the community who want to learn about sustainable food production. www.coa.edu Quirk Subaru of Bangor recently presented a check totaling $11,958.34 to the MAINE DISCOVERY MUSEUM as part of the auto dealership’s 2013 Subaru Share the Love event. Customers who purchased or leased a new Subaru, between November 21, 2013 and January 2, 2014, could select from a list of charities to receive a donation of $250 from Subaru of America, Inc. The Maine Discovery Museum was Quirk Subaru’s local nonprofit partner. www.mainediscoverymuseum.org MAINE FAIR TRADE LOBSTER, LLC

received a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant from the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development. The funds will go toward purchasing new equipment and creating new jobs. www.mftlobster.com

Over 100 courses offered this Summer 2014 for a headstart on YOUR education.

At only $88 per credit hour: We’re a Great College, and a Smart Choice!

207.974.4621 www.emcc.edu Like us on Facebook!

www.facebook.com/EMCCBangor

www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 11

sight ings 1

5

4

6

1: Brenda Brown and Donna Peirce from the Bangor Housing Authority accepting awards at the United Way Campaign Finale Awards ceremony.

3: Cintia Miranda and Karen Cole at the Greater Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce Social Media Seminar, held at Machias Savings Bank in Brewer.

5: Trevor Marcho, Lucas Richman, and Sascha Zaburdaeva Lorimer attend the Bangor Symphony Orchestra fundraising gala at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.

2: John Thurston, agriculture coordinator for RSU 20, accepts a check from Anne Mullen and Corliss Davis the Belfast Garden Club to benefit student scholarships for the summer Farm Camp program.

4: The Galipeau family accepts the grand prize for the Presque Isle “Snowmen of the World” community snow sculpture contest. Pictured from left: Piper Galipeau, Maddie Jackson, Sierra, Scott, and Christa Galipeau, Martha Tarr, Steve St Pierre, Mike Ouellette, and Grace O’Neal.

6: Melissa Nowell, Velma Thomas, Mary Brown, Julie Tuell, and Kathleen Cravens of the Mary Dow Center stand with Mark Politte of Stanley Subaru.

The car dealer’s 2013 Share the Love event raised $4,000 for the Mary Dow Center.

12 / Bangor Metro May 2014

Photos: #6 Debra Bell, Bell Imaging & Design LLC, www.bellphotostudio.com

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movers & shakers

A

Loyalty and Service

Photo: courtesy emhs

Miles Theeman has spent his entire career working for Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, and he couldn’t be happier about it. By Stephanie Harp

s an only child growing up in Lubec, Miles Theeman joked he didn’t have to share with anyone but his dog. Now, he shares his love of Bangor with everyone who will listen. And he has plenty of opportunities to do so, as vice president, chief sales and marketing officer at Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems (EMHS), a member of many boards, and the 2013 recipient of the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce’s Norbert X. Dowd Award.

“We’ve got a great airport, the third longest runway on the East Coast. We’ve got great health care. We’ve got great banking institutions. We’ve got great educational institutions. We’ve got a workforce that really do want to work, people you can trust, and there are a lot of them,” Theeman says. “We’ve got all these pieces. We just have to make sure we package them right, and we convince people [that, as] a place to live and to work and to raise a family, there’s no better place in the U.S. than the Bangor region.”

And he’s not just talking. Theeman left Lubec for the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, continuing on to the University of Florida for an MBA. In 1974, he brought his wife, Sharon, to Bangor, where they raised two daughters.

After a brief stint with a planning agency, he has since spent his entire career at what is now Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, first as an assistant administrator for ambulatory care, later as vice president and chief operating officer for Affiliated Chemical Dependency Services, and then as president and chief executive officer of Affiliated Healthcare Systems.

He currently provides marketing support for for-profit and nonprofit EMHS members. “It has really been a treat to be part of an organization that has become such a force,” he says. “When you go somewhere and you say you work for Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, people notice.”

Outside the office, Theeman has been involved in a long list of civic organizations and causes, including a term as chairman of the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce, in 2003-04. He credits his parents, who owned a small clothing store in Lubec, with teaching him about community. “[My parents are a] great example of people who made a living from the folks in that small community but also understood the need to be part of that community. Their attitude, whether it was getting involved in a church sup-

per, or a social or civic organization, or the community as a whole, was simply, ‘If not us, then who?’ And I never forgot that.” Gracious in acknowledging others, Theeman calls receiving the Dowd Award “humbling” and says many could have been honored in his place.

In addition to his work with the Bangor YMCA and his synagogue, he has focused on promoting research and development initiatives through organizations like the Maine Innovation Economy Advisory Board, the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce, Mobilize Eastern Maine, and the Bangor-Saint John Economic Corridor Committee. “There are 300,000 to 400,000 people that are a lot closer to us than Iowa or Kansas. And we’ve got much more in common with our friends in the Maritimes than we have differences,” he says. “Our running joke was always, ‘It’s just a border.’”

One project Theeman is working on this year is through the University of Maine’s Board of Visitors, of which he is a member. He and Mobilize Eastern Maine co-chair Elizabeth Sutherland are focused on making sure that everyone who comes to the UMaine campus “from away” will walk away with reasons why the Bangor region is the perfect location for them and their business.

Any mention of the new Cross Insurance Center animates his enthusiasm.

“I’m so proud of the people of Bangor and all the people that I got to work with on the “Friends of the Arena” committee,” Theeman says. “We all checked our professional egos at the door and pursued a singular objective.” He adds he’d work with them again “in a heartbeat,” if given the opportunity.

The Cross Center may be Bangor’s newest, but Theeman praises all the venues, including the Darling’s Waterfront Pavilion. “If we were sitting around having a beer, even five or six years ago, and someone had said, ‘You know, if you had a venue here, you could draw 5,000 to 15,000 people, 20 to 25 times a year during the summer,’ you’d have said, ‘You’re out of your mind.’”

When the time comes, Miles and Sharon Theeman plan to retire right here.

“The future for the Bangor region is really bright, but we can’t sit on the porch and wait for things to happen. We’ve got to make it happen.”

With Miles Theeman on its side, Bangor may do exactly that. www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 13

Mutt Nose Best Jenny and Doug Dwyer are creating farm-to-bottle pet products that make dogs, and their owners, happy.

By Kaylie reese

B

andit, an Australian shepherd, had the persistent issue of sunburning his nose, but over-thecounter sunscreen wasn’t an option. Bandit’s owner, Jenny Dwyer, knew he would lick it off, and she was concerned about him ingesting the harmful chemicals. About two and a half years ago, she began to experiment with all-natural recipes in her kitchen and came up with a shea butter-based balm for Bandit’s sensitive nose.

Dwyer shared the balm with friends and family, who kept coming back for more. Before long, Dwyer and her husband Doug had a list of orders that required more resources than her kitchen could offer. The company started to expand quickly, formulating all-natural grooming products with shampoos and sprays by hand. “We try to keep our carbon paw-print low,” Jenny Dwyer says, and laughs.

Mutt Nose Best has the perfect recipe for success. Jenny’s background is in skin care, as an aesthetician, and Doug 14 / Bangor Metro May 2014

has been formulating and manufacturing for 30 years. Their love for their pets and dedication to all-natural products is what drives them, and their Maine workethic keeps them going strong.

Jenny says Mutt Nose Best’s “farmto-bottle” products entered the market at the right time. “Everybody was so cautious of what they fed their pets after the tainted dog food scare, but there wasn’t any attention drawn to what was going on them, topically, which also goes into their bloodstream,” she says. That’s why they incorporate as many local and organic ingredients as possible.

“We’re careful about our soaps, shampoos, and what we eat and use on ourselves, and I just found there wasn’t the variety for pets as there is for people,” Dwyer says. “The market needed a natural product like this. We’re handcrafted, in small batches, and people respond to that really well. They also respond to the fact that it’s made in Maine.”

The Dwyers insisted “Made In Maine” stand out boldly on the front of every la-

bel, next to the name of every product.

Not only are the products made here, every formula contains at least one Maine ingredient, whether it’s oils, pumpkin, blueberries, or oats.

“We tried to go back to basics,” Dwyer says. “I grew up on a farm, so I incorporated a lot of the natural remedies my grandmother taught me, just the basics that are tried and true.”

Not only are the products green, they’re also user-friendly. For anyone who has ever tried to wash a dog, you know just how difficult it is to keep the dog and the water inside the tub. Even the best multi-taskers get drenched trying to juggle the soap bottle. Having six dogs of their own, the Dwyers know how much of an ordeal that is, so they created shampoos and conditioners that can be used one-handed. “No one wants to chase a wet, soapy dog through the house,” Dwyer says. This user-friendly design is evident in all their products, including wipes and balms.

The Dwyers formulate, manufacture, bottle, and label all products by hand, but they also pack and ship products by direct mail. While this might not be groundbreaking for a micro-business, their green paw-print even translates to their packing peanuts. Unlike the typical Styrofoam peanuts, these are made out of corn and are 100% biodegradable— they’re edible, too. And they’re cut out in the shape of dog bones. That way, curious puppies won’t get sick if they find treats in the packing boxes.

“The people who use our product and appreciate the quality of it being handcrafted and using the best ingredients that we can source. Yes, it’s a little bit more expensive, but it’s worth it,” Dwyer says. “We build customers for life. We have fans who go out and talk about us. I mean, that’s the best advertising you can get.”

Mutt Nose Best products can be found in more than 800 stores across the country and abroad. But you won’t find their U. Dirty Dog shampoo in a big box store.

The Dwyers are firm in their commitment to small and family-owned businesses. The company is looking to figure out what the next step is, in order to keep up with demand. “It’s a good problem to have, for sure,” Dwyer says. “But we won’t take away the hand-crafted part. That’s what makes us what we are.”

photo: hannah wilde

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metro health

Intimacy T

o start, it would seem some sort of disclaimer is advisable. While this article will not explicitly refer to anything, well, explicit, it is about the fact that individuals engage in sexual relationships. More to the point, it acknowledges that some of those individuals enjoying healthy and rewarding sex lives fall in that increasingly difficult to define category of “senior citizens.”

This is a truth that makes some folks uncomfortable. Or, at the very least, it’s something they would prefer us not to talk about. Or write about. Or think about.

Unfortunately, that seemingly blissful ignorance can have serious consequences in the real world. Statistics from institutions like the Centers for Disease Control show rising incidents of Sexually Trans-

18 / Bangor Metro May 2014

mitted Infections (STIs) in older adults.

These include Syphilis, Chlamydia, and HIV, STIs largely associated with younger populations or mistakenly perceived to affect only discrete communities.

There’s no question that life for today’s senior citizens is far different than when they were in their 20s and 30s. People are living longer and remaining more active.

A new generation of retirement communities and senior living centers are catering to a desire to maintain independence and a degree of privacy. Included in these new advancements and opportunities for older adults are pharmacological developments that are allowing seniors to continue sexual relations well into what are often referred to as the golden years.

Dr. Gary Wikert, MD, FACS is an urologist

photo: Kraig Scarbinsky/thinkstock.com

Age and

People don’t stop having sex when they reach retirement age. In the age of Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra, we’re having sex well into our golden years. Staying healthy while doing so is more important than ever. By Tom Avila-Beck

There is no question that life for today’s senior citizens is far different than when they were in their 20s and 30s. at The Aroostook Medical Center (TAMC) in Presque Isle. Wikert says he’s seeing more senior patients requesting drugs like Viagra, Ciailis, and Levitra. However, as anyone who’s spent an afternoon playing follow the leader with a young niece or grandson knows, just because one can still do something—cartwheels or jumping jacks for example—doesn’t mean it can be done in as carefree a fashion as before.

“Seniors need to be certain the heart is cleared for sexual activity, especially if there is a history of heart disease and if the patient has not had sexual activity for a long interval,” Wikert says. “They may need medical clearance, just as if they were to start an exercise program.”

Aging can also mean the loss of a long-term partner or spouse, which means starting over. For some, it might mean contemplating sexual relations with someone who is not their husband or wife for the first time in their lives.

Leaving aside the profound emotional struggle this might cause, there are health concerns as well. With every new sexual partner come new risks. These risks can be even more significant for older adults as weaker immune systems can leave seniors more open to contracting infections.

The continuation of, or return to, an active sex life should not, however, be cause for panic or, for that matter, embarrassment. Christina Perry is a Fort Kent-based women’s health nurse practitioner with Maine Family Planning. She emphasizes how important it is to be as honest and open as possible with your practitioner.

“We ask every patient if they are sexually active,” Perry says. “I’m always surprised by the number of people who answer ‘no’ to that question, but are actually sexually active upon further questioning. You may not be having sexual intercourse as frequently as when you were younger, but if you have a partner

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Christina Perry

20 / Bangor Metro May 2014

with whom you are intimate then you are sexually active and at risk for sexually transmitted infections. We are not embarrassed to ask you frank questions about your sexual life and we do not judge you on your answers. Every question we ask is important for us to assess your risk. So yes, that STI you had when you were 18 years old, we really do need to know that, even when you are 75. Your history is always relevant and can play into future issues.”

It’s also important to provide your practitioner with information about any medications you might be taking, including vitamins, herbal supplements, and over-the-counter pain medications. Certain medications can compromise your immune system and put individuals at greater risk.

It’s also important not to ignore possible symptoms as simply another consequence of growing older. “As we age, we start to accept that our bodies do not act or respond the same way as they did when we were younger,” Perry says. “While it is unavoidable that our bodies will start experiencing issues, it’s important to be cognizant of what is part of the ‘normal’ aging process and what can be a symptom of something greater.”

Tell your practitioner all your symptoms. What may be a sign of normal aging with one or two benign symptoms may lead to a different diagnosis, when presented with a conglomeration of symptoms and an accurate history, Perry says. “If you’re in doubt, please mention it to your practitioner. Let us decide what’s ‘normal aging.’”

photo: courtesy maine family planning

metro health

metro wellness

We Come.

We Go. We Love.

Thoughts on the cycle of life.

By Emilie Brand Manhart

photo: Arman Zhenikeyev/thinkstock.com

T

he processes of being born and dying are two of the most intimate experiences we share with the ones we love. It took some time after the death of my father to acknowledge and understand the parallels existing between birth and death and the comfort lying in those blurred lines. Here is the story of how I gained some much-needed perspective on love and loss.

The day after my mother called from the oncologist’s office with the words “stopping treatment … hard to say for sure … about two months,” I flew straight home to be near my dad. I arrived to find my full-faced, freckled, bear-hugging, larger-than-life father in bed, looking like a ghost. His skin was so pale it was nearly transparent. I sat on his bed and reached for him. He stirred, looked at me, and—smiled? I’m not sure.

The hospice nurse checked his vitals and gave us a violet-colored pamphlet that outlined signs to look for as death came closer. I scanned the bulleted list of symptoms. Loss of appetite. Ragged, irregular, labored breathing. Coolness in the tips of fingers. I found myself studying him. I touched the tips of his fingers. Still warm.

My mom warmed a bowl of soup for him and carried it upstairs. I lifted the spoon to his lips, and, in a move totally uncharacteristic of my gentle, gracious father, he swatted it away, and told me it was “too dry.” Loss of appetite: check.

I was strangely encouraged by his waning appetite, oddly proud that we could check something off the list. For the entire year prior, we did everything in our power to save my dad, my capable handyman of a father, who whistled along with the classical music station.

And there I was, looking for signs of his impending death, wishing I could just pick him up and carry him over to the other side.

We wiped his face with a cool cloth, nervously hovered and asked the nurses a million questions. After several days of watching him wither away, I leaned in and whispered, “You can do this.” I was witnessing my father labor toward death.

I wanted to do it for him, and I could only sit by and watch.

A few short months after my dad’s death, I became pregnant with my first child. I frequented a hospital again. But this time, instead of images of a growing tumor, the ultrasound screen showed a strong, beating heart and tiny, kicking legs. When labor began I found myself in the center of a white hospital room, my family hovered around me, timing contractions, placing cold cloths on my head.

“You can do this,” my midwife whispered.

I left the hospital with Skyler Elizabeth, a tiny, pink-cheeked, healthy baby girl bundled in my arms, the only granddaughter my dad would never meet.

The exact moment my dad stopped breathing, a wave of relief washed over

me. No more pain. No more prodding or poking or scans or chemo. After the last push that brought my daughter into the room, I could only lie exhausted on the bed and stare at the white-tiled ceiling, glad the struggle to get her here was over.

No more pain. But the relief was shortlived. When my father died, the relief was quickly replaced by a desperate longing to go back in time and stand beside him. When my daughter was born, I was awash in a love so deep it took my breath away.

Baby Skyler came into the world with the reddish blonde hair and snapping blue-gray eyes of my father. She also shares with him an innocent curiosity and attention to detail. She collects seashells, pets our dog, and arranges small vases of flowers with the same sure and gentle hand as my dad.

And as witness to their coming and going, I get to be the bridge between them—mother to daughter and daughter to father—with all the love that overlaps and crosses over and weaves us all together.

Emilie Brand Manhart is a mom, runner, and triathlete who co-chairs the English Department at Bangor High School and writes the blog One Mom in Maine.

(A version of this essay first appeared in Mamalode Magazine.) www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 21

feature story

super

seniors Age might be just a number, but turning 65 is a right of passage. In our annual Super Seniors feature, we interview three senior citizens who aren’t taking their “golden years” lying down. By Tom Avila-Beck

E

verything about working on Bangor Metro’s annual “Super Seniors” feature is a joy. The people being profiled are funny, inspiring, and impossible not to like.

Invariably, the person who insists the loudest that there is nothing interesting about them tells some of the most fantastic stories. There is, in short, nothing that turns around a bad day like spending

22 / Bangor Metro May 2014

some time with these amazing members of our regional community.

Mike Opitz Mike Opitz was born in a small town in Germany just before the start of World War II. “I can remember the bombing of Dresden,” Opitz says. “I still have in my mind the sky, all red, and the German

Photo: mark McCall

www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 23

24 / Bangor Metro May 2014

Photos: mark McCall

“Nothing gives me more pleasure when I’m out clearing a trail than when I see someone walking in the woods enjoying themselves, especially if it’s a family...” —Mike Opitz

defense lights searching for planes.

He was six years old when the conflict ended, but he still remembers scenes from the war. “We were refugees, and my family was trying to get away from the Russian front and move behind the American front. We did, eventually, but along the way there were bombed-out houses and burnedout cars. These are horrible memories, but at the time I didn’t understand the gravity of what was taking place. When you’re growing up and experiencing war, it’s confusing. You don’t understand what’s happening.”

A variation on that sense of confusion continued as Opitz grew up in a divided Germany, living with his family in the East before moving to the West when he was 18 years old. “It’s probably one of the reasons why I came to the U.S. I could never make up my mind where I belonged.”

That search to find a place to belong has taken the nearly 75-year-old to corners of the world that could inspire wanderlust in even the heartiest of homebodies. His first time in New York City was 1958, when he was working as a physician’s assistant onboard a cruise ship.

He studied veterinary medicine in West Berlin, Germany and Vienna, Austria; he saw John F. Kennedy in Berlin and the Beatles in Liverpool. He worked in Sierra Leone and Malaysia as a veterinarian.

Today, Opitz’s cozy home in Orono is something of a scrapbook to those travels, where every item and object has a reason or meaning. Stacks of books, with titles like Veterinary Hematology, Avian Anatomy, and Poultry Management and Production, pay homage to the 25 years he spent at the University of Maine as a researcher, teacher, and public educator.

But if you want to really know where Opitz’s true passion rests, it’s outside the four walls of his living room. “After the war, none of the Germans had cars,” he recalls. “They were all confiscated. When it was the weekend and my dad wasn’t working we would walk in the woods as a family. It was our recreation.”

And it was something he shared with his own daughters, even when, as Optiz notes, hiking wasn’t something every family did. “In the late 1970s and early 1980s, being out in the woods wasn’t as common as it is now. Now we have land that has been preserved for people to be

feature story “It was just one of those crazy ideas you get and then, when you think about it, you say maybe it’s not so crazy.” —Dave Jackson

out and walk and run or mountain bike.

The trails are more user-friendly.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, Opitz is one of the folks helping to make some area trails more accessible as part of the work he does as a member of the Orono Land Trust. “Nothing is less attractive to me than sitting on the couch and watching television. Not if I can be out and doing something useful to help the community.”

Opitz can often be found encouraging folks to take advantage of the 50 miles of trails on the more than 1,700 acres of public and private land the town of Orono has to offer. “Nothing gives me more pleasure when I’m out clearing a trail than when I see someone walking in the woods enjoying themselves, especially if it’s a family—parents with their kids coming out and doing something.

That’s why I do it. I want to get people out to enjoy and appreciate nature. We can’t take what we have in this area for

granted. It’s not the Grand Canyon, but what we have here? You can fall in love with it.”

Dave Jackson It’s one thing to have an amazing idea, another thing to act on it.

Dave Jackson was watching the NBC Nightly News one evening in 1988 when a teaser for a story about the “children of Camden” caught the Rockport resident’s attention. “It turned out to be about the children of Camden, New Jersey,” Jackson remembers. “It centered around one grammar school, and these kids who were dealing with poverty and crime and drugs.”

Jackson was immediately struck by the students’ resilience. “One of the kids said, and he was looking down kicking a rock or something, ‘If I could only go someplace else.’ So, I got this bright idea.

Why not call the principal of that school and see if we could bring a busload of

those kids to come up here.”

At the time, Jackson was the president of the Camden Rotary Club, giving him the perfect opportunity to transform his notion into a community project. Just four months after that news broadcast, 35 kids were on a school bus making the trip from New Jersey to one of Maine’s most picturesque coastal communities.

“I thought we’d do it once,” Jackson laughs. “The program went on for 18 years. Some of those children are still in touch with their former host families and invariably say that week was the most important in their lives. One the original students was even able to have her own child participate. It was just one of those crazy ideas you get and then, when you think about it, you say maybe it’s not so crazy.”

Given his list of accomplishments— which were recently highlighted when the Penobscot Bay Regional Chamber of Commerce named the 82-year-old www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 25

their “Community Person of the Year”— it’s hard to imagine he ever decided anything was too crazy to pursue. Born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, Jackson worked his way through college as a commercial fisherman in Gloucester.

“That became a turning point in my life,” Jackson says. “I loved the work and the people, so after college I had a hankering to be associated with that industry.

I got a job with the magazine National Fisherman, and that’s what brought me to Maine. I started there in 1968.”

A few years into Jackson’s 15-year tenure at Fisherman he learned about a then fledging organization that sought to give young people the chance to fall as deeply in love with a life on the water as he was.

The Sea Education Association (SEA) has since grown to become an international leader in undergraduate education with more than 40 years and one million nautical miles of experience. “I was invited to sail with them as a so-called ‘visiting scholar’,” Jackson says. “I still have to laugh about that. I spent two weeks on board, teaching and counseling.”

That first trip sparked a relationship with SEA that continues to this day.

“When I got off the vessel I decided I wanted to take a more active role in the organization. I’ve been an overseer ever since and have sailed with them about a half-dozen times.”

26 / Bangor Metro May 2014

Closer to home, Jackson has served on Rockport’s Budget Committee, the Parks Committee, the Camden Downtown Network Board, several school building committees in SAD #28, as well as on the school board. He has been involved with the Rockport Opera House, the Winterfest Committee, served as the Downtown Business Group Treasurer, and the Cinema Committee Chair. He also has the unique distinction of being the only person to have twice been named the Camden Rotary Club’s Paul Harris Fellow for his community service.

Today, the U.S. Marine Corps veteran divides his time between McNabb Marketing Resources—an agency that represents several international trade shows for North American exhibit sales and organizes the USA Pavilions at those shows—and the Camden Public Library.

Jackson played a key role in the Camden Amphitheatre’s 2013 designation as a National Historic Landmark.

The landmark designation process took some seven years from start to finish. One can’t help but wonder, with that project accomplished, what crazy idea will Dave Jackson tackle next?

Gloria Young Have even the shortest of conversations with Gloria Young and you realize how she built a successful career as a Licensed

Photos: (top) mark McCall; (opposite) Melanie brooks

feature story

Clinical Social Worker. The 81-year-old, who still works three days a week providing counsel to some 15 clients, has a manner that makes you feel like you’ve been friends for years.

Her natural inquisitiveness is nothing less than infectious, even when the subject at hand turns to the unexpected.

Take, for example, her involvement in what are known as “Death Cafés.” “The Death Café came over from England. If you look it up on the Internet you’ll get a better history than I’ll be able to give you, but it’s a discussion group geared to thinking about and sharing something that most people don’t talk about in a casual way,” Young explains. “The other week we talked about shrouds and green burials. We talk about how to help people in mourning, but it’s not a helping group as much as it’s about something people are curious about.”

The word “curious” comes up a lot with Young. Born and raised in Wisconsin’s Upper Peninsula region, her parents both came to the U.S. from Russia in the early 1900s. While neither had a formal education, Young’s father read to his daughter constantly. “I remember that he always told me I could do anything.”

Young set out to prove her father right.

After teaching Young and her brother how to put a car together from the vehicles in the junkyard he ran, Young and her brother established a lucrative business for themselves. She’s worked as an auctioneer, antique restorer, appraiser, and antiques dealer. She’s earned a bachelor’s

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“Every year, I have decided to do at least one important thing. It isn’t a bucket list. To me, bucket lists are things you have to do, and I don’t want to have to do anything.” —Gloria Young 28 / Bangor Metro May 2014



Photo: Melanie brooks

“It really is all about trust.” degree in special education, a master’s degree in social work, and raised three children who, she says, are raising six amazing grandchildren.

Today, Young seems to worry less if something can be done than about asking why it should be done. “Our economic situation isn’t retirement oriented anymore, there’s no defined path for what to do next. I’m in the process of thinking about what it would be like to work less, but my work is so exciting. Why would I do that?” she says.

Truth be told, Young is showing no intention of slowing down.

“Every year, I have decided to do at least one important thing. It isn’t a bucket list. To me, bucket lists are things you have to do, and I don’t want to have to do anything. Last year I decided that I would like to try singing, which is not something that I’m good at. So, I got a singing teacher and joined the community chorus in Camden and I ended up knowing that I can’t sing, but I still like it.

This year, I’m trying to learn about money and investing. I may end up finding out that I can’t sing and I can’t count,” she jokes.

It would also seem that she’s not content with setting her sights on just one thing every year. Poetry has already been tackled, as well as continuing her own organic gardening; investigations into permaculture; and the running of “Vintage Kitchen Ware,” a summer shop she operates from her barn. She was also part of the “No Tanks” movement that kept a propane tank from being placed in the town of Searsport, where she’s lived for the last 30 years.

Not surprisingly where Young is concerned, the last three decades have only sparked a desire to know more about the region. “Every time I’ve lived somewhere I’ve regretted not really knowing it, like Chicago. I lived there a long time but didn’t get to see all of it. I’m not doing that here,” she says. “Last year, I joined the Penobscot Bay Watershed Region.

They have a stewards program that is excellent. You took a whole month— every Tuesday and Thursday—and they brought us to different places and different islands. You got to understand the history and the problems in this area, and then you pay the experience back by volunteering. The Belfast area is just such an exciting place to live.”

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Strutting 30 / Bangor Metro May 2014

our Stuff Thousands of people flock to Maine, year-round, for many different reasons. Festivals and events are a great way to attract visitors. The money they spend stays here and helps the local economy. By Henry Garfield

Photo: dream local digital

A

biathlon, a lobster festival, and a multinational gathering of the tribes might not seem to have a lot in common, but each brings hoards of visitors to Maine. The Maine Lobster Festival draws throngs to the Rockland waterfront each August for a five-day celebration of all things lobster. The World Acadian Congress happens only once every five years, but this year’s event takes place over a two-week period in northern Maine and two Canadian provinces.

More than 30,000 people are expected to attend. The biathlon (skiing and target shooting) is a relatively unknown sport in the U.S., but the recent International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup brought Aroostook County into 70 million homes worldwide, via television last year, and thousands of international visitors attended the IBU World Cup Junior Championships earlier this year.

Perhaps more importantly, each event brings significant dollars into its local economy.

Of the three, the Maine Lobster Festival is the oldest and most established.

Modeled after a lobster festival in Nova Scotia, the Camden-Rockport Lobster Festival debuted in Camden in August 1947, offering all the lobster you could eat for one dollar. It lost money, and its sponsors lost interest. A year later, the Rockland Junior Chamber of Commerce, in search of a project, decided to bring the festival to Rockland. It was renamed The Maine Lobster and Seafood Festival, because of a donation from the Birdseye Division of General Foods of hundreds of pounds of ocean perch, which was cooked and served with the lobster.

After the 1949 festival, the Junior Chamber of Commerce decided to form a corporation to run the festival, joining forces with the local Elks, the Rotary Club, Lions and Kiwanis Clubs, and the American Legion. The festival is still run as a nonprofit corporation. Chuck Kruger is its current president.

“Our best guess is that the festival brings in around 80,000 people over five days,” Kruger says. “As for the economic impact, it’s hard to put a precise number on it. But I’ll tell you that it’s one of the few weekends a year we tell people they better reserve a hotel room several months in advance. It’s got to be in the multi-millions.” www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 31

The Rockland Lobster Festival serves more than 20,000 pounds of lobster during the five-day festival.

32 / Bangor Metro May 2014

The Maine Lobster Festival takes place each summer, right around the first of August. This year’s dates are July 30 through August 3. Festivities are centered at the public landing at Rockland Harbor Park.

Carnival rides and games became part of the festival in the 1970s and 1980s. Local musicians and entertainers perform the first three nights. Nationally known acts help bring in larger crowds over the weekend. David Cassidy, who starred in the 1970s musical sitcom “The Partridge Family,” was last year’s musical headliner.

But the focus of the Lobster Festival has always remained squarely on Maine’s most famous crustacean. The World’s Largest Lobster Cooker was constructed in the late 1990s. The Festival’s physical and symbolic center is the lobster tent, where patrons can choose between dinner plates containing one, two, or three boiled lobsters and eat them at one of the picnic tables laid out in rows and covered with checkered tablecloths.

“The thing that’s special about the Maine Lobster Festival is that you can stand on the waterfront and look over at the fish pier where the fishermen are unloading their catch,” Kruger says. “And then you can look 20 degrees to your left, and there’s the cooker, and behind you

Photos: (top) dream local digital; (bottom) Mike Edgecomb; (opposite) Pete Freeman/capture 27 Photography

feature story

is the serving tent. That’s a pretty short distance, crate to plate. It’s a direct connection to the food you’re eating.”

It doesn’t really happen that way, of course. Kruger explains the festival deals with a single vendor to provide all the lobster needed for the five-day feast: more than 20,000 pounds in all. “We need to have a fairly uniform size, because we sell it by the unit and buy it by the pound,” he says. For the past several years, the festival has contracted Linda Bean’s Maine Lobster.

As Rockland has evolved over the years, so has the Maine Lobster Festival.

“We’re part of Rockland’s renaissance,” says Kruger, who, in addition to his duties as festival president, represents District 48 in the Maine House of Representatives. “We’ve upped the educational component in the marine tent. We’ve made the arts and crafts tent more engaging, sometimes a little more edgy.

We’ve added some upscale food items.”

As a nonprofit, the Maine Lobster Festival donates generously to many local, regional, and statewide organizations. The Board of Directors puts aside $150,000 to run the next year’s Lobster Festival; much of the rest of the money is pumped back into the community. Projects receiving money from festival proceeds include the Gateway Center Project and Maine Lighthouse Museum in downtown Rockland, two new floats for a seasonal landing near the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse, a new ambulance and ladder truck, plus many worthy programs at area schools and medical facilities.

The festival draws people from as far away as Japan. It has also sparked the return of passenger train service to Rockland, after it was long absent. In 2004, Maine Eastern Railroad began offering transport to the lobster festival from Brunswick in old-

target shooting. Skiers carry their gun on their back and are required to take penalty laps if they shoot poorly. The sport is hugely popular in Scandinavia and northern Europe, often drawing television audiences in the millions.

“The thing that’s special about the Maine Lobster Festival is that you can stand on the waterfront and look over at the fish pier where the fishermen are unloading their catch.”

—Chuck Kruger style Art Deco rail cars. The train proved so popular it now runs five days a week, from late May through October, between Brunswick and Rockland, with stops in Bath and Wiscasset.

Unlike the annual Maine Lobster Festival, the Biathlon World Cup and Junior World Championships and the Acadian World Congress take place in different host communities, in different years.

Northern Maine is gaining a reputation as a proving ground for Olympic-level biathletes all over the world.

Maine may be known for its lobsters, but a different part of the state is quietly attracting athletes to a hotbed of a sport still unfamiliar to many Americans: the biathlon.

You’ve probably caught glimpses of biathlon every four years, while watching the winter Olympics. It’s basically a combination of cross-country skiing and

Andy Shepard is president and chief executive officer of the Maine Winter Sports Center, which has world-class biathlon training facilities in Fort Kent and in its headquarters in Caribou. The center was founded in 1999. In the years since, Aroostook County has become well known in biathlon circles.

Northern Europeans watch biathlons on television the way Americans watch football. Because Presque Isle and Fort Kent are in the Eastern time zone, events held during the day can be televised live in Europe in prime time. “When we hosted world cup events in 2004 and 2011, we had 70 million television viewers around the world each time,” Shepard says. “When you consider that the Super Bowl draws 106 million viewers, that’s pretty significant. It creates an awareness of Aroostook County far beyond our borders.”

The venues, Shepard says, are intended

Biathlon is a combination of cross-country skiing and target shooting from various positions.

www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 33

Top: The Nordic Heritage Sport Club in Presque Isle was one of the venues to host the International Biathlon Union Youth/Junior Biathlon World Cup. Above: Athletes ski a course with a rifle attached to their back for the target shooting portion of the race.

34 / Bangor Metro May 2014

to be a big part of the economy, epicenters of economic activity year-round. During the summer, when the snow is gone, mountain bicycles replace skis. Presque Isle has more than 30 miles of single-track mountain bike trails and hosts an annual mountain bike festival.

Earlier this year, the venues hosted

the International Biathlon Union Youth/ Junior Biathlon World Cup. While it did not command a large television audience, it brought thousands of visitors to the area. When not hosting events, the venues are used as an athletic training facility, a destination for youth groups, and by members of the public.

Because of the sport’s relative obscurity on this side of the Atlantic, biathlon facilities in North America are largely privately funded and staffed by volunteers.

Much like the Lobster Festival, an army of local volunteers is the engine that keeps biathlon events running smoothly. “The time commitment for some of them is enormous,” Shepard says appreciatively.

In Europe, he says, venues are staffed by well-compensated professionals. “They look at biathlon venues as important pieces of the economy,” Shepard says. “Those events bring in money and prestige. And this January, we had over 600 athletes, coaches, and officials here from around the world. Some stayed for more than two weeks, filling up the hotels and shops.”

This summer will see northern Aroostook County enveloped in another type of celebration, one with roots buried

Photo: (top) Pete Freeman/capture 27 Photography; (left) brent jepson

feature story

image: courtesy Congrés mondial acadien

deep in the region’s history. The World Acadian Congress—Le Congrès Mundial Acadien, in its official French—has been held every five years since 1994. This year, for the first time, it will be held in the St. John Valley, with events in Maine, New Brunswick, and Quebec. All events are bilingual.

Today’s Acadians, some 700,000 in all, are descendants of the early French settlers of what is now the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, who began arriving as early as 1604. They were a distinct colony from French Canada, centered on Quebec, developing different customs and slight differences in language. In 1710 the region was occupied and held by the British, who changed its name from Acadia to Nova Scotia. Upon the outbreak of the Seven Years War between Britain and France in 1755, the British began the forced removal of Nova Scotia’s French-descended population.

Some went to New Brunswick, some to Maine and Quebec, some to Louisiana, and some went back to Europe. Many others died. This Great Upheaval remains a pivotal event in Acadian history.

Acadians arrived in the Madawaska

area in 1785, which was already populated by the Maliseet Indians. The two cultures co-existed and are still there today, on both sides of the international border.

The final boundary between Maine and New Brunswick was not established until the signing of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty in 1842.

The World Acadian Congress began in 1994, in Moncton, New Brunswick.

The 1999 Congress took place in Louisiana, and the 2004 Congress was held in Nova Scotia, to commemorate the 400th anniversary of French settlement in North America. The 2009 gathering took place on New Brunswick’s Acadian peninsula.

This year’s Congress is hosted by the region encompassing northern Aroostook County in Maine; Victoria, Restigouche, and Madawaska Counties in New Brunswick; and Témiscouata County in Quebec. “We’re all from the same descendants,” says Louise Martin, a member of the local but binational group that put together the bid to host the Congress.

“We’re just separated by a river.”

Dona Saucier, assistant to Lorraine Pelletier, regional coordinator of the Congress on the U.S. side of the border, says this year’s event will focus less on Acadian history and more on “who were are today.” Some 120 families will host reunions at various times and places during the festival. All will be connected via social media to the Congress website.

“There are Acadians all over the world,” Saucier says. Families often use the festival as an excuse to get together every five years, she says.

On the morning of August 8, 7 a.m. in New Brunswick and 8 a.m. in Maine and Quebec, the Congress will officially begin, with a small ceremony on the shore of Beau Lake, where the three borders meet. “It’s out in the woods,” Saucier says. “It’s not a place you can drive to.”

Instead, the ceremony will be broadcast live on Canadian TV and online, with satellite hookups in Fort Kent and Van Buren. A public opening ceremony will take place later that morning in Edmunston, New Brunswick, across the river from Madawaska.

Maine’s big day will be August 15, the Assumption of Mary in the Catholic calendar, an Acadian holiday and the traditional midpoint of the Congress. Madawaska will host the day’s events, which

include an outdoor Mass and the midday Tintamarre, a parade in which participants make as much noise as possible, employing pots and pans, horns, whistles—anything loud. The evening will end with a multi-media film and music extravaganza, followed by fireworks.

Because this is the first Congress held across borders, organizers included customs and border control officials in the planning process from the beginning.

As a security measure, the international bridge between Madawaska and Edmunston will be closed on August 15 to everything but foot traffic and shuttles for the elderly and handicapped.

The Congress will conclude with ceremonies in Témiscouta-sur-la-Lac, Quebec, on August 24.

Most of the communities on the Maine side of the St. John host their own annual Acadian festivals or celebrations, and these will be folded into the Congress. Many local organizations have moved the dates of their events to fall within that two-week period. “Every day is jam-packed with activities,” Saucier says. “There’s no physically possible way you can do everything.”

The economic impact in the region is undeniable. Visitors from as far away as Louisiana and Europe are already reserving rooms, and at least one business, the Gateway Motel in Madawaska, is reopening under new ownership after sitting vacant for years.

Lobsters, winter sports, and families united by a unique heritage—these three, quite different events showcase our region of Maine for the diverse and fascinating place it is. They remind us of our past, provide an economic boost to the present, and help Maine communities look toward the future. www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 35

a piece of maine: machias

The Magic of Machias Nestled on an unspoiled stretch of Maine’s magnificant coast, Machias builds upon its past when planning for the future.

By Melanie Brooks

36 / Bangor Metro May 2014

History The French explorer, Pierre Du Gua de Monts, was the first European to discover the area surrounding the Machias River in 1605 and 1606. He was given the exclusive rights by Henry IV, King of France, to colonize the lands he was exploring. De Monts left France in 1604 with 79 settlers, including Samuel de Champlain (the royal cartographer) and Mathieu de Costa (a linguist). The crew founded a colony on St. Croix Island, near Calais, in 1604.

A substantial settlement of Machias didn’t happen until 1762, when men from drought-ravaged Scarborough visited the

Photo: lawayne kimbo/www.lkn.photography

T

he thought of driving to Machias may seem daunting to most Mainers. It’s not easy to get to, and it can take a while. But once you’re there, your perception changes.

This is a town with a rich history. It’s the home of the only building in eastern Maine that is directly connected to the American Revolution.

What people who live in Machias love is the unspoiled surroundings that make up the Machias Bay area. And who can blame them? If you want to experience the true Downeast area of Maine, hop in your car and head to Machias.

area in search of grass, which they found in abundance growing in the marshes.

The following year, more people migrated to Machias and petitioned the General Court to settle the area, which was granted in 1770.

Machias was incorporated June 23, 1784. Forty-two years later, it was divided into three towns: West Machias (now known as Machias), East Machias, and Machiasport. The Burnham Tavern, one of the town’s historically noteworthy buildings, was built in 1770. It was the site for meetings about the battles at Concord and Lexington as well as the anti-British plot that resulted in the capture of the British schooner Margaretta. This is the only building in eastern Maine directly connected to the American Revolution.

Machias today is a quaint village, reminiscent of what people “from away” picture as small town New England.

Photos: Courtesy of Michael C. Hoyt

The Battle of Machias Machias made its historical mark as the site of the first naval battle of the American Revolution. The Battle of Machias occurred June 11 and 12, 1775, in what is now Machiasport. The townspeople refused to supply the British with lumber for their barracks, which led to the capture of the armed schooner HMS Margaretta by the settlers.

Following the outbreak of the Revolutionary War and the fighting in Massachusetts, British authorities sent Captain Ichabod Jones, a Tory Machias merchant, north to acquire supplies to build housing for troops arriving in Boston. At this time, Maine was still a part of Massachusetts. Jones’s merchant ships, the Unity and the Polly, accompanied by the British armed sloop Margaretta, commanded by James Moore, arrived in Machias June 2, 1775.

Jones’s ships carried flour, pork, and other food supplies to sell to the citizens of Machias, but he refused to allow any sales unless he was permitted to bring lumber back to Boston. This angered the townspeople, who decided not to do business with Jones. Hostilities escalated to Jones asking Moore to bring the Margaretta within firing distance of the town.

The townspeople, led by Colonel Benjamin Foster, a local militia leader, decided to capture Jones but failed when Jones ran into the woods, disappearing for two days. The townspeople boarded

Top: View of Machias from the courthouse. Middle: Machias band on Main Street. Bottom: A view up Main Street, circa 1936. www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 37

a piece of maine: machias

the Unity, which was docked in town, and removed her sails.

The next day, June 12, Foster and a group of men commandeered a local schooner and, with the Unity, armed themselves and set out into Machias Bay to capture the Margaretta. The Unity, a faster ship than the local schooner, the Falmouth Packet, was captained by Jeremiah O’Brien. They tied up alongside the British sloop and stormed aboard. They captured the sloop and her crew, killing Moore in the process.

The captured crewmembers were held in Machias for about a month before being handed over to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress. The local community petitioned the congress for supplies and assistance and organized the defense of their town in case the British retaliated. O’Brien outfitted one of Jones’s captured ships with guns from the Margaretta and changed the name of the ship to the Machias Liberty. In July 1775, O’Brien and Foster captured two more armed British schooners in Bucks Harbor. The Provincial Congress recognized their efforts, commissioning the Machias Liberty into the Massachusetts Navy, with O’Brien as commander.

38 / Bangor Metro May 2014

Fort O’Brien was built—and destroyed by the British—in Machiasport in 1775.

It was refortified in 1777, but destroyed by the British in 1814. It was an important location for protecting the Machias River for generations. Fort O’Brien was deeded by the U.S. Government to the State of Maine in 1923 and is one of the few Maine forts that were active during the American Revolution, War of 1812, and Civil War. It was first administered as a State Historic Site in 1966 and can be visited from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

A Community That Cares “I’m not a native of Machias, but I got here as fast as I could,” says Sharon Mack, executive director of the Machias Bay Area Chamber of Commerce. For 30 years, Mack was a reporter for the Bangor Daily News. She first visited Machias while her daughter was enrolled as a student at the University of Maine at Machias. “I fell in love with the area. It’s what everyone wants home to be. It’s breathtakingly beautiful in all four seasons. The people are always there to give you a hand, to support you, to cheer you on. It’s an amazing community.”

As the Washington County seat, Ma-

chias has amenities most people don’t realize exist. There’s the university, which has about 1,000 students; a hospital; and a year-round, vibrant culture that comes out in full bloom during the summer.

“A lot of people just pass through Machias,” Mack says. “They’re en route to someplace else, and they don’t know what they’re missing. We’ve instituted some new programs to get people to stop.”

One of those programs is a First Friday Art Walk, which gets people out and about in downtown Machias. This summer there will be free outdoor movies at the Machias train station. What was once the main source of transporting goods into and out of Machias has been repurposed for today’s citizens. Guided walking tours will commence in June, offering residents and visitors alike a taste of the deep-rooted history that makes Machias such a special place.

So what is spurring all of these new, fun, recurring events? Mack thinks that community members had so much fun during the town’s 250th anniversary celebration in 2013 they didn’t want it to stop. “Twenty-five people got

Photo: phillip roberts

The start of the Blueberry Run during the Wild Maine Blueberry Festival.

Photo: courtesy axiom technologies

Susan Corbett from Axiom Technologies.

together and created a committee that put on a week-long festival last year,” Mack says. “Everything was free and everybody loved it. We had fireworks.

We had games. We had a parade with 600 people in it. No one wanted it to go away.”

The Chamber of Commerce has undergone a recent renaissance; the office was moved to a highly visible location on Main Street, and Mack was hired to lead the organization. “Once we moved, our door opened and people started walking through,” says Mack, who has been at the helm of the organization for about a year. “Community members had great ideas, and they had never known who to share them with.” As a reporter, Mack spent years sitting in the backs of rooms, listening as communities worked together to build themselves up. Now, it’s Machias’s turn. “The chamber building has become a community place for fun, and there’s nothing wrong with that,” she says.

Machias is home to two prominent summer festivals, the Machias Blueberry Festival and Margaretta Days. This year marks the 39th annual blueberry festival, a celebration of the wild Maine blueberry. Margaretta Days is a celebration of the Battle of Machias and offers a parade, period food, and reenactors dressed in period clothing.

A Place of Business Founded in 2005 by Susan Corbett, Axiom Technologies was instrumental in bringing broadband service to

rural Washington County. With funding through grant money, the woman known locally as the “Internet goddess” brought high speed Internet to more than 46 area towns.

The 59-year-old business owner is used to creatively thinking outside of the

box. When her Main Street office building went into foreclosure a couple of years ago, and the bank put it up for auction, she bought it. For the past year she has been working on renovating two of the three floors for Axiom Techologies.

She thought long and hard about what she wanted to do on the third floor, when she says she had an epiphany and decided to donate it to the artist community.

“The space is overseen by the Beehive Collective, [a local artist collective made up of volunteers,] and they are developing the space for 12 artists in residence,” Corbett says. There is no rent, but any artist who takes up residency must take up a Pay It Forward project for the community. “We’re really excited about it,” Corbett says.

Another business evoking the spirit of Machias is Machias Savings Bank, which opened on April 17, 1869, occupying an upstairs room in the Crane Block on upper Main Street. Lee Longfellow, aged 7, emptied $2.50 on the counter and was given passbook number one. He was the first depositor to the bank. The bank

Live and Learn on the edge!

New England’s Only Public Environmental Liberal Arts College

www.machias.edu • 1-888-468-6866

www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 39

a piece of maine: machias granted its first mortgage to J.W. Lyman on July 7, 1869, in the amount of $676. The bank needed its own building and moved to its Main Street location in 1871.

That little bank on Main Street finished 2013 with over $1 billion in assets and 17 branch locations. What makes Machias Savings Bank different is its culture, says Larry Barker, the bank’s president and CEO. “We know where our roots are, we know what has made us successful. We are one of Machias’s largest employers, with over 120 full-time and part-time employees working at either our branch or corporate headquarters. The majority of these employees grew up in Washington County and are raising their families here. We are committed to making a positive difference in our communities, providing the best customer experience in the business,

and providing a satisfying and engaging work experience for every member of the MSB employee family.”

A Place of Learning Susan Corbett wanted to do more for her community beyond providing Internet service and creating web sites. She creat-

class—and the faculty to student ratio is 1:13. And the view can’t be beat. “We’re located on the coast of Maine, and that has a certain caché for people,” says university president Cynthia Huggins. “It’s one of the reasons I’m here!”

UMaine Machias is the smallest member of the University of Maine System

Larry Barker

machias stats Population: 2,221

Population Density: 106.1/square mile Mil Rate: 20 Median Age: 42.4 Median Household Income: $30,848 Median Home Value: $99,404 Education: • Rose M. Gaffney Elementary School • Machias Valley Christian School • Machias Memorial High School • Washington Academy • University of Maine at Machias Largest Employers: • Down East Community Hospital • University of Maine at Machias • Machias Bay Area schools (AOS 96) • Wild Blueberry, Inc. (seasonally)

Natural Resources: • Two Rivers (1,000 acre conservation preserve) • Downeast Sunrise Trail • Machias Bay and estuary • Machias River • Middle River

40 / Bangor Metro May 2014

ed a curriculum to a digital literacy training program that has helped about 1,200 adults learn more about computers.

“If you think about your average business owners, they are probably between the ages of 40 and 60,” Corbett says.

“Those people haven’t had formal education about technology. They’ve had to learn in a hodgepodge sort of way. We have a lot of different levels of learners.

Some have never turned on a computer before. A lot have been self-taught.”

Classes are held in Axiom’s Machias office and in their mobile lab, which moves around the county to reach the most rural population.

Axiom Technologies offers distance learning opportunities for those in the health care profession and high school students who want to earn college credit through a partnership with Thomas College. Thinking outside of the box seems to be the norm for Corbett.

The University of Maine at Machias, New England’s only public environmental liberal arts college, also uses distance learning technology to their advantage through its three online degree programs.

There’s a lot to love about this school of approximately 1,000 students. Class sizes are small—about 17 students per

and the only one that has an environmental liberal arts mission. “That means that we continue to value and offer a traditional liberal arts education, but we infuse it with environmental sustainability,” Huggins says. “It’s important because of where we are located—an unspoiled part of the country. We want it to stay that way.

We want to do a better job of preserving our part of the coast. Our curriculum makes a liberal arts education useful and practical in the 21st century.”

The college is made up of adult commuter students, who attend school part time, and more traditional college students, who live on campus or in the surrounding community. “We are a public university, so we’re a very good deal.

We feel very strongly about our mission to serve Washington County and Downeast Maine. We’re very small, and our students get a lot of attention. We joke and tell the students, ‘You can’t hide from us!’”

The university is located in a small, safe, tight-knit community, which appeals to the parents of the students as well as university employees. “The people who choose to come work here come to engage with students in a way they couldn’t at a larger school,” Huggins says.

Photos: (top left) courtesy machias savings bank; (top right) courtesy umaine at machias

Incorporated: June 23, 1784

Cynthia Huggins

Providing an Exceptional Banking Experience Since 1869.

Machias Savings Bank has been in business for more than 140 years. We’re here to serve and support the communities in which we live and work. With a long history of cultivating successful customer relationships, we’re committed to providing you exceptional service that you can count on both today and in the future.

©2014 Machias Savings Bank. Member FDIC.

metro sports: high school

T

he Bangor Auditorium opened its doors in November 1955, just in time for the 1955-56 high school basketball season. The first game played in the building was between Old Town and Bangor High School. The first state championship played in the Bangor Auditorium was the 1957 Class L game, featuring Old Town High School boys against Edward Little. Old Town won. Fifty-seven years later, the first state championship game played in the building that replaced the Bangor Auditorium—the Cross Insurance Center—was also won by the Old Town High School boys. They defeated Poland High School, 64-39.

The 2014 Old Town boys team was ranked sixth when they entered the tournament, riding a six-game win streak. Coach Brian McDormand’s team seemed to be peaking at the right time.

After extending the win streak to nine and capturing the Eastern Maine Class B Championship, they went on to the state championship game.

At game time, neither the coach nor

42 / Bangor Metro May 2014

the team members knew they had the chance to repeat the feat of the 1957 team.

Led offensively by Eric Hoogterps and Mitchell Cole and great team defense spearheaded by Garvey Melmed, the MVP of the Eastern Maine Tournament, they pulled ahead early and never looked back.

“Poland got it down to five points in the second half, but we had a good game plan, defensively, and it gained momentum as the game wore on,” McDormand says. Old Town employed box-and-one and diamond-and-one defense strategies against several teams during the season, and they became very comfortable with them. Garvey Melmed took on the task of slowing down Poland’s high-scoring C.J. Martin. With help from Tyler Gifford and Nick Cowan, that task was accomplished.

“Team defense was the key,” McDormand says. “As a team, this was a classic case of peaking at the right time and perfecting a defensive game plan.”

The state championship game in 2014 was the final game of the season for this year’s Old Town boys team. In 1957, the New England championship tournament

was still being held. As state champions, the Old Town boys team represented the State of Maine in the tournament held in historic Boston Garden.

The New England tournament featured two teams from Connecticut, two from Rhode Island, and one each from the other four New England states. Old Town squared off against the New Hampshire representative, Manchester Central, in a match that set a number of tournament scoring records. Manchester Central won the contest, but the Old Town team certainly left its mark.

Led by seniors Don Sturgeon and Thomas “Skip” Chappelle, the Old Town team scored the most points by a losing team, at 86. Chappelle set the individual scoring record at 38 points. “That was a great up–and-down basketball game,” Chappelle says. “Both teams were running with the ball on offense, and we set the record for points scored by two teams.”

The New England tournament stopped being held in the mid-1960s.

At the time it ended, Chappelle’s singlegame record had not been broken.

Photo: beth morin

Then and Now

Even though the wins are 57 years apart, the Bangor Auditorium and Cross Insurance Center tie these two Old Town High School teams together. By Jack cashman

metro sports: college

A Basketball Legend in the Making UMPI’s Casciano boasts unique, multi-level coaching career. By rachel rice

Photo: Courtesy umpi

W

hen it comes to coaching different levels of play, University of Maine at Presque Isle men’s head basketball coach Jim Casciano has just about seen it all. He’s had the rare distinction of serving as a head coach at the NCAA Division I, II, and III levels, and at the junior college level.

Coach Casciano—or “Coach Cas” to his UMPI Owls team—came to UMPI in 2011 and brought with him nearly 30 years of collegiate coaching experience, including with the NJCAA, the NAIA, and the NCAA. But even before his coaching days, Casciano was having unique

experiences in the world of basketball.

He was a Division I player at Drexel University and a high school teammate to Geno Auriemma, the legendary University of Connecticut Huskies women’s basketball head coach, U.S. Olympic coach, and Basketball Hall of Famer.

Casciano got his start coaching with another true basketball legend, Rollie Massimino, who was recently inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. Casciano served as a volunteer assistant to Massimino while he was at Division I Villanova.

Casciano worked his way up the coaching ladder, assisting at Delaware, Washington & Lee, Old Dominion, and

Radford, before taking the head coach position at Castleton State in Vermont (an NAIA program), and later at St. Michael’s College in Vermont (an NCAA Division II program). While at St. Michael’s, Casciano was named the Mid-East Collegiate Conference Coach of the Year. After three seasons with Valley Forge Military College, Casciano moved on to King’s College in Pennsylvania, an NCAA Division III program, where his team won the 2001 Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Division III South Championship.

Casciano’s next stop was the New Jersey Institute of Technology basketball program, where he took the team into the NCAA Division I level of play. While there, he led the team to a 2002 conference championship and was named the 2002 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Co-“Coach of the Year.”

Following two years with Union County College in New Jersey, Casciano made his way north to UMPI. At all of his head coaching stops, Casciano has been able to rebuild the basketball programs, turning them into winning programs and oftentimes into championshiplevel teams. As for his experience coaching in so many levels of play, Casciano notes he knows of only one other coach who has done this—John Beilein, the current coach at the University of Michigan. Casciano and Beilein coached against each other when Casciano was at St. Michael’s College and Beilein was at Le Moyne College.

As if all his time in the gym coaching basketball wasn’t enough, Casciano also writes about it. He has written articles about his basketball philosophies that have been printed in the publications Winning Hoops, Coaching Basketball, The Basketball Clinic, and The Basketball Bulletin.

“Jim is an outstanding teacher and mentor who has survived working for more than 30 years in this very competitive field and is extremely well known in the highest of basketball circles,” says Doug Carter, UMPI women’s head basketball coach and sports information director. “From the standpoint of a basketball fan or coach, Jim’s story is absolutely fascinating. He has a tremendous depth of basketball and life knowledge.

In Pennsylvania, which is my home, and in New Jersey, I would call him a basketball legend.” www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 43

what’s happening

May

May 1 Hunter Hayes: We’re Not Invisible Tour Cross Insurance Center, Bangor This tour will feature Grammynominated artist Hunter Hayes, along with special guests Danielle Bradbery and country duo Dan + Shay. 7 pm. $35–$49.50. www.crossinsurancecenter.com May 1 National Theatre Live: King Lear The Grand, Ellsworth The Strand, Rockland Academy Award-winner Sam Mendes directs Simon Russell Beale as King Lear in this highly anticipated production of Shakespeare’s tragedy. 2 pm. $10–$17.

667-9500 • www.grandonline.org 594-0070 • www.rocklandstrand.com

May 7 Ani DiFranco/Orono Ani DiFranco Orono • May 7 With more than 20 albums in her repertoire, Ani DiFranco brings her indie folk music to Maine for a much anticipated concert at the Collins Center for the Arts Acadia Birding Festival Bar Harbor • May 29–June 1 One of the most well attended birding festivals in Maine, the Acadia Birding Festival offers dozens of outings for the bird enthusiast and outdoor lover.

44 / Bangor Metro May 2014

May 29–June 1 Acadia Birding Festival/Bar Harbor

May 2 Junior Brown The Strand, Rockland Legendary country music guitarist and singer Junior Brown brings his unique voice, songwriting craft, and doublenecked “Guit-Steel” to Maine.

7:30 pm. $20.

594-0070 • www.rocklandstrand.com May 2–4 Shrine Circus Cross Insurance Center, Bangor The Great American Circus features fantastic performances, amazing lighting and sound, and spectacular animal performers. Fri. 3 and 7 pm; Sat. 10 am, 2 and 7 pm; Sun. 11 am and 3 pm. www.crossinsurancecenter.com May 3 The Meduxnekeag River Canoe Race Houlton

Photos: (top) patti perret; (left) william sherman/thinkstock.com

May 1–11 Our Town Bangor Opera House This beloved tale follows young lovers George and Emily, who live in a small New England town serves as a microcosm of everyday life. Penobscot Theatre will present an Our Town for our time, starring Monica Willey and featuring original music composed and performed nightly by musician Jacob Augustine.

942-3333 • www.penobscottheatre.org

Events

This is a new, fun event, coordinated by the Greater Houlton Chamber of Commerce. Pre-register at 9:30 am; race starts at 10 am.

532-4216 • www.greaterhoulton.com May 3 Sebasticook Valley Chamber of Commerce 2014 Trade Show Sebasticook Valley Middle School, Newport Area businesses will showcase their services to the general public in a fun, family friendly atmosphere. The event will feature a blood drive, raffles, and door prizes. 9 am–1 pm. $2 adults; free for children 12 and younger. Bring a non-perishable food item to get in for free.

368-4698 • www.ourchamber.org May 4 Free Bay Chamber Music School Faculty Recital Union Hall, Rockport This community concert features strings, piano, voice, ukulele, and more. 3 pm. www.baychamberconcerts.org May 4 Rainforest Reptile Show: Reptiles in Peril Collins Center for the Arts, Orono This multifaceted presentation sends its audiences on an exciting, fascinating adventure through the rare and endangered reptile world. 3 pm. $25 adults; $12 for children ages 12 and younger.

581-1755 www.collinscenterforthearts.com May 4 Triple Crown Golf Tournament White Tail Golf Course, Charleston This event is sponsored by Pine Tree Hospice. Tee times at 8 am and 1 pm.

Lunch provided at 11 am.

564-4343 • www.pinetreehospice.org May 6 19th Annual Tourism Awards & Silent Auction Spectacular Event Center, Bangor Join the Greater Bangor Convention & Visitors Bureau and presenting sponsor, Hollywood Casino, in honoring the 2014 Tourism and Hospitality Eagle Award winners. Heavy hors d’oeuvres and

cash bar. 5 pm. $35.

947-5205 www.visitbangormaine.com May 7 Ani DiFranco Collins Center for the Arts, Orono Self-described folksinger Ani DiFranco’s music has been influencing musicians, activists, and women across the globe. She has more than 20 albums under her belt and brings her big voice to Maine, delighting fans across the state. 7 pm. $30.

581-1755 www.collinscenterforthearts.com May 8 Jay Farrar The Strand, Rockland Farrar’s musical style ranges from sparse, unaccompanied folk music to full-band rock ‘n’ roll arrangements comparable to Neil Young or Dinosaur Jr. 7:30 pm. $20.

594-0070 • www.rocklandstrand.com May 8 Get Your Groove On! Thomaston Academy Contra dance to the music of Twisted Strings. This outstanding acoustic duo plays old and new tunes with Celtic roots. No dance experience is necessary. Dance lesson at 7 pm; dance 7:30–10 pm. $15.

594-5166 • www.georgesriver.org May 8–10 Presque Isle Shrine Circus Presque Isle Forum Celebrate spring with a trip to the circus.

Thurs. 7 pm; Fri. 3 & 7 pm; Sat. 10 am, 2 & 7 pm.

764-0491 • www.presquisleforum.com May 9 A Benefit Concert for Maine People’s Alliance The Grand, Ellsworth This concert featured artists Pure Prairie League, Jonathan Edwards, and Chris Ross. 7:30 pm. $47.

667-9500 • www.grandonline.org May 10 MDI YMCA Healthy Kids Day and 1-Mile Fun Run Bar Harbor

Theater

Music

This free community event offers games, snacks, and so much more.

Kids are welcome to participate in the annual YMCA fun run, with proceeds benefiting the YMCA programs and scholarships. Prizes given and refreshments served at the end of the race. 9 am–12 pm; race starts at 9:15 am.

288-3511 • www.mdiymca.org May 10 Camden Cake Walk Camden Visit local historic inns and enjoy delicious bites of cake. Sponsored by the Camden-Rockport Historical Society.

1–4 pm.

236-2257 • www.conwayhouse.org May 10 National Train Day Celebration Airport Mall, Bangor Maine Operation Lifesaver will showcase operational model trains at this free event. There will also be displays, giveaways, and information for train lovers, young and old. 10 am–2 pm.

945-6878 • www.maineol.org May 10 Rise Above Fest Darling’s Waterfront Pavilion, Bangor This day-long show features Avenged Sevenfold, Seether, Motorhead, Hellyeah, Trivium, Kyng, Devour the Day, Black Stone Cherry, and Muckler’s Circle. $50.75–$73.75. www.waterfrontconcerts.com May 10 Merryspring’s Annual Plant Sale Merryspring Nature Center, Camden Fresh divisions, dug straight from

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Salon 241 ~ 241 State St. ~ Bangor www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 45

Events

Theater

Merryspring’s own herb and perennial gardens, are the highlight of the sale. Offerings include perennials, vegetables, and contributions from home gardeners and professionals.

9 am–2 pm.

236-2239 • www.merryspring.org May 10 Rossini’s La Cenerentola The Grand, Ellsworth The Strand, Rockland This Met Opera LIVE in HD production is a vocal tour de force for mezzosoprano Joyce DiDonato and tenor Juan Diego Florez. 1 pm.

667-9500 • www.grandonline.org 594-0070 • www.rocklandstrand.com May 10 Dancing With the Local Stars Camden Opera House This year’s stars will tango, swing, and hip-hop their way into your hearts as they take to the stage with dancers from Swing & Sway. 7 pm.

470-7066 www.camdenoperahouse.com May 11 Mother’s Day Plant Sale & Garden Walk Avena Botanicals, Rockport Meet Rebel Hill farmers Julie and Peter Beckford and purchase hardy native plants. Garden walk with herbalist Deb Soule. 12–3 pm.

594-0694 • www.avenabotanicals.com

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Certified DevaCurl Cutting Specialist

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May 11 Mother’s Day at Nervous Nellies Deer Isle All mothers get free coffee or tea and

Salon 241 ~ 241 State St. ~ Bangor 46 / Bangor Metro May 2014

Music a homemade scone with plenty of jam in Nervous Nellie’s Mountainville Café.

Wander around the whimsical sculpture gardens and enjoy the day.

248-6182 • www.nervousnellies.com May 11 Mother’s Day Wine and Chocolate Extravaganza Savage Oakes Vineyard & Winery, Union Treat your mother to wine and chocolate pairings at the Mother’s Day Wine and Chocolate Extravaganza, hosted by Savage Oakes Vineyard & Winery and Sweetgrass Farm Winery & Distillery.

11 am–4 pm.

785-2828 • www.savageoakes.com May 12 Performing Arts for Children: Amazing World of Animals The Grand, Ellsworth The Amazing world of Animals will showcase a variety of live animals and talk about their survival, natural history, geography, natural behaviors, and conservation education. Each presentation will feature five to six live animal ambassadors. 10 am. $3.

667-9500 • www.grandonline.org May 13 Senior Expo 2013 Cross Insurance Center, Bangor This annual free expo is filled with vendors who have services and products sure to please seniors. Come to the expo, meet the vendors, pick up important information, participate in information break out sessions, and view three films on the aging population by Working Films. 10 am–7 pm.

800-432-7812 • www.eaaa.org May 14 Spencer: Theatre of Illusion Collins Center for the Arts, Orono This is not your run-of-the-mill magic show, and the Spencers are not your typical magicians. This production is a unique fusion of magic and illusion, humor and mystery, persona and personality. 7 pm. $25–$35.

581-1755 www.collinscenterforthearts.com May 14 Business After Hours

Cappy’s Chowder House, Camden The Penobscot Bay Regional Chamber of Commerce will host their monthly after hours event in the center of Camden.

5–7 pm. www.penbaychamber.com May 15 Wildflower Walk Ragged Mountain Preserve, Camden Join botanist Wanda Garland as she leads the quest for the season’s early wildflowers. 10 am–12 pm. www.coastalmountains.org May 15 Dinner and Concert Fundraiser Featuring Meredith Andrews Spectacular Event Center, Bangor Meredith Andrews, a national Christian artist, performs for a cause. This fourcourse dinner and concert benefits the Shepherd’s Godparent Home and Nikki’s Hope of Bangor. 6–10 pm. $75.

941-8700 www.spectaculareventcenter.com May 15–18 Taste of Bar Harbor Bar Harbor Celebrate the rich culinary traditions of the Bar Harbor region. With a variety of world-class dining experiences for every palate, the Taste of Bar Harbor has something for everyone.

288-5103 • www.barharborinfo.com May 16–18 Wings, Waves, and Woods Stonington This year marks the 8th annual festival for “birding by land, by sea, and by art.”

There will be puffin and pelagic boat trips, eagle spotting, lectures, walks, and other fun activities. $15 registration fee.

348-2455 • www.deerisle.com May 17 Area Yard Sale Routes 1 and 186 in Winter Harbor This fun annual event is sponsored by the Schoodic Area Chamber of Commerce. www.acadia-schoodic.org May 17 R-Rated Hypnotist Show Spectacular Event Center, Bangor Watch as Frank Santos, Jr. makes your

May 17 Comedian: Krazy Jake The Grand, Ellsworth Krazy Jake, one of New England’s fastest rising comedians, has performed in front of more than 150,000 people over the past two years. He’s a fun, highenergy, blue collar comedian with a heavy Maine influence. 7 pm. $20.

667-9500 • www.grandonline.org May 17 Ghosts of Fort Knox Guided Tours Fort Knox, Prospect Join the East Coast Ghost Trackers on a guided tour of Fort Knox in search of ghosts and paranormal phenomena.

6, 7:30, and 9 pm. $15. Advanced reservations and prepayment required.

469-6553 • fortknox.maineguide.com May 17 Comedian Erin Donovan Camden Opera House Erin Donovan entertains the great people of Maine through a weekly humor column for the Bangor Daily News called “I’m Gonna Kill Him.” Her blog was nominated by Nickelodeon for “Best New Blog” in 2010. She was named

by BlogHer as a 2012 Voice of the Year, and won she its People’s Choice award in Humor. 7:30 pm. $15.

470-7066 www.camdenoperahouse.com May 17–19 Cash for Clothes Sale American Legion Hall, Camden Quality used clothing will be on sale to benefit Coastal Opportunities, an agency that provides services to autistic and developmentally disabled adults in Knox County. Sat. 10 am–4 pm; Sun. 11 am–4 pm; Mon. 7 am–11 am.

236-6008 May 17–June 14 Moose Mainea Greenville Each spring the Moosehead Lake Region hosts a month-long celebration of the moose. Events include the

museums Aroostook County Caribou Historical Society Caribou 498-2556 • www.cariboumaine.net Hancock County Abbe Museum Bar Harbor 822-3519 • www.abbemuseum.org George B. Dorr Museum of Natural History Bar Harbor 288-5015 • www.coamuseum.org Knox County Coastal Children’s Museum Rockland 596-0300 www.coastalchildrensmuseum.org Farnsworth Art Museum & Wyeth Center Rockland 596-6457 www.farnsworthmuseum.org

Moosterpiece Craft Fair, Moose Mainea Kid’s Fun day, a town-wide yard sale, and the Maine Moose Lottery, just to name a few. Join in the celebration of the area’s most famous resident: the moose.

695-2702 May 18 Young Stars of Maine 2014 Prize Winners’ Concert Rockport Opera House, Rockport The Young Stars of Maine Prize Program was established to recognize, encourage, and reward young Maine music students who are serious in their study and performance of music. This prize program culminates every year with the Young Stars of Maine Concert, featuring the prize-winners, at the Rockport Opera House. This free concert features prize recipients in eight categories, and is open to the public. 4 pm. www.baychamberconcerts.org May 21 Spring Bird Walk Ducktrap River Preserve, Lincolnville Kristen Lindquist from Coastal

Maine Lighthouse Museum Rockland 594-3301 www.mainelighthousemuseum.com Owls Head Transportation Museum Owls Head 594-4418 • www.ohtm.org Penobscot County Hudson Museum at the University of Maine Orono 581-1901 www.umaine.edu/hudsonmuseum Maine Discovery Museum Bangor 262-7200 www.mainediscoverymuseum.org University of Maine Museum of Art Bangor 561-3350 • www.umma.maine.edu

Mountains Land Trust and Cloe Chunn of the Belfast Bay Watershead Coalition guide this annual bird outing along the Ducktrap River and into the forested uplands. 6:30–9:30 am. www.coastalmountains.org May 15–18 Camden Garden Club Annual Plant Sale First Congregational Church, Camden Perennials from club members’ own gardens, from standards to the more

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friends do incredible things. Show includes appetizers. Doors open at 7 pm; show starts at 8 pm. $20.

941-8700 www.spectaculareventcenter.com

Salon 241 ~ 241 State St. ~ Bangor www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 47

Events

Theater

esoteric and the ever-popular rhubarb.

Proceeds fund scholarships for area students in horticulture-related majors.

9 am–12 pm. www.camdengardenclub.com May 23 & 24 Snow Queen Camden Opera House The Rockport Dance Conservatory presents Snow Queen and other H.C. Anderson tales. 6:30 pm. $15 adults; $12 students and seniors; free for children under 5.

236-7963 www.camdenoperahouse.com May 23–26 11th Annual Down East Spring Birding Festival Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge, Cobscook Bay View at least 200 bird species up close in pristine woodland, wetland, and fresh and saltwater habitats. Follow expert guides with local knowledge to see Atlantic puffins, boreal chickadees, and more.

733-2233 ext.330 www.downeastbirdfest.org

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May 24 West Bay Rotary Duck Derby Camden A flock of numbered, bright yellow rubber ducks will race down the Megunticook River to Camden Harbor for this annual fundraiser. Prizes will be awarded to the “owners” of the first ducks to cross the finish line. 1–3 pm.

975-7510 www.westbayrotaryofmaine.org

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Salon 241 ~ 241 State St. ~ Bangor 48 / Bangor Metro May 2014

Music May 24 Run for Your Life Obstacle Course Camden Snow Bowl Test your endurance and build stamina over a 5K obstacle course that ascends Ragged Mountain and goes across Hosmer Pond. Get a team together or do it solo. Blaze trails marked by barbed wire, rope swings, water obstacles, and fire. 9 am–5 pm. www.emergencychallenge.org May 24 Boots on the Ground The General Henry Knox Museum’s Montpelier, Thomaston The Knox Museum kicks off the 2014 season with a free Memorial Day Weekend community event honoring America’s veterans and active military personnel and their families. Rain or shine. 11 am.

354-8062 • www.knoxmuseum.org May 24 Pairings 101: A Little Latin Cellardoor Winery, Lincolnville Kick off the unofficial start to the summer with a Latin-infused pairing class. The layers of flavor and spice in Latin cuisine can change the way your palate experiences, just as the wine you choose can affect the flavors of your food. Seats are limited, so reservations are recommended. 3–5 pm. $35.

763-4478 • www.mainewine.com May 26 Memorial Day Parade Jackman Join the Jackman community along Main Street in honoring veterans for their dedicated service. Sponsored by the American Legion & VFW. 10 am.

668-2111 • www.jackmanmaine.org May 26 Memorial Day Bar Harbor Commemorate the men and women who have died serving our country at a traditional Memorial Day Ceremony in Bar Harbor. Join the American Legion, Coast Guard, Fire Department, and our nation’s veterans on the Bar Harbor town pier. 10 am.

288-5103 • www.barharborinfo.com

May 26 Memorial Day Parade Mapleton Sponsored by the Mapleton Lion’s Club, the parade will travel along Route 163.

2 pm. www.centralaroostookchamber.com May 28 Mamma Mia! Cross Insurance Center, Bangor Mamma Mia’s sunny, funny tale unfolds on a tiny Greek island. On the eve of her wedding, a daughter’s quest to discover the identity of her father brings three men from her mother’s past back 20 years later. You don’t have to be a fan of the super group ABBA, who provide the 23 hit songs for Mamma Mia! to fall in love with this unforgettable show.

7:30 pm. www.crossinsurancecenter.com May 29 Tim McGraw With Kip Moore and Cassadee Pope Darling’s Waterfront Pavilion, Bangor Country music fan favorite, Tim McGraw, brings his high energy show to Bangor, along with Kip Moore and Cassadee Pope. Doors open at 6 pm. $28.25–$102.25. www.waterfrontconcerts.com May 29 National Theatre Live: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time The Grand, Ellsworth Following its smash-hit live broadcast in 2012, the National Theatre production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time returns. Based on the acclaimed novel by Mark Haddon, the Simon Stephens adaptation won seven Olivier Awards in 2013, including Best New Play. 2 pm.

667-9500 • www.grandonline.org May 29–June 1 Acadia Birding Festival Bar Harbor This 16th annual event is a must for the birding enthusiast. This year’s speakers include Jeffrey Gordon and Greg Miller. $10 registration fee, event prices vary.

233-3694 www.acadiabirdingfestival.com

May 30 Celtic Woman: The Emerald Tour Darling’s Waterfront Pavilion, Bangor Global music phenomenon Celtic Woman has an all new stage production that celebrates Ireland and the Emerald Isles’ spellbinding Celtic heritage through an extraordinary presentation of traditional anthems, pop standards, and original music. Doors open at 6 pm. $32.75–$102.75. www.waterfrontconcerts.com May 31 The Ragbirds The Strand, Rockland Led by dynamic, energetic front woman and multi-instrumentalist Erin Zindle, The Ragbirds utilize an arsenal of instruments from around the world to create their fusion of folk rock and pop hooks. 7:30 pm. $13 in advance; $16 at the door.

594-0070 • www.rocklandstrand.com May 31 Rockport Garden Club Annual Plant Sale Aldermere Farm, Rockport You’ll find perennials, annuals, herbs, books, tools, and more at this annual sale. 9 am–1 pm.

594-4449 May 31 Rossini’s La Cenerentola Collins Center for the Arts, Orono This Met Opera LIVE in HD production is a vocal tour de force for mezzosoprano Joyce DiDonato and tenor Juan Diego Florez. 1 pm. $25.

581-1755 www.collinscenterforthearts.com May 31–June 1 Piscataquis Heritage Hot Air Balloon Festival Dover-Foxcroft This fun, family friendly event is sponsored by Kiwanis and the Piscataquis Chamber of Commerce.

564-7533 www.piscataquischamber.com

May 31–June 1 Free Fishing Days Jackman Enjoy two days of fishing without a license. It’s a great time to get kids interested in fishing or engage in some friendly competition with your friends. www.jackmanmaine.org

May 31–June 1 Spring Auto Show Owls Head Transportation Museum Start your engines and head to Owls Head for the annual Owls Head Spring Antique Auto Show. It’s the perfect way to kick off the outdoor auto show season in a fun atmosphere that provides two days of excitement for the entire family.

9 am–3 pm.

594-4418 • www.owlshead.org

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food file

A Taste of Adventure Abby Curtis’s Tortilla Española is a simple way to bring Spanish cuisine into your kitchen. By Melanie Brooks

50 / Bangor Metro May 2014

Photos: melanie brooks

B

elfast’s Abby Curtis is quietly exotic, with her olive skin, sprinkled with freckles; curly, dark brown hair; and piercing hazel eyes. The 37-year-old’s heritage has been mistaken for Middle Eastern, Jewish, and Italian. In fact, she’s an allAmerican girl who is half Dominican.

“My mom was born in the Dominican Republic and emigrated to the U.S. when she was 11 with her mother and brother,” Curtis says. Her mother, Rose Marie, watched her mother go to work in the garment factories of New York City. Rose Marie made it her goal to get a good education, and she did. She went to school to be a nurse, and eventually joined the U.S. Navy and served in the Vietnam War. “That’s where she met my dad,” Curtis says.

Ted Curtis, Jr., a native of Orono, brought Rose Marie back home to start a family. “My mom was probably the first Dominican woman in Maine in the mid1960s,” Curtis says. “When I emailed my mom what I was making for dinner tonight, she was really excited. Then she corrected my Spanish.”

Curtis learned Spanish while earning her master’s degree in journalism at The University of California, Berkeley, where she graduated in 2008. But her road to California was erratic. It took her a while to decide what she wanted to be when she grew up.

Curtis graduated from Orono High School in 1994. She always loved to write and started her freelance newswriting career at The Penobscot Times while she was still in high school. She studied English literature at the University of Maine in Farmington. After graduation she tested the waters, working as a school-based advocate for a domestic violence project and a wilderness counselor before starting an internship with the Bangor Daily News in 2004. She was hired by the paper the following year. “What I love about my job is getting into a community and meeting great people. Being able to report and gather information on a story, then heading home to be alone to write the piece suits my personality,” she says.

“I’m both extroverted and introverted at the same time.”

Curtis took to her job, but she wanted more. She headed off to California to hone her journalistic skills in 2006. “After staying so close to home for my un-

Left: Abby Curtis. This photo: Treats, tapas style, before dinner.

Right: Tortilla Española.

Traveling is a passion of Curtis’s. She has spent time living and working in France; Denver, Colorado; and Bogota, Colombia. She and Clark excitedly talk about their upcoming trip to New York City, planning out all the landmark places

they’d like to visit, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Ellis Island.

But no matter how far away Curtis visits, she’s always happy to come back home to Maine. “The longer I live in Waldo County, the more I love it,” she says.

recipe

dergrad, I wanted to spread my wings a bit and explore. I wanted an adventure,” she says. “I loved being in California. I met wonderful people and had amazing teachers in my program.” But, being a Maine girl at heart, Curtis returned home and took right back up with the newspaper that waved goodbye to their plucky reporter two years earlier. She’s been the head of the Belfast bureau since 2010.

On the menu for the evening is Tortilla Española, which, she admits, isn’t a Dominican dish but a Spanish one.

While Curtis is cooking the onions on the stovetop, her sous chef (and boyfriend) Jim Clark is slicing potatoes and herbs, and peeling copious amounts of garlic.

“We cook really well together,” Curtis says, when asked who takes the lead most often in the kitchen. Tortilla Española is a simple dish, but it’s the quality of ingredients that make it so delicious.

Curtis and Clark arrange small, tapasstyle dishes of sliced tomatoes, salad, olives, bread, and olive oil on the table. Red wine is poured, and the air is filled with savory aromas and festivity.

Curtis, who has two older sisters and a younger brother, recalls a family trip back to the Dominican Republic the family took together. “My mother hadn’t been back for 50 years,” she says. “It was really emotional. My mother had lived in a lot of different communities, and we traveled around to see the towns where she had lived.”

Tortilla Española Olive oil 4 large potatoes, peeled and sliced thin 4 eggs, beaten and put aside in a bowl Salt and pepper to taste In a large non-stick frying pan, heat 3 Tbsp. of olive oil over medium-low heat.

When hot, add potatoes and onion and ¼ tsp. of salt. Cook for about 20 minutes until soft. Add more oil if necessary.

When the vegetables are soft, add

another Tbsp. of oil to the pan, coating the potatoes and onions with the oil. Add the beaten eggs and tilt the pan so that the eggs spread evenly. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until the top of the omelet has slightly set and the bottom is very light brown.

Using a plate, cover the frying pan and flip the omelet over onto the plate. Slide the uncooked side back into the frying pan and cook for another 5 minutes or so, until that side is golden brown. Remove and serve. www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 51

kitchen confidential Where are you from?

I was born in New Jersey, outside of Manhattan. I grew up in and around the city. I spent many years living and working in the New York area, but also New Orleans, Louisiana; West Palm Beach, Florida; and Cincinnati, Ohio before I settled in Maine, about 10 years ago. I ended up here by accident. I came up on vacation to stay at a friend’s cabin in Friendship.

After one week I decided that this was where I wanted to raise my family. It took us two years, but we made it.

What is your first food memory?

My memories are of large family gatherings with multiple generations running around in the kitchen, each preparing their own specialties in their own way—a little pinch of this and a dab of that to make it unique. I remember the hustle and bustle of it all more than anything.

What are some of your early cooking experiences?

It all started in the home, baking with my Grandmother or just watching while she made her chicken soup. Her soup is the best I ever had. I can’t fully recreate it to this day. I liked to bake at first and did so more as a hobby than anything, but I enjoyed cooking as well. I actually started off in college as a philosophy major and worked as a photographer before actually taking a job in a kitchen. I was fascinated by food stylists who would come in to do the photo shoots and started thinking about a culinary degree more as an addendum to my photography career than as an end game unto itself. Once I started, though, I got so immersed in it all that there was no going back.

Chowder House It took was one week of vacation for chef Peter Gelman to fall in love with Maine. Tourists and regulars alike are thankful he decided to make the midcoast his home. By Melanie Brooks

52 / Bangor Metro May 2014

Where did you study or apprentice?

I graduated from the Culinary Institute at Hyde Park back in the 1980s. I worked for Alfred Portal at the Gotham Bar and Grill and spent some time at Auroura, in midtown Manhattan. I learned a great deal at the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans as

Photos: mark mccall

Cappy’s

Any family influences on your style and taste?

Absolutely. I have a pretty large family, and they all love food. At home we always had a pretty good mix going on, but we always loved to go out to eat. I was especially fond of visits to Chinatown.

Opposite page: Peter Gelman This photo: Seafood Diavolo

and we decided to go for the Seafood Diavolo. We make ours with mussels, clams, shrimp, and lobster in a spicy red sauce over pappardelle pasta. We were looking for a pasta dish to add to our menu.

It was an area we tried several times to fill. We went through several good options, but nothing really seemed to stick.

Personally, I love some heat on my food, and seafood, of course, had to be part of the picture. David, our owner, suggested getting outside the box a little and trying a different kind of pasta, something not so common. We played around with a few ideas and came up with this one.

It looked good and was met with great customer feedback, so we kept it. It has been working well for us ever since.

Your favorite restaurant?

It has been a while since I’ve been back, but I would have to say Gotham Bar and Grill. The chef was brilliant in his combinations and presentations. Now I want to go home just to go eat there.

well as the Boca Raton Hotel and Country Club, where I did my externship from school. Along the way I got to work with some great professionals and friends from whom I always learned and continue to learn to this day.

When did you realize you were a chef?

Am I a chef? I don’t know. I guess it was a few years back when my staff started calling me by the title. I can’t say I remember exactly when that was, and it actually made me a bit uncomfortable at the time. It still does a little.

What do you consider to be your pivotal career move?

Realizing that there were no job ads in the Sunday New York Times for philosophers. Culinary wise, I was involved in a business venture some years back in North Jersey called Simply Food. It was a little takeaway gourmet and catering operation. Over time the best functions we did were “over the border” in Manhattan, and the local stuff seemed boring by comparison to all the high profile places my classmates were working in. I decided to throw in the towel and go back to working for others for a bit and refine my knowledge and skills. It opened up a lot of doors and gave me a lot of insight into

food that I never would have gotten if I had stayed in that little shop.

When did Cappy’s open? When did you start working there?

Cappy’s opened about 35 years ago. I have been with the company on and off in one capacity or another for about 10 years.

What do you love about your location?

Everything. I mean, what’s not to love?

People come from all over the world to visit the midcoast of Maine, and I get to just be here all the time. We have a great spot on a major corner in downtown right by the harbor, with a great view right out to the water. The mountains are on one side, the ocean on the other.

What is your favorite ingredient to work with?

I don’t know that I really have a favorite ingredient to speak of. I love seafood in general and guess, given the choice, that would have to be it. There are just so many great foods, cuisines, and influences out there and available. I can’t imagine narrowing it down.

What is the dish we are featuring?

Everyone at Cappy’s thought about this,

Least favorite job-related task?

Disciplining employees. I love what I do and love to work with people who feel the same way. I prefer to maintain as casual a work atmosphere as possible. The job we do is hard enough. Fortunately, I have put together a great team, and these issues don’t come along too often.

The last time you really surprised yourself in the kitchen?

After more than 30 years in the kitchen, I don’t surprise easy anymore. But in reality, I surprise myself every day. There is something about this business. You come in every morning, look at what you ran out of, think about how much needs to be done just to get the place open, try not to worry about the 1,000 people who might come through the door, and, oh yeah, don’t forget the specials. The fact that every day, 364 days a year, that door opens on time and the food is ready to serve—it surprises me every day.

What does a perfect day off look like?

This may be the easiest question yet. A perfect day off is myself, my partner, our five children, and two grandchildren settled in at a lakefront campsite with a fire burning, a cold beer on ice, and something really amazing waiting to be put on the grill for dinner. www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 53

kitchen confidential

Lodging • Fine Dining • Irish Pub

What would you want your last meal to be?

Sushi and Sake—lots of both. Just keep it coming, and don’t skimp on the uni.

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“We aren’t fancy, just traditionally tasteful!”

Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound® has provided the freshest Maine lobsters, crabmeat, clams and mussels for over 50 years. No linen table cloths or fancy glasses, just good, old fashioned lobster fare.

• Open Memorial Day to Columbus Day • Closed on Sundays!

• At the bridge onto Mt. Desert Island • Mail order available year-round

1237 Bar Harbor Road • Trenton, Maine • 207-667-2977 www.trentonbridgelobster.com 54 / Bangor Metro May 2014

What do you love most about your job?

Would it be over the top to say everything? No, really. I really do love what I do.

You know the old cliché: Find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life? I try to make it real. Not that every day is a great one, but, in the big picture, I am living where I want to live, cooking great, fresh food for tens to thousands of people every season. If I had to pick one thing above all else, it would be the people, the customers. Meeting a couple in the dining room who ate here on their honeymoon and are now back 25 years later to celebrate their anniversary. The regulars who come in when they have a reason to celebrate and when they feel a need to be comforted and around friends.

The tourists from all over the world. Ask someone about their favorite vacations or most significant moments in their life, and almost always there will be a meal or food memory associated. They may not remember the name of the place or their server, and certainly they are clueless as to who cooked their meal, but it stands out. We are part of the memories that people carry a lifetime. Yeah, I think that’s my favorite part.

Cappy’s Chowder House 1 Main Street, Camden 207-236-2254 Hours: Mon.–Sat. 11 am to 10 pm Specialties: Chowder and seafood.

Accolades: Mentions in Gourmet Magazine, Food & Wine Magazine, and voted “Best Chowder” by Bangor Metro readers in 2013.

First Timer Tip: Sit In the Pub and enjoy our Famous clam chowder and a pint of one of our Maine microbrews.

Directions: Right in the heart of downtown Camden on Route 1.

VOTE TODAY for your favorite restaurants!

From Fort Kent to Rockland and Greenville to Eastport.

HURRY! Votes must be received by June 13, 2014!

www.bangormetro.com

per spectives

Britney Layne

56 / Bangor Metro May 2014

Britney Layne is a professional wedding photographer, freelance writer, blogger, and mom residing in Northern Maine. Originally from Texas, Layne moved to Maine in 2012 with her two dogs, daughter, and long-time boyfriend. When she isn’t photographing her clients’ memories, she can be found tending to her organic garden.

www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 57

T

Bear Wars Should hunting regulations and wild game management be controlled by out of state anti-hunting organizations or our own Maine wildlife biologists? By Brad Eden

58 / Bangor Metro May 2014

here will be a question on the November 2014 state ballot asking Maine citizens whether they want to ban bear hounding, bear trapping, and bear baiting. This question is a result of a citizen-initiated petition, spearheaded and funded

by The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), a Washington, D.C.-based anti-hunting and animal rights lobbying group. The ultimate goal of HSUS—who, incidentally, have no affiliation with local animal shelters—is to ban all sport hunting in the U.S., and they plan to do it methodically, through the ballot box.

How did HSUS garner the 78,000 signatures presented to the Maine Secretary of State? HSUS paid non-residents to solicit signatures and hired a California consultant and petition firm to manage the petitioners. They strategically positioned the solicitors primarily in urban centers in southern Maine. Using non-residents to beseech signatures for a state referendum is illegal under the Maine Constitution.

How did they get away with it? They also paid Maine residents to “witness” or pairup with the non-resident signature gatherers and characterized the non-residents as “pitch men” and not solicitors.

The campaign is based on the opinion by some that using dogs, traps, and bait to take bears is unfair and unethical, thus not “fair chase.” The concept of fair chase is the balance between the hunter and the hunted, allowing hunters to occasionally succeed while animals generally avoid being taken. This is considered fundamental to the ethics and responsibility of the earnest hunter. The notion of fair chase is highly subjective, particularly in light of the need for game management and in the glare of an increasingly technologic and urbanized society.

Who gets to decide what is fair chase?

Those who hunt wild turkey, waterfowl, deer, moose, and coyote use all sorts of calls, decoys, scents, and camouflage to increase their chances. Dogs are used to flush and point upland birds for the gun. They are routinely equipped with GPS collars to keep track of their whereabouts. The use of trail cameras to prescout and monitor areas for wild game has become commonplace. Deer hunters sit in ground blinds and tree stands hoping to ambush unsuspecting deer.

Which of those forms of hunting will be on the chopping block next?

In late summer through early fall, bear hunters and trappers take to the woods.

The majority will haul bait to stand sites, where they will sit in tree stands and wait for a bear to come in for a free meal. Some use GPS-collared hound dogs to chase and bay a bear, and very few will set out the one cable trap or foot snare for the one bear they are allowed. (Despite what some signature petitioners alleged, those big steel-toothed bear traps were outlawed years ago.) Cable traps are set to only close to 2.5 inches allowing non-targeted animals to escape. The prohibitions and requirements bear hunters and trappers must adhere to are extensive, including the obligation to remove a premolar from any bear harvested and provide it for research to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife (MEIF&W). The MEIF&W opposes this referendum to outlaw the three most successful methods of managing black bear in Maine.

Proponents of this ban point out that hunters can still hunt bear by stalking or by methods similar to deer hunting. This is true. But, despite spending considerable time rummaging around the Maine woods and the fact Maine has the largest bear population in the Eastern U.S., I have encountered very few bears. We have dense boreal forests, not wide-open mountainsides like out West, where a hunter can glass and then stalk a bear.

Maine hunters are already allowed to take a bear during the November firearm season on deer, and most would fill that tag if given the opportunity. But bears, if not overpopulated or acclimated to humans like they are now, are exceptionally wary and secretive creatures. Even with a virtual army of orange-clad deer hunters in the woods, only 4% of the total bear harvest is incidental to deer hunting.

It would be impossible to fully cover this highly charged issue in one column.

Prior to the state ballot, I will talk more about Maine’s nationally recognized bear management program, the implications and precedent this ban would have on future game management and our hunting heritage, the influence this ban would have on bear nuisance incidents and the impact it would inflict on the livelihood of guides, sporting camp owners, and on our rural economy.

Brad Eden is an artist, writer, and registered Maine Master Guide.

Photo: beyond my lens/thinkstock.com

maine woods & waters

savvy seniors

Photo: Robert Katarzyna Bialasiewicz/thinkstock.com

K

De-cluttering:

You’ve Got to Start Somewhere Spring cleaning is a great way to get rid of unused items in your home that may be helpful to someone else. By Jane Margesson

eeping one’s home free from clutter can be an ongoing challenge, especially as one gets older. Papers pile up, unwanted gifts get thrown into the garage, and clothes that used to fit are stuffed into the nearest closet. Most of us have at least a few favorite possessions with which we would have trouble parting. These possessions can be small, such as a piece of jewelry handed down from one generation to the next, or they can be huge. Personal items can take on a life of their own, and getting rid of them can feel overwhelming.

One doesn’t have to be an actual hoarder to feel trapped by possessions. It takes a personal commitment to address the issue. May is an excellent time to start spring cleaning. The results may be rewarding in unexpected ways. For example, a New York Times story linked decluttering to weight loss; the idea being that letting go of unnecessary objects in turn enables people to let go of unnecessary pounds. Another bonus can result if you are able to consign some of your items or sell them online. You’ll appreciate the extra income. Emotionally, many people say they also feel a sense of renewal. Cleaning out closets, garages, and desk drawers can bring a sense of new found freedom.

For older individuals or people living with disabilities, de-cluttering can add a level of safety. Piles of papers, books, or boxes can easily become a tripping hazard. Clutter in one’s home can also lead to depression and isolation. Some people become too embarrassed by the appearance of their living spaces to allow friends and family to visit. If you know someone who could use assistance de-cluttering, this could be just the right time to offer a helping hand.

If you are feeling a twinge when parting with your things, it is good to remember that, in many cases, your old belongings could be helpful to someone else. Most communities have nonprofit and charity organizations that willingly accept donations for the benefit of others. A quick search online or in the Yellow Pages will help you find a good match. There are also many national organizations that will pass along your treasured possessions to someone who will use them. For example, The Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation (www.mhopus. org) refurbishes musical instruments for underfunded school music programs. www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 59

savvy seniors

Open r Rain o Shine!

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Project Night Night (www.projectnightnight.org) will distribute your old children’s books, along with a blanket and a stuffed animal, to children in homeless shelters. You can donate your old sports equipment through www.sportsgift.org, which creates community-based sports programs for underprivileged children around the world.

If you are having trouble initiating the process of de-cluttering, try committing to a small allotment of time each day.

Many people report that devoting just 15 minutes a day to sorting or discarding unwanted items enables them to approach their goal without feeling overwhelmed.

Attempting to set aside an entire afternoon or even a full day is often ineffective because it can be an unrealistic objective that instead leads to procrastination.

Finally, remember the old adage “you have to start somewhere.” One drawer, one closet, one box at a time, you’ll reclaim space, clarity, and peace of mind and may end up helping others in the process.

Jane Margesson is the communications director for AARP Maine.

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A subscription to Bangor Metro will remind them how much you care all year long.

Winter Harbor • MLS#1117157 Beautiful timber peg post & beam on Grindstone Neck. 175’ of deep water frontage. 3 BR home with a fp & a large deck. $725,000 Barbara Bragdon The Winter Harbor Agency Office: 207-963-2347 bbragdon@winterharboragency.com

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www.bangormetro.com Bangor Metro / 61

last word

A Complicated Relationship Regular medical check-ups keep you healthy and guilt-free. By Chris Quimby

Chris Quimby is a husband, father, Christian comedian, writer, and graphic designer from Brooks. Visit him on the web at chris quimby.com or nachotree.com.

62 / Bangor Metro May 2014

image: mocoo/thinkstock.com

I

t’s difficult to predict the future, but one thing remains certain: If I continue to live, I will continue to age.

Already halfway through an average lifespan, I’ve been fortunate to enjoy good health and have rarely visited the doctor. I suppose I should schedule more regular checkups, but I’m never motivated enough. Perhaps if they served bacon in the waiting room, you’d probably see me there more frequently.

I got a lot of grief a few years ago when I went in for a regular checkup. They told me it had been about six years since I had last been there. So? Why should I make all the effort to maintain the doctor-patient relationship? Sure, I hardly ever go there, but my doctor has never been to my house. Not once. I’m sorry, but a relationship is a two-way street.

When I do stop in, it’s rarely for just a casual visit. There’s poking of areas and prodding of places and questions about the most intimate details of my life. This only happens when I visit the doctor. I don’t visit my aunt and take off my shirt so she can feel my heartbeat, and I don’t allow old coworkers to inquire about my regularity.

I have invested much of myself into this relationship, but I am still made to feel guilty. In addition to the emotional burden I am subjected to, I also am required to pay for each visit. And, like a sucker, I do it every time.

Before I left the office during my most recent visit, I decided it would be a good idea to schedule an appointment for my son.

He hadn’t been in awhile, and I didn’t want him to endure the finger pointing that I had.

He was a young child at the time, probably around eight years old. Before he saw the doctor, the nurse took him in a room where she checked his blood pressure and asked him a few questions. I had to be there to make sure he gave the right answers and didn’t say anything that would make me look like a bad parent.

The nurse was asking a lot of irrelevant questions, regarding such things as his favorite sport, the name of his best friend, things like that. Every time he answered, she marked something down on a chart. Then, the nurse looked at my eightyear-old son and asked, “Now, do you ever chew tobacco?” We all got a big laugh out of that one. When we calmed down, the nurse said, “He probably doesn’t even know what that is.”

My six-year-old daughter, with a look of great confidence of knowledge, looked at the nurse and declared, “Yes, we do. It’s that really hot stuff that Daddy puts on his chili!”

We got another big laugh out of that. I explained to the nurse my desire to always have my children stay that innocent. But secretly, she must wonder. Do I have such a problem with tobacco that I put it on my chili? Truthfully, I have never smoked or chewed it even once in my life, but she doesn’t know this.

I fear that she may picture me at home, with a steaming bowl of chili, covered by mounds of tobacco. “The patch isn’t working, and this is the only way I can curb my desires for a cigarette!” I would yell.

I would not recommend this irresponsible behavior to those that wish to enjoy long years. It is important to treat oneself with the greatest of care. Plus, there are other, more attractive foods one could use to top off their chili. Such as bacon.

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unsung hero

No Time to Retire

Rusty Brace, Camden, president of United Mid-Coast Charities

By David Brown

64 / Bangor Metro May 2014

Photo: david brown/northstar photography

F

For 35 years I have been involved with United Mid-Coast Charities, serving as president for 17 of those years. UMCC is dedicated to the support of charities that provide social services, like medical social, psychiatric, and educational services, and care to the most deserving populations.

We strive to locate charities that offer the most possible benefit to residents in and around the midcoast area, and we distribute 100% of each donated dollar.

My advice to someone who is wishing to become a volunteer would be to make sure you thoroughly understand the mission of the organization for which you are volunteering. Be sure you are willing to give the time necessary to be effective and useful to the leadership, and be willing to undertake any reasonable task. Most importantly, be sure that the organization fits your own sense of values.

There have been many great moments in my involvement with UMCC, all related to awarding funds to agencies, knowing those funds will be spent on the underserved so a new standard of living can be achieved. But there have been difficult moments as well. When we don’t reach our fundraising goals it means we can’t award funds at the needed level.

This does not happen often, but it is disappointing when it does.

I keep doing what I do because there is so much to be done in our community.

Watching people participate and work to raise the standard of living for others is a very special experience.

How would I define a hero? That’s easy! Our heroes are our donors who come from all walks of life. The officers and directors are custodians of our hero’s funds. They expect us to make the right choices. Without the donors there would be no funds to award. We want them to recognize the work we do on their behalf.

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