MARS HILL NEWS
by Tomi Henderson
Beau Bradstreet of Bridgewater proved that he can drink a lot of Moxie in a short amount of time! Recently, Beau downed eight cans of Moxie in two minutes to beat out the other five contestants in an annual contest held in Lisbon. Two of those contestants were past champions!
The challenge was to drink as much of a 12 pack of Moxie cans as you can in two minutes. Beau drank eight cans out of 12; second, third and fourth place all drank six cans each, and fifth place drank five cans.
As champion, Beau took home the title of Chug N Challenge Champion, a 12-pack of Moxie, a champion T-shirt plus bragging rights for the next year!
40th reunion
Just a reminder to the Central Aroostook High School Class of 1971: the 40th class reunion is on Friday night, July 22 at 6 p.m. and Saturday, July 23 at noon at Susan Vreeland’s on the Presque Isle Road in Presque Isle (Call Kathy for directions, and a sign will be out by the road).
For those who have not responded, there is still time. Please contact Kathy Miller at 540-6325. We are looking forward to seeing everyone there.
Family Camp special speakers
Whited Bible Camp in Bridgewater will be having special speakers during Family Camp from July 24-31. Special local women of faith will be speaking at 10 a.m. each morning. A noon lunch will be available for a nominal charge for those who wish to stay.
Monday will feature Melinda Kierstead of Presque Isle, while Tuesday’s speaker will be Cindy Gough of Newport. Wednesday’s speaker will be Gloria Watson of Mars Hill and Thursday will feature Karen Cushman of Mars Hill. Shyanne Pangburn of Dumfries, New Brunswick will speak on Friday, while Gail Bellamy of Presque Isle will be featured on Saturday.
Mars Hill celebration
A special weekend of activities is being planned for the 100th anniversary of the Mars Hill Fire Department. The celebration will take place Aug. 6 and will include a parade at 10 a.m., a barbecue from 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., and the Aroostook County Fireman’s Muster beginning at 1 p.m. The barbecue and muster will take place at CAHS. The $10 dinner will include ribeye steak, beanhole beans, potato salad, rolls, soda and coffee. The Ladies Auxiliary will be offering strawberry shortcake for $3 each.
Mark your calendar now! You don’t want to miss this special event! If you would like to have an entry in the parade, please contact Dean Burtchell.
There will also be some activities through the Recreation Department.
Rotary Club
The Mars Hill Rotary Club met on Tuesday morning, July 12, at The Aroostook Health Center. The special speaker was Maliseet Tribal Chief Brenda Commander of Houlton. There are currently 1,207 tribal members, led by their elected chief and six tribal members.
The Maliseet tribe was federally recognized in 1980, which opened up opportunities to apply for funding to make improvements. Until this time, the tribe had done most of its own improvements and had lived off the land as much as possible. They were quite scattered throughout the area.
Their infrastructure now includes housing units, a Head Start, a gymnasium, a health care facility and a community building. Having outgrown their current facility, an enlarged health care building is under construction and should be open this September. Working with doctors, nurses, a nutritionist and a diabetic educator, the tribe’s average life expectancy has risen from age 45 to 55.
The tribe is a complex unit, working with both federal, state and local governments, as well as with other tribes and internationally. Future plans for the Houlton Band of Maliseets include an athletic field and tribal burial grounds. Commander states that the tribe makes decisions only after a great deal of thought, looking ahead to how today’s actions will affect their future generations.
Library news
As of June 1, 2011, the Walter T.A. Hansen Memorial Library’s operating hours will be as follows: Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 12:30-5:30 p.m., Wednesday evening from 5:30-8:30 p.m., Friday from 9 a.m.-1 p.m., and Saturday from 9 a.m.-noon. These new hours will add an additional five hours of open business for the public.
The Library is selling raffle tickets on four $50 gas cards. Tickets are $1 each or six for $5. They can be obtained from any Trustee or at the library during regular hours. The drawings will be held Aug. 6 during the Fireman’s Muster events. Proceeds will be used to benefit the library.
Chasin’ the Chasses
Dana and Donna continued west on Monday, July 11 visiting Hoover Dam in Nevada. They even toured inside the gigantic structure! Lake Mead behind the dam is the largest man-made lake in the United States and is very beautiful. They continued north through Las Vegas on their way to California. They went close to Death Valley and experienced 103-degree temperatures, as well as a sandstorm!
Their next planned stop was at Yosemite National Park. Between the crowds, wrong turns, road checks and full motels, they just kept driving until they got to Jackson, Calif. The motel they stayed at there had a resident blackbird that “welcomed” them every time they left their room!
Their plans to visit Lasson State Park in eastern California had to be scrapped due to SNOW!! What a contrast — from sandstorms to snowstorms! From Red Buff, Calif. they traveled to the redwood “Avenue of the Giants“ area, driving through the Chandler Tree.
Other sites they saw included the Paul Bunyan statue in Klamath, Calif., the Upside-Down Tree, Brotherhood Tree and Candelabra Tree. The redwood forest certainly has some beautiful sites to visit.
On Friday, they headed to Crater Lake, Ore., with plans to stop at the Pacific Ocean. Donna wanted to compare it with the Atlantic and states that is smells just the same when the tide is out!
After deciding to head back east as the northern parks are experiencing some closings due to snow, they traveled through Utah and Nevada on their way to Colorado. They have traveled over 7,000 miles to date on their adventure!
Tomi Henderson is the correspondent for Mars Hill, Blaine, Bridgewater and Westfield. She can be reached at 429-9126 or e-mail tomihen@yahoo.com.
