St. John Valley area – Week of October 16, 2024

Beads from seeds – Msgr. Albert Long, pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas Church, Madawaska, opens a crate of seeds from a Queen Palm Tree sent him from Naples, Fla., by his brother, David Long. Fr. Long made a beautiful string of Rosary Beads from similar seeds last Spring. He got such a good response from parishioners and their friends, and had such fun in making the strings that he had his brother send him some more of the special seeds. He takes the hard, orange-colored seeds, sandpapers their ends for drilling holes and strings them on brass wire, fashioned into links. (File photo 1974)

50 Years Ago — October 16, 1974

  35 seek new jobs – Some 35 applications for the new job of Director of Recreation for Madawaska have been received by the Town’s Recreation Committee, Mike Walsh, chairman, has told the Times. The Committee met in October of 1974 with John Brailey, a recreation specialist with the University of Presque Isle, to review the applications. “We hope to narrow them down to two or possibly three,” Walsh said, making the final selection “that much easier.” While most of the applications have come from the Maine area, some have come from other states, even as far as Utah.

25 Years Ago — October 20, 1999

Class of 1949 – Nine members of the Madawaska Training School class of 1948-49 attended their 50th class reunion, which was celebrated at the annual UMFK/alumni banquet in October of 1999. In attendance were: Therese Albert, Antoinette Martin, Esther Boucher and Doris Noles. Also attending were: Lawrence Roy, Annette Levasseur Harmon, Clara McBreairty, Viola Tardif Sirois and Norman Labbe. In addition to attending the banquet, the classmates attended a 50th reunion tea hosted by UMFK in the Old Model School.

10 Years Ago — October 15, 2014 

Goodbye rectory — The church rectory on St. Thomas Street that now houses the Notre Dame du Mont Carmel parish offices will soon be torn down, according to Rev. James Plourde, the parish pastor. Plourde said that the parish offices are being moved to what is now the Madawaska Outpatient Center on St. Thomas Street, which the parish owns, as part of a plan to centralize much of the parish’s offices and services. The outpatient center building was built in 1929 and served as the parish’s original church and a school. The current St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church was dedicated in the summer of 1939.