Excited Maine music programs, 35 of them traveled to Houlton Maine April 4th, 2009 to compete in the Maine State Jazz Show Choir Competition. Over 200 volunteers, music boosters and up to 150 Houlton band and chorus members help organize, set up, run and tear down
Houlton Maine Hosts 35 School Music Programs For State Competition
the stages in the Houlton High School auditorium and gym for the event. Things started at 6am and finished after midnight by the time the Houlton Maine high school is spiffed back to its original condition. Watch the State Of Maine Jazz Show Choir Competition video. This is the fourth state event Houlton Maine has hosted and has it down to a science with planning, material’s purchase, set up and tear down. Lots of logistics but Houlton’s Joe Fagnant has done them before. Hear his comments in the above video hyperlink!
Lots of Maine potatoes, something to eat is not something everyone enjoys.
Some one special works behind the scenes to stock the food pantry shelves.
That loads up boxes designed for specific families as they are lovingly assembled. There is a local lady in Houlton Maine who works day in and day out at the Catholic Church’s Food Pantry.
She leads the leading force looking for loads of dented cans from large grocery chains and donations from this boy scout troop, civic organization or folks from every denomination. She is amazing and had eight kids of her own around long dinner table. There is a long list of helpers she created for unloading and emergency donations when the need is urgent.
This hard working volunteer lady is like the CEO for world hunger in the local Southern Aroostook area.
I asked her how come this cause…what drives her to be so creative and diligent year after year. She said as a child in the Boston area, she was hungry…a lot. She was raised with little money or food to go round and it became a way of life, survival. She did not consider it out of the ordinary to go to bed hungry without a meal when the rest of us sit down for sustenance or dine out. Not so unlike a concentration camp of past world wars. Or the poverty caused by the conflicts.
Trimming Beets At Nature’s Circle, A Local Organic Farming Operation In Northern Maine.
When you think about it…when was the last time you missed meals for a day, or were hungry to the point of passing out with low blood sugar and fatigue? I don’t mean dieting or young people purging or obsessed with skinny. This nation is so blessed with abundant food and at this holiday season, look around for food baskets to buy to feed a family over the holidays with beyond the bare essentials.
Consider signing up as our Rotary Club in Houlton does for ringing the bell of the Salvation Army’s Christmas donation kettle appeal.
Make it a ritual of what you do around the busy holidays to know the meaning of Christmas every year. Our local rotary club also raises close to a thousand dollars a year in $20 donations from club members to buy a basket with food given below cost by the local groceries in the Houlton area. It is so refreshing and heart warming to live in an area where people care for other people. Beyond the suppers for the cancer survivors or families that lost their homes in fires.
Also, Maine is loaded with farms. So much of the produce grown is wasted and left on the ground after harvest. Over-sized, kitchen grade vegetables are perfectly good for nutrition and just need to be gleaned. Before frost hurts the quality or the sun works its magic on the food left behind by the harvester. It is a same that roughly 30% of food goes uneaten that is perfectly good. Just needs to be channeled to the proper avenues to put it into the food chain before being lost.
You have so much…more than you could ever use and will get back a deep, sobering feeling of community by taking part in local drives.
Teaching Them Young. Mainers Help Mainers Of All Ages. To Learn Life Survival Skills!
Your kids are watching too and they can help ring that bell or deliver food to the pantry at your local soup kitchen! You may need a helping hand some day too. At our local rotary club we also have a Christmas auction with proceeds to help the local library and a portion for extra help for the Salvation Army Christmas appeal! Small towns in Maine are rural but tightly knit. The population pulls together to provide for the needs of all the locals and can expect the same support in life here in Maine.
Help get behind food pantries, soup kitchens in your area.
Shhhh.. be quiet as a mouse and do it like you are the only one that knows about the gift. That’s what makes it extra special and a sense of duty or a mission you can not avoid year after year!
Land…there is lots of it in the world, in North America, in Maine. But what makes an area stand out from others beside just rolling land, woods, fields and the local terrain? The people. Folks raised on Maine farms, fish along the Maine coasts or that own their own small business struggle against life’s forces . But they are determined to make a living for their families and provide jobs for area neighbors. It is not for the money, they live here for the quality of live.
I recently blogged about Smith and Wesson’s Houlton Maine plants news of producing the six millionth handcuff. There are many Maine success stories. Ward Log Homes is located in Houlton Maine too and is the oldest
log home / cabin manufacturer in the country!
Why the success? Quality products or services provided by hard workers that have pride in their area, their jobs, themselves. Putting your all into an effort. Lazy is not a Maine tradition and these people want to live here, raise kids here and have very very low or no job turn over. Mainer’s are content, happy, where they are suppose to be. In the “Pine Tree State” or “Vacationland ” up here in the left hand corner of the country called Maine.
My sons played hockey and trips back and forth to ice arenas in New Brunswick Canada were a big part of our winter acitivity as they grew up. Canadians from the Woodstock New Brunswick area visit Houlton to gas up, pick up some milk and zip back across. Where I live is only two miles from the US Canadian border. And to break up the winter, it is easy and fun to go thru the border to eat at German restaurant south of Woodstock on the Trans Canada highway, or to take in a movie. You literally can leave the country..for the afternon or evening. Canadians have the same privledge due to our proximity and connection with the dollar/looney tied together affecting the local economies of both Houlton and Woodstock. Here’s what the border crossing looks like.
“The Thrill Of The Hill” will for the 14th year happen June 20th. Trial
Gravity Racing In Identical..(Almost) Kit Cars.
safety runs happen the day before for soap box derby racers ages 8 to 17 in Northern Maine. The Houlton Maine derby race on Derby Hill, a specially engineered course used for spring and fall rallies too, is so easy to set up and take down. Safety is the main concern and in the past, the Aroostook County, Northern Washington / Penobscot County race was the nation’ s largest. For five years straight, upwards to 200 boys and girl stock, super stock and master racers have competed in “heats” to advance thru the race brackets to determine a Northern Maine champion for each race division. I had two racers, a son and daughter win the event in 1998, 2001 to go on to the 72nd All American national soap box derby race in Akron, Ohio.
At one time there were five local districts racing in Maine. It is a great experience for kids to learn about building a car with parent or big brother/sister. Skills with tools and patience needed, and friendly competition with your family cheering you on. There is a big party for racers and their families after each local race in June to celebrate and send off the winners to represent Northern Maine in Akron, Ohio’s world series of racing.
Northern Maine which attracts racers from up to two hours away in Aroostook, Washington and Penobscot Counties has had many top competitors finish runner up to the winner in Akron, or a little further down the line in the finals proving the Houlton race is very polished and competitve. Watch the 2008 Houlton Maine derby race video. Watch the 2007 Houlton Maine derby race.
Waiting to soap box derby race in the next heat to determine the winner.Loaded in the gates topside, waiting for a green light and release of the gate to race.Topside, ready for a green light to head to the bottom.
