Ellsworth American – Tiny House Built for Homeless Veteran

Ellsworth American – Tiny House Built for Homeless Veteran

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Tiny house built for homeless veteran
June 26, 2019 by Maxwell Hauptman on News, News-More Headlines

CHERRYFIELD — Downeast Community Partners, along with the Maine Seacoast Mission, the CF Adams Foundation and a Massachusetts high school, recently announced the construction of a tiny house for a formerly homeless Washington County military veteran.

DCP and the Maine Seacoast Mission had previously worked together and with other volunteers weatherizing and rehabilitating rural houses. That’s where they connected with students from Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School in Marlborough, Mass.

“We have a program here called Learn and Serve where we take students out to do community service, that’s how we got connected with Seacoast Mission about seven or eight years ago,” said Bill Italiano, lead carpentry teacher at the high school. “We were working on someone else’s place and it was in pretty rough shape, so kind of off the cuff I said I should build a new house in my shop. And now about three or four years later it’s coming to fruition.”

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Downeast Maine Tiny House Project Updater – Koopman Lumber Wood Delivery

Downeast Maine Tiny House Project Updater – Koopman Lumber Wood Delivery

CHERRYFIELD, ME — This video shows one of this project’s many sponsors, Koopman Lumber, delivering wood for the Assabet Valley Regional Technical high school students in Massachusetts to use in constructing the tiny house, which is destined for Cherryfield, ME as home for a formerly homeless US military veteran with a disability.

We are so grateful to every sponsor, donor, and partner who make this project possible.

Learn more about the Mission’s partnership Downeast Maine Tiny House Project.

Historic Photo of ‘Sunbeam III’ Launch

Historic Photo of ‘Sunbeam III’ Launch

BAR HARBOR, ME — Thank you, Sunbeam V Captain Michael Johnson for sending this photo of the Sunbeam III launch in Damariscotta, ME.

The Sunbeam V is undergoing a routine major refit right now. The boat is scheduled to be back in service around Christmas 2019.

Meanwhile, the Sunbeam crew members are keeping up with their varied work among island communities using the Mission’s temporary boat, Moonbeam, other boats, and small airplane travel.

Learn all about the work of the Sunbeam and crew here.

A Message from President Zavodny – The Island to High School Program

A Message from President Zavodny – The Island to High School Program

With your help, Douglas Cornman’s ‘Island to High School’ program prepares island kids to thrive in the midst of change.

 

You know the Maine Seacoast Mission is steadfast in addressing the challenges faced by many people in this region

I’d like to tell you about one piece of the Mission’s work that may surprise you. The Island to High School Program is an example of how the Mission watches and listens to our communities, and then responds creatively.

Every summer, a group of resilient young teens scattered across eight unbridged islands off Maine’s coast are faced with the reality that — come fall — they will have to leave their islands to attend a mainland high school. They are about to trade the island life they know for a life utterly foreign to them.

Do you remember the self-consciousness of being a high school freshman? Imagine that same blazing ball of worry amplified for island teens by leaving their family and their home. Their island population may only be 45, with a school of perhaps six K-8 kids in one room with one teacher. They’re moving to a school with 600 students and 70 teachers.

Nearly all these island students will be boarding on the mainland during high school, staying with relatives or family friends. Some families work together to rent a house on the mainland, where the parents take turns being the house chaperone. Each of these solutions is complicated. Each adds to the anxiety these kids are feeling.

It’s a difficult time, and much rides on their making a successful transition. Won’t you send your gift to the Mission today to help these young adults succeed?

Douglas Cornman, Mission Island Outreach Director, works with island kids for three years beginning in sixth grade to help them prepare for the changes high school will bring. Aboard the Sunbeam, he visits eight islands monthly so these students can learn and practice social-emotional skills.

Once a year, Douglas and other Mission staff bring them all together on the mainland for an overnight retreat with a carefully thought-out curriculum. The kids get to know one another, enlarging their circle of friends. Douglas invites high school teachers and staff to the retreats to spend time with the students. They talk about what to expect. They answer questions. They reassure.

Douglas builds in lots of opportunities for the kids to talk with each other and with him about their concerns. Volunteer high school students attend retreats and use their experience to help the islanders. These conversations answer the questions kids are more comfortable asking peers … about joining sports teams, fitting in, finding friends, dating.

These young people will thrive with your help. Your support lets us continue preparing Downeast youth for success through targeted programs such as Island to High School. The Seacoast Mission invests in the future, and has been a partner of island families for over a century. It fosters youth and family success, provides health services and basic needs — all to build resilient communities.

Your support puts our hands to work. Please send your gift today. Thank you.

Sincerely yours,
John Zavodny
President

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