Thank you Thursday for Jenny Jones at Bar Harbor Food Pantry

Thank you Thursday for Jenny Jones at Bar Harbor Food Pantry

It’s Thank you Thursday. Today’s shout out of Mission love goes to Jenny Jones for her five years’ local food security work as Bar Harbor Food Pantry’s (BHFP) executive director. Through a series of programs, BHFP provides people in Hancock County with drop by food distribution of perishable goods, non-perishable goods, free healthy meals, fresh produce, and even a retail boutique for second-hand clothing.

During her time at the pantry the programming and capacity of the organization was greatly expanded, reaching new families and creating new partnerships. She is leaving BHFP for a new position at Good Shepherd Food Bank where her position will entail supporting Northern and Eastern Maine food security agencies, including the BHFP.

Thank you for your work at Bar Harbor Food Pantry, Jenny. And the Mission looks forward to working with you at Good Shepherd.

This is what community looks like.

Bar Harbor Food Pantry

Good Shepherd Food Bank

Mission Job Opening — Journey Program Manager

Mission Job Opening — Journey Program Manager

This is a pre-Covid photo of Mission Journey students exploring the great Maine outdoors.

Mission Job Opening — Journey Program Manager

Position Summary

The Journey Program Manager (JPM) supports the Maine Seacoast Mission’s 7th-12th grade youth mentoring program, Journey, and nurtures its growth. Journey is one of six Maine sites funded through the Lerner Foundation to raise and sustain the post-secondary aspirations of students in rural Maine. The program upholds the Trekkers 10 Youth Programming Principles and the Maine Seacoast Mission goals of raising aspirations, improving academic performance, promoting responsibility for individual health and wellness, and contributing to the development of strong and nurturing family relationships.

Working within a collaborative team model, the JPM provides guidance, direction, and delivery for the entire Journey program, managing program logistics, administration, and community relations. The JPM offers leadership in college and career preparation and supervises the Journey Program Coordinator. In addition to Journey responsibilities, the JPM serves on the Downeast Campus and Student Pathways teams to support the Maine Seacoast Mission’s overall commitment to middle school, high school, and college students.

Full Position Description

Thank you Thursday for Karen, Corey at Z Studio Design

Thank you Thursday for Karen, Corey at Z Studio Design

It’s Thank you Thursday. Today’s shout out of Mission love goes to Karen and Corey at Z Studio Design, Bar Harbor.

The Mission works with many partners in order to strengthen community, including several that help us get the word out about our activities. Z Studio creates visual communications for print and web that project their clients’ messages accurately, persuasively, and beautifully. They have come through for us on many, many excellent graphic designs. Whether it’s a special logo for our signature Christmas Program, or the complete layout for our newsletter, “The Bulletin” — Karen and Corey always excel in their work and in their understanding of ours!

Mission Development Associate Anna Silver said, “I have worked with Karen both as a Mission volunteer and as a designer. She is generous and talented. She and her associate, Corey, are kind and creative. I always look forward to collaborating with them, knowing they will create beautiful designs. And despite how harried I may be, Corey and Karen at Z Studio remain calm.” We are grateful!

This is what community looks like.

On the web.

Jillian – Recollecting Terry

Jillian – Recollecting Terry

Terry and Bonnie at a DETOP.

Recollecting Terry
by Jillian

I learned recently our friend Terry died. It wasn’t a surprise. He’s been shuffling around with an oxygen bottle for a while, struggling to catch his breath. It’s been a handful of tough winters for he and his wife Dottie.

As Terry’s health diminished, friends and community helped with his firewood. I remember a conversation, years back, at one of our Downeast Table of Plenty (DETOP) suppers. We all were seated, eating at the big round table. Terry said he needed help carrying firewood into the house. Adam and Mark went over that weekend to move firewood. They did so for two winters.

Others took turns. Zach, Maeve and her son, Jaden, carried wood for a while. Neighbors looking out for neighbors. In summer, the Mission’s Housing Rehab workers moved and stacked big piles of firewood into Terry and Dottie’s wood shed.

Dottie and Terry have been together fifty years. Strong folk, back to the landers. They’ve lived many, many years off the grid, good and simple. Before coming to Maine they lived in a retrofitted bus in New Mexico. They first got electricity only three or four years ago when Terry needed it to power his oxygen supply. Scott Shaw, working through our Housing Rehabilitation program, had power strung down their long driveway, into their home.

Last fall, the Mission’s Megan Smith and Scott Shaw worked with Downeast Community Partners, to have two propane heaters installed in Dottie’s and Terry’s house. When Dottie called the Mission to tell us of Terry’s passing, she said Terry was proud of his new propane heaters. It’s reassuring knowing Dottie, without relying solely on wood, will be warm this winter.

Heart mending needs warmth.

I didn’t really know Terry before we were regulars at our DETOP community suppers. I knew he was old friends with Mooney. Like me, raking blueberries initially brought Terry and Dottie to Maine. I also heard Terry wasn’t afraid to have fun at Joan’s parties way back in the day.

The Terry I got to know over the last ten years was a gentleman. He held doors, asked about your loved ones, and about how so-and-so was doing. He was always charming and, with depth and attention, happy to engage in conversations. Terry had a soothing laugh. He told good stories and asked to hear yours. The mention of his wife Dottie always made him smile big.

Sometimes at our community suppers Maeve and I would box up something for Terry to bring to Dottie who prefers to stay home. She is feisty, tiny thing, with a smart strong spirit. Maeve and I wondered, making up a care package, what Dottie would like to eat. Cake or kale?

Early in the pandemic, when I stopped by to drop off a Family Food Center box, Dottie’s cute dog came running out to greet me. Bark, bark! This little dog is a bit chubby. Ha! I suspected then and there that maybe the dog shared some of Dottie’s Table of Plenty goodies.

Terry loved Table of Plenty, and Terry was loved at Table of Plenty. Pastor Priscilla had an instant soft spot for him. Young men loved having long conversations at the supper table about life with him. And Bonnie? Well, you can see their friendship in the picture here. Bonnie said Terry mistook her for a nun in the early days of our community supper.

Talking recently with Joan I asked her for few Terry stories from back when they all were young homesteaders. She said Terry bought their modest place with money inherited from his mother. Before putting down roots in Maine though, he and Dottie used a portion of the inheritance to travel in Europe.

Joan said she first met Terry some thirty-odd years ago when he delivered a truck bed full of wood scraps to a Rainbow family gathering she was hosting at her “Happy Hollow” farm. Terry knew the bunch of hippies camping in Joan’s yard would enjoy that firewood at the nightly campfire.

And with that — a story, a cycle of warmth, love and life — I will end my little homemade eulogy for our friend.

Recollecting Terry has been a gift.

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