Bird Song Music Studio
David Daniels and Jodee Davidson, who are husband and wife and owners of Bird Song Music Studio, will be moving their music studio to Standish on Middle Jam Road in June.
They are full time music instructors and got an opportunity to move to a neighborhood where they will be near his sister and brother-in-law and he describes his brother-in-law as a brilliant violin builder. These people love music and family and are looking forward to combining these interests.
David’s dad has been residing at Gorham House and he misses his independence and wants to be with his family. So now David and Jodee will be able to bring him home with them, as well as have ample room to set up a better studio space. They are currently living in Harrison, but are very excited about their future lives in Standish.
Both David and Jodee give private lessons but they both share their interest in ensemble teaching. They will encourage siblings to come to music class together, or two friends who play different instruments to come together for lessons. David believes that more public schools are limiting music education as part of the school curriculum. Therefore parents who want their children to have an experience in music education must pay privately for music lessons. This can be expensive for parents, and playing ensemble music is more affordable and can be a lot of fun for families.
Jodee is a music teacher with a degree in music education. David’s education is in civil engineering and he learned to play music through private lessons. While pursuing work in engineering, he realized that he wanted to spend more time enjoying music. He was not happy in engineering, and began to spend more time enjoying his love of music. He finally decided to pursue a career in music education.
After a few lean years he began to realize that he could support himself by teaching and has been teaching ever since. In addition to their own studio, they both teach private lessons at the Tony Boffa Studio in Westbrook. And David also teaches private lessons at Waynflete School in Portland.
The new Studio in Standish will be about 20 miles from their home in Harrison, and many of their students will follow them. For students who will not be able to follow them, they will make suitable referrals to local teachers. Now that David and Jodee’s two adopted children are grown and mostly on their own they felt that it would be a good time to make this move. The best time to reach them is early morning or evening at 583-6055.
Nuisance bear in Standish:
Residents of Saco Road and Milt Brown Road are having problems again this year with a mother bear and her three cubs destroying property and getting a bit closer than humans feel is comfortable.
Ron and Beth Peeling reported that the bear appeared at their home on Mother’s Day at about 3 a.m. and flattened the circular support on their bird feeder and when they looked out the window the next day there were huge bear prints on their large bay window. Ron Peeling tried to scare the bear off by sounding an alarm, and the bear climbed a tree but did not run off.
This isn’t the first appearance by this large gal, estimated by some to go as big as 400 pounds. There have been numerous sightings. They did contact a game warden and were not happy with the result of that. Game wardens do not want to disturb and separate the cubs from the mother and have given good advice such as bringing in feeders, not leaving food and food scraps around the property and not having any garbage or garbage cans where the bear can sniff food.
Since this is a wooded area, the wardens don’t typically trap bears in rural areas such as this, but it left the residents feeling a bit vulnerable. The warden did advise that bears are coming out of the woods in search of food and will continue to return if they are successful in finding food.
Another resident reported a bear last year after it broke a wooden railing attempting to get on the porch around 11:30 at night. One resident reported that her child was out behind their house picking blueberries when a bear showed up last year. People have been advised to make noise in order to scare the bear off, but in the case of the child, the mother did make noise but did not feel that it was effective.
She felt that her child was very vulnerable and with the area building up, neighbors are reporting that the bears are getting too close for safety. Many of the sightings are at night, but in the case of the child picking berries it was daylight and that makes residents wonder if their children are safe to play outdoors in that area.
Warden Service could not be reached for comment. Residents said that they will continue to try to get wardens to take action with these bears. They do not believe that there is just one bear because one resident reported that the bear they saw had a black snout and another said that it was brown.
Standish Rec road race:
The MDT Family SK Walk and Run will take place on Saturday, June 2 at 9 a.m. Cost is $25 registration fee for four or more members of one immediate family. Cost for single entry is $7.
Pre-registration entry forms can be mailed with entry fee to: Event Organizers, Standish Recreation, 175 Northeast Road, Standish, ME 04084. Registration the day of the event 8-8:45 a.m. at the start line at Otter Ponds YMCA Camp.
The race starts at 9 a.m. at Otter Ponds and ends at Shaw Park in Gorham. Transportation is provided back to Otter Ponds. T-shirts for first 50 pre-registered entrants. T-shirts may be limited so register early for best selection. Ribbons to all participants. Trophies to the overall winner for male and female, and to the top male and female finishers in the following cateories: 8 and under, 9-11, 12-14, 15-17, 18-29, 30-39, 40-49 50-59 and 60 and over.
For more information contact Linda Brooks ph: 642-2875, Fx: 642-5181 e-mail: standishrec@fairpoint.net.
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