The New England Radio Discussion Society will demonstrate emergency communications during the national Amateur Radio Field Day exercise June 25-26 on the south yard of The New School in Kennebunk.

Since 1933, amateur radio operators have established temporary amateur radio stations in public locations during Field Day to showcase the science and skill of Amateur Radio. Organizers say that Field Day is the most popular on-the-air event in the U.S. and Canada. Over 40,000 radio amateurs gather outdoors to simulate emergency conditions using a variety of antennas, transceivers and power sources.

Visitors will have a chance to meet and talk with local ham radio operators and see what the Amateur Radio Service is about. For the public’s protection and the safety of radio equipment operators, organizers request that patrons follow current Maine CDC COVID-19 protocols.

For more information, call Alex Mendelsohn at 207-967-8812.

KHS student earns scholarship for civic engagement

Kennebunk High School senior Mary Hauser received the 2022 Edmund Muskie Democracy in Action Award in the amount of $1,000. According to a June 3 news release, “Hauser is the third recipient of this award, given annually by the Democrats of the Kennebunks and Arundel to a KHS student who best exemplifies the spirit of civic engagement, participation in the democratic process, and democratic values.”

“Thanks to the encouragement of our Scholarship Committee, the DKA increased our scholarship award to $1,000 this year and we aim to continue giving at this level going forward,” said DKA chair Dan Sayre in an email.

Hauser plans to attend Wake Forest University in the fall, where she is interested in majoring in the sciences and global health policy.

“I endeavor to make my community better,” Hauser wrote in her application. “I have found that having passion and being positive, ambitious, and well-organized is the best way to accomplish this.”

In eighth grade, Hauser began the Kennebunk Coffee House, a venue where high school students perform over coffee and desserts to raise money for Doctors Without Borders. This annual event has raised nearly $2,000. A long-term goal of hers is to help refugees as a physician in Doctors Without Borders. Last summer, she was awarded a National Security Language Initiative for Youth scholarship from the U.S. State Department to study Turkish language and culture. Since 2020, she served as the President of the Kennebunk High School Senate and the Student Representative to the RSU 21 Board of Directors.

DKA Scholarship Committee chair Linda DeFelice said that Hauser’s application best demonstrated the spirit of civic engagement and participation in the democratic process. “She has engaged both within the school and the broader community, and she has a consistent record of leadership,” said DeFelice.

To learn more about DKA, visit www.kennebunkdems.org.

Kennebunk Land Trust launches Trail Challenge

The Kennebunk Land Trust announced that registration is open for its 50 x 50 Trail Challenge. In recognition of the trust’s 50th year, participants raise $50 in donations to travel (walk, bike, run, stroll, etc.) 50 miles in 50 days on Kennebunk Land Trust trails, Kennebunk Plains, or local beaches.

All proceeds go to keep the trails open and accessible all year long.

Participants can register for themselves, or as a group for a sports team, family, workplace, and more. Participants can also register a pup to be a part of the challenge, or compete between neighbors and coworkers. Follow the leaderboards to see how much others have raised, and receive a Kennebunk Land Trust hat and swag bag once miles are completed.

Donations for participants can be raised from family, friends, and community using a payment link. Registration can happen anytime, as this event is open all year.

Participants are encouraged to build community through the event by sharing pictures and accomplishments using the hashtag #my50x50, and following the Kennebunk Land Trust Trail Challenge on Facebook.

For more information and to register, visit www.kennebunklandtrust.org.

Reception planned for Merry Hermans Poetry Corner

Kennebunk Free Library and the George Hermans Family invite the public to a reception celebrating the dedication of the Merry Hermans Poetry Corner at the library on Wednesday, June 29 from 1 to 3 p.m. Participants are encouraged to bring a favorite poem – original or otherwise – to share in Merry’s honor. Light refreshments will be served.

According to a May 26 news release from the library, “Merry Hermans brought her love of poetry to each day of her nearly 26 years of service at Kennebunk Free Library. In addition to matching numerous patrons with their perfect book of poetry, she also succeeded in her mission to make poetry lovers out of some reluctant staff members, posting a poem of the month in the staff break room.”

The Merry Hermans Poetry Corner is made possible by a donation from Merry’s family and will provide a reading and writing space for poets and aspiring poets in the community. The space will be stocked with stationary, notebooks, pens, and other supplies to help spark creativity.

For more information, call 207-985-2173 or email kfl@kennebunklibrary.org.

Mid-Week Music does Dylan

The Bard from Hibbing gets covered at the next Mid-Week Music concert. The monthly series, held at the Town House School at 135 North St., in Kennebunkport, continues on Wednesday, June 15 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, June 19 at 1 p.m. with “Post-Motorcycle Accident Bob Dylan.”

Dana Pearson (guitar, keyboard) will be joined by bassist John Kumnick and drummer Dylan Kumnick (who gig with Fog Ave and also play in a jazz trio weekly at the Leavitt Theater in Ogunquit) on songs from 1967 onward, including “Sweetheart Like You,” “Not Dark Yet,” and “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.”

Tickets are $15 for Kennebunkport Historical Society members and $18 for non-members. The evening
show is BYOB (21 and older only).

For more information and tickets, visit kporths.com/buy-tickets,
email info@kporths.com, or call 967-2751.

Sixth annual LAUNCH! A Maritime Festival planned

LAUNCH! A Maritime Festival, in its sixth year in the Kennebunks, is scheduled for June 15-19.

The festival celebrates the Kennebunk region’ seafaring history with events for all ages at locations throughout Kennebunk, Kennebunkport and Arundel. For more information and a schedule of events, visit gokennebunks.comlaunch.

LAUNCH! is adding new events this year, including Claws for a Cause on the Village Green, benefitting the Maine Lobstermen’s Association. Here are the details:

Four local musicians bands – Michael Corleto, the Dock Squares, Beau Dalleo Band and Chris Ross Band – from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 18 at the Village Green in Kennebunkport. There will be lobster rolls for sale, hot dogs, fried dough and snow cones and the Musette bar truck serving cocktails. The event will feature games and more. Patrons are encouraged to bring a blanket or a chair for a day of music, food and more. Donations will be accepted for the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, which supports local lobstermen.

“For the second year in a row, we are partnering with the Maine Lobstermen’s Association to give them a platform to better educate the public on the challenges our lobstermen are facing,” said Laura Dolce, executive director of the Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, Arundel Chamber of Commerce, the team behind LAUNCH!, in a June 7 email. “We are hoping the public comes out to support them again this year”

Other highlights:

· Castaway Cove for Kids at the Waterhouse Center in Kennebunk, featuring buoy decorating, touch tanks and bouncy obstacle courses.

· RELAUNCH with Portside, a nautical-themed cocktail party benefitting Ben’s Fight.

· River Lights Boat Parade, where boats bedecked in lights carrying costumed passengers and accompanied by fun music make their way down the Kennebunk River after dark, as hundreds of spectators cheer from shore.

· A traditional Blessing of the Fleet in beautiful Cape Porpoise village, wishing captains and crew a safe and bountiful season.

Throughout the five-day festival, visitors can also enjoy historic walking tours with costumed interpreters, a Wednesday night After Hours at White Columns, a candle and wine event with Sea Love Candles and Maine+Vine and costumed interpreters in Kennebunkport.

The Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, Arundel Chamber of Commerce can help visitors plan their stay this June. For information on hotel room availability and more event details, call 207-967-0857, visit www.gokennebunks.com or launchfestme.com, or follow the event’s Facebook page.

Mavor exhibition opens at Brick Store Museum

The Brick Store Museum’s new exhibition, “What a Relief: The Art of Salley Mavor” opened June 7.

According to a May 26 Brick Store Museum news release, “Award-winning artist Salley Mavor has spent four decades developing her signature style and working methods, carving out her own niche within the children’s book world and the fiber art community. Her work ranges from three-dimensional sculptural illustrations to satirical political commentary in stop-motion videos.”

The exhibition at the museum is the first retrospective of Salley’s lifetime of work. The exhibition will run through Sept. 11.

Visitors to the exhibition can expect to find four galleries of Salley’s work ranging across 40 years of her career in sculptural needlework. Salley has illustrated 11 picture books, including “Pocketful of Posies” and most recently, “My Bed: Enchanting Ways to Fall Asleep Around the World in 2020.”

Mavor will visit the museum on June 25 for a book signing and opening celebration during the museum’s Dessert Bazaar.

The Brick Store Museum is open six days per week, closed only Mondays. For more information, visit www.brickstoremuseum.org. Admission is $5 per person and free for museum members.

Portside Rotary starts ‘item of the month’ program

Kennebunk Portside Rotary Club has begun a monthly program for members to donate an item of the month to Community Outreach Services.

Working with Community Outreach Services Executive Director Mark Jago, the club identifies an item of current need for the food pantry and members collect donations all month for delivery to COS. This month’s item was low sodium soups and the club donated 50 cans/boxes. Prior months focused on paper towels and bags of coffee. COS is located at 19 Park St., Kennebunk, and stocks fresh and nonperishable foods available to any size family.

Historian will discuss Kennebunk Poor Farm

In the 18th and 19th centuries, even into the 20th century, most Maine towns had poor farms.

These were properties owned and supported through taxes which took in and cared for children and adults who could not take care of themselves. On Wednesday, June 22, at 6:30 p.m., Town Historian Kathy Ostrander Roberts will be at Kennebunk Free Library to share information about the Kennebunk Poor Farm.

The Kennebunk Poor Farm was on Cat Mousam Road and ran from 1825 to 1936. The building was torn down in 1959, but those who died there are still buried in unmarked graves on the site.

Ostrander Roberts has spent years learning who these individuals were and how they were cared for. It is both a heartwarming and sad tale.

The program is free and wheelchair accessible. Kennebunk Free Library is located at 112 Main St. in Kennebunk. For more information, call 207-985-2173 or email kfl@kennebunklibrary.org.

‘Loon Lessons’ discussed at library

The call of a loon is a familiar summer sound for many Mainers. But how much do people know about the birds? On Wednesday, June 29 at 6 p.m., biologist James Paruk will be at the Kennebunk Free Library to discuss loons and his book “Loon Lessons: Uncommon Encounters with the Great Northern Diver.”

Paruk is a professor in the Biology Department at St. Joseph’s College of Maine. He is a senior scientist at the Biodiversity Research Institute’s Loon Center for Conservation. Paruk has studied breeding loons in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Saskatchewan and Maine and non-breeding loons in California, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Maine. He also spent seven years monitoring the health of a population of loons off the Louisiana coast in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

For more information, call 207-985-2173 or email kfl@kennebunklibrary.org.

‘Moon in Full’ author to visit library

Author Marpheen Chann will be at the Kennebunk Free Library on Tuesday, June 21, at 6:30 p.m. to discuss his new book “Moon in Full.” A signing will follow the discussion, with books available to purchase at the event.

According to a library news release, “Moon in Full”  is a contemporary coming-of-age story, shines light on one young man’s search for truth and compassion in a complicated era as it unwinds the deep-seated challenges we all face finding our authentic voice and true identities. Author Marpheen Chann’s heart-warming journey weaves through housing projects and foster homes; into houses of worship and across college campuses; and playing out in working-class Maine where he struggles to find his place.

“Adopted into a majority white community, Chann must reconcile his fears and secret longings as a young gay man with the devoutly religious beliefs of his new family. Chann, a second-generation Asian American, recounts what he has learned, what he has lost, and what he has found during his evolution from a hungry refugee’s son to religious youth to advocate for acceptance and equality.”

“Chann,” according to the news release, “is a politician, thinker, author, and speaker on social justice, equity, and inclusion. As a gay, first-generation Asian American born in California to a Cambodian refugee family and later adopted by an evangelical, white working-class family in Maine, Marpheen uses a mix of humor and storytelling to help people view topics such as racism, xenophobia, and homophobia through an intersectional lens.”

For more information, call 207-985-2173 or email kfl@kennebunklibrary.org.

Graves Library to host Secret Gardens

Graves Memorial Library announced that its Secret Gardens of Kennebunkport will be held again on Saturday, July 16, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (rain or shine).

Six homeowners have agreed to open their private gardens for this one-day only event to help raise money for the library. Tickets are $40 each and they can be purchased in advance online via Eventbrite or at the library at 18 Maine St. On the day of the event, tickets will only be sold at Kennebunkport Consolidated School at 25 School St.

A map will be provided on the day of the tours to all ticket holders to reveal the secret locations of the six participating properties. Visitors will experience a variety of garden styles and plant types amid natural settings hidden from view behind stone walls, seaside cottages, and privacy hedges.

Secret Gardens features colorful perennials and annuals, a scenic pond, woodland sculptures, ocean views, a Zen-inspired rock garden and trellised blooms. All proceeds for the event benefit Graves Memorial Public Library.

For more information, call 207-967-2778.

World Affairs Council president plans discussion

Bill Hall, of the World Affairs Council of Maine, will be at the Kennebunk Free Library on Tuesday, June 14, at 6:30 p.m. to discuss the war in Ukraine. He will provide a brief overview of Ukraine’s history, talk about the current situation in Ukraine, and discuss American and European responses.

Hall is president of the World Affairs Council of Maine. He was an intelligence officer in the U. S. Air Force and spent nearly 18 years overseas, in Asia and Europe. Bill graduated from Princeton University with a bachelor’s degree in politics and from the University of Virginia with a master’s degree in foreign affairs. He lives with his wife, Nancy, on Peaks Island.

For more information, call 207-985-2173 or email kfl@kennebunklibrary.org.

Kennebunk Artisans Marketplace runs through Oct. 1

The Kennebunk Artisans Marketplace will open at Kennebunk’s Waterhouse Center.

The marketplace provides shoppers with a wide variety of items created by more than two dozen Maine-based artisans. A juried application process is utilized to ensure a high level of quality and diversification for all items being sold. The marketplace is open each Saturday through Oct. 1.

For a complete list of approved vendors and their products, visit  https://www.kennebunkmaiine.us/artisansmarketplace. The Waterhouse Center is located at 51 Main St. in Kennebunk. Vendors could change from week to week.

Softball league seeks ballplayers

The Kennebunk 50-plus Co-Ed Softball League is about to enter its sixth season. The league is designed for players minimum age 50 and in a co-ed format, with emphasis on having fun, playing safe and enjoying each other’s company. In 2021, players ranged from their mid-50s up to and including those just over 80 years old. Players included those with prior softball experience, along with those with just a little or many years in the past.

All games and practices are held at Lloyd Nedeau softball field, in West Kennebunk, near Clear Crossing Road.

With the 2022 season just around the corner, the league encourages new and returning players to register, especially those looking to enjoy a team activity and exercise in the outdoors.

Umpired games will be held each Monday, starting June 6 at 5:15 p.m., in order to accommodate most anyone’s work schedule. The league also offers weekly Friday morning practice sessions, starting at 9 a.m., June 3 for warm-ups, batting practice.

Those interested can register at the Kennebunk Parks & Rec Department website, www.kennebunkrec.com. For more information, call Dan Peacock, at 207-899-8708.

The league is open to all residents and currently includes several players from neighboring towns.

Seashore Trolley Museum seeks volunteer trolley operators

Seashore Trolley Museum is seeking new recruits from the community who want to learn a new skill and help the museum provide experiences for guests this season by becoming volunteer trolley operators on a heritage railway.

The museum is holding its annual trolley operator training course on Thursdays May 26, June 2, June 9 and June 16 from 6 to 9 p.m. via Zoom. The course will cover the mechanical aspects of trolley car operation, railway rules and safety, history and visitor interaction. Following successful completion of the course, new operators will be paired one-on-one with seasoned operators. They will operate and conduct trolleys side-by-side until ready and fully qualified to operate solo for museum guests.

To be eligible to operate trolleys, volunteers must become members of the museum ($40/year), be 18 years old by the conclusion of the course, and must hold a valid motor vehicle operator’s license from any U.S. state. The course fills up fast. Those interested are encouraged to sign up early. For more details or to sign up, call 207-967-2800, ext. 101 or email training@trolleymuseum.org.

 

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