46 Mainers view AIDS quilt in Washington

Forty-six people, ranging in age from 6 to 60, boarded a bus late Thursday evening chartered by the Eastern Maine AIDS Network to travel to Washington, D.C., and view the giant AIDS quilt.

On Friday, Maine high school students helped lay the quilt along the mall from the Capitol to the Washington Monument. On Saturday, the 46 Maine people were among 150,000 in the National AIDS Candlelight March, which began at the Capitol and ended in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

They came from Millinocket to Damariscotta to participate in what EMAN public relations director Carol Higgins described as “an incredibly emotional” experience.

Saturday’s march “was just a sea of candles,” she said. Mariah Miller, a 16-year-old from Lincoln Academy in Newcastle, was one of the readers to give the names of AIDS victims.

The quilt has grown so large that it will never again be displayed in such a manner. More than 47,000 panels represent “less than 12 percent of the people who have died,” Higgins said.

“But it was so beautiful. Looking at it, you realized you knew a little about each person [named on the panel] and everyone understood what everyone else was feeling.”

Higgins said there was so much emotion, so many tears, that volunteers carried tissues as they offered comfort and support. “There was just a tremendous sense of camaraderie and sympathy,” she said.

“I think, for many, it was a healing process. It was extremely moving. Washington was filled with people. Those who came to see the quilt were mesmerized. It was a tremendously moving experience. I would do it again. Anyone who has a chance to see the quilt, should.”

Higgins said many people, like herself, wore AIDS awareness buttons indicating their votes this fall would be in memory of someone who has died.

A committee of 12, who would love to be more, is planning what may be the first celebration ever marking the founding of Parkman when that town celebrates its 175th anniversary next June.

Planners hope folks will visit Parkman in June as they did in its heyday when they came from everywhere for its “World Fairs,” wrote anniversary committee co-chairwoman Elizabeth Morin.

The fairs were held from 1888 to 1908. They stopped “for lack of attendance” when only 2,000 people showed up. Today Parkman is a town of 750 people, but it was once a bustling lumbering and sheep-farming community of 3,000.

Patricia Johnson is the other co-chairwoman of the committee that includes Jim Morin, Cathy Hession, Tylene Kimball, Robert and Joyce Bridge, Brenda Hartford, Debbie Tibbetts, and sisters-in-law Janet, Phyllis and Deborah Perigo.

The group has quite a wish list. They want to publish a cookbook with recipes from current and past residents that includes a brief biography of the person from whom the recipe came. Old photos, appropriately labled, are needed for a historical calendar. Others will be placed in an album for the town library. Another publication will feature stories and pictures of Parkman’s residents and its history, including schools.

If you can join the committee, come to the Morin home at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 22. Morin may be reached at home, 277-3821, or at work, 564-3300.

Recipes should be sent to Hession, RR 1 Box 650, Guilford 04443, and photographs to the Parkman Town Office, c/o 175th Anniversary Committee, RR1 Box 181 B, Guilford 04443.

Morin said this group of “really good workers hopes, as the word gets out, more people will want to become involved.”

Bonnie Richards, president of St. Joseph Hospital Auxiliary, reminds you tickets are still being sold and reservations are available for the Auxiliary’s first Halloween dance from 6 p.m. to midnight Oct. 26 at Jeff’s Catering in Brewer.

The music of Woody Woodman and his Orchestra will keep your toes tapping. If you’re lucky, one of this area’s most popular and beloved broadcasters, George Hale, will stick to his master of ceremonies duties and not try to fill in as Woody’s lead singer.

A word to the wise, however: If George does decide to croon for you, applaud with wild abandon because he will be drawing the $300 door prize which just might go to you.

The evening includes a social hour and dinner from 6 to 8 p.m., with dancing ’til midnight. Costumes are welcome but not required. There are prizes, however, for the scariest, funniest, most original, best couple, best group and $300 for the best overall costume.

Tickets are $20 per person and checks must be made out to St. Joseph Hospital Auxiliary. You may reserve space at a table, but if your party does not include eight, you may be sitting with others. Direct questions to Mary Clift at 843-5121. Tickets are available at Libby’s Hallmark Shop or any Auxiliary member.

The Standpipe, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402; 990-8288.