Women’s PTSD information aids UM student

Last October, Shirley Taylor of Brewer made a request here for 50 women to participate in a “Survey for Women Partners or Ex-Partners of Vietnam Veterans” to help complete her master’s degree in human development-family studies at the University of Maine in Orono. More than 60 women responded.

“They came from all over Maine,” she said. “I was able to prove my theory that the higher the post traumatic stress disorder in the male, the more anger in the female; and the higher the PTSD, the higher the instability and lack of quality in marriages.”

She also found “there is nothing out there for them. I thought it might be nice to have a self-help group. I will help, free of charge, for eight weeks and then let it take off on its own.” Taylor said group help is available at area veterans’ centers, “but most women aren’t eligible to go there. And there is something else I believe: Women can get post traumatic stress disorder.”

The first meeting is 6:30 to 8 p.m. April 30 at Taylor’s home. If you want to attend, call 989-0361.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) wrote “Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink.” That’s Grand Forks, N.D., today.

“We need money,” said “Hurricane” Dick Hammond of Waterville. “They’re desperate out there. With all their problems, they don’t have water. Poland Springs has a tractor-trailer load of water for us to take, but we don’t have the money to get it there.” Drop off or send donations to Hammond at the Maine Veterans Center, 23 College Ave., Waterville 04901, or call 873-5555.

The Jim Hodgins Benefit Supper Saturday at the Clifton United Baptist Church was a great success, Tina Ferrill said.

“We sold out three sittings and made extra seats upstairs in a Sunday school room. We raised $2,500 and contributions are still coming in. It was fantastic.”

Hodgins is the Clifton store owner shot six times the evening of March 20 during an apparent robbery attempt. He is recovering at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.

“We thank the people at The Clifton Country Store,” Ferrill said. “They sold tickets, had a signup sheet, donated 10 cases of soda and all the ice for the cooler, anything we wanted. They were all so willing to help. Clewley Farm Florist donated six floral arrangements we raffled for $202. Ed and Bonnie Parent, the Toymaker in Ellsworth, donated coloring posters for the kids.”

Ferrill and her committee thank “all the community members and people who came from everywhere, people who bought tickets even if they weren’t coming. It was wonderful and we really appreciate it.”

To help with Hodgins’ medical expenses, contributions may be made to the Jim Hodgins Fund in care of the Clifton United Baptist Church, 742 Airline Road, Clifton 04428.

It’s a nice coincidence that the 27th anniversary of our local March of Dimes WalkAmerica is Sunday. March of Dimes Youth Ambassador Catrina Marie Worcester and President Norman Ledwin of Eastern Maine Medical Center and Eastern Maine Healthcare hope you will walk and raise funds for research that helps fight birth defects. Catrina was born prematurely. She knows the money you raise helps here.

Last year, walkers in the Bangor area raised more than $36,000. This year’s 6-mile walk begins at 9 a.m. at the Brewer Auditorium. That more business teams have signed up than last year is a great start at surpassing that figure.

Pre-registration is encouraged, but you may register the day of the walk. Call the March of Dimes Northern Maine Division, 989-3376 or 1-800-287-6346, or check www.@mintnetnorthernmarchofdimes which is the March of Dimes Web site.

Before the snow has completely disappeared, Mark Armstrong of the Penobscot Snowmobile Club thanks “the many landowners of Hermon and the surrounding towns for their generosity in allowing access across their property.” Recognizing more land is posted each year, snowmobilers are grateful to those “who graciously open their boundaries to the members of the Maine Snowmobile Association and other local snowmobile clubs,” he wrote us.

Thanks also go to local businesses that financially support snowmobile organizations through business memberships enabling volunteers to mark, maintain and help insure the safety of the Maine Snowmobile Association trail system through privately owned lands.

Since the MSA “is primarily a family-oriented volunteer organization,” Armstrong wrote, it is important landowners and business members know they were the ones “who made possible this season’s memories of trail rides through some of the most beautiful scenery in New England.”

Members of the Orono Historical Society have a treat for you. “Museum for a Day” is 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday at the Orono Public Library. You may view the Society’s collection of maps, photographs, documents and other items of historical relevance and talk with OHS members about the history of this Maine college town.

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