Trucking firm helps bring playground to Springfield

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Hooray for Hartt Transport System Inc. of Bangor!

Thanks to the efforts of human resources director Rick Parisien of Bangor and other Hartt staff, the Edith Lombard School of Springfield has its new playground equipment safely stored at Maxwell Farms in Lee, awaiting a spring installation.

Just before I left on vacation, I wrote about volunteers and youngsters from that school, who, together with the town of Springfield and other donors, had raised $24,000 to purchase new, much-needed playground equipment.

Unfortunately, project organizers Cheryl Perley and Nancy Burrill of Carroll Plantation reported that the equipment they expected to pick up in New Jersey was, instead, stored in Alabama – a destination requiring additional expense the committee could ill afford to finance.

So, they issued a plea asking if a long-haul trucker was going to be in Alabama, would the trucker consider transporting the equipment to Maine? The committee planned to pay for fuel and expenses.

But that wasn’t even necessary, because Hartt was coming to the rescue.

Parisien read the article, he said, and when he reached the section that explained how the committee members “thought it was in New Jersey and it ended up in Alabama,” he recognized “just how difficult it is for schools and other community people to try and get something together; [they] work so hard to get it done,” and then find themselves facing a roadblock, so to speak.

Parisien knew Hartt had to help out.

With trucks stationed all over the state, he said, “I contacted my associate, Glenn Bolduc in the Auburn area, because I thought he had a truck out there, or headed out that way, and, sure enough, it would be in the area.”

The only question, Parisien said, was whether there was enough available space to hold the cargo.

Fortunately, the answer was yes.

The day after the request appeared in the Bangor Daily News, Perley said, Parisien called “and said they thought they could do something for us. Burrill called back on Thursday and Parisien said there was a truck coming up, and it [the equipment] would be delivered on Wednesday, Jan. 23, in Lee.”

But, when it arrived, everyone was in for a big surprise, Parisien and Perley told me.

“I was like a kid at Christmas, when that truck came around the corner,” Perley said.

Funny thing is, while Perley thought she knew just what was inside that truck, something was there that neither she, nor anyone else, expected.

The way Parisien tells the story, when the truck finally arrived in Lee, and the Hartt representative walked through the door at Maxwell Farms, everyone asked, “Where’s the driver?”

“I’m the driver!” responded Veronica “Ronnie” Stasuik of Auburn, a petite young woman, whom Parisien described as one of the best drivers in the company.

Obviously, everyone was expecting someone else: a big, burly, male truck driver, perhaps?

But it didn’t take the volunteers and Maxwell Farms employees long to recover, and they quickly unloaded the equipment Stasuik had hauled nearly 1,400 miles from Fort Payne, Ala.

Perley said the Lombard School pupils later drew cover pictures “of what their playground would look like,” to serve as the “cover of our thank you letter.”

When that letter arrives, it will bear the winning entry created by first-grader Rachel Kerr.

For its part, the folks at Hartt were pleased to have been able to provide the happy ending to the story of the playground that wasn’t where it was supposed to be.

“It kind of gives you a good feeling to know you can help other people out,” Parisien said.

World War II veteran Bill Knight of Hudson is asking area clergy and area veterans to help remember “The Four Chaplains.”

Knight has contacted members of the clergy to request that they devote their weekend sermons Sunday, Feb. 3, to the memory of “The Four Chaplains” who, in a cooperative act of selflessness, gave their lives so that others might live.

On Feb. 3, 1943, 150 miles off the coast of Greenland, an enemy submarine fired a torpedo which struck the boiler room of the USAT Dorchester, an old coastal steamer pressed into military service to transport troops.

Of the 902 officers, servicemen and civilian workers on board, 688 died.

The others were saved through the help of the four chaplains who guided men to their boat stations, distributed life jackets, coaxed frightened men over the side of the ship and, finally, gave away their own life jackets.

As the Dorchester began to sink, the chaplains linked their arms in brotherhood and bowed their heads in prayer.

The four U.S. Army chaplains were a rabbi, a priest and two ministers.

In honor of these men, President Harry Truman dedicated the Chapel of Four Chaplains on Feb. 3, 1951, in Philadelphia.

Today, that nonprofit organization encourages cooperation and selfless service among all people, and exists to further the cause of “unity without uniformity.”

Knight said he hopes area veterans will attend church or synagogue services this weekend, proudly wearing their American Legion or VFW caps in honor of the four men whose lives exemplify strength in unity.

Dr. Bernie Dahl of Winterport, who nearly died before being rescued during a solo climb of Mount Washington in New Hampshire in October 1999, will share some insights gained during that experience from 7 to 9 p.m. today at 101 Neville Hall on the campus of the University of Maine in Orono.

Dahl’s topic, “Lessons for Living from a Mount Washington Misadventure: To Know How to Live, One Must First Learn How to Die,” is presented by the UMaine Recreation Programs and is free and open to the public.

For information about this presentation, call 581-1794.

Information about the Dahl experience also may be obtained by visiting www.mtwashingtonmisadventure.com.

Joni Averill, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402; 990-8288.