People such as Helen Vose keep church running

MACHIAS – The structural beauty of Centre Street Congregational Church is obvious from the moment a visitor crests College Hill on the way into town and catches sight of the magnificent white steeple.

But the community services that endear the church to people in the area emanate from the basement vestry that serves as headquarters for a small group of volunteers led by Helen Vose.

Vose, 76, arrives at her church office at 8 a.m. every weekday.

What she does for the next seven hours depends on both the day and the season.

On Mondays, Vose oversees the Machias Food Pantry, dispenser of the nonperishable food provided by area businesses and community groups to families in need.

“Five years ago, we probably had 70 to 80 families a year,” Vose said recently. “Last year, we had 150 to 175 a month.”

If it’s winter, Vose sets out the more than 100 coats that are available for free to children and adults, provided by The Salvation Army and Hannaford Bros. Co. under the Coats for Kids program.

The one activity that Vose prepares for most of the year is the Machias Wild Blueberry Festival, held in August. Vose and Norman Nelson, a former county commissioner and former legislator, are the chief organizers of the Washington County harvest celebration, which attracts more than 20,000 people.

The main attraction is the more than 200 crafters. Vose and other members of the craft group make items to be sold during the blueberry festival and work on the blueberry quilt that is auctioned off each year as part of the festivities.

Vose also chairs the Guild, a group of 14 church women who prepare the monthly fund-raising suppers, the receptions after church funerals, and the cheese, crackers and cookies that are served during the Machias Bay Chamber Concerts each summer.

Guild members put together Christmas baskets for members of the community, collect toys for the Sea Coast Mission Christmas distribution and send “goodies boxes” to students from the church family who go off to college, Vose said.

“We do this about exam time,” she said. “We do goodies for the nursing home, and Marshall Manor’s Alzheimer’s unit at Easter and Halloween.”

Vose and a handful of Guild members also make the turkey pot pies that Centre Street church sells on a by-order basis three times a year. Church secretary Valerie Preston sometimes pitches in with that chore.

“Last week, we made 52 small turkey pies and four large ones,” Vose said recently. “I make the turkey, there were three people cutting up vegetables and Valerie made the biscuits.”

Her one-room office is jammed with craft supplies, items for the food pantry, files and pictures of children – including her two grandchildren.

As she speaks, people walk into the vestry, poking their heads into her office to ask if she has seen something they left behind, or just stopping by. Some are church members, some are not.

Vose welcomes them all as she explains the uncertainty of her schedule.

“You never know what I’m going to do because I never know when I come in what is going to happen,” she said with a laugh. “I may have something planned the night before, but it’s very rare that I end up doing what I planned to do.”