Business owners cook for Mattanawcook grads

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Catering With Class is a small business owned by Jane Babin of Howland and her daughters, Susan Faloon and Carla Fancy.

The name of the business takes on added meaning next month when the women host a special graduation dinner at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, June 5, at River’s Edge Wilderness Campground and Seaplane Base in Lincoln to “honor the Mattanawcook Academy 2004 graduates,” Susan Faloon wrote.

“We are all aware of the devastating effects that the closing of Eastern Fine Paper’s Lincoln mill has had on the economy,” she explained.

“We don’t want the 2004 graduates to remember their final year at Mattanawcook Academy as the year of economic devastation. We want them to remember it as the special time that it should be.”

Faloon added that the women “felt it was a great opportunity to do what we love to benefit the community.”

Catering With Class is organizing, preparing and serving the meal in the airplane hanger of the facility donated by owner Jason Bouchard.

Appetizers, music, and door prizes are all part of the celebration, thanks to the donations of “money, gift certificates and other items” from area business owners who are helping “make this event extra special,” Faloon wrote.

“Because of all the support, we are able to invite the entire senior class and their parents.”

Faloon wrote that the support planners have received has been “amazing,” and that “the kids seem really excited about it as well.”

Donations still are being accepted, and items such as paper plates, silverware, table linens, chairs, floral arrangements, decorations and more gift certificates and financial contributions would be appreciated – along with offers to help set up and clean up.

Donations can be sent to Catering With Class, P.O. Box 106, Howland 04448 or will be picked up if you call Babin at 732-5348 or Faloon at 990-5842.

On behalf of Maine Adoption Placement Service, development coordinator Melissa Huston invites the public “to explore the changing world of adoption.”

MAPS is hosting an informational meeting 6-7:30 p.m. tonight, at its new offices at 181 State St. in Bangor. Please RSVP today at 941-9500.

For 27 years, MAPS has been bringing children and families together, Huston wrote.

She invites you to “come learn about new domestic networking programs” and to obtain “updates from the international adoption arena.”

MAPS staff members and adoptive families will share information about how MAPS can help you begin the adoption process.

For more information about MAPS, visit www.mapsadopt.org.

“For anyone who wants to learn, the door is always open if you let people help you,” wrote 53-year-old Kwangsuk Lee Chapman of Bangor.

Born and raised in South Korea, she came to this country “with little knowledge of the American language,” Chapman said.

In 1999, she checked with Bangor Adult Education to see if she could participate in their program.

When a test indicated her math was above ninth-grade level but her reading was at a fourth-grade level, she was disappointed to learn she would be unable to take BAE courses until she improved her reading skills.

So she turned to Literacy Volunteers of Bangor and every Wednesday met for two hours with LVB volunteer Carol Arnold at the Bangor Public Library where Chapman leaned “how to read English and to understand what I was reading.”

At the Bangor Adult Learning Center, she learned grammar and writing techniques and, a year and a half later, was reading at a ninth-grade level.

With financial assistance from the Maine Department of Behavioral and Development Services to help care for her Down syndrome son, financial support from her employer, Lemforder Corp., and the support and encouragement of family and friends, Chapman is “looking forward to going to college.”

To everyone who helped her obtain her educational goals, Chapman extends her sincerest gratitude.

“If it weren’t for these people and services helping me, I wouldn’t be blessed with this achievement,” she wrote.

Frank Barnes of Pembroke will celebrate his 90th birthday on Monday, May 31.

His sister, Kathleen Tarbell, wrote that her brother “hasn’t been too well, and a shower of greeting cards from old and new friends would be appreciated.”

You can send your wishes for a happy birthday to this gentleman at 210 Ayers Junction Road, Pembroke 04666.

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