Former Ellsworth pair lead team in diabetes walk

Next Sunday, Sept. 19, TEAM SONIC, including Portland residents Eric and Julie Roach and their children, 7-year-old Finn and 6-year-old Cam, will participate in the “Walk to Cure Diabetes,” in their city.

The 31/2-mile event, beginning at Payson Park, is the only Maine site for this fund-raiser, which benefits the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

The family has a very personal reason for participating in the walk: One year ago this month, Finn was diagnosed as a Type 1 diabetic.

That diagnosis “radically changed” the youngster’s life, his mother wrote: “He will be insulin dependent his entire life. Also, he must endure at least six finger sticks per day to test his blood sugar. In addition, he has to receive insulin most every time he eats.”

He received shots for several months, but Finn now is receiving insulin through a pump “that is always attached to him,” she said. “Despite our constant monitoring, he is still likely to suffer long-term effects from diabetes that include heart disease, kidney disease and blindness.”

If you recognize the parents’ names, that’s because they both grew up in Ellsworth, graduated from Ellsworth High School in 1987 and the University of Maine in Orono in 1991.

After graduation, the couple married and moved to Portland.

Their parents, however, still live in Ellsworth, Julie Roach wrote of Malcolm and Marilyn Roach and Joseph and Blair Sala.

Sports page readers might recognize her father’s name “from his many years of teaching at Mount Desert Island High School, where he was also the golf coach,” she explained.

TEAM SONIC was named by Finn “after one of his favorite video game characters,” she wrote, and he will be the team captain.

If anyone would like to join TEAM SONIC, you are welcome to walk with the Roach family. You can receive more information by calling Julie Roach at 878-8506.

If you cannot participate but would like to contribute to this worthy cause to help Finn and all other young diabetics, you can make a tax-deductible donation out to JDRF prior to Sunday and mail it to Eric and Julie Roach, 298 Ray St., Portland 04103.

Louise Bain, president of the Orono Health Association, asks you to participate in an American Red Cross Blood Drive it is hosting 2-7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 15, at the Church of Universal Fellowship on Main Street in Orono.

“As noted recently,” she wrote, “many areas are experiencing a significant decrease in the number of blood donors. We urge you to consider participating in this vital program. You will be rewarded with a variety of homemade, mouthwatering snacks.”

For more information, call the OHA office at 866-4648.

President Joan Edwards of the St. Croix Valley International Garden Club invites guests to hear landscape garden designer and photographer Roy Morris of St. John, New Brunswick, at its meeting at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 15, at St. Anne’s Episcopal Church Parish Hall, 23 Church St. in Calais.

Morris “will share with us ways of setting up water gardens,” Edwards wrote.

For more information about the meeting or the club, call Edwards at 726-9664.

An American Cancer Society Relay for Life Benefit and Barbecue in honor of the late Mary Jo Sekera begins at 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 19, at Cap’s Tavern, 494 So. Main St., Brewer. You must be 21 years old to attend.

The event includes raffles, games, an auction and a dunk tank, reports Anita Farris of Bradley, who will be one of the “dunkees” along with Cap’s owner David Sheridan.

All activities are free, but donations are requested for the food provided.

I extend a belated happy 90th birthday greeting to Ruth DeMott of Orono, who was surprised by many friends and fellow golfers with a luncheon Wednesday, Aug. 25, at Miller’s Restaurant in Bangor.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., she moved to Maine in 1962 and was a longtime member of Penobscot Valley Country Club Women’s Golf Association in Orono, Bangor Women’s Golf Club at Bangor Municipal Golf Course, the Women’s Maine State Golf Association and Golden Gates Women’s Golf Association in Naples, Fla.

I understand she was truly surprised by many of her old golfing buddies and several family members, and “a good time was had by all.”

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