November 14, 2024
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MDI teens plan 250-mile walk for Shaw House

Three Mount Desert Island High School juniors have decided to take a very long walk to raise funds for Shaw House, a nonprofit organization in Bangor that serves homeless and at-risk youths.

“Walk ME Home” will be an approximately 250-mile effort by Enrica Maffucci of Bar Harbor, Alison Hudson of Southwest Harbor and Marni Berger of Trenton to raise $30,000 for Shaw House.

The trio departs at 7 a.m. Monday, Aug. 25, from Fort Kent Community High School and will follow Routes 11, 116 and others that will keep them off the interstate, Maffucci said.

They expect to arrive at MDI High School in Mount Desert “probably around 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6. We’re not really sure of the time, but that’s our goal,” she added.

Maffucci said the friends decided to take the walk after looking at a map. “It was really Alison’s idea,” she admitted.

“When we looked at the map, it looked like a really long way, and we thought it would be great to walk that far, and it would really be awesome to take it to the next level and help out someone else,” Maffucci explained.

“So we looked at different charities, and decided Shaw House would be perfect because it’s for people our age.”

Although the girls are involved in a variety of activities at their school, they’ve never done anything like this before, so “we’ve been training all summer,” she said.

Asked how the idea of three young women striking out on their own went over with their parents, Maffucci admitted, “We had to go through a few safety hoops to do that.”

But their plans are extensive and well thought out.

They have made arrangements to leave food drop boxes at different locations, “and hotels have donated rooms for the night. We’re not camping out.”

And you’ll have no problem spotting them along the route because “we will tape signs to the back of our packs,” Maffucci said.

And, they hope, as they walk, you will help them raise money for an organization that provides a place where homeless or young runaways, between the ages of 10 and 17, can receive food, shelter, hot showers, health care and support.

“We’ve very excited about this,” Maffucci said of their effort to raise $30,000 for Shaw House.

If you can help them reach that goal, make a check out to Shaw House, Walk ME Home, and send it to 25 Kennebec St., Bar Harbor.

You also can call “Walk Me Home” at 460-9646, visit their Web site, walkmehome2003.com., or e-mail them at walkmehome2003@yahoo.com.

For information about Shaw House and the services it provides, call 941-2882.

On behalf of the Penobscot Historical Society, Audrey Peasley of Brooksville invites the public to a car show from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 17, at the Historical Farm on Route 199 in Penobscot.

Peasley wrote that everyone is welcome, that cookies and drinks will be available for all, and that she expects you will enjoy “a great afternoon.”

And, she added, the PHS annual meeting begins with a potluck supper at 6 p.m. Monday, Aug. 18, at the Red School House at the Historical Farm.

Everyone is welcome to attend that meeting, as well, and she said PHS dues are to be paid at that time.

Tammy Olson, administrator of the nonprofit organization Food AND Medicine in Brewer, wrote that “the laid-off workers of PACE Local 403 (Eastern Fine Paper) are volunteering to run a food bank to help the 125 people affected by recent layoffs from the Brewer mill.”

But supplies for the food bank, which was started by the city of Brewer and National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 291 food drives, as well as donations from the Greater Bangor Area Central Labor Council, are running low, Olson said.

And, she added, “volunteers expect the food bank to get much more business in the immediate future as workers’ benefits run out.

The most needed items are canned tuna, all kinds of pasta, macaroni and cheese, soups, SpaghettiOs and “other such nonperishable items,” Olson wrote.

You can bring your donations during food bank hours from 8:30 a.m. to noon Wednesdays and Saturdays, to the labor council office, 20 Ayer St. in Brewer.

Other delivery arrangements can be made by calling Food AND Medicine, 989-4141, or e-mailing foodmedicine@workingfamilies.com.

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


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