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Goldendoodles

A what??? The Goldendoodle gets its name from its mixed heritage - golden retriever and poodle. Goldendoodles are a hybrid dog, a first generation cross, and as such they exhibit "hybrid vigour". This is a phenomenon in animal breeding referring to the fact that the first cross between two unrelated purebred lines is healthier and grows better than either parent line.

Goldendoodles were first deliberately bred in North America as a larger version of the popular Cockapoo around the mid 1990s. Their non/light shedding coats and ability to live with families with allergies has made them very popular companions.

Visit Sunset Hill Farm to learn more about this interesting breed and consider reserving on of the newest puppies available.

Annie and her 17 puppies (born July 28 - 29, 2008)

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Tree Length Wood Debate

I want to express my deepest gratitude to all the people who helped me:
Richard Sykes, local representative (Harrison), for guidance and information
Susan Kimball, news reporter, who felt my story was newsworthy
Frank and Dottie Snow of Snow's Excavation for the use of their wood splitter
My family and a multitude of friends who help me cut, split and stack my winter fire wood!!

Leave a comment about this video by clicking here

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Bridgton Academy to Offer Maine Prep SAT Instruction as Part of the School's Curriculum

Beginning this Fall, Bridgton Academy in North Bridgton, Maine, will offer semester-long SAT prep courses as part of the school day. The school has contracted with Maine Prep, Maine's largest test preparation company, to provide a Maine Prep teacher and the highly acclaimed Maine Prep curriculum, TEN FOR TEN, for 135 students.

According to Fletcher Carr, Bridgton Academy's Director of College Counseling, Maine Prep's Sean Lent will join the Bridgton Academy faculty as an adjunct teacher and will teach 9 sections of SAT prep for the entire first semester. Carr says, "This marks our fourth year using Maine Prep instruction and materials, but the first using a full-time Maine Prep dedicated test prep teacher. Given the goals of our students, professional SAT prep instruction is an important part of our students' first semester." To that end, the SAT is administered on campus in November, December, and January.

The 200-year old Bridgton Academy, the nation's only all postgraduate program, is dedicated to preparing students for the competitive rigors of college and beyond.

Maine Prep, founded by test prep professional Jack Mahoney, is celebrating its seventh year of test prep services and employs ten teachers. Maine Prep holds classes and private tutoring in seven different Maine locations, including Portland, Bangor, Falmouth, Brunswick, Kennebunkport, Lewiston/Auburn, Cape Elizabeth and Kents Hill. "Ten for Ten," the curriculum developed by Maine Prep, is now a for-credit course taught as part of the school day at Lewiston High School and South Portland High School. Maine Prep prepares students for the SAT, ACT, GRE, GMAT, SSAT, and teaches LSAT preparation at Bowdoin College.

For further information, call Maine Prep at 207-798-5690 or email at info@maineprep.com. The wed site is www.maineprep.com. For Bridgton Academy information, contact Fletcher Carr at 207-647-332

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Public Invited to Congressional Candidates Forum on Sustainability

The public is invited to attend a First District congressional candidates forum on “Sustainability in Maine” on Sunday, September 28 from 3 to 5 p.m. in the event room on the seventh floor of the Glickman Library on the University of Southern Maine’s Portland campus.

Charlie Summers, the Republican nominee for the First District seat, and Chellie Pingree, the Democratic candidate, will participate in the nonpartisan event. Irwin Gratz, host of Maine Public Radio’s “Morning Edition,” will moderate.

The event is free, but space is limited. To reserve a seat, write to info@trails.org.

The forum will be broadcast on community television stations in more than 230 cities and towns throughout Maine during the month of October. A complete list of towns airing the forum is available at http://www.trails.org/forum.

The forum will cover such topics as global warming, alternative transportation, clean energy, land protection, wildlife habitat, water quality, reducing toxics and supporting Maine agriculture and fisheries. A reception will follow, with light refreshments served.

Co-sponsors include the Bicycle Coalition of Maine, Conservation Law Foundation, Eastern Trail Alliance, the Environmental Health Strategy Center, Environment Northeast, Friends of Casco Bay/Casco Baykeeper, Maine Audubon, Maine Center for Economic Policy, Maine Council of Churches, Maine Fair Trade Campaign, Maine People’s Alliance, Natural Resources Council of Maine, Northern Forest Alliance, Ocean Conservancy, Physicians for Social Responsibility Maine, Portland Green Streets, Portland Trails, RESTORE: The North Woods, Sierra Club-Maine and the University of Southern Maine. Tugboat Creative is providing pro bono graphic services, and the Community Television Network is producing the televised program.
For more information, please email info@trails.org.

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Alzheimer’s Association’s Memory Walk® 2008

Falmouth, ME The Alzheimer’s Association’s annual Memory Walk® will take place on September 20th and October 4th in 15 communities across the State. Nearly 1500 people in Maine are expected to participate in this year’s event to raise awareness and funds to fight the disease.

The Alzheimer’s Association’s Memory Walk, nationally presented by Genworth Financial, is the nation’s largest event to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer care, support and research programs. Held annually in hundreds of communities across the country, this inspiring event calls on volunteers of all ages to become Champions in the fight against Alzheimer’s. Champions include those living with the disease, families, caregivers, and corporate and community leaders. Americans who have participated in these walks have raised more than $265 million.

To select a walk site, start a team or make a donation, contact the Alzheimer’s Association at www.alz.org/maine or 1-800-272-3900.

About the Alzheimer's Association:
The Alzheimer’s Association is the leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer’s research, care and support. Our mission is to eliminate Alzheimer’s disease through the advancement of research; to provide and enhance care and support for all affected; and to reduce the risk of dementia through the promotion of brain health. Our vision is a world without Alzheimer’s. For more information visit www.alz.org.

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Greater Bridgton Lakes Region Chamber Of Commerce

The Chamber Board voted last week to pursue the opening of a second Chamber Office, this one in Naples. We are signing a lease to use the property at 952 Roosevelt Trail, Naples (right on Rt. 302). The opening of a second Chamber site has been a long term board goal that happened quickly due to opportunity and the work of a few of our Naples Board members. This idea centered on the opportunity to gain new members, the feedback we got from many members to offer a 12 month office option in Naples and the boldness of our board to take the opportunity when it occurred. Of course we see this new office as a way to better serve all our membership. We plan to fund the Naples office by offering 6 -$1,000 sponsor levels. These sponsors will get recognized on the outside property located on busy Rt. 302 and inside the Office. We also will seek help from others in terms of office equipment, volunteerism to staff the site and in getting the office ready. We plan on using a Kiosk donated by Allan Freedman Schaefer Mortgage and there will be a limited number of ads available on this kiosk. Our goal at this point is to be open prior to the Fryeburg Fair.

The new GBLR Chamber Office will be open 12 months with limited hours this winter to expand given our means and support. Our hope is to have it open more in the spring and all summer. The board sees this location as ideal to manage events such as The Maine Blues Festival and even the Lakes Brew Fest. It would be available for other Naples activities we do not run such as the Naples Winter Carnival. We hope to make the office WIFI so that visitors can come in to get internet. We will post business literature in the office and have already secured interest in sponsoring parts of the office as well up to 3 of the 6 $1,000 sponsors. If you have any interest in helping paint and clean to sponsoring (and everything in between) let us know at 207-647-3472. We hope that our Naples members (and all members) will be excited about this move and find ways to support our initial jump. Our initial needs:

$1,000 Sponsors

Other cash sponsors to be acknowledged inside the office.

Equipment need for an office space including shelves, vacuum, chairs, file cabinet……

Volunteers to help clean up and to take on some time in the office as we firm up a coverage schedule

We are open to some sponsoring opportunities inside; the planned board room would be one example

Feel free to contact us to learn more!

Watch for much more on this project.

Clean up and set up day is scheduled for this coming Saturday. Times to be announced. Call if you are interested

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HEBRON ACADEMY EMBARKS ON 204th YEAR

HEBRON, MAINE (September 11, 2008) --In a convocation ceremony that included musical interludes by senior Mary Randall of New Gloucester on  cello and new faculty member John Lawson on string bass, Hebron Academy recently marked the 204th such gathering in the school’s long and storied history with a series of inspirational speeches.

Coming in the wake of a weekend of outdoor trips and activities at locations as far afield as Kezar and Damariscotta Lakes, the event was blessed by beautiful weather and characterized in welcoming remarks by veteran teacher Dave Stonebraker as an academic version of “All-ee, all-ee in free!” the call to reunite after a game of hide-and-seek.

Stonebraker went on to speak of vocations and avocations, encouraging students to embark upon their futures with confidence, citing sources from the Nike slogan--“Dream it, Plan it, Do it”--to Henry David’s Thoreau’s invitation to build “castles in the air” and “put the foundations under them.”

Noting the school’s commitment to environmental responsibility, Head of School John King asked students to “make a difference in the lives of your friends, your community and the world,” and went on to praise junior Alessandra Hankinson of Phippsburg for her spontaneous efforts to welcome a newcomer to the community. “Making a difference means being a part of something, whether it is a team, a class, a work detail, or a friendship.”

Crowning the program as guest speaker, former Hebron faculty member and trustee William Hiss recited a Spanish poem with an allusion to gardening, and recalled a job he held as a teenager working for a Norwegian couple who specialized in raising ferns. Finding a special satisfaction in the work, he took from it a life-lesson which he passed along to his listeners: “Whatever you do in life, plant for eternity.”

His own life provides a compelling example. A former director of admissions and financial aid at Bates College, Hiss told of a visit to post-war Viet Nam during which he established a long-standing program of recruiting promising students from the local schools, a program that eventually led him on a crusade against admissions policies that rely on the SAT as a primary guide in college acceptance.

More than twenty years and many non-testing admissions later, he remains at the forefront of a movement in which more than 700 colleges and universities have adopted test-optional policies.

From Hiss' appearance on a 2005 broadcast of NPR’s “All Things Considered:” “We are heavily reliant on standardized testing at all levelsK-12, college and graduate school. But what we have seen at Bates indicates that this may be a monumental trip up a blind alley for America. It is based on a largely unexamined assumption: that these myriad tests, many of them quite new, will accurately and uniformly measure achievement or potential. But they won’t, at least based on Bates’ 20-year experience. Human intelligence may be so fluid, so multi-faceted, that no standardized test can ‘capture’ it.”

Given the yearly anxiety surrounding SAT-testing, it goes without saying, perhaps, that the Hebron audience found Hiss’ words and efforts inspirational.

Currently vice president for external affairs and lecturer in Asian studies at Bates, Hiss teaches a course called Literature Through Cataclysm, exploring what happens to the literature of conservative societies that undergo cataclysmic change.

Hebron Academy was founded in 1804 and is an independent, co-educational boarding and day school that serves grades six through postgraduate.”; The Academy's mission is to inspire and guide students to reach their highest potential in mind, body, and spirit.”; Two hundred-sixty students from throughout Maine, New England, the United States, and the world attend the school.”; For more information, please visit www.hebronacademy.org or call 207-966-2100

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Milfoil Gets Removed From Maine Lakes

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