An area Grange member who has been dedicated to the organization at the local and state levels, served the region in the Maine Legislature and in local government and has given back to the community in many other ways was honored by Piscataquis Pomona -- the local Grange district -- on June 4. Jim Annis of Dover-Foxcroft received the Piscataquis Pomona Award for Public Service as part of the monthly Piscataquis Pomona gathering held at the Valley Grange.

This astonishing time in Maine’s history, left out of textbooks for nearly 100 years, will be explored by author Mark Alan Leslie as part of the Thompson Free Library’s Maine Bicentennial Speaker Series at 6 p.m. Thursday, June 18, live via Zoom.

While restaurants, shops and lodging establishments are already feeling the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, another sector of the tourism economy in Maine is bracing for a rocky summer. Normally, communities located along the famous Appalachian Trail welcome thousands of long-distance hikers every summer, offering shelter and supplies to those endeavoring to complete the famous 2,190-mile trail. But this year, everything has changed.

On Wednesday, June 17 at 1 p.m., the director of peer services at NAMI Maine Nicole Foster, JD, will relate the story surrounding her diagnoses of PTSD, major depression, and generalized anxiety disorder. Her message of hope will include the professional treatments that helped her and the daily coping mechanisms and protocols that she uses for continued healing. Her PTSD lived experience centers on serious accident, domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse scenarios. 

“We just don’t know yet what the fall will bring, we need to be ready for remote learning or some kind of in-person learning if at all possible,” Superintendent Michael Wright said during a June 3 meeting conducted via Zoom. The Maine Department of Education is planning to release protocols for Maine districts prior to the start of classes around the state at the end of the summer.

Tom Coon, a dyed-in-the-wool outdoorsman from Medway, reveled in canoeing, fishing, fiddleheading and the quarter century he spent as a ranger on the Allagash Wilderness Waterway. And when the 63-year-old died May 31 of complications from COVID-19 at Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, it was in a hospital room with a view of the Penobscot River down below. 

President Donald Trump spent only a few hours in Maine on Friday, but the visit told us a lot about how he views it in the national political landscape and in light of the biggest issues facing his presidency.

The anticipation that built all week in this quiet manufacturing town quickly dissipated Friday afternoon, June 5 after President Donald Trump’s motorcade passed through downtown, where hundreds of supporters and protesters lined up throughout the day.

President Donald Trump addressed a friendly crowd of around 200 at a Guilford manufacturer on Friday applauding workers for their efforts in producing swabs used in coronavirus testing in an address that often veered into a campaign speech.

The Maine Department of Education is happy to announce that the McKinney-Vento Subgrants: COVID-19 Emergency Mini Grants have been selected. Twenty-four districts applied for the funds for the 2020-21 academic year and all 24 requests are conditionally awarded, including the Dexter-based AOS 94.

The Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry (DACF) announced the selection of Michael Vermette as the Allagash Wilderness Waterway (AWW) Visiting Artist for 2020. DACF initiated its AWW Visiting Artist Program to celebrate the long-standing tradition of artists capturing the Allagash's beauty and solitude.

The date and method of conducting the annual town meeting amidst the COVID-19 pandemic is still to be determined, but a warrant featuring seven articles was approved as written by both the selectmen and budget advisory committee during the annual public hearing -- conducted via Zoom -- on June 3.

When Puritan Medical Products celebrated its 100th birthday early last year, it may have struck outsiders as a big deal for the family-owned Guilford company. Little did anyone know what 2020 had in store for the business, which is one of just two companies worldwide that makes specialized medical testing swabs. 

All eyes will be on Guilford on Friday, June 5 when President Donald Trump flies up from Washington, D.C., to visit the town of 1,500 people. He’ll be touring the local plant where Puritan Medical Products has been cranking out the medical testing swabs that have grown critically important during the coronavirus pandemic.

The list of public Masses with safety restrictions being celebrated daily and on Sundays at Maine churches continues to grow. The dispensation from the obligation to attend Sunday Mass continues to be in place, and the long list of live-streamed Masses at Maine parishes remains in place (portlanddiocese.org/response-coronavirus).

Photos of the region’s National Honor Society chapter members.

Upcoming events around the region.

President Donald Trump will make an official White House visit to a medical manufacturing plant in Guilford on Friday, June 5 his first trip to Maine since taking office and a seismic event for a town of 1,500 in the state’s least populous and most conservative county.