I love the concept called Make Shift Coffee House created by Craig Freshly, who recently conducted his event in Hallowell. Attendees discuss critical political issues, important things in their local community, and how they form their opinions — hopefully all with respect for each other.

Hallowell is also considering a program called Community Heart and Soul, which brings people together to identify their town values. I think both programs are very important in today’s nasty, ugly, partisan world.

I feel very lucky to live in such a caring community here in Mount Vernon. As soon as people heard about my illness, ALS, many friends and neighbors let us know that they would do anything to help us. We have friends who do everything from help my wife Linda shovel snow to doing our dishes. A group of Maranacook High School seniors and one of their teachers came one day last fall and brought in all our wood for the winter and cut brush for us.

Linda and I enjoy the Saturday breakfasts in our community center, which hosts lots of great events. And while the food is exceptional, it’s the chance to visit with everybody that makes this very special. When we leave the breakfast, we make our weekly trip to the dump — and yes, I know it is a transfer station but we still call it the dump. And then we make a stop at the library.

The library is a real gathering place. Two years ago, I raised $330,000 so we could build a two-story addition, and it is spectacular. I was particularly pleased that all the contractors were local people. It wasn’t really hard to raise the money because I’ve been doing that my entire career, and there is a lot of money available for libraries. Stephen and Tabitha King gave us $50,000, as did another family foundation.

We are now embarking on improvements to the old library building, and the Kings donated $25,000 for this project and another family donated $35,000. Because it’s gotten too hard for me to do grant writing, another great member of my community stepped up to do that for us.

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Our communities also have many talented artists. A lady, in her will, left us money to purchase art, which now decorates our entire library. We’ve been able to purchase so much art that we rotate it through the library every two months.

The library actually serves both Mount Vernon and Vienna. In many respects we are one community. The Grange is another example. It is located in Vienna and includes people from both communities. They often invite the public to their events. Vienna also has a nice community center where they host lots of great events.

No, you don’t have to leave our communities to have lots of fun.

We have an awesome Aging In Place group and program, which provide everything from transportation to home visits. And our fire department has lots of great members. We even have an emergency health and rescue team. Many people serve the town in a variety of ways from town committees to our road crews.

We have a very popular café too. For years, I always had their pulled pork sandwich. So they started to call it the Gorgeous George sandwich, but I asked them to call it the George to keep me humble.

I love living in a town with eight lakes and ponds, some of which we share with Vienna. Linda and I vacationed a couple times in southeast Arizona, where they have only one lake, and it’s really a dammed-up river. People didn’t believe me when I told them I live in a small rural town with eight lakes and ponds.

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The two towns also share the spectacular Kennebec Highlands, public land that includes remote ponds, stunning views and great hikes. I kept a canoe at one of the ponds where you can catch a bass on almost every cast. One of my grandsons loved fishing there.

As  I sit here writing this column, enjoying the view of Hopkins Pond and Hopkins Stream right outside my window, along with a pileated woodpecker in a tree to the left and a bald eagle in a tree along the stream, I feel very blessed to live here, a beautiful town filled with wonderful people.

 

George Smith can be reached at 34 Blake Hill Road, Mount Vernon 04352, or georgesmithmaine@gmail.com. Read more of Smith’s writings at www.georgesmithmaine.com.


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