Maine Lobster Festival Accepting Applications For 2020 Maine Sea Goddess Pageant

Rockland, Maine - The Maine Lobster Festival is looking for 20 young women to serve as Sea Princesses and compete for the title of Maine Sea Goddess at the 2020 Maine Lobster Festival. This is a tradition that dates back to 1948 when Ruth Roberts Danzig was crowned the first Sea Goddess.

On the opening night of the festival, one Sea Princess is crowned the Sea Goddess and one is crowned the Crown Princess. The Sea Goddess will represent the Midcoast and the Maine lobster industry throughout the year at various festivals and events.

Applicants must be a high school graduate, 21 years of age or younger at the time of the coronation, and a Maine resident. Applications must be postmarked before March 31. 

All application materials and new pageant guidelines for 2020 can be found on the Maine Sea Goddess Pageant & Coronation page of the Maine Lobster Festival website.

About the Maine Lobster Festival

Five days of fun and feasting on the fabulous coast of Maine, the Maine Lobster Festival attracts thousands of people to the Midcoast region and has a long tradition of giving back to the local community. The 2020 festival will be held July 29 to Aug. 2. For more information about the Maine Lobster Festival, visit the website at www.mainelobsterfestival.com, “like” it on Facebook, follow it on Twitter at @MELobsterFest, and on Instagram at @mainelobsterfest.

BREAKING: Mulitple Fire Departments Responding To 73/Waterman Beach Rd 3rd Alarm

Update: According to command, most of the fire is out, requesting fire marshals
Breaking News: South Thomaston, Maine - Multiple fire departments responding to Rt 73/Waterman Beach rd (entrance by South Thomaston Fire Department) third alarm structure fire in South Thomaston, Maine on February 22nd, 2020.

Fire unit on scene reports fully involved.

No one was inside the home.

Stay tuned for updates.

Rockland Public Library - Destination Wellness Event

Tuesday, March 3 at 6pm

Destination Wellness Event: Explaining Yoga and Ways to Incorporate it Into Your Lifestyle

A Talk by Ananda Yoga

Rockland, Maine - By now you’ve probably heard about yoga, but what exactly does it mean? What is yoga beyond the physical postures? Join Co-Owners of Ananda Yoga and Wellness, Sheila Caldwell and Amanda Cooney, for this conversation. Learn what yoga is all about and ways to incorporate it into your lifestyle, both on and off the mat. Bring a pen and paper to take notes as we explore the reasons for yoga’s growing popularity, its basic fundamentals and ethics, and a brief breakdown of the 8 Limbs of Yoga.

Both Sheila and Amanda have been practicing and teaching yoga for several years. They opened Ananda Yoga and Wellness in Belfast, Maine in the summer of 2018 to connect with community and spread the magic of yoga.

This program is free and open to the public and is co-sponsored by Rockland Public Library and Destination Wellness Midcoast Maine. Rockland Library is located at 80 Union Street.

March Events at the Lewiston CareerCenter

LEWISTON—The Lewiston CareerCenter, part of the Maine Department of Labor, together with its partners, offers many services to help people find employment or upgrade skills and employers to find qualified workers. 

Most services/events are offered on a walk-in basis. Others may require appointments or pre-registration in person or by phone at 207-753-9005 unless a different number is listed.

The following services and programs are offered at no cost to the public:

Oxford County Hiring Event

Absentee Voting Begins in Portland for March 3, 2020 Election

Absentee Voting Begins in Portland

Citizens can vote absentee in person at City Hall or via mail;

Election day is March 3, 2020

  

PORTLAND, Maine – Citizens can begin requesting absentee ballots by mail, phone or in person and vote absentee in person in the City Clerk’s Office, Room 203, City Hall for the upcoming March 3, 2020 election. The March 3 election consists of a state primary, presidential primary, special referendum, and special municipal referendum. 

Hours for absentee voting are 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM, Monday through Friday. On Thursday, February 27, 2020 only, the Clerk’s Office will remain open until 7:00 PM for the last day of absentee/early voting. 

Election Day is Tuesday, March 3, 2020, and all polling places are open 7:00 AM - 8:00 PM. 

Same day voter registration is allowed at polling places on Election Day. Citizens must provide proof of identity and residency.

Look up your polling place here.

List of Portland polling locations.  

###

Rockland Public Library -- Book Discussion Group

Wednesday, February 19 at 3pm

Rockland, Maine - Rockland Public Library’s contemporary fiction discussion group will meet on Wednesday, February 19 at 3pm. The group focuses primarily on critically acclaimed and award-winning fiction from the past five years. This month’s book is Elsey, Come Home by Portland, Maine author Susan Conley. Publishers Weekly describes the novel as offering “an honest and astute depiction of the human psyche.”  The book group meets on the third Wednesday of each month from 3-4pm in the Library’s Board Room. For more information, contact Shane Billings at 207-594-0310.

Passive House Design 101 at the Camden Public Library

Camden, Maine - Join Certified Passive House Consultant Erik Durbas at the Camden Public Library on Tuesday, February 18, at 6:30 pm for an informative “crash course” presentation about Passive House Design. He will review the six tenets of the German Passivhaus standard and explain how they far exceed the current building code standards for new residential construction and the renovation of existing homes. Topics to be covered include the thermal performance of materials and assemblies, creating an air tightness control layer, the impacts of thermal bridging commonly seen in to-code construction, high efficiency heating and cooling appliances, and the benefits of passive solar gain.

This is a free talk intended to introduce the basics of designing or retrofitting a home to meet the Passive House standard. Erik Durbas says that he aims to help the community better understand “the best ways we can secure our energy future and create resilient buildings for the next generations to come.”

Erik Durbas has worked in the construction industry for over two decades. His hands-on skills range from cabinet making to custom building, with the last 12 years having been focused solely on architectural design. He currently practices sustainable, energy efficient residential design from his home office in Union.

For more information, visit librarycamden.org.

Attached is an image Erik Durbas (this is the largest file size that the presenter sent)

Neal Parker Reads for Grown Up Story Hour at the Camden Public Library

Camden, Maine - On Friday, February 21, at 11:00 am the Camden Public Library welcomes author Neal Parker to read from his book, The Butcher’s Pig during the library’s weekly read-aloud program for adults.

Parker offers a preview of his curious story with this statement: “From his humble beginnings in the English countryside and with the sure sentence of death upon him, Horatio Mudd escapes to America. There he begins life anew and discovers unimaginable hardships and a society unable to accept his porcine heritage.”

Neal Evan Parker was born in Brooklyn in 1956. As a teenager, while sailing the waters of New England, he became devoted to traditional sailing vessels. By the age of 20 he was a licensed captain and in the years that followed, Parker skippered over a dozen large schooners and historic craft. Despite struggling with dyslexia and constantly failing English in school, writing has been a lifelong passion.

In April 2005, Capt. Neal Parker traded his beloved schooner Wendameen for more time with his fast growing daughter. It was a more than equitable deal. Since that time Parker has devoted himself to sailing, writing and, of course, enjoying life as a full-time father.

For more information, visit librarycamden.org.

Attached image of author Neal Parker and cover of his book.

The Underground Railroad Along the Coast of Maine at the Camden Public Library

Camden, Maine - Slavery in America played a defining role in Maine’s history and identity. The 200th anniversary of Maine’s statehood is a good time to recognize how much effect the issue of slavery and race had on the existence and the character of the State of Maine. Eileen Kurtis-Kleinman will present a talk on “Abolitionism and the Underground Railroad Along the Coast of Maine” on Sunday, February 16, at 2:00 pm at the Camden Public Library.

 Author and educator Kurtis-Kleinman will discuss colonial Maine’s slaveholders, Maine’s population of free Blacks and fugitive slaves, the strong ties Maine maintained with the South, the rise of abolitionism along the coast, and Maine’s role in both the slave trade and the Underground Railroad.

 The Missouri Compromise of 1820 is often described as an agreement that allowed Maine to join the Union as a free state and Missouri as a slave state, thus maintaining a balance of power between North and South; but the simplicity of the description belies the fraught complexity underlying that moment. In numerous ways, the growth of Maine’s coastal villages, towns, and cities before and throughout the Civil War reflects many, often conflicting, economic, social, and political issues that the nation as a whole faced.

 Kurtis-Kleinman’s articles and books include Life on an African Slave Ship (2000), which she co-authored with her husband, Joseph Kleinman, who teaches History at the Watershed School. A resident of Camden, Kurtis-Kleinman is on the board of the Camden-Rockport Historical Society and a member of the Camden Historic Resources Committee. This program is presented in partnership with the Camden-Rockport Historical Society.

For more information, visit librarycamden.org.

Attached images of presenter Eileen Kurtis-Kleinman and Photo of Mrs. Seneca Palmer (photographed between 1870 and 1890 at a studio on Elm Street in Camden).

Rockland Public Library- Dino Afternoon

Rockland Public Library's Dino Afternoon!


Wednesday, February  19 at 3:45 PM in the Children’s Room
Looking for something to do during February vacation? Look for dinosaurs at the Rockland Library! Join Patty and Jessie for our annual celebration of all things dinosaur! We will have a dino-story and then follow our paleontologists on a scavenger hunt… you never know who you might find! Then use your finely-tuned excavating skills on… chocolate chip cookies!? Free and open to the public, children 10 & under must be accompanied by an adult.

Rockland Public Library -- Reading Room Concert with Will Brown

Thursday, February 20 @ 6:30pm

Rockland Public Library Monthly Concert Series: Will Brown

Rockland, Maine - Musician Will Brown will perform several of his arrangements of songs from the Folk, Appalachian,

Maritime, Celtic and Transatlantic genres in the historic Reading Room of Rockland Public Library on Thursday, February 20 at 6:30pm. Brown has led workshops for The Folklore Society of Greater Washington multiple times, and has been a guest performer for them as well. He has played and recorded with many well-known Maine musicians during the past 40 years. Brown had the opportunity to arrange his favorite Utah Phillips song, Going Away, which is included on the 2009 Grammy-nominated compilation Singing Through The Hard Times. The concert is free and open to the public. Rockland Public Library is located at 80 Union Street.