Event-full: Lessons Learned from MCHP Gatherings

Community members converse in Bangor

Now that the kick-off gathering for each MCHP community has been held, attention turns to gleaning the collective wisdom of what happened at them.

What were the “best practices?” What might communities do differently in the future–say, in June, when MCHP websites are unveiled and presented to the public? How might MHS staff be involved in a more constructive way?

Let’s look first at what worked–and worked really well, in many cases:

• Team Mobilization. Hey, it’s a lot of work to pull off a public event and everyone did it! Each team distributed the responsibilities in an organized fashion, some even designating a sub-committee to handle preparations. Logistics and set-up were well-planned out and carried off to a T.
• Comprehensive Publicity. The call went out far and wide in most communities–to newspapers, email lists, websites, and other media. Printed flyers showcased historic photos and clever appeals.
  

  Biddeford's MCHP Brand

  And most teams extended the all-important personal invitation–on paper, by phone, in person–to town VIPs. Some teams even went so far as to brand the project with a logo and name and unveil it on the publicity and handouts, like bookmarks, at the event.

• A Festive, Foodie Atmosphere. Nothing says “Join us!” like the promise of good food and cheery surroundings. Given the season, some teams emphasized a harvest theme in decor and food choices. Tables were dressed with autumn colors. Cool-weather comfort foods like casseroles and chowders were provided at gatherings over the dinner hour.
  

  Tasty desserts in Guilford

  At post-dinner events, coffee and cider washed down tasty cookies, fruit crisps, rich cakes, and other sweet treats — some made from recipes in locally-produced cookbooks. But most importantly, attendees were greeted at the door with smiles and warm welcomes, and made to feel like they were an important part of a communal celebration.

• A+ Agendas and Professional Presentation. A lively and concise agenda, planned in advance and closely followed when the time comes, is the hallmark of an organized event. All teams had outlined how their evenings would go, and largely stayed true to that outline. Most involved verbal contributions by each team member (including students, in a couple cases) and some featured PowerPoints, slideshows, and sample school-based activities.
• An Invitation for Feedback. In all cases, the audience was invited to weigh in–whether on project topics, community resources, and/or requests for volunteers.
  

  Katie Murphy, at the podium, and note-taker Pam Ames, listen to a community member's comments

  In a few places this took the form of group conversation, and in the best of those, a moderator and note-taker kept the discussion flowing and fruitful. Nearly all communities utilized some kind of feedback method–from posters inviting comments about exhibit topics, to contact sheets and surveys handed out at the door. And plenty of informal conversations took place before and after the main event.

So, given all that great success, what’s left to be done differently down the road? Under the heading of “Lessons Learned” is the following:

• Improving Turnout. This is a tough one because it’s not necessarily something teams have control over. While some communities got 40-50 or more enthusiastic souls in the door — the first to hold an event, Lincoln held onto the title with nearly 100 — others wished they’d had a few more bodies to warm the seats. Future tactics might include tapping into new avenues of publicity (including MHS doing more to publicize the events), getting notices out further in advance, offering door prizes, changing the date or time (if there is any evidence that was an issue), offering a more substantial meal, and inviting attendees to bring a specific community story or historic item along with them.
• Fostering Rich Conversation (about Local History). While each community gathered useful information in some shape or form, not all made full group discussion a part of the evening. It wasn’t a requirement, but a captive audience of adults — who, on the whole, like to learn by interacting — is an ideal setting for rich verbal exchange.
  

  MHS Assistant Director Steve Bromage (left) makes a point during discussion in Blue Hill

  The informalities of talk reveal emotion and energy that sometimes written feedback does not. Even in places that did solicit conversation, there wasn’t always enough time or space to delve deeply into the whys and wherefores of local history–to tell stories and pull on provocative comments like threads to see what they unravel. To a certain degree, that’s just a factor of time–you can’t do everything in 90 minutes. But it’s also a lesson for us at MHS. Perhaps in future events, the MHS role can be less MMN demo (or at least, placing that later on the agenda) and more ice-breaker conversation facilitation at the beginning. One possible question to get things going: “What defining story would you tell someone who had no prior knowledge of your community?”

• Setting Goals and Objectives. How can these types of events best feed the MCHP goals overall–both at the team, and MHS, levels? Clearly, teams got a lot out of their evenings, but the above lessons are fodder for MHS to develop an even stronger structure for community gatherings in the future. We can do this by defining more explicitly what we expect everyone–including us–to get out of the evening.
  

  Scarborough Team Leader Celeste Shinay elicits responses to the question: "What is the benefit of MCHP to our community?"

  In addition, when teams clearly define for themselves what they want to take away from the event, and structure their presentation to get it, success happens. Set a goal — even something as straightforward as community support and recognition — and tailor your objectives to meet it. This may be as simple as coming up with the right question to pose.

Obviously, MHS and all the teams met a great many goals by holding these events — not the least of was checking off the first major activity of the MCHP! — and we at Maine Historical are continually impressed and invigorated by all your hard work. We know many of you devote countless hours of  “spare” time to MCHP because you believe deeply in the project.

So, on behalf of everyone at the state level involved with MCHP, kudos for a great kick-off. And now… let’s go do some history!

Hall-Dalers Hunt for History in Hallowell

I couldn’t resist turning the title into an adventure in alliteration. It’s not often you get to work with that many repeating consonants!

Middle School students on the history trail in Hallowell

Nor is it often, if you’re not a teacher, that you get to hang out with a group of middle schoolers hot on the trail of history. That’s what I got to do last Thursday morning as Hall-Dale 7th graders hit the streets, the library, and the cemetery in Hallowell as part of their introduction to the MCHP. While a formal school kick-off is planned for December 10, this field trip provided a solid foundation for appreciating the city’s history and wealth of historical resources.

Teacher Mike Quinn (on left) corrals students to explain the hunt

Divided into three groups, the students rotated between well-designed, interactive sessions. At the Hubbard Free Library, director Melody Norman-Camp and teacher Mike Quinn oversaw a scavenger hunt.

Students find a statuette

Pairs or trios of students were given a list of items to hunt down and describe in writing.

An 1832 fire bucket

While these items–paintings, busts, artifacts–are all on regular display at the library, the investigative process taught students that they are more than just decor.

Students recording their impressions

“It’s good that they get out and do [history] it instead of just reading [about] it,” said one parent chaperone.

Tour guide Gerry Mahoney at a Museum in the Streets stop

Meanwhile, that sentiment was being echoed by students on historian Gerry Mahoney’s Museum in the Streets tour. “We learn more by doing hands-on stuff than just sitting in the classroom,” said students Olivia Maynard and Amber Bell simultaneously as they walked from one block to the next. When asked why, fellow student Emily Markham chimed in about the importance of  access to “the primary source of what we’re learning about.” For example, added Tiffiny McCollett, “I like to see the buildings where things happened.”

In front of the Cotton Mill sign

And see buildings they did on their hour-long walk. One of many stops was at the former 19th century cotton mill building (turned into apartments in the 1980s) on the corner of Water and Academy Streets. Students listened to Gerry’s lively and insightful commentary about the building, including the revealing lesson that the once-high production of such mills in the north was a direct result of cotton cultivation in the south. “In other words,” he said, even small northern cities like Hallowell indirectly “supported a slave economy.”

Heading to the next stop

Following each stop, Gerry posed a multiple choice question to the students. At the Cotton Mill, the question also centered on economics: What did a mill worker make per six-day work week circa 1850? Choices: A) $3.75, B) $5.75, or C) $10.75. Students furiously haggled and then enthusiastically shouted out their answers. (Give up? The answer is at the bottom of the post.)

Hallowell Cemetery

The third tour of the day took place at the Hallowell Cemetery, a short bus ride north of downtown. What a day and season for a winding stroll amid gravestones!

Sam Weber points out a gravestone

With carpets of fallen leaves, overcast skies, and nippy temperatures as his backdrop, Library trustee and city historian Sam Webber–dressed for the part in a 19th century top hat, bow tie, and black coat–led students around to various town father and mother gravestones.

Hallowell's first resident

These included first Hallowell settler Deacon Pease Clark and members of the influential Hubbard family, among others.

As you can imagine, these tours–and a mid-day break for a bag lunch in City Hall Auditorium–absorbed virtually an entire school day. But what a great way to lay the groundwork of the MCHP, and lifelong engagement in local history in general. The investment of just a few hours out of the classroom and into the past can pay great dividends in the classroom for the foreseeable future.

(Still wondering what mill workers were paid? The answer is A) $3.75.)

The Benefits of Participation

Woody Allen once quipped: “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” Sounds easy enough, but there’s still another 20 percent that involves doing something. You’ve got to participate actively in the experience in order to reach out and grab success by the tail.

7th grader Jessica Steinort talks to a community member next to the seasonally-decorated food table

That was the subtle undercurrent on Wednesday, October 14, as Scarborough’s MCHP team hosted an enthusiastic crowd of about 50 town residents in the community room of the Scarborough Public Library. A truly intergenerational group, the mix included students, parents, partnering organization trustees, town VIPs (including a state rep), and other community members.

They were drawn by extensive publicity, personal invitation, and–coming off the 350th anniversary celebration the town threw last year–a predilection for all things local and historical. (Not to mention the promise of goodies, which included cookies made from recipes in a new “Scarborough Fare” cookbook put out by the Scarborough Historical Society.)

So getting them to show up wasn’t exactly easy, but it was made easier by loads of preparation. And so was the other 20 percent–the active part. After introductions and an Maine Memory Network demo, team members took turns narrating a snazzy PowerPoint presentation that outlined their perceived “Benefits of Participation” in the MCHP.

7th grader Laura Henny kicks off the student portion of Scarborough's MCHP presentation

And by team members, I mean students as well. About 20 or so of Scarborough Middle School teacher Jessica Kelly’s Gifted-and-Talented students will participate in the project, many of whom were at the event to explain first hand what they expected to get out of the experience.

7th grader Drew Wells

After Jessica explained that “MCHP has everything a teacher is looking for” the students weighed in with particulars. Comments included benefits like becoming “actively engaged in community” and not only learning about Scarborough’s history, but “playing a prominent role in sharing that history.”

8th grader Emily Carter

They hope to develop and apply research, critical thinking, writing, technology, communication, and literacy skills. “When students value what they are doing,” said one young presenter, “they are more likely to succeed.”

The same could be said for the audience. Following the students, and remarks by historical society members on the importance of developing future stewards for historic preservation, team leader Celeste Shinay asked the attendees to weigh in.  What did they, as community members, think were the benefits of Scarborough participating in the MCHP?

Team leader Celeste Shinay facilitating the conversation part of the evening

Lively conversation ensued with responses ranging from introducing new residents and people “from away” to Scarborough’s history, to strengthening the partnership between school and community, and “bringing history to life” with stories instead of relying on dry names and dates. Clearly, attendees valued the chance to contribute their ideas and throw their weight behind the project.

“This is a great validation,” said Celeste, as she wrapped up the formal conversation and invited people to chat with one another over one last cookie before leaving. “It’s always re-affirming to know our community as a whole is supporting what we’re doing.”

Sounds like a solid 100 percent to me.

A Structured Brainstorm

Just a sampling of the fruits of "structured brainstorming" in Cumberland/North Yarmouth

Here’s the kind of problem you want to have at a community event: Running out of room to post the sticky-backed flip chart paper due to a flood of good ideas.

That was about the only predicament the Cumberland/North Yarmouth team found themselves in last Tuesday night. (Well, and an electrical short caused by a crock pot — yes, a crock pot. But that was quickly remedied.)

Question: How does one come by such copious feedback in a relatively compact amount of time? Answer: Structured Brainstorming.

Explained to the group and facilitated by North Yarmouth Historical Society president Katie Murphy, structured brainstorming is a process by which every person in the room gets a chance to share ideas in an efficient and organized manner.

The brainstorming process at work

Passing around a microphone, Katie invited brief responses in two categories: topics of interests and resources out there that the team might not know about. And she imposed one strigent rule: No discussion. Just state your ideas and pass the mic onto the next person. While in a couple of instances this nipped some potentially intriguing conversation about local history in the bud, it allowed every person in the room to have his or her say, and generated a great many new ideas for the team to work with.

Pam Ames capturing the feedback, while Katie Murphy moderates

It also probably generated a hand cramp in Pam Ames, of Skyline Farm, a carriage museum in North Yarmouth, who impressively kept up with the myriad comments from the 26 attendees. Comments ranged widely. Some related directly to one of the team’s pre-determined themes of transportation. Where and when roads were built, the old Route 88 trolley, the movement of railroad tracks, the shipping industry, bus lines, and much more fell squarely into this category.

But there were plenty of other topics raised that explored the two-town relationship in diverse ways. Many of these were presented in the form of questions, such as: “How many industries/businesses collaborated across the two towns?” and, from a student, “What influence did members of our community/ies have on events that were more global or national?”

Community members chat after the event

Once everyone had spoken, the evening that had begun with a delicious dinner of soup and bread, a welcome and introduction to the event by team leader and Prince Memorial Library director Thomas Bennett, and brief comments by other team members, drew to a festive close. Plenty of mini-conversations took place in the room over a final dash to the dessert table.

And, oh yes: All this (save the chit-chat at the end) was live. Broadcast on local cable access television. So while there were 26 community members in the room–and given the compact set-up, you would have thought there were twice that many–a good number more may have been tuning into the event from home.

So, a word to the team: Maybe you don’t want to put away that flip chart just yet!

Sharing the Harvest in Guilford

The Feast

While the weather didn’t cooperate for Guilford Historical Society’s Annual Harvest Fair on Saturday, October 3, shuttering craft tents and impacting attendance, there were plenty of takers for the bountiful potluck lunch. And with good reason.

Just have a look at the picture to the left. Crocks of baked beans and fish chowder rubbed up against platters of Shepherd’s Pie and a rich and gooey macaroni-and-cheese. Yeast rolls competed for space with potato salad. And don’t even get me started about the pumpkin pie squares!

In fact, the entire luncheon was a kind of rich, celebratory dessert for the Guilford team, who in the hour prior to the feast, rolled out their Maine Community Heritage Project for all the world to see.

Okay, I’ll admit it: We had a few less bodies in the room during that hour than when the covers were off the soup pots, but for a drizzly, dank day, it was still a very respectable 28 members of this small central Maine town of just over 1,500.

Guilford Town Manager Tom Goulette

And it was very respectably MC’d by team member and town manager, Tom Goulette. Part funny man, part town scholar-historian, and all-around big-hearted guy, Tom gets the MCHP to a T. He explained to the crowd why–while the celebration of local history is the both the moving force and the prime destination of the project–it is as much about community collaboration and economic development as anything.

After a presentation on the Maine Memory Network by MCHP Community Partnership Coordinator, Larissa Vigue Picard, two other team members followed Tom’s lead by sharing their hopes for the project. First, Siefert “Stub” Schultz, president of the Guilford Historical Society, expressed his enthusiasm for the access the MCHP will provide to otherwise little known historical materials. Then, through the power of story, he reminded audience members that there’s plenty of reason to be proud of their heritage.

Referring to the first family to settle in the town in 1806, Stub explained how the parents left their three boys–ages 11, 12, and 13–in charge of the property and the cow during that first winter, while they went back to the original homesite in New Gloucester. The boys survived on potatoes, milk, corn, and boiled wheat. “That’s the kind of stock we in Guilford come from,” said Stub.

Teacher Rex Webb and his students

The audience then got a peek at some of Guilford’s most recent stock, Piscataquis Community Middle School 8th-grade students Elaine Ritano and Spencer Martell. Social Studies teacher and team member Rex Webb introduced them as lead students on the project, and Elaine spoke about her interest in learning more about her community’s history.

Ready for the challenge, Rex’s 8th graders will chip away through the next several months at the team’s list of 150+ items to be digitized. Along with some writing class students, they will also build an exhibit on area schools and education in Guilford. Like those first teens to weather a Guilford winter, no doubt next spring they will emerge victorious, and with boosted confidence, for having met the challenge.

Two community members look at exhibit posters

Meanwhile, the team members will set about building their own exhibits. Initial ideas include the way Guilford has continually remade itself via industry; the power and pleasure of annual community events (like the Harvest Fair); the architecture and value of town buildings; and stories of some of the town’s most celebrated veterans.

“But these aren’t written in stone,” said Tom, inviting the community to add comments to the posters, and brand new ideas to a survey created by team leader and coordinator extraordinaire Cindy Woodworth (who is as good behind-the-scenes as Tom is out front). “We want you to tell us what’s important to you,” he said, “because this is for all of us.”

Clearing the Way to Collaboration in Blue Hill

Blue Hill's Community Event, 10/1/09

“Americans of all ages, all stations of life, and all types of disposition are forever forming associations.” So wrote Alexis de Tocqueville in the second volume of Democracy in America, published in 1840. “In democratic countries knowledge of how to combine is the mother of all other forms of knowledge,” he went on to say. “On its progress depends that of all the others.

De Tocqueville’s observation of Americans as prone to associating with one another to get things done was referred to last Thursday night by Blue Hill Historical Society president John Roberts.

“Collaboration is the foundation of community,” he said, explaining why the MCHP means so much to him, the historical society, and by extension, Blue Hill and its environs. And paraphrasing JFK, he encouraged attendees to remember that “it’s not what we can get from the town, but what we can give to the town” that counts.

The Goodies

The community event was all about giving the town a sneak preview of what the team has planned for the year ahead. After an intial meet-and-greet over delicious blueberry crisp and Indian pudding, team leader Tom Bjorkman’s introduction of team members, and MHS assistant director Steve Bromage’s Maine Memory Network presentation, each team member in attendance spoke briefly about his or her role in the project.

Following John Roberts, Caroline Werth, with the Jonathan Fisher House, talked about how the symbolic gesture of cutting down trees in front of the house literally had brought in more visitors. “But most of them are from away,” she said, expressing her desire to open up this National Historic Registry treasure for more people in the community, including the schools.

Then came Consolidated School 8th grade teacher Della Martin, who lauded MCHP’s unique opportunity to refresh a particular aspect of the curriculum. “Middle school students have been writing Blue Hill reports for 40+ years,” she said, “but this puts a new twist on it for kids in the digital age.” She relishes the chance for her students, who are “just beginning to know we’re a special community,” to make connections with people on the team.

Those students–who are themselves focusing in on an exhibit theme of “From the Earth” relating to past Blue Hill industries like ice, quarrying, and mineral springs–contributed the evening’s artfully-decorated posters on topics that other team members, and students from other participating schools, plan to undertake. These included themes like “Fishing and Lobstering,” “Tourism, Rusticators, and the Summer Colony,” “Music and the Arts,” and “Blue Hill’s Neighborhoods of the Past.”

George Stevens Academy history teacher Bill Case spoke next, explaining that while he and his 11th grade students are in the early stages of determing how the MCHP will play out in their class, they have already launched into deep discussions of the team’s overarching questions: “Who are we?” and “How did we get here?” Meanwhile, he feels that “the project has already helped because I’ve met people from other schools.”

Closing the team presentation portion of the evening was Brook Minner, assistant director of the Blue Hill Public Library. “It’s a great opportunity to partner,” she said, explaining that collaboration such as the MCHP facilitates is at the heart of a public library’s mission.

Attendees then spent 15 minutes discussing what else might be included in a website on Blue Hill’s history. Reports from the tables included such diverse topics as hygiene and medicine, women’s temperance, the brick industry, and–last but not least–an old trail leading from Salt Pond to Walker’s Pond which once was used to “haul stone in one direction, and ice in another.”

Not a bad way to close out the evening for a town that’s clearing a new path to collaboration through the MCHP.

Hallowell’s History Buffs

Conversation Time at the Hallowell Community Meeting

Talk about a captive audience.

Team members had plenty of work to do getting ready for last night’s community conversation in Hallowell, but none of it involved begging for customers. Nearly 50 people showed up for the festivities in this tiny city of just under 2,500 residents. The second-floor auditorium in the Classic Revival-style City Hall building, which one ascends via charmingly curved staircase steps, was an ideal venue for the event.

Hallowell seems to boast more than its share of avid devotees of its history. And no wonder: with all the activity related to the Kennebec River, breakthroughs in medicine, a nationally-recognized granite industry, historic architecture, and much, much more, there’s plenty of material to go around.

Team leader Bob McIntire opened the event with a well-crafted old photo slideshow that whetted the appetite of the crowd. After MHS Assistant Director Steve Bromage explained the MCHP and Maine Memory Network in more detail–including showing one of the items the team already has online– each team member took the microphone to explain a particular aspect of the project.

Gerry Mahoney, of Row House, a historic preservation group, marveled at the “investigative” nature of writing the narrative and how, as much as he’s studied the city, “there’s always more” to uncover. Teachers Wendy Wingate and Libby Ladner, along with 8th-grader Erin Colwell, discussed Hall-Dale Middle School’s plans, based a pilot project the 7th grade class undertook last year. Sam Webber, a trustee of Hubbard Library, described the planned exhibit topics (on the subjects areas noted above, plus “disasters” natural and man-made) and what kinds of items might be scanned. Finally, Jane Radcliffe, of the Vaughan Homestead Foundation, offered a quick overview of the cataloging process.

Jane Radcliffe talking with a community member.

When Bob returned to the front and asked the crowd to break for sharing of ideas, completing “Can You Help?” sheets that asked for further topic suggestions and resources, and munching on tasty Slate’s cookies, he didn’t have to ask twice. About 20 minutes of convivial conversation ensued in all corners of the room.

By the sound of it, and the sight of a stack of dutifully filled out contact sheets, this team has no shortage of history buffs ready and waiting to put the shine on the MCHP.

Wendy Wingate and Libby Ladner (center and right) talk with a community member.

Exploring Maine Memory Network

Scandals and Scavenger Hunts: How to Interest Students (or anyone) in Local History

It was a small, but lively group in the community room at the McArthur Library in Biddeford last night for the MCHP team’s community conversation event.

Small often means big when it comes to fostering discussion. Every person gets a chance to speak, and those that may feel uncomfortable piping up in large groups find a smaller number less intimidating. It also means that ideas can be fleshed out, rather than skipped past as soon as they uttered.

Last night, this relaxed and expansive atmosphere translated into thoughtful conversation about how best to align topics with the students working on the MCHP.

The Biddeford Team (team leader Denise Doherty is second from left)

If you’ll recall, team leader Denise Doherty teaches alternative education students (scroll down to the September 14 entry for a more detailed explanation of the Biddeford team). While there may be challenges with this group of students that are different from those in a more traditional class, at heart, kids are kids. And, when it comes to history and good stories, they are not so different from the rest of us with a few more candles on our cakes.

A few salient tips, then, that emerged from the discussion that we might remember when choosing topics to engage students of all stripes–or anyone doing local history.

1) Don’t second-guess your audience. Since school started Denise has given students a number of opportunities to explore possible topics for the MCHP. She plastered the walls of her room with a variety of old photos of downtown Biddeford and students have spent considerable time comparing city blocks then and now. She also gave her students a little tour around the many items McArthur Library already had on Maine Memory Network and let them pick and choose which images to focus in on.

The surprising result: Students were drawn to images Denise never would have imagined would be intriguing to them, or eliciting so much discussion. A number of photographs of sewer construction on Main Street in 1914-1915 captivated one student because of the massive machinery and blue-collar subject matter. A photograph of a small boy, perhaps no more than six, selling cigarettes, launched a discussion about acceptable practices then and now. Old-time swimsuits on beachcombers at Biddeford Pool drew shock and amazement, and prompted one young woman to begin investigating fashion of the period.

The lesson here is: Don’t assume you know what will appeal to students, or even the general public. Test the market!

2) Everyone loves a scandal. Once the group got going on this topic, it was hard to stop. Murders motivated by race, political shenanigans, street gangs of the 1940s-50s, bodies caught in mill machinery and run over by trolleys… it sounds like what’s on TV tonight. In fact, it’s all part of Biddeford’s history. Every town has its share of gritty tales that have the potential to reach out and grab an audience by the collar. If they are fun and intriguing to read, imagine how much pleasure students might get unearthing the gory details. Mind you, there’s tremendous learning potential in these stories, too. Think of the horrors of child labor and how instructive such a topic might be to today’s youth.

3) Make overt connections with today. Quick way to bore someone to tears: Avoid acknowledging in any way that the past has bearing on, or relationship to, the present. History is a long, entwined, unbroken chain of events that carefully followed, leads straight to this very moment. Highlighting these connections for students (or anyone) can be incredibly enriching. Consider a diary from the 1920s that McArthur Library director Dora St. Martin is dutifully transcribing. In it, the young female author–a mill worker–recorded her daily adventures, big and small, such as a long list of all the movies she saw. And juicy stuff, too: another woman getting called the “B-word” in the street, gossipy tidbits about who likes who. Sound not so different from today? Students will soak this stuff up as they realize that people then had much the same inner lives as people now.

4) Treat the audience like investigators on a trail. Paraphrasing Debe Averill, Bangor’s team leader: “Don’t call it research. Call it detective work!” Don’t all of our senses perk up when we catch the scent of a good mystery? The Biddeford discussion offered several rich ways to turn the work into a hunt for the truth. How about literal scavenger hunts for local historical resources? Break students into pairs or teams and have them locate the plaques, memorials, statues, and monuments and uncover their reason for being. Or stick them on a bus with your historical society representative, as was suggested last night, and do a tour around town to locate (and map?) now-forgotten buildings and sites of importance. Open up ancient city directories and have students find the location of their current residence and uncover what it used to be. Then have them write about the experience as a sort of meta-exhibit: “We set out to find… and here’s what happened…”

5) Don’t forget to pick a theme. While self-selection for students is important, do provide parameters and structure before letting them go to town. This can be as simple as making sure all the potential topics and materials relate to an over-arching theme. In Biddeford, it’s neighborhoods. One person questioned whether everything students might find interesting would fall under that umbrella, but it is pretty broad. Fashion, for instance, might be looked at ethnically or culturally–and Biddeford history is full to bursting with different ethnic groups. Seek the happy medium of a unifying vision with lots of different perspectives gazing toward it. (Your readers will thank you, too.)

So, there you have it. Many substantive tips and tricks from the clever minds in Biddeford!

“After Lumber–What?”

Bangor Community Conversation, 9/23/09

That salient question was posed, albeit rhetorically, by an audience member during last night’s lively community conversation in Bangor, ably facilitated by team leader Deborah Averill and held in the lecture hall of the Bangor Public Library. (If you’ve never been there or made it upstairs, you owe yourself a visit to peer up at the stunning glass rotunda.) Like many other comments during the evening, the speaker’s question validated the brainstorming work already done by the team.

The gist of his meaning? Every Mainer knows the old saw about Bangor being the “lumber capital of the world” in the 19th century. With its more than 300 sawmills it well deserves that title, of course. It must have seemed like everyone was a lumberjack in those days. But, if you start and stop there, you aren’t seeing the forest for the trees. By the late 1800s Bangor’s lumbering industry had lost its vigor as Americans settled, and harvested forests, further and further west. It was a drawn-out demise that couldn’t help but make an impact on the once-dominant region. However, noted the same audience member, “Modern Bangor was created out of the death of lumbering.”

And “Modern Bangor” entails a heck of a lot. Somehow, team member and flip chart attendant Priscilla Soucie expertly kept up with the flow topics and ideas on what makes Bangor distinctive: Neighborhoods like Little City and the Highlands. A colorful history of crime and punishment. How urban renewal changed things. The spirit of charity and the central role of churches, missionaries, and seminaries. Trade networks. How 20th century national movements like suffrage, temperance (Carrie Nation at the Bangor House!), and abolition played out in the city. Parks and green spaces. Arts and culture. And on and on and on. (Let’s not forget “before lumbering” reminded a couple folks–Who were the native American residents? What drew the first European settlers?)

These rich contributions came from several local historians, teachers, and a young woman in high school working on a Girl Scout “Gold” Badge. (The latter reminded the group that the last 50 years is history, too, and barely gets covered in school.) By the end of the evening, which included homemade ginger snaps and chocolate drop cookies from a Bangor Rebekah cookbook, team members were full to bursting with potential subject matter for the next decade of their MCHP website. But a few had already started synthesizing the suggestions into a potential theme: Bangor as hub or gateway, where the movement of groups and ideas in and out of the city factored heavily in its evolution.

And fortunately, at the second team meeting earlier that day, the group decided to reconvene again in a week with one clear priority… prioritizing. First, organize and rate all the topics. Then, decide which ones have material behind them–either housed at the library, the Bangor Museum and Center for History, or out there in the community. (Like Lincoln, they collected such information from attendees, as well as gauging interest about mentoring students and help with scanning.) Next, mete out the topics among the two middle schools and various interested classes at the high school. Finally, as team member and Cohen Middle School teacher Ron Bilancia put it, “just sit down and hammer out” the fine details of individual student work plans, logistics of transporting collections, and how much schools will share the work or act independently.

Maine Historical Society Assistant Director Steve Bromage put it right when he said last night that Bangor has “an embarassment of riches” in terms of content. But the riches go beyond the mere fruits of the historical record. They are embedded within this strong and diverse team, and their additional community members.

People like Mr. Charles Colburn, an 87-year-old WWII veteran, recently awarded his Bangor High School diploma after missing out on it when he left for war. “I’ve got it. I’ve got it all!” he said to me last night, referring to memories of Bangor, and Maine at large, tucked away in his mind. “I can you tell stories you wouldn’t believe.” He went on to say he was quite a woodsman back in the day. “Do you know I once carried a deer on my shoulders all the way across a beaver dam? All the way across it!”

Set the trees aside for a moment… and dig into those deeply felt roots.

Cumberland and North Yarmouth: Two Roads, One Destination

Members of the Cumberland/North Yarmouth Team at Orientation

In Robert Frost’s famous poem “The Road Not Taken,” the speaker finds himself at a crossroads in a “yellow wood,” divergent paths at his feet. Sorry he “could not travel both / And be one traveler,” he lingers, debating which one to follow. At last, he chooses the one that seems slightly less worn.

Many people focus on the last two lines of the poem — “I took the one less traveled by / And that has made all the difference” — and read them as a positive commentary on taking the alternate path. In this interpretation, “all the difference” means that the speaker’s life was improved greatly by that path.

However, Frost was a master of the double–even triple–meaning. Perhaps, in fact, the speaker wishes he’d taken the other path. Or, maybe neither path is all good or all bad–one is just different from the other. They share a common beginning, and they may arrive at a singular destination, but in between, the way diverges and each is equally important. Not unlike… a history of a life, or a place, you might say.

So by now you’ve probably guessed that the use of this poem in this post is no coincidence. Indeed, “The Road Not Taken” literally helps inform the experience of the Cumberland/North Yarmouth team. Roads themsleves are, as one team member put it, “a huge part of the character” of the area. Where and when they were built has driven much of the history of the place. One example is Route 9, which connects Cumberland and North Yarmouth to the Portland metro area. Built in 1920, the road eventually established the region as a cozy bedroom community and kept other kinds of development at bay.

But it is really the metaphor of separate paths that most vividly evokes the history of this unique MCHP community. Like Frost’s traveler, the two towns started out on unified ground as part of “Ancient North Yarmouth.” Incorporated in 1680, this region also included today’s Yarmouth proper, Pownal, Freeport, Harpswell, and part of Brunswick. By the mid-1800s, however, all the towns had become individual entities. Cumberland was second-to-last to incorporate in 1821; Yarmouth itself followed in 1849.

North Yarmouth and Cumberland then wound their independent ways into the next century. Neither path was better than the other–just different. But given proximity, the paths were destined to meet up again. Prince Memorial Library provided an early linkage. Although situated in Cumberland, the library has been patronized by residents of both towns since its creation in the 1920s; North Yarmouth began contributing annually to the library’s operating budget in 1972. Perhaps the most significant alignment came with the creation of MSAD #51 in 1966. Now families from the two towns were intertwined via their children, and town leaders were connected by considerable adminstrative and budgetary responsibilities.

Fast forward to today. Still wending individual paths, Cumberland and North Yarmouth are nevertheless moving toward a singular destination via the MCHP. The mirage of a shared local history website shimmers in the distance (specifically, next June). As the year progresses, the vision will gain clarity and form.

Never mind that there are two paths instead of one. Community needn’t be defined strictly by a single towns’ borders. It can, in fact, be liberating to think of the creation of “community” as an intentional exercise–come together because you want to, celebrating each of your identities equally–rather than something imposed by the lines on a map.

And never mind that this particular destination is a “virtual” one. The effects may be just as real and long-lasting as building another road.