Seeing double: Raymond twins savor trip to Ohio for ‘Twins Day Festival’

By Ed Pierce

Twins may be God’s way of saying “buy one, get one free” but for Brian and Brandon Mank of Raymond, being a twin has always been a special unique experience.

Identical twins, from left, Brian and Brandon Mank of
Raymond, 20, traveled to attend the 'Twins Day Festival'
in Twinsville, Ohio earlier his month. COURTESY PHOTO 

To that end, the Mank brothers, 20, who are roommates at the University of Maine Orono studying engineering, flew to Ohio earlier this month to participate in the annual Twins Day Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio. Since its creation in 1976, the festival has had more than 91,021 sets of twins and multiples attend and it’s been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the “Largest Annual Gathering of Twins in the World.”

Organizers of the festival say it provides a way for celebrating the uniqueness of twins and others of multiple birth and is a centralized location for the multitude of twin-related information including but not limited to researchers, studies, photos of twins and associated details.

Brian Mank said when he learned about the “Twins Day Festival” he knew that he had to go.

“I first heard about the festival three years ago from a Facebook pop-up and have been wanting to see what it was like ever since,” he said.

The festival itself is crammed with events such as a “Double Take Parade” with twins marching in themed costumes and multiple-birth military veterans. There’s also a mass portrait session for an Official Group Photo, a Saturday Night Fireworks display, and a “Twins Days 5K & Fun Run.”

“My personal favorite part of the festival was the Twin sync game show” Brian Mank said. “This game show is split into three parts with three teams of twins. The first and second are practically the same; they split the twins up from their counterparts and ask them questions about one another. If the other twin answers correctly then they get points. The third part of the show involves putting a barrier between the twins and asking them to make poses; if the two twins do the same exact pose, then they get points. The twin team with the most points at the end wins, and each gets a $25 gift card to the Twins Day Festival gift shop.”

Just like his identical twin brother, Brandon Mank said he also enjoyed the Twins Day Festival game show.“It was fun and showed how in sync other twins were with each other,” he said.

Brandon Mank said over the years he’s learned to live with being constantly mixed up with his twin brother.

“When people mix us up now, it's less annoying and more like a funny joke that we get to tell them,” he said. “That doesn't mean that there wasn't a time in the beginning when it was annoying. We used to get so annoyed when someone mixed us up.”

The downside to being a twin, according to Brian Mank, is that no matter what, there is no privacy or secrets between you and a twin.

He said something he personally learned about other twins that he didn't know before this trip is a commonly held belief that connections between twins allow them to sense things they experience individually.

“A larger number than I thought of twins don't actually have a connection between each other that allows them to sense each other,” he said.

The Mank twins were among 20,085 twins attending this year’s Twins Day Festival, and they returned to Maine having confirmed that their lifelong bond as twins and dealing with deep emotional closeness, shared milestones, and constant comparison is shared by thousands of other twins.

They came away from the experience being more appreciative of what they share.

Brian Mank says he admires his twin’s ability to look at something and perfectly create it in his engineering studies, whether that be in a CAD program or a drawing on a piece of paper.

Brandon Mank says he believes he is more creative and his twin more analytical.

He suggests simple advice to younger twins.

“Make sure you get along with your twin because you're never sure when you're going to need their help,” Brandon Mank said. <

Gofundme benefits beloved Manchester School teacher, husband

Beloved Manchester School fourth-grade
teacher Carol Priebe will accompany her
husband, Paul Priebe, as he receives a lung
transplant at the Cleveland Clinic in 
Cleveland, Ohio. Friends and supporters
of the couple raised more than $5,000
for their expenses through a gofundme
effort. SUBMITTED PHOTO

By Daniel Gray

Have you ever had a teacher that made a huge positive impact on you or a loved one? Teachers are an important role in a child's developmental stages in life, not only for the fact that they teach our kids the knowledge they need, but because they can teach beyond that.

 

Teachers can help develop good moral stand points as well and lessons that stick with us for our entire lives. We need teachers and, sometimes, they need us as well.

Carol Priebe has taught fourth grade at Manchester School in Windham since 2001, and is one of many amazing teachers in the RSU 14 District. She treats her students as if they were her own children and puts her best effort forward when it comes to lessons.

Despite this, Carol has been facing some family medical issues since late 2018. Her husband of eight years, Paul Priebe, has been diagnosed with not one, but three different lung diseases, scleroderma, sarcoidosis, and Raynaud’s disease, a rare trio to be happening all at once.

Carol talks further about the rarity of the diseases as well as what she and her husband went through briefly.

"The doctors said there are only 22 people on Earth that have these same onset diseases at the exact same time,” Priebe said. “You'll treat one symptom for one disease, then the next will pop up from another. In October of 2018, it was almost as if his body said, 'I'm done'."

The last couple of years have not been treating them well either. Carol still teaches in person and online all through 2020 and so far through 2021 but was so nervous during a viral pandemic affecting the lungs. The two have gotten the wonderful news that Paul will be receiving a lung transplant later this month but that would require them going all the way to The Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio for it.

"The parents and the students have been so considerate during these times and completely understand what we've been going through. They have been wonderful during this process of frequent phone calls and some days when I suddenly have to drop a hat to go to a doctor’s appointment for Paul."

One parent in particular said that she was especially understanding of their situation.

When Melissa Carver-Emmons received an email that Carol Priebe would be leaving for her husband's lung transplant, she was full of emotions and couldn't stop thinking of all the troubles they had been through.

"It's obvious that she loves her husband, job, and students and I just felt drawn to help in some small way." Emmons explained, "I put myself in her shoes and knew I would do the same without hesitation but couldn't imagine the emotion around- not only his upcoming high-risk transplant, leaving all the things that you love and that are familiar for the upcoming unknown."

What better way to help than through monetary support? Emmons got to work, setting up a donation pool with a small goal of $5,000. The money would go toward Carol and Paul for anything they needed, whether it be gas, treatments, or just a comfort meal. Anything they could need during this new journey of theirs. She shared the gofundme online and within three days, it had reached its goal.

The donations had eventually brought their way around and, soon enough, the Priebes were notified of what was going on. Carol Priebe said she was utterly surprised upon hearing about the donations.

"A close friend of mine called me to tell me about all these donations. I was so shocked that I just started crying,” she said. “It was so incredible, and I couldn't thank everyone enough for helping me and Paul."

One of 80 donators, Stephanie Lombard, notes just how much Carol means to her family and the community, but along with how important it is to stick with family in the tougher times.

"Right away, you could tell how dedicated she is to her students. She always took the time to teach her students in a way that made learning fun and enjoyable. When I heard the news about her husband, I knew right away I needed to help in any way I could. She is truly a loss to the school department and her students while she takes some much needed time away to be with her husband."

On the behalf of Carol and Paul Priebe, they said they would like to take a moment to just appreciate and send their love out to the people who sent them kind wishes, donated to the gofundme, or even had them in their thoughts. <