Students from Taiwan visit Windham Christian Academy - By Elizabeth Richards

The Bennett family has once again opened up their home to visitors from Nini Bennett’s native Taiwan for an extended stay. On January 22^nd, four students from the Bennett’s school in Taiwan arrived for a three week visit. This time, the focus is on education.
 

The Bennett’s company, Up in Maine, LLC, has a mission “To raise an awareness of Maine and what it has to offer in terms of unique experiences, way of life and educational opportunities.” Last summer, a large group of students and their parents visited to experience Maine in the summer and participate in a variety of camp programs. This time around, the students are here alone, and the goal for the visit is different. “This goal is to get them into the classroom,” said Nathaniel Bennett. 

The Bennetts also have two students who are staying with them for a year long experience, one attending Chevrus High School and the other attending Windham Christian Academy. The group of students visiting for three weeks, who are ages 10-14, are also attending Windham Christian Academy.

Nini said that one goal is to allow the students to compare the educational system in America to that which they experience in Taiwan. There, for instance, students attend school until 4:30 p.m, and were amazed to find that students here get out for the day at 2:30 p.m. Also, in their Taiwanese school, they have three or four quizzes or tests per day, which is far more often than students experience here. 

Often, when they get out of school at 4:30 p.m, the students in Taiwan have another school to attend. They also have approximately two hours of homework per night, and competition among students is fierce.

Here, the students feel that the kids care about each other. They are surprised by how welcoming and kind the American students are to them. In Taiwan, the focus is on studying, and the next test, so there isn’t time for as much social interaction. 

 Another difference is that the teachers will listen, and enjoy who they are as individuals, said Nini. This tends to build confidence in the students after they visit, she said. 

“The teachers pay attention to the different learning styles here. The tradition in Taiwan is to teach it one way,” said Nathaniel. He added that the students also get to speak out more in classes here. “In Taiwan, it’s very difficult to develop because they have no idea. They’re taught to listen. They don’t ask a lot of questions. Usually when you see Asian kids come here they are quiet. Their mind is active, they just don’t know how to express it,” he said.

Nathaniel said the visit has been amazing. “The students in the class just accepted them right in,” he said. A group of girls at WCA took one of the very quiet visiting girls under their wings. “She’s doing great. I’ve never seen her smile so much, I’ve never seen her so happy in the classroom,” he said. “The values they teach here promote that, and the teachers promote that, and they are small classes so they can do that,” said Nathaniel. 

Nini said that miscommunications can happen when people don’t understand the background and the culture of another place. When American kids hear the stories, hear the differences in language patterns and culture, they can better understand the Taiwanese children. As a way to give back to the school, Nini is teaching Chinese in the classroom at WCA. The Taiwanese help out, and the WCA students are attentive and interested, taking notes and talking about bringing the information home to their parents. 

Because it’s the Chinese New Year, the students are on break from their school in Taiwan, which allowed them the opportunity to travel to Maine. In addition to the educational component of the exchange, the Bennetts are exposing the students to a variety of activities they have never tried before, such as sledding, snow tubing and skiing. The Facebook page for Up in Maine, LLC chronicles the visit with photographs of students trying new things.

The Bennetts hope that having kids from another culture visit is also a positive experience for the Windham community. “We want to raise awareness for Maine, and Windham. We want to bring people here and show them what’s good about Maine,” said Nathaniel. 

This summer, the Bennetts will continue their mission by hosting even more families and children in the community. Nathaniel said they hope that the people will welcome them into the community to help make their experience a positive one.

The Maine Event Prom Project makes prom affordable - By Michelle Libby

Retired chiropractor and mother of two boys Christine Bradstreet decided to do something fun to help people in her retirement. She had seen organizations that helped people who needed clothing for job interviews or work, but she hadn’t seen anything that helped girls find prom dresses that would only cost them $10. So she created The Maine Event Prom Project last November. 
 

“It’s a lot of fun. I never dressed a girl. They are all beautiful. I get to dive into that girl side I never had a chance to do,” Bradstreet said.  “I had the time to give to it. It feels really good to give back.” 

Her first call was to Carol Lanni in Lawrence, Mass., who donated the first dresses to the project. Most of the people donating are high school graduates and students in college who realized they are not going to wear the bridesmaid or prom dress ever again, she said. 

To date the organization has collected 315 dresses, but Bradstreet wants to keep collecting formalwear for weddings, dressy occasions and proms. She also takes donations of purses, shawls, and new shoes. The project doesn’t have a lot of tuxes, but are open to receiving them. 

 

“It’s growing like crazy. If you don’t have the money to pay for a dress, come here. I didn’t want them to miss out on a special event,” she said. 

The dresses are all in good shape and from the past five years. Fifty-two floor sample dresses were donated from a bridal shop and others are brand new with tags on. “These are $200 to $400 dresses,” she said. Sizes range from 1 to 24. 

The biggest challenge other than collecting more dresses is storing them all. Right now Bradstreet is storing them at home, but she’d like to find a permanent location to be available year round. 

Distribution day will be March 29, at the United Methodist Church in Bridgton from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. “Any young woman facing a need because of a financial hardship we ask for a $10 donation for a dress. Still come even if you can’t afford that,” said Bradstreet.  If a girl has a special need or size, she should call ahead. The event is on the honor system and there is a registration form that needs to be filled out beforehand. 

The project is looking for financial contributions and drop off locations. Bradstreet is also looking for high school students willing to do dress drives.

“Most young girls would like to go to a fancy department store to buy their dress,” she said. This is an option for those who can’t afford to do that. 

For more on the project visit www.maineeventpromproject.org.

Homes for Heroes comes to Maine - By Michelle Libby

Now for the first time military personnel, police officers, firefighters, teachers, first responders and others who serve the communities and nation in Maine can be a part of the Homes for Heroes program.  This program was born after the September 11, 2001 events to help those who rush in when others are running out. The program partners with realtors, mortgage lenders, title companies, attorneys and other service providers who “agree to provide significant rebates and discounts to those who serve our nation and its communities every day,” according to a press release sent out by the new local affiliates. 
 

In Maine, Rick Yost of Keller Williams Realty is currently working with heroes to find affordable homes. Hal Inman of The Mortgage Network is a lender and Matt and Randee McDonald of Cumberland Title also provide a discount to heroes. 

“I stumbled across it on LinkedIn. I visited the website and did research,” said Yost. 

“Creating a network is more valuable to the heroes. The core is real estate,” said Randee. 

“A program like this is for the people who make your community a better place to be. We make it affordable for them to live in their community,” said Yost. “They can live in the community they work in.” 

“Some of the people put their lives on the line every day,” said Inman.

Yost and any other realtors in the program agree to rebate 25 percent of their commission back to the hero. On a $250,000 house, that could be as much as $2,500 that will go toward the closing costs. Inman waives half of the application fee for the mortgage and the McDonalds discount the mortgage title and some of the closing costs. The network is also looking to find discount property inspectors. 

The program also works for sellers to discount the cost of selling their home and buying a new one. It doesn’t have to be for a first home. “No hidden fees, no fine print. No catch,” said Yost. “It couldn’t be easier to use, couldn’t be easier to find.”  

“Those people have enough going on. We don’t want to make it any harder for them,” said Randee. 

Inman knew a family of two married teachers. “They were paying $1,200 in rent each month. They couldn’t imagine saving for a down payment,” he said. “This is a chance to help people like that for what they do. It makes you feel good,” he said. 

When Inman speaks to someone going through the program, he will qualify that person for how much he can afford. Going through Homes for Heroes does not exempt someone from using the different types of loan programs including VA, Rural Development or HUD. 

“This is money given to the hero. It’s coming out of our pockets. Nobody’s subsidizing me,” said Yost.  

If a person qualifies as a hero anywhere in the state, they will be assigned to this team until more realtors join the program. Contacting them directly is the best way to go, they said. The phone number for the Maine program is 207-482-0588.  

The program is 12 years old and has saved heroes an estimated $4.7 million. There are a few heroes involved in the program now, though none have closed on their property because real estate transactions take at least 20 to 30 days to close, said Yost. 

The trio is not done yet. They are looking for more to join in their network from a home inspector and builders to barbers and oil companies. “The way they can support us is to use us,” Yost concluded. 

For more information or to sign up visit www.homesforheroes.com and register as a hero or call 482-0588.

Homes for Heroes, Thanking Heroes One Home at a Time.

Smitty's expands to include new theater - By Michelle Libby

Less than a year after they opened Smitty’s Cinema is expanding into what was the storage area for Big Lots which moved out at the beginning of the year. 
 

“Business is good, doing well. We’ve been very pleased,” manager Tucker Smith said.

When Tucker and his uncle Milton Smith opened Smitty’s, they had planned to expand to have more seating, since the configuration with tables cuts the seats by half of what they were in the old theater.

“We never believed Big Lots would leave within a year,” Tucker said. The new eighth theater will be the largest at Smitty’s on taking up 3,000 square feet and seating 170 people. At this time, the largest theater holds 115 people. “It will be configured so we can run live events in there, but mostly our new films. We hope to turn away less people,” he said. 

Construction starts next week and will be completed in three months or so, according to Tucker. 

For more information like Smitty’s Cinema, Windham on Facebook.

Gearing up for annual fishing derbies - By Elizabeth Richards

The last two years have been tough ones for the Sebago Lake Rotary Club’s annual ice fishing derbies, but it looks as though that luck will change this year. “Big ice is a chance for a big derby, and we’ve got big ice coming on right now,” said Toby Pennels, the event organizer. 
 

Though the derbies include Kezar Lake and all legal Cumberland County waterways, good ice on Sebago is key to a successful event, said Pennels. “There’s always ice to fish. It’s the allure, maybe the magic, of Sebago that’s the draw. If we don’t have good ice on Sebago, we suffer,” he said.

The last two years were tough, and this year the club considered not even running the derby. Pennels agreed to be the point person, and the club rallied to make it happen, gathering sponsors big and small. “The message that I’m the most proud of is that in the wake of two pretty miserable years for the derby in terms of weather conditions, is that our local businesses have stood up beyond belief,” said Pennels. “The $100, $250 and $500 contributions have been amazing. That’s why we have a derby, because the community stood up and wrote the checks.”

It’s sometimes easy in a bad ice year to forget all the good stuff, said Pennels. And yet, even in a “bad year” thousands of dollars have been raised. “Last year was a bad derby year and they raised over $60-70,000 for Maine Children’s Cancer. It’s amazing, and we forget that,” he said. The Polar Dip, sponsored by Shaw’s and run by the Maine Children’s Cancer Program with assistance from the Rotary Club, is the most consistent fundraiser, since it can occur even when there is no ice, said Pennels. 

The Derby was shifted to the first weekend of school vacation to coincide with free fishing weekend in Maine. This year, it will be held on Saturday, February 15^th and Sunday, February 16^th. Weigh stations will open at 7 a.m. each day, and will close at 5 p.m. On Sunday, the 5 p.m. time is a hard close, meaning you must be in line by then to be weighed. A kids derby will be held on March 8^th, rather than the same weekend as the regular derby, this year. The change is due to both limited volunteers and a hope for warmer temperatures. “Last year was brutal. It was about a five minute stay time on the ice and you couldn’t do it anymore,” said Pennels. 

The derbies serve three purposes; to raise money for charity, to serve as a fish management tool for the state, and, this year, to feed hungry people in Cumberland County. An organization, Hunters for the Hungry, plans to gather unwanted fish from the ice, bring them to a food processor that has agreed to process the fish according to regulations, and feed people throughout the area.

Registrants can fish for all four species – pike, pickerel, perch and togue on both Sebago and Kezar Lakes. The objective in having another togue location was to have a backup body of water, in case Sebago didn’t freeze. Cancelling the derby has a great impact on anyone coming from a distance, so moving weigh stations and recommending another venue is preferred, said Pennels. The management objectives of Kezar Lake are the same as those for Sebago, and therefore this lake can also offer the unlimited fish pool prizes according to state law. “This is the state working with us, understanding the problem – it was perfect,” said Pennels. The Cumberland County Derby allows for fishing of the other three species on all legal ice fishing waters in the county.

There are three ways to win in this year’s derbies. The 30 days of Derby is an incentive for people to register early. Anyone registering between January 15^th and February 10^th is entered into a drawing for a variety of prize packages. Early registrations can eliminate the need to hire outside administrative help, preserving more dollars for charity. 

There are big fish prizes, including a $100,000 prize for catching the largest togue that breaks the state record of 31 pounds, 8 ounces. There are prizes for the top three fish for all four species, including a 2013 Polaris Sportsman ATV for the largest togue.

Finally, there are the fish pool prizes. Any fish caught, up to the limit of six per species per day, will earn the registrant an entry into the fish pool drawings. This encourages those fishing to bring in the smaller fish so biologists can examine the catch and gather important data. 

This year two reality television shows will be joining in the fun. The National Geographic Channel is sending a production crew to film a reality-based show about ice fishing. Signs placed all around the filming areas will serve as permission for anyone in that area to appear on camera. Though Pennels doesn’t know the name of the show or any details, he said, “What I do know is that if it is done right, there is comedy on the ice for sure.” The reality show Northwoods Law will also be filming at the derby. 

Other events for the weekend include the polar dip, helicopter rides at Raymond Beach, vendors for food, ice fishing equipment and bait, and the Sebago Speed Trials on Sunday. Rules, registration forms, prize lists, weigh station locations, and more information can be found on the website, www.icefishingderby.com.