U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson visited Lewiston recently to meet a local family who benefitted from several federal grant programs to purchase and renovate their home, tour the Tree Street Youth Center to discuss their work to promote health and academic achievement among local students, and visit New Beginnings to learn more about their efforts to serve runaway and homeless youth. He was hosted on the trip by U.S. Senator Susan Collins, who serves as Chair of the Senate Housing Appropriations Subcommittee.

Katie McConnell and Colby Laflamme of Auburn are the winners of the 2019 Real Maine Wedding of the Year contest. The couple will start planning their $100,000 dream wedding event, which will take place in Portland and Waterford, Maine, on October 16, 17, and 18. 

“Bring your friends and join in for the most fun you’ve had since high school – maybe the most fun you’ve ever had,” says Executive Director Mitch Thomas, who invites anyone and everyone to come out for the Gendron Franco Center’s fourth annual Adult Prom (“Just like high school, only better”) on Saturday, April 13 at 7 p.m. 

The Catholic Foundation of Maine has announced that Vanessa Bussiere, a senior at Saint Dominic Academy in Auburn, is one of two recipients of the 2019 Lila Grace Sullivan Amirault Scholarships. The awards were presented recently by Bishop Robert P. Deeley in Portland.

Last December, a federal district court judge in Texas issued a decision that would strike down the entire Affordable Care Act.

The Trump Administration’s Department of Justice didn’t defend key parts of the law – those that guarantee that no one should be denied coverage or charged more because of a pre-existing condition.

If that decision is upheld, about 52 million Americans with pre-existing conditions could be denied life-saving health insurance coverage.

Also, insurance companies might go back to excluding essential health benefits, like coverage for mental health, maternity, and newborn care, to all the small businesses and individuals who buy insurance on their own.

Representatives of St. Mary’s Food Pantry recently presented an award to Sam’s Italian Foods of 963 Sabattus Street in Lewiston for the store’s outstanding effort in raising money to end hunger in Maine. In addition to a plaque for display, employees were awarded free movie passes and popcorn generously donated by Flagship Cinema of Auburn and free bowling donated by Sparetime Recreation of Lewiston.  

The TRIO Student Support Services Program at Central Maine Community College has awarded over $12,000 in scholarships to 17 students this semester. These scholarship recipients were selected in recognition of their achievements and determination to succeed at the college. 

On Tuesday, March 26, the Androscoggin Historical Society will present a program on the Poland Spring Resort. Cyndi Robbins and Laura Brown will tell stories about the facilities and its guests at 7 p.m. at the Society’s Davis-Wagg Museum on the third floor of the County Building.

Poland Spring Resort has a legendary place in the history of Androscoggin County. A huge hotel, the Poland Spring House, attracted vacationers who were the economic and social elite of the country. The resort purchased the Maine State Building of the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893. Other features of the historic property are the golf course, the chapel, and, of course, the bottling plant.

“The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh over white and drifting snow…”  Bursting into sleighing songs was irresistible when 111 members of the USM-LAC Senior College Outdoor Adventure Club set out to explore the fields and woods of High View Farm in Harrison on a sunny day in February. 

With sleigh bells ringing, two golden Belgian horses, Madison and Dixon, stepped smartly across the fields following a trail that led into a fairytale woodland. A light snow clung to the branches. “It’s like being in a Christmas card!” one member exclaimed.

When I was a little girl, I watched my father as he left for the Legion hall every week and as he left to go to his Navy Reserve unit in full uniform. He was a proud World War II veteran, who served bravely at the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Pacific and saw kamikaze pilots attack his own ship.

Much later, my brother served several tours of duty off the shores of Vietnam in the U.S. Navy following my father’s lead. Both of them became members of the American Legion.

So today, I am writing about how, 100 years ago, far from home in Paris, France, a group of World War I U.S. military personnel founded the American Legion. The Legion is an organization dedicated to honoring four pillars of advocacy: veterans, defense, youth, and Americanism.

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