Welcome to your October newsletter!
This year's two-day Maine Senior College Network Annual Conference will be on November 8-9, and I'm looking forward to seeing you there! On day one of the conference we are offering an exciting forum for the networks' past, present and future leaders. On the second day we will showcase some of the networks' classes, giving conference attendees the opportunity to attend mini classes and sample these wonderful offerings. The conference location is the spectacular Point Lookout in Northport, Maine. Information about registration and overnight accommodations is in this newsletter and on the Maine Senior College web site.
This month's newsletter features poems by Jerry Metz and Gerald George, both of the Sunrise Senior College, and a recap of Gold LEAF's many enjoyable summer excursions. We've also included information from Portland's Victoria Mansion about "A Victorian Christmas," a recreation of an 1890s magic lantern show they will present in November.
Many thanks to the senior colleges that submitted articles for this month's MSCN Newsletter. Please be sure to submit articles and photos for the November edition no later than October 18th. We'd love to include photos and stories about fall classes, events, or day-trips, and profiles of a Senior College student, teacher or volunteer. It's great to be able to share news and events across the whole Maine Senior College Network.
Kali Lightfoot
Executive Director
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Register Now for November's MSCN Conference
This year's Maine Senior College Network Conference will be held on November 8 and 9, 2010, at Point Lookout in Northport, Maine.
November 8th will be a forum offered to Maine Senior College past, present and future leaders. We will use this opportunity to discuss how senior colleges and the Maine Senior College Network were formed and how we can further Maine's lifelong learning future.
November 9th will be open to all members of all senior colleges. This will be a fun day of Senior Scholar mini classes and will highlight some of the best classes from each senior college in the state.
Programming and registration information is available through your senior college and on the MSCN website.
For additional information or questions, please contact Fran Myers, Director of Conferences, Maine Senior College Network Office at 228-8256 or fmyers@usm.maine.edu
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Poetry From Sunrise Senior College Members
This month Sunrise Senior College shares two terrific poems from SSC members (both named Jerry!)
One of these poems, entitled "The Cutting Edge," was
written by Jerry Metz who teaches a very popular SSC class about death and
dying called "The Final Act." He's also a published poet and this poem is from his poetry collection Laughs, Loves and Laments,
available at the Grey Wolf Gallery in Addison and at Book Marc's in
Bangor. The photo below is a companion to "The Cutting Edge" and is the
cover photo for Jerry's book.
The Cutting Edge by Jerry Metz
Blown blindly
across the bay the blackened
bulk of an ancient pine
Harvests a bumper crop
of lobster buoys
now blooming
on a beach.
Beneath the snow
the grasses suffer through
a midwinter night's dream
of silver scythes.
So as I age,
I wonder when it comes...
when it comes for me
what will it be?
The second poem "One-Upman" is from Gerald George, a writer and editor and a member of the Salt Coast Sages, a group of poets that organize an annual poetry festival in Roque Bluffs and also self-publish their collections. The group developed out of an SSC poetry class. Here's Gerald's poem:
One-Upman by Gerald George
Something about the way he prates
makes it seem that he inflates
his ego until it consumes
all the space in all your rooms.
All stories have him as their point,
which, with praise, you should anoint.
For if your talk strays from his life
his thin sneer cuts you like a knife.
- Submitted by Christine Laurel, Sunrise Senior College
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Gold LEAF: On the Road
Must education always take place in a stuffy classroom? Or an air-conditioned one, for that matter. Gold LEAF at Farmington certainly doesn't think so, and a number of classes this summer have involved road trips.
Maine summers being what they are - mainly short - Gold LEAF members took full advantage of the weather this past class season by seizing every opportunity they could to hit the road. Excursion-type classes have included trips to the Kibby Mountain Wind Power Project in Eustis; a hike on the Maine Huts and Trails System in the Carrabassett Valley; excursions to the nearby towns of Phillips and Kingfield; a GPS orientation in a local woodland; a visit to a treetop Zen Center in Oakland; a gathering at the Andes Alpaca Farm in Auburn; and a cruise on a windjammer out of Camden.
One of the town visits, the one to Phillips, included a light breakfast at a local B&B, a stop at a pottery makers, and an authentic English noon tea at an antique shop boutique. Coming up, a group from Gold LEAF is driving to Augusta to visit the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine as part of a four-part class on the History of the Holocaust.
Fully half of Gold LEAF's classes this summer have involved excursions - complete with carpooling and the added sociability of the mix-and-mingle such trips foster. And trekking students to their subjects has been popular, with such classes often generating waiting lists. As an alternative to the desk, the lectern and the blackboard, the outings have proven an effective method of combining education with mobility.
- Submitted by Gold LEAF's Dick Matthews
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Poet Laureate Update
One Maine Senior College member will be awarded the title of MSCN Poet Laureate this month. October 1 was the deadline for poetry submissions, and the November MSCN e-newsletter will announce the winner of the contest and publish their poem. In addition to the Poet Laureate title, the winner will receive an Amazon Kindle e-reader.
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Portland's Victoria Mansion to Present
Victorian Christmas Magic-Lantern Show
An old-time elfin Santa climbs down the chimney. Civil War soldiers sing carols as the guns boom. The Little Match Girl lies dying in the snow. Victorian children celebrate a raucous Christmas Parade of Toys. Scrooge learns from ghosts. And dear Papa swallows a rat in his sleep.
It's all from an age before TV and before movies, when the Victorians mixed boisterous fun and touching pathos in their Christmas entertainment. Now The American Magic-Lantern Theater has re-created a gay nineties "Victorian Christmas Magic-Lantern Show!" that captures the wonder and noisy humor of a Victorian Christmas. The show uses an antique "magic-lantern" - the multi-media projector of 100 years ago. The lantern rapidly projects spectacular color slides on a full-size movie screen. The slides, many of them animated, illustrate classic Christmas stories, carols and comedy. They're dramatized by a costumed showman, singers, and musicians - and by the audience, which provides the sound effects, claps, stomps, and joins in chants and sing-alongs.
A performance of the "Victorian Christmas Magic-Lantern Show!" is scheduled at John Ford Theater, Portland Public High School, 284 Cumberland Avenue, Portland, Maine on Friday, November 19th at 8 p.m. and is appropriate for adults and children 5 and above. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children 17 and under and must be purchased in advance. Reservations can be made by visiting the Victoria Mansion website.
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Don't forget to go to the Maine Senior College Network
website to find out what is happening around the state!
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Maine Senior College Network
Links
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The Maine Senior College Network Display Boards
are available to any senior college that would like to borrow them. For more information, check out the link below.
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About Us
Maine
Senior College Network
P.O.
Box 9300
Portland, Maine
04104-9300
(207)780-4128
(207)780-4317 (fax)
Kali Lightfoot
Executive Director
Anne Cardale Director of Operations & Communications Director of Conferences fmyers@usm.maine.edu
Kyle Allen
Coordinator
kallen@usm.maine.edu
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