Photo of Eagle Lake in Acadia National Park  in the fall

It seems like the leaves are changing extraordinarily fast this year, but I hope to catch some good foliage viewing in Bethel this Friday while at the Aging Well, Living Well conference at Sunday River.  I hope to meet lots of potential Senior College members and get them excited about joining your groups.

I had a good time presenting the past, present and future of Senior Colleges at the LAC Senior College Lunch and Learn in early September.  It was an enthusiastic audience, with many new members in attendance.

Speaking of new members, the advertising campaign seems to be working, we get calls every day from people who want to learn more about your programs.

And from the looks of what you have sent us for this newsletter there are lots of great activities to learn about.  Senior College in Maine is definitely the place to be!

Sincerely, 

PVSC starts its 12th year

Penobscot Valley Senior College officially launched its 12th year with a free lunch and program for members on September 20th. It was a time of change and continuity, with a new president (Judy Hanscom) and new Curriculum Committee chair (Skip Howard) being welcomed, and with praise and appreciation extended to Diane Cutler, who served on the founding committee and has been active ever since, on the board and as chair of the One-Day Events Committee. Over 90 attended the event. 

Kris Reid and Betty Jamison, educators from William Cohen Middle School in Bangor spoke about trips they made to an orpanage in Ghana.

Africa was on the program as two educators from the William Cohen Middle School in Bangor spoke of the six trips they have made to an orphanage in Ghana. Slides showed the children doing their laundry, cutting the grass with cutlasses, carrying buckets of water on their heads, and eating a kind of fermented corn meal. The educators, Betty Jamison and Kris Reid, have raised money for equipment and helped care for a boy who was burned. Despite the poverty and health care challenges, they said, there was a sense of family, and the children are among the happiest people they've seen.  Follow this link to a slide show of their presentation.

Please do raise the shade, but do not ask again: "How are we feeling today?"

One of us is achy-old; that did not change overnight.

Nor do days change: I mark the hours with pills,

Cobble together cross words and puzzles, catalog ironies.  

I've grown adept at toenail Zen and hopper meditation....

Do you want to hear all this?  

The sunroom runs on reruns.

Up on the screen: vacation videos of churches, faces and beaches;

At the tables: mossy tales with trite morals, hoary jokes.

After coffee I wade into a torrent of images and words,

Pecking out wisdom giblets to forward to folks

To whom this matters; although they hesitate to say so.

 Click here to continue reading Paul's poem