Baby, you’re the best

Some people just make the world a better place. Anyone who knows the radiant, always-smiling ray of sunshine that is Denise Morin knows she lives to make other people happy. Her work with the nonprofit therapeutic massage program Connected Touch has brought love and comfort to many local children and adults battling cancer.

Now we can help Denise and Connected Touch continue their awesome work. Their annual In Honor Of You two-mile walk will be held at 9 a.m. on Saturday, June 27, at Bridgton’s Highland Lake Park. I am donating $50 in honor of my dearly missed friend Grace Karecki, and ask you to consider a matching donation in memory of a friend or loved one touched by cancer, with 100 percent of the donations going directly to comforting these cancer patients in their own home, hospital, or hospice setting.

This will be an easy walk up Dugway road and back, and is nothing compared to the ongoing work the volunteers at Connected Touch do year-round. Sponsor sheets can be picked up at The Printery, across from Dunkin Donuts in Bridgton. Please call Denise Morin at 576-4090 if you have questions, and show your love by joining us at the walk.

Horizons

Bridgton is becoming a hot outpost for artists and art lovers from Portland and beyond. Our original art collective Gallery 302 hosts regular wine and cheese receptions and exhibitions. Art Attack offers mixed-media supplies and painting classes. The Rufus Porter Museum is mounting its most ambitious summer arts and crafts programs yet, and EFG Books prints its own literary review while bringing noted artists to town.

Portland visual artist Mary Brooking has a lovely exhibit of her recent series Horizons at EFG through July 11, featuring her interpretation of ethereal land and seascapes from across Maine. The works are available as original pieces and prints, and she donates 10 percent of her sales to Heifer International, a program helping impoverished women worldwide.

If you have questions on the exhibit, call EFG Books for gallery hours and information at 647-9339.

Twist and shout

The Bridgton Community Center is hosting a Senior Social Potluck on Friday, June 12, from 1 to 4 p.m. Local disc jockey Mike Mahoney will be spinning classic tunes of the ’40s and ’50s, and there will be a Jack Rabbit Slim’s Dance-Off, $5 milkshakes and John Travolta. Wait, that’s Pulp Fiction. But there will be great food, prizes and plenty of fun. For more information, call 647-3116,

Can you dig it?

If these hard times have gotten you thinking about growing your own veggies but you don’t have enough room in your own yard, no worries. The new Bridgton community gardens offer you the opportunity to provide delicious, nutritious veggies and herbs for you and your family.

Community gardens are the rage in big cities, where the challenges of urban farming are great. By using small plots of available land, people from different backgrounds come together to raise all kinds of produce, share gardening tips, and learn more about each other’s customs and foodways.

Not only can you and your family reap the bounty of a little hard work and cooperation from Mother Nature, it could not be much easier than this. No gardening experience is needed, the land is provided to you, all the tools you need are there, child care and transportation is provided, and it is absolutely, positively free. Soon you’ll be canning your bounty of tomatoes, putting away a cache of veggies for fall and winter, and saving big bucks. For more information visit the Bridgton Community Center, 15 Depot St. (behind Reny’s) or call Carmen at 647-3116.

P.S.

For those of you who might not be able to get in the garden yourself, The Community Center has also secured another summer of the Low Income Maine Senior Farmshare for qualifying locals. Seniors age 60 or older with individual incomes below $20,036 and couples $26,995 are eligible to receive $50 of free, fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables.

With just a simple phone call you can have healthy, delicious food brought right to you. Please call 1-877-353-3771 or the community center at 647-3116 to sign up.

Ramble on Rose

National Trails Day is Saturday, June 6, and our local trailblazers are banding together for a morning of light work in the woods.

Join Lakes Environmental Association, Loon Echo Land Trust, and the Pondicherry Ramblers Club for a National Trails Day celebration. Starting at 8:30 a.m., the Lakes Environmental Association and Loon Echo Land Trust will host a coffee and doughnuts breakfast at their offices at 230 Main St. in Bridgton. At 9 a.m., volunteers will head out to Holt Pond Preserve, Stevens Brook Trail or Pondicherry Park for maintenance projects. The trail work will last approximately three hours and will cover easy to moderate terrain. Participants should bring water, a snack, long pants, a hat and bug repellent. Most trail equipment will be provided, but participants should bring work gloves and clippers if possible.

The Pondicherry Ramblers will also have a table set up on Depot Street with trail maps and information about this new regional trail club. Geo-caching, refreshments, and local information about outdoor recreation will be featured from 8 a.m. to noon.

Lakes Environmental Association is always looking for volunteers to join the adopt-a-trail program, which is a great way to help out and keep our ever-growing local trail network in good shape. For more information and to sign up for the National Trails Day celebration, call Bridie McGreavy at 647-8580 or e-mail [email protected].