MERRY CHAPIN, left, and Wiebke Theodore accepted Bath Citizen Involvement Awards on Saturday at Waterfront Park. Chapin, who represented Bath Freight Shed, accepted the award on behalf of the nonprofit for the 2012 Community Project Award. Theodore, who started Bath Freight Shed, received the honors for the 2012 Community Spirit Award. More photos, page A2.
The sun came out for the first time in a week Saturday for Bath’s Autumnfest and Citizen Involvement Day held annually at Waterfront Park and at locations throughout the city.
Already a hub of weekend activity, the farmers market decorated the sidewalk along Commercial Street with E-Z Up tents and a multi-hued edible palette of local harvests.
Local nonprofits such as Bath Garden Club, Sagadahoc Preservation Inc. and Main Street Bath set up tables along the park’s pathways and plied visitors with homemade cookies and pamphlets describing good works and volunteer opportunities.
With the rocking musical accompaniment of Dave Bullard’s guitar and vocals, the event rippled out from the waterfront to include a craft fair on Front Street, sponsored by Lisa-Marie’s Made-in-Maine; Bath Rec’s annual Great Scarecrow Event on the Custom House lawn; and firetruck and trolley rides to all points in between.
The daylong celebration of all things autumn in the City of Ships reached its peak at noon with City Council chairman David Sinclair’s rededication of the renovated Linwood E. Temple Waterfront Park and annoucement of the 2012 Citizen Involvement Awards.
Those honored this year included:
Kyle Hietala, a junior at Morse High School, received the Youth Award for his work mentoring elementary and middle school students, starting a debate team and helping to kick off the high school’s online newspaper, Morse Tribune.
Wiebke Theodore took the award for Community Spirit for her work with the Bath Freight Shed, a restoration project of the only remaining 19th-century waterfront building in the city. Representing the Bath Freight Shed, volunteer Merry Chapin accepted the honors for the nonprofit’s Community Project Award.
Eighty-eight-year-old Geraldine Coombs, one of the original members of the Bath Forestry Committee and the driving force behind Druid Park on Oak Grave Avenue, was heralded as Bath’s Citizen of the Year.
“She didn’t think she deserved this award,” Sinclair said in his speech recognizing Coombs. “But I am here to say she couldn’t be more wrong. Through her stewardship, Bath has been an Arbor Day Tree City U.S.A. designee for 15 consecutive years.”
¦ EIGHTY-EIGHT-YEAR-OLD Geraldine Coombs, one of the original members of the Bath Forestry Committee and the driving force behind Druid Park on Oak Grave Avenue, was heralded as Bath’s Citizen of the Year.
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