Student of the Week: Jaylin Leng

Jaylin Leng, a third-grade student at Windham Primary School, is The Windham Eagle’s Student of the Week. Leng, who is nine years old, states that he enjoys playing on his iPad, watching funny videos, playing pretend and playing with his stuffies.

“I selected Jaylin because he has worked hard to improve his academics and following directions,” stated Principal, Dr. Karl Rhoads. “He has made tremendous growth as a learner!”

Leng said his greatest accomplishment is being a good swimmer. The people who have  meant the most to his education are his friend, Matthew, his teachers and his family What makes learning fun for Leng is recess and playtime because they “make everything fun.”

Leng lives at home with his mommy, Shawna, his daddy, Geno along with his brother, Leelin and two pit bulls, Navi and Champ.

Favorite subject: PE which Physical Education

Favorite movie:  SpongeBob Movie

Favorite holiday:  Christmas

Sebago Lake Rotary club to host another speaker event

Many people underestimate how much money they will spend on healthcare during their retirement. Taking the time now to budget for healthcare costs can help you maintain the lifestyle you want in retirement. Join the Sebago Lake Rotary Club and Edward Jones Financial Advisor, Mark Morrison as they host a workshop luncheon on Tuesday, November 19^th from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Windham Veterans Center, 35 Memorial Drive in Windham.

In this workshop, you’ll learn how to estimate your future healthcare costs and create income to help you cover some of these expenses. Other discussion topics will include the rising cost of healthcare and its impact on retirement savings, ways to estimate your future healthcare costs in retirement Medicare Parts A, B, C and D coverage and costs as well as creating income to help cover some healthcare costs during retirement.

Seating is limited so register today at margebarker173@gmail.com. A $10 must be ordered when registering and paid at the door on the day of the event. Deadline is Saturday, November 16^th.

A special thanks to the following sponsors: Prudential, Edward Jones, First Light Home Care, Olsen Insurance and

RAA discovers the very best of how art networking in the community creates the sharing of talent for all to enjoy

By Mary-Therese Duffy

The Raymond Arts Alliance (RAA) is completing its second year as an organization and entering its third. We couldn’t be more grateful to the community for helping us close these last months with the realization of what has been the primary goal of the RAA:  someone in the community knows somebody else in the community, who knows another somebody, who will be visiting the community and thinks:  wouldn’t it be great if we could share them with our friends and neighbors?  This has been an RAA goal, a vision, a plea in our advertising and signup sheets and now, it’s a wonderful reality!

Joni and Olivia Harms with Don Roy and
Jay Young of the Don Roy Ensemble

It went like this:  Selectman Marshall Bullock, husband to Rhonda Bullock learned the marvelous Country Music duo, Joni and Olivia Harms, were visiting the area and spoke of it with an RAA volunteer and member. 

“Do you think we could have a show here, ummm - on a Thursday [October 24, 2019]?”  Not the best of nights to ask people to come out for an event, but given it was a community member’s idea, it was as they say, a no brainer. Then RAA learned who the Harms’ were. The duo are a seriously talented and deep hearted pair whose originals and covers have been bringing them to enthusiastic audiences, literally, all around the world. Joni, is a rancher, still devotedly homesteading her great, great grandfather’s Oregon land, and credits this as the source of her inspiration.  Indeed, it has also brought her to the Grand Ole Opry and to Carnegie Hall. 

A full discography of some 13 CD’s her work has been hailed by Country Music People Magazine as “some of the very best country songs of recent years” and Joni herself as “one of country music’s most underrated writers." 

Her daughter, Olivia, has been honing her own musical craft, with a deftness and talent that is clearly gaining traction. RAA were by turn, delighted, amused, introspective, and moved by their incredible harmonies, heartfelt lyrics, and true to the bone, authenticity. And honestly, Joni’s tribute to Merle Haggard, brought his presence right into the room.

But, of course, true to Country Music, this is not where the richness ends. Bringing it all back home: Rhonda Bullock, while visiting this mother/daughter dynamo some time ago, shared a tribute she had written to her own grandfather with them. Imagine if someone puts the most thoughtful, loving words about the enormous impact on themselves, family and community by a dearly missed and true giant of a man, then puts it to the simplest and sweetest melody, and gifts it to the most skilled harmonizers, who can not only deliver tenderness, but raise it unequivocally in an audience’s experience. Well, if you can imagine all of that, you have a taste of the sincerity, beauty and sweet joy that visibly moved our local audience.

All because, somebody knew someone who knew somebody else, who - and there it goes; and lucky for Raymond, right to the RVCC stage.

High School student explores the medical field

By Lanet Hane

Maine is in need of an increasing number of medical professionals at all levels, and Maine Medical is hoping to interest more high school students in the profession through its Medical Explorer’s program.

Abigail Nelson and others learning about the
role of an EMT

The Medical Explorer’s program is a free, 8-week program hosted by Maine Medical as part of their overall pipeline program. It is an opportunity for high school students interested in a variety of medical careers to learn more about a wide range of opportunities and what is involved in the day-to-day life of those occupations.

Abbey Nelson is a Windham High School student who made it into this program this fall, “I talked to a lot of seniors who had shadow experiences doing their Capstone projects and realized they weren’t interested in the field,” she said. “This class has been a chance for me to access professional information about the field and connect with the right people to understand whether it is for me.”

The professional information Nelson talks about is the result of a variety of guest speakers, including doctors and other health professionals who come into the 90-minute weekly classes to share about their experience in the profession. The class had also included trips to a simulation lab at a college and the fire department.

Alongside clear information about the life of individuals in health occupations, participants have the chance to hear from college staff who explain the process of getting into medical school and help students understand the steps they need to take to be prepared and get into the programs of their choice.

“The chance to network in this program has been so valuable,” Nelson stated. “Because of new connections, I am now considering attending USM, which wasn’t even on my radar before.”

Because of how interactive and helpful it is, the program fills up quickly each session. Luckily for Abbey, once she was accepted into the fall session, she now has the choice to return in the spring session. She plans to do so; “An extra 90-minute class once a week doesn’t sound exciting, but once you get into the program, you’ll understand. This class has helped me see what a rewarding career I can have in the medical field, and I am excited to dive even deeper this spring.”

Hundreds of “Superheroes” gather at RTT benefit

Last month, over 400 people attended the 12th Annual Triple B ~ Boots, Band & BBQ and grossed over $200,000 to benefit the clients, horses and programs of Riding To The Top Therapeutic Riding Center (RTT).

This year’s events paid homage to the many “RTT Superheroes” - riders, horses, volunteers, longtime supporters and the evening’s guests and sponsors. Superheroes like Denny of DennyMike’s BBQ who served another delicious and abundant barbeque to the hungry crowd. This was his 10^th year and many said the food was the “best ever”! Other superheroes of the night included popular local band Under The Covers, auctioneer Elizabeth Holmstrom (dressed in a wonder woman costume) and emcee Michelle Taylor of 99.9 The Wolf, all who donated their time, talent and superpowers to the evening.

Saint Joseph's baseball team volunteers

However, the crowd soon learned the most powerful superheroes at RTT are the courageous clients and the horses they team up with at the center. Scott Wentzell, parent of a longtime RTT rider shared his family’s story and the role RTT horses have provided in their son’s journey. Wentzell noted, “It’s about a connection to these amazing horses. A connection is that based in science, but also seems to have equal parts spiritual and emotional thrown in as well. It’s a connection that is so easy to see, even if it is hard to really understand”.

RTT Executive Director, Sarah Bronson, thanked the many sponsors and volunteers that make the event such a success sharing that “This event is all about community – we receive tremendous support from start to finish, but especially in the days immediately surrounding the event, to transform the riding arena for this “party with a purpose.” This year IDEXX and Martin’s Point Health Care employees joined RTT volunteers to help with set up and then again with post event “take-down.” During the event, the Volunteers in Police Services of Gorham helped direct traffic and park cars while the Saint Joseph’s College baseball team members (40 of them!) helped with food service, the auction and recycling efforts. In total, 115 volunteers contributed nearly 1,000 hours in the various stages of the event (pre-event planning, set up, night of and cleanup days post-event).

The Triple B is RTT’s largest and most important fundraiser of the year, funding over a third of annual program expenses. To date, the event has raised over $1.2 million dollars and introduced the healing power of horses to thousands of community members.

Essay competition winners and Teacher of the Year award announced at Veterans Day Ceremony

By Lorraine Glowczak

It is an annual event to honor our veterans, both past and present, who put their lives on the line so that we, as Americans, can lead the life we want with freedom and the choice of happiness. In the greater Windham area, veterans are honored every year with a Veterans Day Ceremony hosted by the Windham’s Veterans of Foreign War (VFW).

Essay winners: Brianna Johnson, Lillia Freeman and
Isabella Johnson with VFW Commander Willie Goodman

What is included in the annual event are announcements of winners to an essay contest written by local students as well as an award of a local teacher who supports veterans by educating their students on the lives of those who have served in the military.

There are two essay competitions; The Patriot’s Pen and Voice of Democracy. Both needed to include the theme, “What makes America Great.” The Patriot’s Pen competition is open to middle school students, including home schoolers, in grades six to eight in the Windham area who are required to write a 300 to 400-word essay. The winners for this year were:

Second runner up: Isabella Johnson of Windham Christian Academy who won a $100 cash award.

Winner: Lillia Freeman of Windham Christian Academy who won $150 cash award and will go on to the district competitions.

The Voice of Democracy competition is open to the high school students, grades nine through twelve, include those home schooled, in the Windham area. Students are to write and record a three to five-minute essay (on an audio CD).

The winner for this year was Brianna Johnson of Windham Christian Academy. She also won a $150 cash price and will go on to the district competitions.

Emily Stokes, sixth grade teacher at Windham Middle School won the Teacher of the Year.

The event also included guest speaker retired Navy Seal Commander Mike Wisecup who started SEALs for Sunshine to raise awareness of what Camp Sunshine can offer to military families with children facing life threatening diseases. Guest musicians were the Windham Chamber Singers. Boy Scout Troup 805 assisted the VFW with the event and refreshment preparations. 

Below is an excerpt from Brianna Johnson’s winning essay:

“Two syllables. Six letters. One word. A revolution is like a body, spiraling, forming, surging in unison, with one brain. But bodies are not all air, they have substance, they are made up of many small, immensely important, cells. People are the cells of revolution; it lacks purpose without people to push it along and yearn for it. Since there will always be people there will always be revolution. A scientist who finds a new vaccine, a child learns to walk, a program is started to feed the hungry, a student graduates college, a new discovery in medicine allows the deaf to hear, someone speaks against a norm, a soldier saves another despite the barrage of terror around them, someone stands alone on a stage with hands shaking but with a will to speak. A revolution is within the eyes of the beholder. In an army or alone, quiet or loud, long or short. Each individual person begins their own revolution, many, daily, but never ceasing. 

Nine syllables. Twenty-seven letters. Six words. This is what makes America great. People, and their individual views and determination in their own revolutions. None are ever too little, ever too big, all pushing us as a people to be, in its best sense, great. Or should I say it will always be, in its best sense, America.”

Saint Joseph’s College Student Chapter of Doctors Without Borders to host “Hope to Help” auction to fund volunteer trip to Uganda

The Saint Joseph’s College student chapter of Doctors Without Borders will hold the “Hope to Help” Auction on Friday, November 15, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Xavier Hall lounge. Charcuterie platters and complimentary beverages, as well as a cash bar for alcoholic drinks, will be available. Tickets are $20 per person.

This auction is part of the chapter’s fundraising effort to support a volunteer trip to Uganda through the Partners for World Health (PWH), a non-profit organization based in Portland that collects medical supplies and equipment and distributes them to those in need around the world. Since 2009, PWH has collected more than two million pounds of medical supplies that would have otherwise been destined for local landfills. Elizabeth McLellan, the founder of PWH, will be the guest speaker at the auction.

While in Uganda, Saint Joseph’s College students would work primarily at a hospital in the city of Kampala where they would deliver supplies. They would also assist at a clinic that specializes in ensuring women have the supplies necessary to have a sterile birth and keep their newborn safe.

The trip is scheduled for January 2020 and the chapter’s auction goal of $6,000 would cover all expenses for the trip. Any funds raised past that goal would be donated to PWH.

The event will feature both a live and silent auction. Items include a hand-carved, Westminster chime grandmother clock; weekend getaways; a variety of gift baskets; handmade items; and special opportunities like a guided bird tour and a scenic ride on a personal plane.

To RSVP for the auction, visit http://hopetohelp.rsvpify.com.

If you can’t attend the auction but would like to support the cause, visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/adrienne039s-campaign-for-partners-for-world-health.

For more information about the auction, visit www.sjcme.edu/highlights/student-chapter-doctors-without-borders-hosts-auction-benefiting-uganda-women-infants.