Apr 27, 2018 | News |
By Richard Southard Contributing Writer
Androscoggin Home Care and Hospice will be holding their annual Hospice 5K and Remembrance Walk on May 5. The event is fundraising to support low-cost hospice care for people of all ages in Maine communities, and will be one of two annual events put on by the organization.
Androscoggin Home Care and Hospice is a non-profit organization that has been putting on this event for several years, and has been raising funds for over fifty years. The last hospice 5K helped to raise more than $1.3 million dollars in free patient care.
Katie Kassidy, a member of the planning board for the event, is trying to set an even higher mark for this years race. “We need help to make that number even larger this year,” Kassidy said in an email interview, “so that all patients are cared for, including end-of-life care at the Hospice house.” Currently, the event has raised more than thirty-five thousand dollars.
To Kassidy, the 5K is a significant service to the community. “The importance of Hospice Care in our community is huge,” Kassidy said. “Caring for the patient and families during the final months of life can make the experience more pleasant in whatever area you may need support.” For terminally or chronically ill patients, hospice care helps provide pain and symptom management, medical care, counseling for patients and families, and more.
While hospice care can be expensive, the event is aimed at helping mitigate those costs for future patients. “The event helps to provide top of the line care at minimal to no costs for families who need it,” Kassidy said.
For teams that register, each fundraising milestone gives an example for the care they are providing. For example, if someone raised $250 dollars, that money will provide supportive patient therapy, and raising $1000 provides a full day of care for an uninsured patient.
Kassidy has experienced hospice care first hand and is devoted to helping the cause. “Personally, the Hospice House provided end of life care for my great-grandfather and most recently, my nana,” Kassidy said. “Not only did she receive the best care my entire family could imagine, they cared for all of us as though we were patients as well, whether we needed an extra blanket to sleep on the couch or warm hugs.”
The event this year will be taking place at the district court parking lot. Registration will open at 7:30 a.m., and the race will begin at 9 a.m.
Apr 13, 2018 | News |
By Richard Southard Contributing Writer
The Sandy River Review, a literary journal put together by UMF students and Alice James Books, aims to publish its annual print edition on April 30. This year’s journal will contain works from 31 different contributors, and will mark the journal’s 35th year of publishing.
Alexandra Dupuis and Elayna Chamberlin, both senior Creative Writing majors, have been the print edition editors since the beginning of the Fall 2017 semester. “We’re at the copy editing stage,” Dupuis said, “which is basically sending a copy to the other advisors and making sure the minor edits are done. It’s almost ready to print.”
In addition to publishing a variety of literary and artistic works, the editors have also made an effort to add new elements to the journal. “We tried to make it more modern,” Chamberlin said. “We’ve placed some emphasis on scenery, which has been popular in different works around Maine.” This edition wi
The Sandy River Review is the on-campus literacy magazine. (Photo courtesy of Sandy River Review Facebook Page)
ll also be the first to have its own title, which will be “Blossom.”
While the editing position has had some challenges, both of the editors have found the experience to be highly rewarding. “There’s a lot of self-promotion,” Chamberlin said. “We don’t sell the Sandy, so it’s important to keep very active with social media and advertising.”
The position also requires the editors to become familiar with a variety of programs, such as InDesign, Adobe Creative Suite, WordPress and all of Google’s web programs. While the project is complex, it is also large in its creative scope. “There’s a lot of creative freedom,” Dupuis said, “which is a lot more pressure than it may seem.”
For Dupuis and Chamberlin, the most enjoyable parts of the position have been the physical aspects of it, such as deciding the order of the published pieces. “We printed all of them out and laid them on a table to decide the order,” Chamberlin said. “Anything that feels real has been great to see.”
The editing positions place a great emphasis on teamwork, despite large amounts of independent work. Alicia Hynes, editorial assistant of Alice James Books, helps oversee the print edition and noted how complicated the process can be.
“I would say that publishing has a lot of moving parts,” Hynes said. “There is a great deal to coordinate. Between contacting and communicating with authors to following your own deadlines to working with a printing house, it can be quite a balancing act!”
As part of the journal’s release, the editors are aiming to host a launch party in the UMF Creative Writing house, where the first copies of the issue will be given out, and students published in the journal will have a chance to read their work in print.
The journal will also be announcing a new contest for undergraduate students. “We’ve had a summer undergraduate writing contest in the past,” Dupuis said, “but this will be something completely separate.”
