Tag Archives: community

Lions Club Honors YHS Seniors

Students reflect Lions motto of “We Serve”
The Notes – May 24, 2016

At the May 2nd meeting of the Lions Club, the Lions Club honored two High School seniors, Katie Glenn and Ethan Peters, for their outstanding contributions to community service during their four years at Yarmouth High School.


Katie Glenn, Colin O’Neill, and Ethan Peters

Colin O’Neill, a Lions Club member, gave the club some background on our tradition of providing high school seniors with community service awards, and then he then introduced this year’s honorees.

Katie Glenn spoke to the club about her early interest in helping others. She told us that her 1st volunteer job was handing out programs at a concert at Royal River Park when she was just 11 years old. A contingent of Bay Square residents were in attendance at the concert, which then led to volunteer stints at Bay Square. She has also participated in the “Buddy” program which pairs up high school students with middle school students. She plans to attend University of Maine at Farmington to become a teacher.

Ethan Peters has had two main community service interests – his membership in the Boy Scouts and as a member of the Yarmouth Fire Rescue. Scouting has provided him with many opportunities. He has helped with projects at the Yarmouth Food Pantry, and he has assisted on various Eagle Scout projects. Ethan’s Eagle Scout project was to build a fire pit on Cousins Island at Camp Sosi.  He has also been a part of the Junior Firefighter program and participates in weekly training sessions. Bill Goddard, Deputy Fire Chief and a Lions Club member, stood to thank Ethan for his service to the Fire Department. Ethan will be attending Worcester Polytechnic Institute majoring in Civil Engineering.

The Lions Club is always honored to recognize students who have devoted many hours above what is required in support of their interests and who have embraced serving others in our community. It reinforces our motto, “We Serve.”

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Yarmouth Community Center Initiative

Plans are in place to establish a space for the Yarmouth Community Center
The Notes – May 10, 2016

The April 18th meeting of the Yarmouth Lions Club was held at the Muddy Rudder. Our speakers for the evening were Horace Horton, chair of the Yarmouth Community Center (YCC) initiative, and Beth Costello, Vice-President of Yarmouth Care About Neighbors (YCAN), its sponsoring organization.


Horace Horton and Beth Costello

Horace provided a brief review of how the YCC initiative came to be. Last spring, at a community wide meeting at the Merrill Memorial Library, there was a consensus that Yarmouth needed a community center. The recently completed Yarmouth Aging In Place survey also confirmed this as a priority. Finally, Horace’s wife, Barbara, who works at the Yarmouth Community Food Pantry, kept telling him that they needed more space. The Hortons came to YCAN earlier this year with a proposal, which was subsequently approved by their Board of Directors. Committees were formed, and an effort is now underway to consult with all nonprofit groups about what is needed in such a center. Horace emphasized that they are not asking for funding at this time, just collecting information.

He then turned the microphone over to Beth Costello who talked about what ideas have been put forth so far. She envisions the center as one place to go to meet many needs, much like the Freeport Community Center. Some of the ideas are the relocation of the food pantry, a thrift store, Yarmouth Community Services office, a Senior Center, a kitchen for community meals, a general assistance office (now currently in Freeport), a gathering place for coffee and conversation, a medical equipment loan closet, and an office for Southern Maine Agency on Aging programs, like tax assistance and healthy living. The YCC would not be just for seniors, but also include programs and services for all ages. An important component would be one phone number with a central referral service.

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