Thank you Team Harrison

To the Editor:

Halloween Festival and two days later the opening of the Rec. Café during Election Day. Only a dedicated, hard working and enthusiastic large team of volunteers could make a special event and a fundraiser happen and with great success. A huge heartfelt thank you to the following people who helped bake, set up/decorate, supervise all the games and refreshment table and clean up during Halloween Festival at the Fire Station: Tracy Card, Courtney Card, Doug Holt, Roland Estes, Julie Murphy, Miranda Murphy, McKinley Murphy, Missy Pomerleau, Jason Truman, Taylor Cantone, April Frank, William Frank, Annette Metcalf, Erin Holden, Beck Holden, Arlin Bigelow, Peggy Mills, Deb Ward, Garrett Hudanish, Alex Hardy, Brandon Ronfeldt, Melissa Strauss, Hunter Thorpe, Kim Thorpe, Tyler Edwards, Brandon Cook, Kelly Howard, Marissa Thorpe, Shennah Derstine, Chris Anderson, Kristie Lowe, Jim Lowe, Chandler Lowe, Kelly Howard, Charlene Schieferstein, Dawn Lisowski, Sharon Wilson and Karen Pascoe.

Thank you to Bill and Darcy Winslow of High View Farm for delivering and picking up 20 bales of hay and to Richard Jennings of Frosty Hollow Farm for donating cornstalks, Janet and Doug Wall for pumpkins and to Pietree Orchards for donating pumpkins and apples. Special thanks to our Harrison Youth Boosters, QC Services and Phil and Diane Jackson for their generous contributions toward the event. Thank you to our firemen, Jeff Murphy and Kevin Laplante, for moving the fire trucks in and out of the bays. Congratulations to the Witch Wagon winner Kirsten Edwards, the Giant Pumpkin contest winner Dominic Sclafani, and the Guess Jar Winners Jesse Leonard and Jadyn McGinn. Our costume winners were Cameron Grant (Scariest), Sydney Lisowski (Most Imaginative), Thomas Frutus (Funniest) and Brook Tabor (Cutest).

The Harrison Rec. Dept, the Congregational Church of Harrison/N. Bridgton, and Church World Services would like to thank all the students at the Harrison Elementary School for taking the time during the month of October to collect money from family and friends for UNICEF so less fortunate children can enjoy clean water, nutritious food, education and quality medical care. The students raised $317.39. Mrs. Rollins’ first grade class raised the largest amount ($91.76) and will enjoy a pizza party. Thank you to Toni Fuller and the teachers for helping in this effort and encouraging the children to collect money and fill the orange UNICEF boxes and most importantly a special thank you to Tracy Card for managing this project.

The Harrison Rec. Café opened two days later ready to sell homemade food to our voters. With the help from all our local cooks, bakers, and volunteer workers who provided excellent customer service we generated $824 for the recreation department. A huge thank you to: Tracy Card, Kristie Lowe, Chandler Lowe, Julie Murphy, McKinley Murphy, Miranda Murphy, April Frank, Tracy Weber, Judy Colburn, Ken Wilson, Sharon Wilson, Mary Tremblay, Martha Merrill, Deb McBride, Lynn Richardson, Muffett Crowell, Julie Parsons, Barry Richardson, Roberta Scribner, Deb Bell, Tammy Reynolds, Peggy Mills, Arlin Bigelow, Toni Fuller, Patti DeBie, Martha Pinkham, Susan Searles-Gazza, Kelly Howard, Renee Joyce, Judy Gaoutte, Julie Goodwin of White Wulf Farm, Bev Martin, Pat Sutherland, Sheila Baxter, Dawn Lisowski, Joanne Sullivan and Deb Ward. Big thanks to Bill(Willis) Robbins of RW Merrill Electric for installing a temporary electrical system so we wouldn’t blow a fuse plugging in all the crock pots and other appliances.

Visiting the Rec. Café is a great time for folks in town to socialize with each other and chat about political issues and current events while enjoying home baked foods by our local cooks and bakers. It is truly amazing what we can do when we work as a team for the betterment of our community. Thank you to all our loyal customers and to this year’s new visitors to the Café who so generously supported this annual FUNdraiser that greatly benefits the recreation department. With your generous support the recreation department is able to purchase supplies, offer trips and special events at a low or no cost, provide scholarships, and help with summer program staffing.

This year was even more special as we received a surprise visit from Caroline Cornish of WCSH6 News who received word from our resident Renee Joyce about the Rec. Cafe. They did a story about the Café which appeared on the 5 and 6 p.m. evening news.

Thank you everyone.

Paula J. Holt

Recreation Director