Tri-Town Notes 

Durham Bottle Drive and Dance

Drop off your returnables to help Amvet Post No. 13, when the Durham Post will be holding a bottle drive from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 7 in the Amvet parking lot at 1049 Royalsborough Road. For pick up, contact Erica Burke at 841-4017.

FMS hosts Red Ribbon Day

Freeport Middle School hosted a school-wide Red Ribbon – Got Red? Costume Day on Dec. 9. This drug prevention event was promoted through a poster contest at the school and coordinated by the FMS Interact Club with co-leaders Phyllis Latham and Lucy Lloyd. The FMS Interact Club is a student-led group supported by the Freeport Rotary Club.

At the start of the school day, all students were greeted with lollipops that had anti-drug messages attached to promote the Red Ribbon – Got Red? Costume Day. Students were encouraged to wear red, and participated in an advisory activity where they learned to think about the consequences of impulsive decisions. During this activity, students practiced “pause” skills by role-playing skits that were written by one of the FMS Interact students, Ella Vertenten.

“The Red Ribbon day has become an annual event where the students help to create activities that grabs their peers’ attention and educates them about the importance of being drug-free at the same time,” guidance counselor Phyllis Latham said. “I am always amazed by the students’ excitement and creativity as they work on this project.”

The Red Ribbon campaign is a nationally recognized drug prevention initiative that is sponsored by the National Family Partnership. The national theme for the 2016 events is YOLO (You Only Live Once), Be Drug-Free. For more information, go to www.redribbon.org.

The Freeport Rotary Club, formed in 1983, is a group of over 45 business and professional people from the Freeport area. Its mission is to provide service to those in need, in both the greater Freeport community and around the world. For more detailed information about the Freeport Rotary Club and its programs, visit www.freeport-rotary.org.

Freeport clerk recertified

Deputy Town Clerk Mary Howe was recently recertified by the Maine Town and City Clerks Association as a certified clerk of Maine. The initial certification requires a combination of professional employment experience, continuing educational requirements, and maintaining good standing with the MTCCA professional association. Recertification is required between three and five years after initial certification, and is a component in keeping our public employees up to date. Congratulations, Mary.

Northern Lights celebration continues

Experience the holidays in a whole new way. Don’t miss the most festive celebration yet in Freeport. A visit promises to be packed with classic Christmas fun, with merry events, delightful surprises and holiday cheer for the whole family. On Dec. 31, at 6 p.m., the skies will light up with spectacular fireworks. Don’t miss it.

Endurance expedition presentation

Sir Ernest Shackleton’s infamous Endurance Expedition to Antarctica is one of the most astounding survival stories in history. Ed Webster of Harpswell will present “Surviving Antarctica: Shackleton’s Legendary Expedition,” at the Camping Department Atrium, L.L.Bean Flagship Store, on Friday, Jan. 6 at 7 p.m. Departing England in 1914, the renowned British explorer and his team aimed to become the first to fully traverse the Antarctic continent. But their ship, the Endurance, became frozen into pack ice, was crushed by surging ice floes – and sank. Shackleton and his 27 men lived for months on the floating sea ice before the explorer and five others staged a death-defying escape and rescue mission, braving 50-foot ocean waves in a 22-foot wooden lifeboat. Not a man was lost.

To commemorate the centenary of Shackleton’s Endurance Expedition, Webster, a New England mountaineer of Harpswell, will present an educational and historic lecture documenting Shackleton’s life and times, plus his heroic leadership of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. His personally narrated PowerPoint lecture chronicling Shackleton’s Endurance Expedition is illustrated with photographs taken by the team’s official cameraman.

Trouble in the Presidentials

Although strikingly beautiful, Mount Washington and the surrounding Presidential Range hold the dubious distinction of having “the world’s worst weather.” The Presidential Range is also world-renowned for the challenging terrain it provides for alpinists and, as such, it has been the scene of hundreds of mountaineering accidents over the years.

Ty Gagne will provide an in-depth analysis titled “Trouble in the Presidentials: What a mountaineering accident Can Teach Us” in the Camping Department Atrium, in the L.L.Bean Flagship Store on Jan. 13 at 7 p.m. His presentation recounts a recent tragedy on the range and discusses lessons learned above tree line, extending them into everyday life.

Holiday note from Freeport Police

It is that time of year when families and friends gather to celebrate the holidays. The holidays are busy and stressful. People are hurrying more than normal and winter road conditions make driving more dangerous. Add alcohol to this scenario and you have a recipe for disaster. Resist the pressure to drink or serve alcohol at every social event. Just because it’s there does not make it a necessary ingredient for holiday cheer.

Offer nonalcoholic beverages as well as alcoholic drinks. Make your guests feel as comfortable choosing a nonalcoholic beverage as they would be choosing alcohol. You can do this by putting nonalcoholic drinks in an easily accessible place and by asking guests what they would like to drink, instead of pointing them to the bar.

If you or your friends are going to a party and plan to drink alcohol, decide in advance who will be the designated driver. Drinking and driving is not an option. Jail, the hospital – or worse, the morgue – is not where you want to spend the holidays.

Send Freeport, Pownal and Durham community notes to Kathleen Meade at tritownnotes@gmail.com.