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A big thanks to all who came out and helped out with the grand opening of the CCLC's newest facility - the Community Commons. About 150 folks gathered to celebrate on Saturday March 24, 2007, bringing food, music and good conversation.
Thanks go to so many people, including all of the volunteers who helped us get the building ready - setting up tables and chairs, painting shelves and cabinets, unpacking and washing dishes, and so much more. We're also thankful to those CCLC instructors (formal and informal) who shared demonstrations and displays during the day, including blacksmithing and wood working teacher Sid Hughes, guitar instructor Kelly Bryand, and knitting circle facilitator Beth Roy.
More thanks go to CCLC board members Judy Lola and Stephanie Bailey (and her family), as well as Passamaquoddy Sakom Richard Doyle, for facilitating our opening ceremony to bless the building and all the future activities the building will support. The opening ceremony also included comments and stories by CCLC Director Alan Furth, who spoke about the effort of bringing this major part of the campus dream to life and all those who were involved in that effort, including state and county officials who helped the CCLC prepare its Community Development Block Grant (not just once or twice, but three times), all of the towns who signed on to support that grant, all of the additional funders who supplied the remaining financial resources to build the Commons, the contractors and subcontractors who did a fantastic job, and the volunteers who helped with painting, shingling and other finish work. Jim Miner, CCLC board president, also stepped in with a story or two of working with the contractors, lead by general contractor Buildings Etcetera from Houlton, ME.
A big highlight of the Grand Opening was the Bowl Extravaganza and Silent Auction, a project launched and facilitated by Connie Harter-Bagley. Connie and CCLC staff offered four workshops throughout January and February where community members learned to make ceramic bowls. All the bowls made were donated to the Grand Opening event, where those in attendance were invited to make a donation of $10 per bowl. Nearly 200 bowls were made throughout January and February, and about 150 of those bowls were taken home by Grand Opening attendees. The silent auction was also a success, and in total $2,350 was raised for scholarships and pottery studio supplies. There were many contributions to the silent auction, including one-of-a-kind ceramic bowls thrown by Connie and decorated by local fine artists. Thanks go to Kay Kimball, April Adams, Gillian Gatto, Greg Henderson, Linda Allen, Marilyn Dowling, Charlotte Joy Chase, Lisa Bartlett, and Jim O'Neil who each donated time and talent to paint a scene on a bowl. Thanks also go to Nancy Fitzsimmons, Sid Hughes, Stephanie Bailey, Jane Furth, Beth Roy, Kevin Thompson, Ed Moore, Diane MacFeat, Judy Lola, Dianne Larkin and Barbara Baig for donations of items to the silent auction.
We're thankful to all our friends who stepped in to share their music, including Gary Cook (who operated the sound system throughout the day), Peter Maybe, Warren Foley, Jim O'Neil, John Viselli, Kelly Bryand, Sid Hughes, Peter Murphy, Connie Harter-Bagley, Russell Waren, and CCLC staff members Alan Furth and Kara McCrimmon. Connie, in particular, stepped up with a song she wrote for the Grand Opening - "The Cisely, Cisely Sea". Click on this link - http://www.thecclc.org/audio/cclc_song.mp3 - to hear Connie singing this song. In addition to the wonderful music and fabulous food, a fantastic group of folks helped out at the end of the grand opening to help clean up and set up for the movie that was help in the Commons the following day. Many, many thanks to those folks as well.
