• The Elder Elves, a volunteer program of the Senior Center at Lower Village, assemble approximately 50-75 gift bags annually for seniors who are all alone on Christmas. The bags are filled using donations from supporters and local businesses, and every item is individually hand-wrapped by the Elves. These bags are distributed to seniors by HomeHealth Visiting Nurses (formerly SMMC Visiting Nurses), the town’s social services departments and Meals on Wheels. According to Susan Pettit, Executive Director at the Senior Center at Lower Village, the Elder Elves have been providing this gift to the community since 1992. “I am so very proud of this program,” Pettit says; “The Elves themselves often donate items for the bags …the volunteers who make this all happen are fabulous people.”

• Volunteers from the Seacoast Garden Club prepare several Boxwood Trees each year for HomeHealth Visiting Nurses to distribute to patients in Arundel, Cape Porpoise, Kennebunk and Kennebunkport. 

• Greg Burns RN, a Pediatric Nurse with HHVN, provided the name of a family to the staff at Amica Insurance, who generously met the family’s needs this season.

Many HHVN staff and volunteers also bought, wrapped and delivered gifts and essential items to patients in need.

• The HHVN Intake Department sponsored two York County families.
• The HHVN Pediatric Nursing and Rehab team sponsored two families in Cumberland County.
• HHVN volunteers sponsored two families in Cumberland County.

[note: 2 photos attached. In the photo titled “Checking the List,” Nancy Hewett, Pediatric RN, is pictured at HHVN’s Portland office, checking her list of recipients next to a car loaded with donated gifts. In the photo titled “Loading the Car,” (also taken at HHVN’s Portland office) Greg Burns, Pediatric RN (pictured on the far left) and Louise Barton RN, Pediatric Clinical Supervisor (on the far right) watch while other members of HHVN’s Pediatric Nursing and Rehab Teams load the back of a visiting clinician’s SUV with donated gifts and necessities. Also attached: a close up of the contents of one of the donated gift baskets for a child in need.]

About HomeHealth Visiting Nurses
HomeHealth Visiting Nurses is a not-for-profit home health care agency providing skilled nursing, rehabilitation, home health aide support, medical social work, maternal and child health care, community health and wellness clinics, Telehealth and other services in Cumberland, York and Southern Oxford Counties to patients of all ages. HomeHealth Visiting Nurses is a member of MaineHealth. For more information, call 1-800-660-4867 or visit www.homehealth.org.

For more information on The Senior Center at Lower Village, visit www.seniorcenterkennebunk.org

For more information on the Seacoast Garden Club, visit http://www.seacoastgardenclub.org/

Press Release Contact Info:

Charity Hirst, Development & Community Relations Associate
HomeHealth Visiting Nurses
207-284-4566 ext. 4336; chirst@homehealth.org

CAMDEN, Maine (February 04, 2011)- The 2011 U.S. National Toboggan Championships, being held the weekend of February 11, 2011 in Camden, Maine, is the place for family fun, complete with tons of in-snow activities and lots of Oreo cookies!

What: U.S. National Toboggan Championships (Open to the Public) Children’s Day
When: Saturday, February 12, 2011. 10 am to 2 pm
Where: Camden Snow Bowl Lodge. Camden, ME
Costs: Free / Open to the Public
Highlights: snow sculpture contest, a big snow maze, and a ton of Oreo Cookies
Parking/Transportation: Parking is limited at the event for $5. Free Shuttle service from downtown Camden will run from 7am to 4pm, on Saturday and 8am to 4pm on Sunday. Pickup locations are: The Village Green, The Public Safety Parking Lot, and the Knox Mill lot on Knowlton Street.

A Snow-People and Snow Sculpture building contest will kick off the Children Events on Saturday, February 2nd at 10am where kids ages 2 and up can participate. A Snow Maze will also be up and ready for the kids to wind their way through, stopping at game stations throughout the maze for added fun challenges and prizes. At noon, kids and parents can warm up at the Snow Bowl’s Lodge and enjoy hot chocolate, an Oreo Cookie Stacking Contest, and extra Oreo Cookies and Milk.

Families will also be able to watch the Toboggan National Championships, seeing people from around the nation suit up in wacky costumes, board wooden toboggans, race down a 400ft ice chute, and be shot out onto a frozen lake.

Families can also take the short ride down to Aldermere Farms to visit the “Oreo Cookie Cows” in Rockport. The weekend will also feature tubing, skiing, ice skating, snow shoeing, musical shows, food contests, fireworks and more. For a full schedule of events for the weekend, click here: http://winter.camdensnowbowl.com/21st-annual-toboggan-championships

The Camden-Rockport-Lincolnville Chamber of Commerce is a non-profit membership association that seeks to promote the interests of business and encourage economic development. For more information visit the Chamber at www.camdenme.org or email us at chamber@camdenme.org.

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CAMDEN, Maine (January 25, 2011) – New events, new categories and new sponsors are the reasons that the 2011 U.S. National Toboggan Championships, being held the weekend of February 11^, 2011, will be better than ever.

For the past 20 years, the Toboggan Championships has drawn participants from all over the country. This year, riders will have the opportunity to compete in the new Experimental category featuring custom-designed and built toboggans. In addition, families will have a host of activities to check out, including a welcome reception, tubing, skiing, chili challenge, costume contest and fireworks, as well as the new Children’s Challenge, featuring on-snow activities for all ages. The event continues to grow nationally, and this year new sponsors have come on board including Maine Today Media and L.L. Bean.

“We’ve had families come from Florida to California for the excitement of being part of a true Maine winter outdoor festival; all to watch 425 teams of goofy costumed “athletes” fly down a 40 ft wooden chute onto a frozen pond “, said Dan Bookham, Executive Director of the Camden Rockport Lincolnville Chamber of Commerce.  “The Midcoast really comes alive in the winter. For the Toboggan weekend, there will be great entertainment on mountain and off, with fireworks in the harbor, activities for all ages and affordable lodging packages.”

What: U.S. National Toboggan Championships (Open to the Public)
When: Friday, February 11 through Sunday, February 13, 2011
Where: Camden Snow Bowl (www.camdensnowbowl.com), Camden, ME
Costs:    2 person division = $60, 3-person = $90, 4-person = $120; experimental = $100
Highlights: Affordable event for family and friends. Limited total entries and class sizes, even a design your own toboggan category.
Deadline to compete: Some spots still open, registrations close on Friday, January 28, 2011.
Sponsors: Gold – Maine Today Media, Inc. Silver – The First, Point Lookout, Village Soup, Liberty Hospitality, The Free Press and L.L. Bean.
Media Day: Friday, February 28.  Interview organizers, bring a video crew and take a ride down the chute!

To register to compete and to learn more about the U.S. Toboggan Nationals please visit http://winter.camdensnowbowl.com/21st-annual-toboggan-championships. For more information on other activities in the area and lodging packages please visit http://www.camdenme.org/specials.

U.S. Toboggan Nationals

Schedule of Events
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2011

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2011

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2011

The Camden-Rockport-Lincolnville Chamber of Commerce is a non-profit membership association that seeks to promote the interests of business and encourage economic development. For more information visit the Chamber at www.camdenme.org or email us at chamber@camdenme.org.

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Elementary Choir, “Pecos Bill” and more will hit the stage starting at 7 p.m.
The variety show is a major fund raiser for the Three Rivers Kiwanis’ RIF {Reading Is Fundamental} program which support buying and giving free

books to youth in MSAD 41 area. Reading Is Fundamental, Inc. (RIF), founded in 1966, motivates children to read by working with them, their

parents, and community members to make reading a fun and beneficial part of everyday life. RIF’s highest priority is reaching underserved children from

birth to age 8. Through community volunteers in every state and U.S. territory, RIF provided 4.4 million children with 15 million new, free books and

literacy resources last year. FMI: www.rif.org
The refreshment table will be filled with homemade goodies and beverages plus a 50/50 raffles too.
Admission is just $5 per person or a family pass for just $20 (Parents and children). Doors open at 6:30 p.m. at the Milo Town Hall located on Pleasant

Street in Milo.
FMI: www.ThreeRiversKiwanis.org or call Ethelyn 943-7748 or email eetrew@myfairpoint.net

Please plan to join us as we gather around St. Benedict’s Church and Parish Center to renew old friendships, make new friends, visit with relatives and reminisce about the good ol’ days. We are hoping to see aunts, uncles, cousins and friends whose “roots” are in Benedicta. Mark your calendars and schedule your visit “back home” for this weekend.

We are in the planning stages for this, sure to be, memorable weekend. As our agenda takes shape we will be posting the events, times and locations of activities.

Mark your calendars and schedule your visit “back home” for this weekend.