HOULTON — The Monday Aug. 10, meeting of the Houlton Rotary Club convened with several guests present.
Walter Thompson, a visiting Rotarian brought Dominique Nichol who is the new Salvation Army Director here in Houlton. Ed Degenhardt introduced Texas Rotarian John Urbanek and Peggy Fitzpatrick, also of Texas.
ROTARY GUEST — Francis Fitzpatrick, left,and Debbie Melvin, center, were the featured speakers at the Aug. 10 meeting of the Houlton Rotary Club. The two spoke on behalf of the Bird Farm at RSU 29, seeking funds from the Rotary to finance amendments for the 20 acre parcel of land. With them is Rotarian Otis Smith.
Urbanek shared his involvement with the “Books for the World” program. His Rotary club sends a container partly loaded with books and then other lighter weight articles are sent in the container for the disadvantaged South African youth. Urbanek was moved to tears describing his experiences in South Africa.
Tears were also shed for Sam Sylvester, Torrey’s son who died 11 years ago on Aug. 11. Becky Day shared photos of two pairs of Youth Exchange students who recently had a visit together here in Maine: Keegan Fitzpatrick and his sister Danica with their exchange students Max who is visiting Keegan and is from the Netherlands and Nina who is visiting Danica and is from Germany. Another guest, attending with the guest speaker, was Debbie Melvin, an educator from RSU 29.
Otis Smith hosted the guest speaker, a former colleague, Francis Fitzpatrick who addressed the topic of the Bird Farm. The Bird Farm is owned by RSU 29. Francis Fitzpatrick is a graduate of Houlton High School and has been involved with the farm as a student and as a volunteer.
Both he and his wife Nancy raised their sons on their own farm and have had other businesses in the area such as Naturally Potatoes, which is now owned by Pineland Farms in Mars Hill.
When the Bird Farm was organized in the 1950’s it was managed by an agriculture educator of Houlton High School named Mr. Wood. Potatoes were raised and shipped off of the farm. Mr. Wood also brought greenhouses over from the airport which were in place for about 50 years. Over time the “Ag” program disappeared and it was said that the farmland was “not good for anything.”
For awhile, Harold Fitzpatrick collected potatoes from various farmers and packaged them for sale to raise money for the Bird Farm. For the past 10 years, Francis has kept the farmland mowed, but he is basically mowing weeds at this point. There are gardens in one section known as Public Gardens which were previously managed by Jay Clark, and since Clark’s death one year ago, the Rev. Wayne Robertson has managed the gardens.
The High School is involved with the farm under the program developed by educator Shelly Bouchard on part of the acreage. Francis is concerned about the future of the land and he and Debbie are applying for funds from Rotary to help purchase much needed “amendments” to enrich the soil, such as lime and fertilizers.
There are 20 tillable acres to be treated. If anyone would like to attend the Bird Farm meetings they are held once a month on every third Thursday at 4 p.m.at Houlton High School. A question from the floor referred to SAD 1 and their successful gardens and it was suggested that the new superintendent could bring some knowledge from Presque Isle.
Meanwhile, Francis says that he will continue to mow and bring manure in the fall and continue to be involved as he has been for many years with the Bird Farm.
