SAGE is a program offered through the University of Maine at Presque Isle and stands for Seniors Achieving Greater Education. One of the students in UMPI’s Evolving Media class under the teaching skills of Professor Jacquelyn Lowman, is SAGE member Penny Kern whose project is establishing a website known as www.localwiki.net/aroostook.
This Internet site includes a wide array of biographies of those who lived in Aroostook County including figures from the pages of regional history up to current residents who will be adding to the history of The County. Any and all of these folks from the well known to those working behind the scenes are being recorded for future generations to learn from. It includes some of the history of area farming, sporting events, museums including their coverage of natural history and lots of genealogy records. Some folks already on the website include Augusta K. Christie, Dr. Richard J. Dick, William “Bill” Haskell, Dr. Horace Allison, Leon Guimond, Aunt Lena’s farmhouse, a variety of hunting memories by Ron Roope, and Dr. Ruth Anderson. Other examples can include people who had local buildings named after them, restorations of historical schools and histories of area events such as the annual Northern Maine Fair along with many others.
One possible side event coming in the near future will be an open house at the Mark and Emily Turner Memorial Library which will feature historical photos of Aroostook County and possible identification of local people in the photos.
The Sage Maine Biographies class has realized that there are many local stories that cannot be covered in the short timeframe of the class. This issue can be addressed by going to the local Wiki site where anyone can add data, making this a way to collect valuable information about Aroostook.
Students contributing to the local Wiki site and their stories include Becca Campbell, who writes on Instagram recording good deeds, and Chris Czosnek, who posted a Prezi informing the public about a partnership between Nordic Heritage Center and Maine Adaptive to provide equipment and programs at Nordic Heritage for folks with disabilities. Chris Bowden presented a program called Dragon Dictation being used by UMPI students learning to speak English. It can be used by English speaking students to learn to speak other languages also. Nicole Duplessis wrote about setting up a Tumblr page to be used by the local Humane Society to help bring pet owners and animals together.
The local Wiki site was designed and implemented by SAGE student Kern to allow anyone to publish, edit or add to stories of local history and people and events of Aroostook County.
Much can be added to this site including family or area photos. Keep in mind that everyone knows little things that when combined, can make for a grand story. This forum hopes to collect personal stories including those such as your family, just imagine the help it may all be to someone doing genealogy research.
When history is not recorded there are sometimes dire consequences. In this case, not remembering history, it may just disappear and that would be a great loss for future generations of our area.
