Illuminating Love
The YWCA's 23rd Annual Carol Dyer Memorial Luminaria Evening
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Window Panes Home and Garden.
BAR HARBOR—On a Saturday night in August, 2023, as the sun’s light faded and the moon rose, volunteers organized by the MDI YWCA walked through the paths on the Village Green, backs bent, lighters in hand, illuminating one white paper bag after another. On each bag was a name. Each bag represented a person who had cancer.
On a park bench closer to the Reel Pizza side, a woman sobbed into a man’s shoulder, her long brown hair obscuring her face, but not her words, not her sorrow.
“There are just so many,” she cried.
“I know,” he soothed. “I know.”
Throughout last year’s event, WDEA’s Chris Popper said the names on the bags, one after another, dozens and dozens and dozens of names, of people, of community members, of loved ones.
The event began, according to Ann Worrick, “As a way to honor our dear friend Carol Dyer after she lost her battle with brain cancer in June of 2001. Inspired by a local Relay for Life event, particularly the luminaria ceremony held during the walk, we got to work planning our first event. It started out as a small gathering to provide us with an outlet to both celebrate and grieve. And we have become inspired and humbled by how much it has grown over the years.”
It has kept on going.
Back in 2016, the Bar Harbor YBs (a group of local women) said that the Carol Dyer Memorial “Light the Way to a Cure” was coming to an end after 15 years, but it’s 2024 now and the candles are going to be lit again.
Each year, every year, more people have cancer. The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2023, there will be 10,490 new cancer diagnoses in Maine.
Worrick said in 2023, “We hope that the legacy of this event is to inspire you all to reach out and do positive work in your community on any scale. We know we will.”
The annual event on the Village Green is meant to honor those who are surviving cancer and those who have not. It’s about celebration for those who are here and honor for those who are not.
One man lighting candle after candle offered another man sitting on a bench a chance to light the luminary of his loved one himself. “Would you like to?”
The man’s lips pressed in for a second before he gave a quick nod. “Yes, yes, I would. Thank you. What do I do?”
You light the flame. You think. You are present.
Carol Dyer was a children’s librarian at the Jesup Memorial Library. She had a brain tumor and died in 2001. Each year on Bar Harbor’s village green, luminaries glow along the walkways. On each bag is a name. The names are of a litany of friends and loved ones. No, that’s wrong.
The bags are a litany of those who are loved and who have been impacted by cancer.
Since the event began, well over $75,000 has been raised for the American Cancer Society. Each year bags can be purchased before or during the event. On that Saturday in 2023, Alice French sang from the gazebo. Chris Popper was the master of ceremonies. That year’s proceeds benefitted the Breast Health Center at MDI Hospital. This year's event will benefit the Beth C. Wright Cancer Resource Center in Ellsworth.
People can pre-order luminaria now for the YWCA’s 23rd Annual Carol Dyer Memorial Luminaria Evening, coming up on August 10th.
According to the YWCA MDI, “Our very first luminaria evening was a memorial to Carol Dyer, a children's librarian and friend of YWCA MDI. Now hundreds of luminaria light the Bar Harbor Village Green each August to remember Carol and all our friends and family lost to cancer, and to honor those living with it.”
The 2024 luminaria evening is scheduled for 7:00-9:30 on Saturday, August 10, with a rain date of August 17. Chris Popper of WDEA will again serve as master of ceremonies, reading the names on the luminaria, and Alice French will provide live music.
LINKS TO ORDER AND LEARN MORE
You can order luminaria now at https://ywcamdi.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b102f16213b3640b58280236a&id=2d69d610d6&e=6a234a41eb or buy them the evening of the event.
To find out more about the YWCA MDI, click here.
All photos Carrie Jones/BHS
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