Making Community One Hot Dog at a Time
Police and Neighborhood House Join Forces
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Paradis Ace Hardware.
NORTHEAST HARBOR—”See that lady in the pink shirt next to Marie,” the young man said to the woman next to him as he strode across the lawn at the Northeast Harbor Marina. “That’s Raven. She’s the dispatcher I told you about who helped me out. She’s really nice.”
The duo strode toward long tables set up at the edge of the grass by the slightly sloping lawn, walking past a child doing cartwheels, a baby still getting her walking steps down and tables of people eating, talking, and laughing. They headed straight for Raven Riendeau, Bar Harbor’s newest dispatcher.
She smiled as she said hello.
That interaction? That moment of connection? It was exactly what Bar Harbor Police Sergeant Soren Sundberg was hoping for when he started the program.
This past Sunday, the Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Police Departments and the Neighborhood House hosted a community barbecue at the Northeast Harbor Marina. Grills waited at the end of the green, burgers sizzled and were flipped, and people took their food and conversation to the white tables on the marina green.
The department’s chief, David Kerns, crouched down to rub a dog’s belly and talk to its people. The dog wiggled on the grass, tail wagging. Over and over, Captain and Harbormaster Chris Wharff tossed a football to a young girl. Lt. Kevin Edgecomb made sure the hotdogs were just right. People interacted. People met each other. They broke bread. The staff and leadership of the Neighborhood House joined in as well.
The headcount isn’t exact, but Sundberg estimated that between 225 to 250 people attended.
“I think everyone was very pleased with how the event went,” he said. “The weather was great; it was well attended. I had a brief moment right after we finished setting up where I didn’t see anyone other than volunteers and thought no one was going to come out. I started grilling food and then turned around and saw a huge line of people and knew things were going to go well.”
They did.
The cook-outs, which have been going on for a few years now in Bar Harbor and Mount Desert are part of Sundberg’s purpose and job description, which he attained under the direction of the towns’ last police chief James Willis, who retired from the force last year.
“During my interview for sergeant, Chief Willis mentioned one of his goals is to have more community outreach. After being promoted, I took this goal on as one of mine,” Sundberg said.
It was his goal, but he wasn’t quite sure how to achieve it.
“An opportunity presented its self in a very odd way,” he said. “Yeves Muzima, the owner of Y&P Taxi, came in one night because he was upset with an interaction he had with another officer.”
They talked. Sundberg listened. But then, they did something else, they didn’t just go separate ways, they came up with a plan.
“After talking with him for a while, we came up with the idea of having a cookout to try and get the community together so we can all meet and interact with one another in a more relaxed setting,” Sundberg said.
Soon Sunberg and Muzima were sharing a grill, cooking together, and serving others at the edge of the Park Street ball field’s parking lot in Bar Harbor. That was a couple years ago. Since then, the police have hosted at other locations, including the Atlantic Oceanside hotel.
Often, people’s first in-depth interaction with officers is during moments of high stress, moments of crisis and conflict, moments when they might be injured, moments where things have gone wrong.
“I think it is a great opportunity for people to get to know us better, learn our names and faces and have a point of contact if they do need our assistance,” Sundberg said.
It’s also time to meet up with old acquaintances.
“It’s always great to see who comes out to these events,” Sundberg said.
At one event, one of his dad’s coworkers came.
“I remembered him from when I was a kid and saw him at the Jackson Laboratory,” Sundberg said. “We had an opportunity to speak and he told me about speeding issues in his neighborhood. We had a much different, indepth conversation about this rather than just two voices on a phone.”
In a post on its page, The Neighborhood House said, “It’s going to be a great opportunity for our community to gather, connect with friends and neighbors and enjoy a little lunch in the process.”
The groups collaborated to host the community. Sundberg headed up the police effort for the event. Police Chief David Kerns said he was really happy with how the event went and the turn out.
Sundberg said that the departments recently purchased some tents and table coverings with the departments’ patch on it.
“This was to help with visibility as in the past it was not super evident who we were to people that didn’t recognize us,” he said.
Money donated to the police association funded the tents and event.
“We also try and partner with another business/organization from the community,” Sundberg said.
They usually get one or two high school students that volunteer. If any students have interest in law enforcement and want to get some community service hours they are welcome to come out and help, Sundberg said. “If anything they can get a free lunch!”
If you’d like to partner with the police department for an event or if you are a student interested in law enforcement, you can message him at:
Photos (unless otherwise captioned): Carrie Jones/Bar Harbor Story
A caption in this story has been updated.
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Great story and photos!