The MDI Help Mob
Taking on Rooves and Cord Wood One Act of Kindness at a Time
BAR HARBOR—Moxie isn’t the only thing that makes Mainers mighty. It’s also community and strength and kindness. That’s shown in hundreds of ways every single day. Whether its friends and family volunteering, dressing up as ghouls to help at a haunted house at a local inn or cleaning up litter or standing on the side of a road to pass out water at a marathon.
Sometimes though, that moxie is shown by climbing up on a roof on an October Friday and helping out a neighbor.
That’s exactly what happened at Myrle Crockett’s house this weekend. And it’s exactly what’s been happening all around the island at least since 2022 and much longer before it was called a Help Mob, and instead might have just been called being neighborly.
A HISTORY OF HELP
Lisa Horsch Clark of the Bar Harbor (MDI) Rotary Club has been organizing Rotarians and neighbors to help neighbors since 2022. They’ve dealt with branches falling on roofs in the cold of January, stacked four cords of wood in less than two hours, moved an old fuel tank, shoveled out people during storms, and winterized a house in Northeast Harbor.
A help mob is just community service for neighbors.
A help mob is just a cool name for a Maine way of life.
“In mid-October, we received word that Weslea Sidons in West Tremont had received her annual delivery of winter wood. We helped Weslea and Curtis (now deceased) stack their wood last year at the urging of friend Tabatha Sullivan who had been stacking the wood herself. She needed us; they needed us. When we did our next help mob, she joined us in winterizing a house in NEH,” Horsch Clark explained.
Help mobs also make sense and make community.
“I am a firm believer in many hands make light work. The projects we do are not technically difficult but require energy and time. When we do it together, less of both is required individually. And it gives us an opportunity to talk and catch up,” Horsch Clark explained. “When I lived on a farm in the south, my neighbors really did do barn raisings. Everyone participated even if all they could do was feed the other volunteers. Friday’s roof project felt like a barn raising; it was an excellent example of community spirit and work.”
Horsch Clark, Andrew Flanagan, and Michelle Carter act as convenors, Horsch Clark said. “We identify a project, put the word out, and go. The start for me was needing hands-on projects for Rotary members. They were itching for projects post-Covid, so I had a good base of volunteers for projects. They tell friends and it grows. And I love it when they bring friends with talent. Jim Mroch brought Dave Edson, Ann Tickenen asked her husband Mark to help, both hard working and accomplished. I asked Andrew to help with a roof project that was beyond our abilities. After those sort of volunteer additions, we could tackle so much work.”
HOW A HELP MOB HAPPENED AT MYRLE CROCKETT’S
That kindness at Myrle Crockett’s house this past weekend was mostly organized by Michelle Carter and Andrew Flanagan.
“Neighbors helping neighbors. It is so basic but really beautiful. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. When terrible things happen, I throw myself into work like this to lift up others and help me get through the sad times. Andrew and Michelle are the heroes of Friday’s work. Wow…they did a great job!” Horsch Clark said of a roofing project this past weekend.
It began with attention, with noticing that something needed to be done.
Flanagan said, “I've been noticing Myrle’s roof get worse and worse the last few years. We had sort of talked about it a few years ago, but she didn't really have the money to replace it.”
A few weeks ago (probably now a month ago), Flanagan saw some shingles and roofing materials were delivered.
“I asked her who was doing the roof and that I could probably help a day,” Flanagan said. “I had been thinking about doing a go fund me thing for her for years. When I heard Myrle had a stroke and was in the hospital that was the catalyst to get this thing done. That's when I reached out to Michelle Carter and also Lisa Horsch Clark.”
They’d done a roof for and with Michelle back in 2014.
“So I went with that as our template. It was super easy to get volunteers. It only took a day and there was over 78 comments and I had a list of about 20 people,” from a Facebook post, he said. “So, I had Michelle turn off comments. There were five to eight skilled folks and a dozen or more others.”
Carter agreed. “It was very easy to get volunteers, in fact within a couple hours of posting on the local sites that we were looking I had to turn off comments. The response was so overwhelming.”
Flanagan had told her that he wanted to help his neighbor and Carter was all in.
“I wanted to help in any way I could because I had been on the receiving end of the same generosity from him. About ten years ago, I was taking care of my daughter's grandmother and had two of my grandsons. The roof was leaking, so I posted a message just looking for a few leftover supplies to patch it,” she said. “Andrew volunteered to come look at it and discovered it was in much worse condition than I thought. He got together a crew and redid it, a day before a blizzard that would have most likely caved it in. So between that and that I love doing for others, there was no question in my mind I would help.”
Chris Popper of WDEA helped share the Help Mob events on social media and WDEA’s website and said, “We are honored to play a small role in publicizing the needs of the community and that none of the good deeds couldn't be done without the generosity of those Downeast.”
“People generally want to help their neighbors. We live with really good people on MDI and they want to help but sometimes they don’t know where to start,” Horsch Clark said.
Crockett’s roof was approximately 10 square but had lots of complicated areas and would have taken Flanagan and his worker about a week to complete and he wasn’t able to dedicate that much time. As it is, he’s spent about 14 hours on the roof and has a few more hours to go to get the last bit done and the roof brackets off and cleaned up.
Normally, he said, it would take a professional roofing crew of four to six workers about one day and costs about $10,000.
And why help?
“I wanted to help her because she's my neighbor and that's what neighbors do. It’s Maine, the way life should be,” Flanagan said.
“The terrible tragedy that just happened is not what Maine is all about. Maine is, or should be, people helping others in their time of need,” Carter said, referencing the shooting last week in Lewiston that killed 18 and injured 13. “That is what Maine should be. If you can't count on each other who can you count on?
And for years, the people of Mount Desert Island have been counting on each other over and over again. Maine is about Moxie and resilience, but it’s also about kindness in small acts and big ones. MDI proves that and so do people like Horsch Clark, Flanagan, Carter, and the countless volunteers who do these big acts and small ones every day.
As Carter said on Facebook,
“I keep seeing the pictures with the state of Maine saying not the way life should be. Indeed it isn't. These pictures are the real Maine life is. Neighbors and strangers coming together to help someone in need. I (am) so proud to be a part of this volunteer effort. I posted in a couple groups that we were looking for help to repair a roof. Within a couple hours I had to shut off comments because we had so many offers of workers, materials and food.
“This is #Maine! This is #thewaylifeshouldbe.”
Popper mentioned several people who helped with the Crockett roof project,
“Ed Hamor and Hammond Lumber, Bar Harbor Hannaford, Acadia Perk, Somesville Freshies and deli members Emily & Larry, Adrienne Beal Cleaning, Acadia Building and Development, and the many individuals who donated time and food. We also want to thank GT Outhouses and Chris Richardson who supplied a dump trailer and Ed Hamor who was also pivotal in getting materials there and a dump trailer.”
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
Downeast Maine Comes Together to Re-Roof Bar Harbor Woman’s House [PHOTOS]
https://wdea.am/downeast-maine-comes-together-to-re-roof-bar-harbor-womans-house-photos/
This link is to a story I wrote about Lewiston on my personal substack. No pressure to look, but I thought I should link it here too in case you want to check it out.