Towns Rallies To Feed Seawall Workers
"We're All Community"
SOUTHWEST HARBOR—Sometimes when an idea is really good, a whole lot of people come up with it at the same time.
And sometimes when people in a community see others do something good, see them restoring something that they cherish?
That’s when the phones start ringing off the hook, the ideas balloon, and the social media posts go wild with people wanting to help.
This is what happened in Southwest Harbor Thursday after six businesses—some of them direct competitors—promised the community that they’d work together next week to fix the storm-broken Seawall Road. Last week, the MaineDOT committed to making a permanent fix to the road in 2025. It gave the go-ahead for the contractors to make a temporary fix this summer. That fix will allow two-lane traffic again.
Mary-Ellen Reed Martel also started up a conversation on a local Facebook group around 5 p.m. on Thursday.
Martel wrote, “George Seavey has said he is going to provide water and lunch for the crews all next week. I'd like to organize breakfast foods and desserts for each day. If you would like to be part of this, please private message me and I will get it organized. Let's show them how much they are appreciated!”
The response was massive.
“The phone started pinging immediately. It kept pinging until midnight,” Martel said. The next day it pinged even more, she said Saturday.
“First, I have to say I am proud, delighted, surprised, and a bit overwhelmed by the response to this post. The number of people offering to help in so many ways has been amazing. I spent most of Thursday night—until midnight—responding to people who wanted to help. Another chunk of time yesterday. And last night I organized all the offers and put people into the calendar. I am now getting ready to write 50+ messages to all of the people who volunteered in some way. Thank you all. The contractors truly appreciate being thanked in this way,” she wrote the next day.
Cilla Ksionzyk started another thread on another page asking if anyone wanted to help.
“Let’s show everyone what great communities we live in,” she wrote.
Neither woman had to ask twice. On Saturday, Martel sent out 51 messages to individuals and area restaurants that had all told her that they wanted to help. She organized the offerings into a calendar.
“It kind of grew exponentially,” Martel said. “I thought it would be nice if we did some desserts and snacks and things like that. A lot of people said, ‘I’ll do anything. Whatever you need, I’ll do.’”
Food should be dropped off at the Southwest Harbor Fire Station. It will be taken to the site. No pedestrians or walkers are allowed near the site. Work is expected to begin around 7 a.m., July 22.
According to Southwest Harbor Select Board Chair Carolyn Ball, “Charlotte Gill is setting up a tent area to provide the workers who are fixing Seawall Road gratis with food that community members are providing, a porta potti. This is also a place that citizens, visitors, and residents can go to watch the work.”
Gill owns Charlotte’s Legendary Lobster Pound and Seawall Motel and Suites.
“I'm sure it wasn't my idea alone but I had this vision of ladies showing up with casseroles, cookies, etc.,” said Dawn Raymond of Seawall Camping Supplies. “I told Charlotte and a couple others, hoping it might get on Facebook. I hear that by 6:30 a.m., phones were ringing off the hook.”
Any excess donations will go to the Common Good Soup Kitchen in Southwest Harbor. The crews begin work, Monday, July 22, and expect to be done by Friday, July 26. And the community intends to support the 10-15 workers who are expected to be on site every day.
“The board will also send a letter to each of the companies after the work is completed,” Ball said of the Southwest Harbor Select Board.
The tent set up is now going to be near the picnic ground entrance instead of the motel side.
“People are very excited that we’re going to have Seawall back. It’s a very special place especially for those on this side of the island,” Martel said.
Even in bad weather, people know they can grab a sandwich on their lunch break, head to Seawall, watch the waves and have a moment with the ocean.
What makes it extra special to Martel is that the contractors are working together despite often being competitors for work. There’s something special about that, special about that side of the island, special about the people wanting to help restore something that means so much to many and special about the people who want to help those who are restoring it.
She said she had a call from a woman out on Swan’s Island who wanted to something for the workers, too. She was coming to Mount Desert Island on Thursday. Martel asked her why she wanted to help and the woman told her, “We’re all community. We just don’t have a bridge.”
“People are just so excited and they want those contractors to know how much they appreciate what’s being done,” Martel said. “We’re kind of lucky to live here.”
CORRECTION: In one place in the original article, it read June rather than July. That has been corrected.
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