Excited kids, parents and grandparents packed the downstairs room at the Mattapoisett Free Public Library to listen to Roger Menard of the Astronomical Society of Southern New England talk about the upcoming solar eclipse on August 21.

Menard, a member of the ASSNE that promotes the joy of astronomy and supports STEM education, provided a hands-on experience, demonstrating details of the eclipse phenomenon with the help of the audience. A total eclipse happens once every 18 months or so, but has not been visible in North America since 1991. In any one place on earth, a total eclipse occurs every 360-400 years.

Menard invited kids from the audience to the front of the room to demonstrate why an eclipse doesn’t happen every month that the moon travels around the earth. With a beach ball for the sun, a tennis ball as the moon and a basketball representing the earth, Menard showed that the moon does not orbit the same path every month; therefore, it is not on the same plane as the sun and does not always create an eclipse, or shadow. Also, the earth spins on its axis at approximately 23 degrees, and the moon has an elliptical orbit around the earth, creating different eclipse pathways at different times of the year.

This year, the Path of Totality or umbra, in which someone on earth will be able to see the total eclipse of the sun, is approximately 125 miles wide and runs from Lincoln City Oregon to Charleston South Carolina. Here in Massachusetts, we will see a partial eclipse, called the penumbra, in which the moon will block about 70% of the sun, and we won’t see significant darkening of the daylight.

It may be easier to look at the sun when it is partially or completely eclipsed because it is not as bright, but the light can do permanent damage to the eye’s retina. Viewers are warned to protect their eyes with eclipse viewing glasses.

Menard also demonstrated how to create a pinhole viewer using a cereal box, with which a viewer can safely watch the eclipse. During the totality phase of the eclipse, which during this event will last about two and a half minutes, it is safe to look briefly at the sun and what Menard described as its “whispy corona.”

While we know better now, there was a time when societies regarded the solar eclipse as a bad omen or a sign of the end of the world. Ancient Chinese and Indonesians, as well as the Roman and Greeks, believed that a dragon ate the sun, while in Siberia a vampire was thought to be responsible for the astronomical event and a frog was blamed in Vietnam.

Science has since shown us that what is actually occurring is what Menard described as a “fluke of orbital geometry” that happens nowhere else in the universe, in which the moon, while being 400 times smaller than the sun, is 400 times closer to the earth and therefore with the right combination of orbit trajectories can at certain times completely block out the sun from the earth. Our moon is the only moon in the universe that eclipses the sun perfectly.

The first phase of the eclipse, called First Contact, is when the moon’s shadow takes its first bite out of the sun. The Second Contact occurs minutes before totality in which distinct balls of light, called Bailey’s Beads, are visible at the edge of the sun. Totality occurs, for a maximum of seven minutes, after which Third Contact occurs where what is known as a Diamond Ring can be seen as sunlight cuts through valleys on the moon’s surface as individual bits of light. Lastly, the eclipse ends as it began with Fourth Contact looking much like First Contact in reverse.

Menard and the Mattapoisett library provided the audience with free solar eclipse viewing glasses. The glasses cut the light by a factor of 100,000 and fully protect the user’s eyes during an eclipse. Menard warns that regular sunglasses will not provide adequate protection. Glasses must be CE-approved to provide good protection. There is a free eclipse phone app that, based on your location, will auto-calculate contact times. For our area, the eclipse will occur between 2:00 – 3:00 pm on August 21. For more information, check out eclipse2017.nasa.gov.

By Sarah French Storer

For the last 24 years, The Wanderer has had the pleasure of honoring one resident from each of the Tri-Town communities – residents whose friends, neighbors, co-workers and family members believe have selflessly given of their time and talents for the betterment of others.

While a ship’s keel is critical in aiding its steady progress through calm waters or rough seas and is an integral part of keeping everything operating in top form, the Keel Award Winners are also critical members of their communities.

Nominees are selected based on the following criteria: … must be legal residents for at least five years of Mattapoisett, Marion, or Rochester, and must have contributed in some way to the overall benefit of the community – either directly to town residents, or indirectly through efforts in promoting town activities, or working to keep the wheels of local government well oiled. The only restriction is that these persons cannot benefit from their efforts in any other way – either financially or politically (hence, sitting elected officials are not eligible).

And so it is our pleasure to announce the 24^th annual Keel Award recipients for 2017: Danni Kleiman of Rochester, Diane Cook of Marion, and Bonne DeSousa of Mattapoisett.

Kleiman, who retired after 31 years as an educator at Rochester Memorial School, was instrumental in the production of an annual Shakespearean play. “The last play was in May and it was bittersweet, but good,” she shared. “The plays were the highlight of my teaching all those years,” she continued.

A letter received from a Rochester resident lauding Kleiman wrote, “…she makes the children feel “you’re okay” as you are, that everyone is special in their own way…” The writer also said that through her guidance, the students have been able to explore and imagine through creative role playing that allows each students to shine.

Kleiman is also the recipient of the 2017 Eleanor Donato Award from the Massachusetts Chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society for her efforts in leading the student council at RMS in their “Pennies for Patients” program for years. “This year, Rochester Memorial came in the top five schools of all the schools in New England,” she proudly declared. This year the program raised $6,427 – a milestone according to the society.

Over in Marion, Cook was nominated for being instrumental in the success of the Sippican School community garden. Started in 2006, the garden continues to flourish and has become a experiential part of the school curriculum under Cook’s guidance and dedication.

Cook said of the garden, “It started with a few trees and bushes.” Today, under with her green thumb and passion for educating young children through hands-on tasks, it has grown to include a green house, fruit tress, blueberry bushes, a strawberry tier, and many raised vegetable beds with an irrigation system.

“It began when Alice Waters introduced gardening in the classrooms in California,” Cook remembered. She said several parents and community members wanted to duplicate that type of learning experiment at Sippican.

“I got involved about a year after it began,” Cook said. But she added that it truly has been a community effort given the number of moving parts and work involved in making the garden flourish.

“You need someone who can coordinate with suppliers and organize activities with teachers, so I’m the coordinator – but I love it, I love watching the children experience new things out in the fresh air,” Cook explained.

Cook retired from Sippican where she taught for 23 years and now donates her time and gardening know-how along with working with the teachers to keep the garden a vital part of the learning that takes place at Sippican.

Mattapoisett’s award winner Bonne DeSousa was recognized for her fifteen years of dedication in bringing bicycling opportunities not only to Mattapoisett but also throughout the Southcoast.

DeSousa moved to Mattapoisett in 2002 and brought with her a passion for bicycling. But it wasn’t until she became involved with the Friends of the Mattapoisett Bike Path that she realized just how important bicycling could be to the larger community. In 2008, she became the president of that group.

“I believe in advocating for bicyclists, everything from sharing the road programs, to safety, improving and expanding bicycling opportunities for people,” DeSousa said.

From attending meetings at the Department of Transportation to speaking at numerous local government meetings regarding the importance of funding such projects, from working with engineers and state officials, to helping Mattapoisett develop a “complete streets” master plan, DeSousa has pushed boundaries, educated the public on the D.O.T. process, and gained significant support.

With the next phase of the Mattapoisett Bike Path planned for groundbreaking in 2018, this latest piece will bring the path closer to Marion’s proposed path near the business park on North Street. Once those connections are made, the Southcoast Bikeway will be a few miles closer to achieving its goal of continuous safe pathways between Fall River and Provincetown.

Congratulations to the 2017 Wanderer Keel Award Winners and thanks to those who submitted nominations for people in our communities whose work on behalf of others deserves recognition.

The Winners of the 2017 Wanderer Keel Awards

By Marilou Newell

The Mattapoisett Fire Department has a message for all able-bodied residents who may be home during weekday hours – “We Need You!”

Or more accurately, the townspeople need you.

Fire Chief Andrew Murray has been actively recruiting for at least four new call firefighters since the beginning of June. “I’ve only spoken to two people who may be interested,” he said.

And with low interest comes greater risk to those who depend on a fully-staffed fire department, namely each and every person and business owner in the community.

With three schools, active churches, and hundreds of wooden structures including commercial buildings, any fire incident could be catastrophic if there aren’t enough trained personnel to staff the apparatus.

“Right now, we only have two people to cover the entire town during the week,” Murray said.

Every year, the department attempts to recruit at least four new people – women or men – who can be available primarily during the daylight hours Monday through Friday.

“We supply all the training, equipment, personal safety gear, everything,” Murray said. He explained that the training entails attending the fire academy in Fall River over the course of a four-month period, “a couple of evenings and Saturdays,” as well as passing the Massachusetts Human Resources physical exam.

“Anyone between sixteen and eighteen years of age can become a junior firefighter,” Murray explained, “And anyone eighteen to sixty-five would be considered for a firefighter position,” adding, “It would be great if more women would come in.”

Murray said the biggest problem was that the majority of those who would be considered a good candidate for the fire department travel out of town to work, leaving the pool of eligible people very low.

Call firefighters are not volunteers, as Town Administrator Michael Gagne explained during a recent Board of Selectmen meeting. Junior firefighters are paid minimum wage and call firefighters start at $20.25 per hour, Murray said.

In an effort to counter the struggle of staffing in what is essentially a bedroom community with a high population of retired residents, a new program geared towards engaging juveniles is being planned – the Tri-Town Cadet program.

The program is the brainchild of Mattapoisett’s Lieutenant Justin Dubois.

“I’ve been thinking about something like this for a long time,” Dubois said.

Dubois, along with Marion Fire Chief Brian Jackvony, firefighter Joel Waters, and Rochester’s Captain Jeff Eldridge and firefighter Tracey Eldridge, have been actively scoping out an outline of how the program will function.

“There’s a lot to this,” said Dubois.

Dubois said that while the goal will ultimately be to interest local youths in fire service, it would also prepare them by instilling life skills.

“The skills they’ll learn can keep them and their families safe for a lifetime, but there’s more to it than that,” Dubois said. “This program will be very structured like the youth ROTC program in New Bedford.”

What they envision is a program that will teach youths how to promote themselves after graduating from high school. “They’ll learn how to develop a resume, handle themselves during an interview; these are skills they are going to need whether they choose a career in the fire department or not,” Dubois said.

Skills directly related to fire suppression techniques will, of course, be a big part of the program as well. “They’ll learn about fire codes, code enforcement, fire prevention, fire science and how the Tri-Town fire departments work,” said Dubois.

While the fire department has been engaging young children in the school system in the first, third, and sixth grades through the S.A.F.E. (Students Awareness of Fire Education) program, the cadet program will be geared towards students at the high school.

“We’ll expect them to have good grades in school, and we’ll give them assignments to complete,” Dubois emphasized. “They’ll have a chance to look and explore options while finding out if being a first responder is something they’d like to continue with.”

He said the students may not know how to find out if being an EMT, firefighter, police officer, or nurse is something they want to pursue as a career, but with the cadet program, they’ll have that opportunity.

“Of course, we hope they’ll want to become firefighters, but this is a way to find out,” said Dubois.

Mattapoisett Selectman Jordan Collyer knows firsthand how critical mentoring at a young age can be.

“I was thirteen years old when I became a junior firefighter.” Collyer said that retired Fire Chief Ronald Scott, who was the chief at that time, was a big factor in not only giving him an opportunity to become a call firefighter but also encouraging him to pursue secondary education in fire science.

“He told me about college programs where I could learn fire science. He told me to give it a shot,” Collyer remembered.

While the guidance department at the high school attempted to dissuade Collyer from what was described as a “nothing major,” he attended the University of New Haven and was employed by a multi-national insurance company before graduation.

“Chief Scott was right; I was able to make a career out of fire science.”

Collyer has been affiliated with the Mattapoisett Fire Department for the last 24 years and is a captain in the department.

The Tri-Town Cadet program is still in the early stages of development, but Dubois hopes to launch it when school re-opens in the fall at both Old Rochester Regional High School and Old Colony Regional Vocational High School.

“Once we start the ball rolling, we hope the students will want to become junior firefighters. That’s how I began my career,” Collyer said.

If you or your children are interested in fire department or first responder opportunities, contact your local fire department – they are waiting for your call.

By Marilou Newell