Jane McCarthy, a Marion resident, spent the evening of her 25th wedding anniversary in the emergency room after falling off of her bicycle on Converse Road in June. McCarthy was The Wanderer’s 2012 Keel Award winner for Marion for her years of service to the town.

“We had dinner as a family and were going to have dessert at home,” McCarthy recalled, “and I decided to do a quick, short bike ride of about three miles up to Route 6 and back home, something I do often, just to get some fresh air and exercise.”

She remembered later that the last thing her husband said to her was, “Don’t forget your helmet.” She did not wear the helmet.

After going only three or four houses away, she spotted a neighbor and braked to chat.

“I put on the brake with my left hand and stopped so suddenly that I went over the handlebars, landed on my chin and chest, partially broke my fall with my wrist, rolled over and hit the back of my head and lay there in the road,” McCarthy said.

For the first 24 hours, she couldn’t find the words to talk. When asked questions by her family and doctors at the emergency room, she said she couldn’t formulate the words to reply.

“In the ER, they asked me to sign a form, and I was given a pen, but didn’t know what to do with it,” McCarthy said. “And I wasn’t even unconscious after I fell, but the head injury was so debilitating and I was paralyzed mentally.”

McCarthy’s story has a happy ending. She recovered from her fall, but still has lingering pain in her wrist.

“I still can’t hold a coffee cup,” she says. She described weeks of being in a bad mood, feeling angry and showing impatience with others; she was just not her usual happy self. “It took a good three and a half weeks before the cloud lifted and I felt like myself again.”

Over the July 4 weekend, McCarthy said she took notice of the many bicyclists that passed by her home.

“I’d estimate that less than 50 percent of them were wearing helmets,” she said. “I felt like running out and telling them all to go get their helmets.”

The Massachusetts state law requires children under the age of 12 to wear a helmet, but local police find it very difficult to enforce.

“We hold two bike safety training sessions at Center School, the first at the beginning of the school year when children want to bike to school,” said Mary Lyons, Chief of Police in Mattapoisett.

When asked if police will stop a child without a helmet and ask them about it, Lyons said that it becomes a liability issue.

“If you send the child in a different direction, back home as opposed to where they were going, and something happens along the way, there would be legal issues involved,” she explained. “It’s tricky and ultimately up to the parents to make sure their children are safe and wearing their helmets.”

“I didn’t wear my helmet because I thought that, well, I’m only going three miles and at a leisurely pace on a street with little to no traffic, and I’m safe,” McCarthy said. “We think we’re invincible and it isn’t going to happen to us, but it does.”

McCarthy wanted to give advice to those reading this article: “Please wear your helmet and have your children wear their helmets, so that what happened to me won’t happen to you or a loved one.”

By Joan Hartnett-Barry

Flashback to July 2008: Blueberries conjure a lovely memory of being with my girlfriends in a field on a summer’s day. A lifelong dear friend lives in Potter’s Place, New Hampshire, a mere curve in a road that transports one back to a time when the land held the riches that a good life could be built upon. Near her home is a farm with acres of blueberries that were ready to harvest. She had called to let me and our other two pals know that time was of the essence. We packed up and headed due north for a few days of blueberry picking and friendship. In the hours we spent together that weekend, with the fireflies dancing in the thick dark of a woodland night, we caught up on life’s struggles through the filtered lens of our personal experiences and comforted one another.

The next morning, we arrived at the blueberry patch where, for as far as the eye could see, were row after magnificent row of blueberry bushes. Bees presented us with a hallelujah chorus as we spread out to harvest the ripe blue gems. The air was scented with some unknown flowering specimen. As we walked around the bushes, we drifted into our own space and thoughts. The warm air and near silence of the late morning ambience cradled our souls. Each of us found the healing we needed at that moment.

We were nourished in ways that have lasted since that visit. We carry with us the memory of being together, loving, comforting and supporting one another as only good friends can. On that weekend, we laid our burdens down if just for a little while and were at peace.

It wasn’t about picking blueberries. It was about being with dear friends, kinship, sisterhood, a type of mothering, a coming together for the sheer pleasure of being among friends. It wasn’t about the blueberries at all. It was about relationships that are worth preserving and the restorative power of pure natural soundings.

Fast forward to August 2013: A professional acquaintance of mine told me about a blueberry patch that the Mattapoisett Land Trust had acquired from the Brownell family. She thought it would make a good story and gave me contact information to follow up. Paul Osenkowski, “Ozzy,” was a primary contact. Ozzy graciously agreed to meet and show me the location of the blueberry acreage. Within the first 30 seconds of speaking with him, it was clear to me “it wasn’t about the blueberries.”

Ozzy spoke fluidly, honestly and openly about his vision for this parcel, a place where families could come together working on the blueberry bushes, in coming years harvesting the blueberries, and being grounded to a place that would imprint upon their beings a sense of importance. His long-term hope for future generations is that they would and could have Mattapoisett reign in their memory as a place where they grew to appreciate their surroundings and be good stewards of the land. An integral part of the whole land trust movement is the notion of involving families in the care of Mattapoisett’s most sensitive land mass areas.

Ozzy said that the focus starts in the uplands and moves all the way down to the harbor, that protecting the delicate balance of the marshlands and the aquifer has to be “imprinted” on our children as critical work lest we lose our coastal resplendence.

For the Osenkowski family, like many other families in town, Mattapoisett started out as a summer retreat. I was transported as he shared with me his childhood memories of spending summers in Harbor Beach with family members of all generations: the swimming, the running, the simply being in nature with loved ones all around. He and his wife, Sue, selected Mattapoisett as their retirement home. For his wife, it was the hands-down choice.

And so, as he herded me across the gauntlet known as Route 6 from the Friends’ Meeting House parking lot over to Sippican Lane and down the newly cleared road to the blueberry bushes, he gave me an overview of the people who have come together forming the Land Trust’s backbone.

There was Allan Schubert, who worked long and hard to bring Salty back to life as the landmark we now know so well. There was Martin Hudis, whose work on redesigning Salty’s eyes with solar panels gives the roadside monument an ethereal nighttime elegance. There was Ruth Bates, who helped on many fronts, including bringing the children together to enjoy the old Dunseith property. There was Barry Denham, who as a kid with his father dug the pond that once sat on the parcel. There was John Haley, former head of the Recreation Department, who coined the phrase “Mattapoisett is Special.” There was Dan Shea, whose knowledge of trees and landscaping has proven invaluable to the work done on land trust properties. Ozzy said Wes Bowman’s hands-on capabilities were critical to the work that has needed to be done. He said that Dan Sullivan and his family rebuilt Tub Mill dam. Tom Simonson provided much-needed equipment for heavy work on various projects. And there is Charles Dupont, a landscape designer and past Mattapoisett Land Trust president, as well as Mike Huguenin, who Ozzy described as a “blueberry fanatic.”

“These people are not takers of the community,” Ozzy asserted. “They are doers who give to the community – they are the heart of the community.”

Of the people that came to Ozzy’s mind as he passionately downloaded the work of the Land Trust and how vital it is to the overall health and wealth of the community, he also spoke of several key families who have donated or sold land to the trust: Grace, Walega/Livingston, Hiller, Brownell, Dunseith and Shoolman. On the Land Trust’s website, one will find a comprehensive list of all preserved spaces, trails and maps, as well as all of the families who have contributed precious parcels in protected status, and how you can help with the ongoing work: www.mattlandtrust.org.

As we slowly returned to the hustle and bustle of Route 6 to make the death-defying dash, he said he hoped that they would be able to provide some parking spaces on the south side of Route 6 one day. Upon reaching the safety of the Friends’ parking lot, he concluded, “We need to protect the tone and the heart of this town.”

I couldn’t help but be reminded of my weekend with friends, where blueberries had been the excuse to get together and put the rush of life aside for a moment. And so it is with many of the Land Trust goals, to give the town of Mattapoisett places that not only protect nature’s glory, but to allow people to come together, enjoy being outdoors, set aside electronic devices and allow themselves to be reconnected to each other. No, it’s not about the blueberries, not really, although the taste is divine. It’s about coming together as a community, a family, and all of the benefits that being connected as people imparts, while working to preserve this Mattapoisett life.

By Marilou Newell

It’s back to school time, only at night and only for adults. Classes start next week for those adults who want to learn new skills, change careers or who are just looking to pick up a new hobby.

The classes are offered only twenty-five minutes away in Bourne, just over the Bourne Bridge at the Upper Cape Cod Regional High School located at 220 Sandwich Road.

The school is offering 520 career and enrichment courses ranging from health careers, computers, technical trade, business, legal, culinary, and wellness and fun courses.  There are over 85 faculty members in the program and all are talented, enthusiastic, dedicated and caring, according to Pat McPartland, a Marion resident, who heads up the Adult & Continuing Education for the high school.

“Adult education is critically important because people no longer stay at a job for 30 years, and most will have four or five different careers before they reach their 60s,” says McPartland. According to McPartland, many adults attend night classes to stay current and update skills to maintain a job in today’s work force. Others lose jobs or work seasonal construction jobs and need to have a skill to find employment, short or long-term.

“It’s not easy for some to come back after being out of school, but our instructors know how to encourage, inspire and help students gain the skills they need to develop a new career,” says McPartland.

The classes primarily focus on job skills and one of the most popular is the Home Health Aide certificate program. According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that field is expected to increase by 50 percent from 2008 to 2018.

“Nursing homes and assisted care facilities call us and ask for the names of those earning the certificate because the demand is soaring,” said McPartland.

Mattapoisett resident Colby Rottler is a culinary instructor in the evening program.

“I’ve been teaching culinary for 10 years, four years with Upper Cape,” says Rottler. “I enjoy teaching at the voc-tech because the facility is great and I get to create food, meet new people and share my experience and knowledge.”

Rottler says he likes to “create art that is destroyed in two bites.”

Donna Gibbs, a Marion resident, also teaches in the evening, specializing in the medical field. During the day, she works in the emergency room at Jordan Hospital.

“The quality of the faculty is phenomenal,” says McPartland. Several other Tri-Town residents teach evening classes at the school and have done so for several years.

This is the forty-second year of adult evening education classes at the high school. If you have an expertise and enjoy teaching, the adult education department is always seeking qualified faculty to offer courses that would educate and enhance career opportunities for students.

Browsing through the Fall 2013 catalog, a sampling of course titles includes: Rehab Aide, Advanced EKG Technician, EMT Training, Quickbooks, Microsoft Publisher, Auto CAS III, Blogging with WordPress, Master Electrician, Journeyman Plumbing, Introduction to Welding, Marine Repair Outboard Engines, Woodworking Introduction, Nail Technician Licensing, Small Engine Repair, Speechcraft, Time Management, Federal & State Income Tax Returns, Boosting Website Traffic, How to Get Debt Free Without Harming Your Credit Score, Paralegal Certificate, Fair Housing and Foreclosures, Arabic, Beginning Brazilian Portuguese, and many, many more.

The catalog can be picked up at your local library or go to www.uppercapetech.cc for a complete course listing. Courses range from $49 up to several hundred dollars, depending on how often the class meets and the number of hours of each meeting.

There are also over 300 online courses starting at $99. For more information, go to www.uppercapetech.cc or call 508-759-7711, ext. 211 and ask for Pat McPartland.

By Joan Hartnett-Barry