Saturday, July 28, was overcast. Not too hot and not the perfect day at the beach, but a perfect day for the First Congregational Church of Marion’s Annual Summer Fair.

“The sailors aren’t having a good day, so we hope they’ll come here,” said Connie Pierce, who worked the book sale table.

Hundreds of people came to the fair, which started at 10:00 am and ended at 2:00 pm. People lined up outside the wrought iron fence of the church, waiting for the first crack at the popular elephant table, which featured hundreds of donated items of all types.

In total, there were 17 different stations, including candy, baked goods, cheese, plants, flowers, cotton candy, frozen foods, nautical items and books. Other stations offered children’s activities including face painting, crafts, a bounce house and fishing in a pool for prizes.

A silent auction featured antique furniture, a new Schwinn bicycle, unique prints, gift certificates, one of a kind paintings by local artists, an electronic book reader, an antique tea cup set and a wooden ship model kit.

Lunch was offered all day and included hotdogs, cheeseburgers, lobster rolls, chicken wraps, lemonade, water, ice tea and chips. Music was played while the master of ceremonies, Ken Hanson, encouraged patrons to visit the various stations and enjoy lunch.

For the first time, the organizers of the fair opened the church for anyone who wanted to go inside.

“Some people in Marion have never seen the inside of this beautiful church, so we are giving them the opportunity to see it today … of course, they are welcome any Sunday at 10:00 am, also,” said Bob Jones.

“I’m here with my family and I really like the fair and come every year,” said Sonia Booonstra. “I bought a lawn chair and a terrarium so far.”

Donna Robitaille and her husband stumbled onto the fair while walking around Marion village.

“This is our first time and I bought some tea. This is fun and we’ll mark our calendar to come back next year,” she said.

The fair first started back in the 1920s when the lady quilters ran out of room for their sewing event and brought it outside. People strolled by and asked if the quilts were for sale. The ladies started selling quilts, plants, baked goods, fudge and unwanted household items. Eventually, they decided to have one large sale once a year.

At 2:00 pm, volunteers started cleaning up, with almost everything sold out.

“I’ve been working with the fair for over ten years and this is the first time we’ve run out of food … luckily it’s almost the end of the fair day,” said Jones, who gave the fair a theme of ‘Proud to be an American.’ Many of the volunteers wore red, white and blue clothing.

“Tomorrow we start planning for the 2013 fair,” said Jones, who said the fair was a ‘rousing success.’

By Joan Hartnett-Barry

Over 100 people came to the Marion Music Hall on Thursday evening, July 26 to hear Margot Morrell, author of Shackleton’s Way, retell the story of the legendary Antarctic explorer and explain how today’s business leaders can learn from his leadership style.

A short video and a slide presentation told the story of Ernest Shackleton’s 1914 – 1916 expedition on the ship Endurance, which was crushed between two ice flows, stranding the 28 men for almost two years.

“There was no contact with the outside world and it was like being on the moon,” said Morrell, a New York Times best-selling author. She read from diary entries written by both Shackleton and crew members which showed the many facets of his personality.

“He was described as a Viking with a mother’s heart,” said Morrow. “He constantly worked at keeping morale up in creative ways.”

The men lived in tents and ate penguins and seals along with rations from the ship. To lift spirits, Shackleton would have the men write short notes and deliver them to each crewmember on their birthday, like getting cards in the mail. Dog sled races were held and other physical activities were offered to keep the men fit and busy.

A sing-along was often held at night and a banquet, of sorts, was held on the shortest day of the year. The men also built a large snow maiden.

“She was well endowed by nature,” joked Morrow. “It was these small morale boosters and constant application of small corrections, unnoticed by nearly everyone, yet very potent in their cumulative effect.”

Morrow’s point was that the saying ‘leaders are born and not made’ is untrue. Shackleton was an unlikely leader until circumstances thrust him into a life or death situation in one of the harshest environments on the planet.

Shackleton was a master at reading personality types and mixed and matched crew members so they could work together more effectively. He took the three most difficult personalities and lived with them in his own tent. He focused on each person’s strengths and complimented them often and didn’t get bogged down by their weaknesses.

Shackleton was a researcher and prior to leaving on the voyage he read up on and purchased the latest in navigation, nutrition, camera equipment, and top quality instruments and products.

Morrow said she stumbled onto a book on Shackleton back in the 1980s when she was dating a sailor and they were browsing in a bookstore.

“It was total serendipity … one of those life changing moments that happen on the spur of the moment,” she said.

Morrow concluded with a favorite quote by Shackleton. “Optimism is true moral courage.”

By Joan Hartnett-Barry

It’s not every day you walk into the Mattapoisett Free Public Library and see helicopters flying around, but on Tuesday, July 31, that’s exactly what happened.  The helicopters were part of Dr. Martin Hudis’ Extreme Engineering program for children.

“The whole takeaway of this program is that science can be fun,” said Dr. Hudis, who holds a Ph.D in physics and teaches at UMass Dartmouth.  “The activities were about having fun and not realizing that you’re learning.”

Tuesday evening was the final of a four-part series in which Hudis instructed 12 students in grades 4-6 valuable lessons in math, science, engineering and technology.  On the final evening, the children and their parents gathered around to see if their hard work paid off.

One of the tasks the children were given in week 3 was to construct a helicopter landing pad that could hold a remote controlled helicopter for 30 seconds and also withstand a significant amount of weight.  The students divided into groups to design and construct the landing pads.

The catch, however, is that they had to use the materials they were given in a brown paper bag.  The materials included 3×5 inch index cards, a ruler, bamboo poles and tape.  The landing pads had to be between one and two feet tall.

“What was really interesting is that we had four really different designs,” said Hudis.  “They all had good clever approaches.  They all thought about it very hard, looked at all the materials and thought how they could utilize it.”

After the landing pad tests, the students dispersed around the library for a variety of different activities which all included maneuvering the remote controlled helicopters in different scenarios.  While each activity boasted a different outcome, the underlying lesson was the same.

‘We are trying to show the students that science and math are fun and if they get interested at this age, history says they’ll keep following it,” said Hudis.  “We also want to show that girls are just as involved in science and math as boys are.  It’s no longer a male-dominated field.”

For the students, their favorite part of the evening was trying to destroy their helicopter pads.  They stacked on the books until each of the pads collapsed.  Only one of the four pads remained in tact when six books were placed on top of it.  When Hudis sees the kids getting excited and hears their cheers, he knows his work is done.

“I like watching kids getting excited about it, that it’s fun, that it’s not just a geeky kind of thing, and that if it’s something that you really enjoy, you should pursue it,” he said.  “It’s amazing what you can pick up from this.  You don’t realize it but two to three months later, you’ll hear someone say something and you’ll realize that they really did learn something.”

By Katy Fitzpatrick

The Mass Pride 16U team based out of Bridgewater won the New England Elite Baseball league Division 1 Championships last weekend. Fresh from their successful trip from The Perfect Game Tournament in East Cobb Georgia last week, he Mass Pride team defeated the Firebirds from Peabody, Ma 5-2.

They lost a close game to the Scorpions from Stoneham 3-1. They then fought their way out of the losers bracket defeating the Firebirds 6-2.  Next, they defeated the Scorpions 3-2 in the semi-final round. In the championship game, the Pride defeated the Stampeed out of Reading, Ma 2-1.

The team is comprised of players from the greater New Bedford and Bridgewater areas. From the South Coast area it’s Andrew Dessert (Rochester) from Bishop Stang High School, P.J. Poulin and Andrew Ryan (Mattapoisett) from Old Rochester Regional, Jack Sylvia and Danny Sutherland from Dartmouth High School, and J. T Sylvia from New Bedford High School.