Super Bowl Sunday might mean stocking up on snacks and beverages for an evening in front of the screen for some, but for a contingent of women from northern Maine and New Brunswick, it is a day to get out on the ski and snowshoe trails at the Nordic Heritage Center in Presque Isle.
High winds drove sub-zero temperatures into the double digits Feb. 1 but didn’t deter this year’s participants in the annual Aroostook Women’s Ski Day. They gathered, as always, in a big circle in the outdoor arena where the air vibrated with Zumba music that got them hopping, clapping, kicking, jumping and dancing before they hit the trails.
The Aroostook Women’s Ski Day not only is fun, but the event organized by a group of seven local woman also raises funds and awareness for the Hope & Justice Project dedicated to helping people affected by abuse and violence.
“It is truly a gift,” project director Francine Garland Stark said. “The women who organize it are meticulous about putting it together without asking anything of us.”
She said the event generated $4,000 one year and usually results in a donation of about $2,000 collected from registration fees and the sale of souvenir headbands and buffs (neck warmers).
Participants sign up for ski and snowshoe clinics, as well as hikes, yoga, guided meditation, wellness clinics and a healthy lunch of soups, salads and homemade cookies. Fourteen lucky ladies win massages, and almost everyone gets a door prize. Organizers and activity leaders volunteer their time, equipment rental is free and local businesses help sponsor the event.
The ski day is just one example of support in the community for the Hope & Justice Project. Stark mentioned “profound support” from churches in the area and organizations that include Empire Beauty School, The Aroostook Medical Center, Acadia Quilters and United Way.
“It’s not all financial,” she said. The project also benefits from efforts to raise awareness about its work and from donations of things, such as supplies for shelters located in Houlton, the St. John Valley and Caribou.
In fiscal year 2014, the project served more than 1,100 people, sheltering 42 adults and 34 children for a total of 3,055 bed nights, handling more than 5,800 hotline calls and more than 4,700 face-to-face contacts.
The project provides individual and court advocacy for women, men and children, logging 3,000 hours in individual advocacy and more that 1,400 hours in court advocacy in 2014.
Stark explained that grants and contracts support staff positions, so donations go directly to providing services for those in need.
“It’s a clean road from ‘I want to help’ to [providing] help,” she said.
The path from wanting to help to helping in significant ways is illustrated in the experience of a New Sweden woman determined to find a way to act when she sensed a need.
“I never want to be in a situation of not knowing what to do,” Nancy Holmquist said, recalling two incidents that led to her involvement with the Hope & Justice Project. As a member of a “swimnastics” class in Presque Isle, she was alarmed but ill-equipped to respond when one of her classmates appeared in class with bruises all over her body. As an elementary school teacher, she was haunted by the face of the mother of the first child she felt compelled to report as a possible victim of domestic abuse.
“There was something about her demeanor,” Holmquist said, recalling a parent conference with the mother in which she sensed “a real fear. She seemed to be talking around things.” When the child divulged enough information on his own to merit a report to the principal and ultimately to the Department of Health and Human Services, Holmquist realized, “I had missed something. I had a sense, but I didn’t know what to do with that sense.”
Today, after 20 years as a volunteer on the Hope & Justice 24-hour hotline, she knows exactly what she would do. She would jot down the hotline number and say, “If you ever need help, call this number and someone will be there for you.”
But 20 years ago, stunned by the evidence of domestic violence, Holmquist was ready for the challenge of volunteering when she heard an advertisement for hotline training.
“I thought, this is what I need to do,” she said.
She started the intense preparation for the job of answering calls from women in distress or who just need to talk. Project staff members respond to calls during the day, and volunteers work shifts from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. An answering service gives the name and number of the caller to the volunteer, who returns the call — except in emergencies, when the answering service patches the call directly to the volunteer.
Holmquist says she tries to show compassion and still remain separate from callers’ situations.
“But every once in a while I talk with a woman who touches my soul.”
She spoke with one such caller during a difficult time in her own life. Her mother, a bright, vibrant woman who had been a leader in her community, knew she was nearing the end of her life and frequently said, “Help me. I want to go home.”
Holmquist was working the hotline when a call came from a young woman in southern Maine who did not feel safe in local shelters and wanted desperately to get to Aroostook County with her child. All she needed was a bus ticket.
Holmquist asked the staff member on call that night if there were funds available for transportation, but she learned there were not.
“There was no way to help,” she recalled. “I would have gone down and gotten her myself, if I could have.” She does not know how the caller resolved her dilemma, but the episode inspired her to create a fund in her mother’s memory to help people such as the frightened woman.
Called the Help Me Fund, it provides money for transportation emergencies that can be crises for low-income people.
“It’s not budgeting; it’s poverty,” Stark said, noting that a sudden need for taxi or bus fare, new tires or an unexpected car repair can mean lost wages or even loss of a job. “People who work at minimum wage have no way to deal with emergencies.”
For Holmquist, the fund honoring her mother softens the sadness of those last days with the knowledge that when a caller echoes her mother’s words there will be a way to help.
For information, to volunteer or donate, email info@hopeandjusticeproject.org or visit hopeandjusticeproject.org. The main office is located at 209 State St. in Presque Isle. The 24-hour hotline is 1-800-439-2323.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence and would like to talk with an advocate, call 866-834-4357, TRS 800-787-3224. This free, confidential service is available 24/7 and is accessible from anywhere in Maine.
Kathryn Olmstead is a former University of Maine associate dean and associate professor of journalism living in Aroostook County, where she publishes the quarterly magazine Echoes. Her column appears in this space every other Friday. She can be reached at kathryn.olmstead@umit.maine.edu or P.O. Box 626, Caribou, ME 04736.