ELLSWORTH, Maine — A heart-shaped stone carved with the name of U.S. Army Pvt. Dustin R.F. Small of Palmyra — a symbol of the Mainer who died in 2009 while serving his country — and other memorial stones were carried into the ice-covered waters of Branch Lake on Saturday for a polar dip hosted by The Summit Project.
“We’re here to keep their memories alive,” U.S. Marine Maj. David Cote, a Bangor native, said as people gathered for the polar dip, titled “Leaping for Legacies,” at the Bangor Y’s Camp Jordan Wilderness Center.
The Summit Project is a nonprofit organization with the mission to create a “living memorial” using hand-picked stones that are engraved with the name or initials of service members from Maine who have died since 9-11.
Every year, on Memorial Day, hikers carry the Summit Project stones to the top of Mount Katahdin “and in the meantime they go on treks all over the place,” Cote said as the event started. “Now, they’re going in the lake.”
The program honors fallen service members by keeping their memories alive, and connects families from across the state, said organizer Angel Matson.
Nancy and Whitey White of Atkinson, who are the godparents of Capt. John R. “Jay” Brainard III, 26, of Newport and Atkinson, an Army helicopter pilot who died on Memorial Day 2012 when the Apache helicopter he was piloting crashed, could not agree more.
“It’s truly a family,” Whitey White said of the community of connected Gold Star families the project has created.
A flag with a blue star is displayed in the windows of homes where a loved one is serving in harm’s way, and if that loved one died, the blue star is replaced by a gold star, the Gold Star Family website states.
“We can come together with pride knowing that sacrifice,” Nancy White said. “He [Brainard] knowingly put his life in danger for his country. He would be proud to know we haven’t forgotten.”
She added that if her godson was at the gathering, “he would be in the water already.”
Cote said it’s easy for people to participate in the program, and you don’t need a military connection. It takes three things to become involved, he said.
“We ask you to learn about the fallen, launch on a trek (with the person’s stone) and write a letter to the family about the experience,” Cote said.
To find out more, or read testimonials about how the project has affected people’s lives, go to: thesummitproject.org.
“No one else in America is doing this,” Cote said of the living memorial. “We have a very special way of keeping their memories alive.”