KITTERY, Maine — Hoping to drum up support for a unique local venture aiding veterans and active duty military, Roland’s Old School Barber Shop will host a “cut-a-thon” next week, in partnership with a husband and wife.
The Sunday, June 9 event will benefit Free Yoga For Veterans, a nonprofit based out of Yoga in ME, an Eliot yoga studio on Route 236. Offering free classes three mornings a week, the initiative first began in 2014, when owner Nancy Garnhart, who had no personal connection to the military, was inspired by a yoga retreat she saw in New York based around mindfulness for veterans.
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“Her motivation was, ‘This is a population I can help,’” said Kittery resident Mike McCarten, board president of Free Yoga For Veterans.
The program has grown to eight to 12 weekly regulars ranging from Afghanistan and Iraq veterans, to a Korean War vet about to turn 90 years old.
“It’s just become this caring community where people have this one thing in common, military service,” McCarten said. “They take care of each other.” If any undergo surgeries or hospitalizations, yoga buddies show up to give support, he said.
McCarten said some are suffering from the “the unseen scars of war,” but the topic of conversation is never war stories or “the old days.”
McCarten served for 30 years in the Navy, where he was commanding officer of a NATO hospital in Afghanistan. He started taking the yoga classes two years ago.
“It’s been fabulous,” he said. “I enjoy the mind, body, spirit piece that yoga represents, but doing it with this particular group of people, I enjoy that we all have each other’s backs.”
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Yoga certainly has gained “medical street cred,” McCarten noted, and the benefits include increased flexibility, muscle strength, respiration and energy, and mental health bonuses such as stress relief and depression alleviation.
“I was very concerned when Mike retired from the Navy in 2013, because he had no hobbies, no friends. This has really made a difference,” said McCarten’s wife, Kathleen Marra.
McCarten said the program sees veterans hailing from Berwick, North Berwick, York, and Stratham and Portsmouth in New Hampshire. “And not enough people even know about it yet,” Marra said.
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Marra encouraged her husband to reach out to his barber, Mike Dumond at Roland’s, who is a Marine, to see if he’d be interested in partnering for a fundraiser. Free Yoga For Veterans has never sought outside community support before, and operates on Garnhart’s resources. They’re just getting into exploring grants and funding opportunities.
Dumond served in the Marines from 1996 to 2000. His barbershop is decorated in military memorabilia, black and white photographs of soldiers. When in his chair, customers wear an American flag salon robe. A large golden eagle is affixed to one wall.
“It seemed like a pretty good fit,” Dumond said of the fundraiser. “I’m not one for a lot of advertising, but I have customers who go to the free yoga.”
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Dumond said in his role as a barber, also known as a “poor man’s psychiatrist,” he hears a lot of stories from veterans and active duty military. His shop is a preferred spot for many stationed on Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.
Dumond also believes he is the only veteran barber in the Kittery area.
From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 9, there will be haircuts, coffee and pastries at Roland’s, and all cuts, for both men and women, are by donation.