Mayhews Honored As Volunteers of the Year
 Jack and Pauline Mayhew stand on stage at the Opera House. Pauline is gazing at the awards crystal she has just received. Photo by Jim Nicholson. (For a picture of the crystal itself, see our REM Awards page.) |
The Kotlas Connection has chosen Jack and Pauline Mayhew as its volunteers of the year. The Connection honored the Mayhews at this fall's REM Community Volunteers Awards Ceremony on Saturday, November 11, at 7 p.m. at the Waterville Opera House.
Jack and Pauline are actively involved in all facets of the Connection and have visited Kotlas three times. Jack has been a member since 1991. He co-chaired the executive committee for seven years and has been the Kotlas Connection's contact with Sister Cities International, an umbrella organization for sister city organizations throughout the United States. He was instrumental in bringing the Kotlas mayor's delegation to Waterville in 2004, and served on the committee that arranged the recent visit of the Kotlas Connection's first-ever medical delegation.
Pauline has been involved for nearly as long as Jack, spending countless hours cooking food to sell at the Kotlas Connection's booth at the Voices of the Kennebec Festival, teaching at Colby's Russian Sampler Days, and selling Russian-made Christmas ornaments. For many years, she also coordinated the decorating of a Russian-themed Christmas tree at Good Will Hinckley School's annual Festival of Trees.
Jack and Pauline are originally from Manchester, NH, but moved to Maine in 1975, while Jack was a Field Manager of Customer Service for Xerox Corporation. He retired from Xerox after thirty years. Pauline was a substitute teacher for School Union #52 (Winslow, Vassalboro, and China) for nineteen years. Between them they have six children — in Maine, New Hampshire, Florida, and California. They also have eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
The REM Community Volunteer Awards are a project of the REM Partners, a coalition of nearly four dozen area nonprofit organizations. Each REM Partner may select one or more volunteers from its ranks to recognize at the ceremony. Previous Kotlas Connection honorees include Philip Gonyar, Mary Coombs, Sheila McCarthy, and the late Natalia Kempers. For more information about the ceremony and our past honorees, please visit our REM Awards page.
New Executive Committee Members Elected
At its annual meeting last November 15, members of the Kotlas Connection elected two new people to serve on the executive committee. Kenneth Green and Joseph Couture took office at the executive committee’s monthly meeting in January.
 Ken Green |
Host for one of the doctors from our recent medical exchange, Ken Green is a retired anesthesiologist. He worked for three decades at MaineGeneral Medical Center and its predecessor hospitals, Thayer and Seton, in Waterville. A world traveler, he has visited China, Sri Lanka, India, New Zealand, and most of Western Europe, including a four-year stay in Sweden. For three consecutive Januaries, 2003 – 2005, he was a volunteer English teacher in the cities of Izhevsk and Yoshkar-Ola in the Caucuses. He also enjoys sailing and restoring antique automobiles. He is married and has three grown sons.
Joe Couture has also hosted an exchange visitor. Tanya Golikova, one of the students who came for Russian Sampler in March, stayed with the Coutures.
A Sidney resident, Couture has worked in Maine state government for the past 18 years and is currently a computer programmer for the Maine Department of Transportation. He is married and has five children, two daughters and three sons, ranging in age from 5 to 17. He has not visited Russia, but became interested in the country through his older daughter Tessa's academic studies.
The annual meeting also saw a shuffling of seats among current members of the executive committee. Long-time secretary Ellen Corey was elected to a two-year term as co-chairwoman. She replaces Herb Foster, who is stepping down from that post, but will remain on the committee. Four-year committee member Julie Stowe was elected secretary, but was unable to assume the post. Stowe remains a member of the executive committee; a new secretary is being sought.
The other two officers, co-chairman Carl Daiker and treasurer Cindy Rowe, are now halfway through their biennial terms. Re-elected to one-year terms as committee members without portfolio were Mary Coombs, John Engle, Mark Fisher, Phil Gonyar, Jack Mayhew, Pauline Mayhew, Sheila McCarthy, Martha Patterson, Gregor Smith, and Mike Waters.
The annual meeting was held at The Center on Main Street in Waterville. Besides electing officers and an executive committee, the twenty people in attendance heard annual reports from the officers and witnessed a lively cooking demonstration. Martha Patterson taught us how to make Salad Olivier, which includes cabbage, carrots, potatoes, eggs, apples, and peas, and exchange student Dima Krasyukov demonstrated the preparation of open-faced sandwiches, a breakfast treat with buttered bread and sausage, cheese, or fish.
Russian Exchange Student Attends Messalonskee High School
 Mark Fisher and Dima Krasyukov at the annual meeting. Photo by Gregor Smith. |
The Kotlas Connection welcomes Dimitry Krasyukov, a Russian exchange student at Messalonskee High School in Oakland. He is here for the 2006-2007 academic year.
Dima, who will turn 17 in April, hails from Volgograd, an industrial, commercial, and transportation hub on the Volga River, 550 miles southeast of Moscow.
An athletic young man, Dima excels in soccer and track and field. He participates in both sports at his adopted school, running the 110, 300, and 400 meter hurdles and playing goalie and left wing in soccer.
He is taking classes in English, U.S. history, calculus, and visual media. English is his favorite. Next year, he plans to attend university, hopefully in the U.S. He would like to study criminal justice or engineering.
Dima is staying with executive committee member Mark Fisher, an Oakland town councilor and foster parent. Fisher has hosted Russian and Eastern European exchange students for each of the past several years.
Our Most Successful Ornament Sale Ever!
Due to the efforts of many members of the Kotlas Connection, our sale of Russian Christmas ornaments was a huge success. We raised almost $1,100, our highest total ever. We could have raised even more, had we not run out of ornaments to sell. We are working to secure a new supply for next December.
The ornaments included wooden bells and onion domes and cloth maidens in elaborate dresses. As all ornaments were handmade, no two were exactly alike.
Never before have we had such a wide array of venues for sales. Our principal location was Kennebec Federal Savings on Main Street in Waterville, where we had a display of ornaments in the lobby. We also sold ornaments at Railroad Square Cinema on Friday and Saturday evenings in December and at craft fairs at Waterville High School and Calvary Temple.
We thank all those who sold or purchased ornaments. The proceeds will underwrite future exchanges with Kotlas.
All articles are by Gregor Smith.
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