Sometimes it hits you like a boomerang. In Maine and much of America, volunteerism is alive and well, in our blood and history, what makes us tick. It has nothing to do with politics. Volunteerism in Maine – and America – is strong.
Recently, as a candidate for Maine Governor, my feet have wandered from Calais and Lisbon to Fort Fairfield and Dover-Foxcroft, Skowhegan and Bangor to Windsor, Blue Hill, and Old Orchard, away then back to Leeds and Wayne.
Occasions have differed – supers and speeches, demolition derbies, parades, and picnics, fairs filled with Maine wares, young 4-H calves and pig scrambles, to colorful quilts, artwork, fudge, and flowers, to butting goats and gun raffles.
But everywhere on display was volunteerism, the spirit of who we are. From Ben Franklin’s first volunteer fire department, the “bucket brigade,” to Maine’s 82 volunteer fire departments, we are still much of what we were, uniquely American.
Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in 1830: “When an American asks for the cooperation of his fellow citizens, it is seldom refused; and I have often seen it afforded spontaneously and with great goodwill.” Right he was, and still is.
In one sense, we like to pitch in, feel a sense of duty, connection to community, and so the thing – this volunteering – is personal. In another sense, it is what makes us a community, the fact that we all feel it, just like we stretch at sunrise, yawn each night. We do what we do because we like to, and also because it is right.
The other day, the whole volunteering thing swung back around, like a well-thrown boomerang, the sort we had as kids, and hit me squarely. Part of my local duty is serving as the “Commodore” of our local “Wayne Yacht Club.”
Now, let me clarify, so no misconceptions. We are a one-hundred-year-old yacht club with no yachts, not even little ones, more of a glorified canoe club. On Androscoggin, we are like a Grange on the water, home to canoes and kayaks, small motor and sailboats, but most of all a raft of convivial meetings all summer.
We assure kids have swimming lessons, sailing lessons for the adventurous, that families have summer suppers, dances, a place to come, sun and swim, docks out early, back in late, a place for the whole town to participate.
But the kicker is this. Almost no one gets paid, even though caned chairs stay caned and rock all summer, especially at sunset. Big screens look on the lake, somehow get repaired when needed, oars for a dinghy are made, calls answered, picnics, plans, and renters are rewarded for their effort, and members are kind to members.
The fee to join is almost nothing, but the place is priceless. At our last meeting of the season, I looked down at the agenda. Our local historian reminded all this was almost exactly the day, 116 years ago, when the first club meeting happened.
The place, back then, was a social hub – only other ones were our General Store, the 1840 Townhouse, and the white-steepled church. These days, we have a full 235 active members, and they are active!
On that agenda, I had the joy and obligation of thanking 21 people – all just volunteers – for doing something to make this passing summer a huge success.
Some launched the docks, others installed swim lines, and taught. Some cleaned the club as needed, organized potluck suppers, ran a regatta for local kids and families, managed picnics, topped up the website, maintained grounds, and assured fences were sound.
But this is how Maine – much of smalltown America – still works, what it is really all about, what makes summers and year-round not just well-planned, but grand. We are glad to be about the process of helping others; it completes us.
What was it de Tocqueville also wrote? “Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”
How right he was. He might have found the same in our town parades, picnics, and fairs, not to mention the little Wayne Yacht Club, with no yachts to start, but lots of laughter, lots of heart. Sometimes it hits you like a boomerang.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!
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