Andy’s Old Port Pub is locally famous for having music every night of the week. Owners and Great Diamond Island residents Rick Frantz and Jennifer Fox’s support music draws performers from all over the state, country and occasionally beyond.

In 1987, long before “public/private ventures” became fashionable, L.L.Bean issued a small grant to create a Maine Island Trail Association, in partnership with the Maine Department of Conservation and the Island Institute. With this, the grassroots Maine Island Trail Association (often known as “MITA”) and the Maine Island Trail were born.

The Casco Bay Lines company, which provides ferry service to the island, reports that for the period from April 1, 2013 to March 31, 2014, 675,044 passengers disembarked at Peaks. Casco Bay Lines carried a total of 946,184 passengers that year, with the approximately 300,000 others landing on Great Diamond, Cliff, Long or Chebeague islands, or staying aboard for the scenic cruises the company offers.

It's not hard to make the case that substance abuse is a community problem. In island communities, its impacts may be greater, and the solutions more difficult.

It's early March as I write, and snow is still piled up to the crotch of the pin cherry tree. But you may be reading this in early April, and I hope you'll permit me to do a little fantasizing about what it might be like, a month from now.

Ian Watkins is​ an Island Fellow, a participant in a two-year service program operated by AmeriCorps and the Island Institute, doing community development work on islands and remote coastal communities. Watkins works on Deer Isle and the Downeast coast with high school students. 

Sherry Bunin worked in the publishing industry all her life, but it wasn't until late in her career that her writing was published. She started out as an English major at the University of Cincinnati and while student, took a job at Writer's Digest where she was in charge of an annual short story contest.

Charlotte Goodhue stands at the entrance to her pasture surrounded by a gaggle of local children ranging in age from 12 down to the earliest walker, all abuzz with anticipation. Goodhue raises the soup pot she holds in her hand, bangs it with a sturdy wooden spoon, and the children take off at a dead run.

Ever wonder how the National Weather Service (NWS) is able to report detailed weather data for your local area? Across the country, there are over 8,700 volunteer NWS cooperative weather observers who are truly the nation's weather and climate observing network of, for, and by the people.
The NWS in Gray manages 99 volunteer weather observers across New Hampshire and Western and Southern Maine who record maximum and minimum temperatures, rainfall, snowfall and snow depth readings from equipment provided by the service. NWS also has over 2,200 volunteer weather spotters who report based on event-driven criteria, such as total snowfall from a storm.