I would like to thank the young man that stood by me waiting for the police and wrecker to arrive the morning of Friday, Feb. 9 at 9 a.m. on the Pond Road, Newcastle (Eagle’s Nest). I failed to get his name, but he stopped and checked to make sure I was OK and then asked if I wanted him to stay until the sheriff arrived. Shaken up a bit from my ordeal, it was good to have someone there to talk with.

During the recent snow/ice storms, when all else failed, Waldoboro’s highway department came to the rescue. John Daigle was called for help clearing dangerous ice from Friendship Street and within 10 minutes, Mark Gifford and his big sand truck made four sweeps over that part of the road.

I remember taking valentine cards every year to all my grammar school classmates. And every year now I give a lovely card to my wife asking her to be my valentine, often accompanied by a gift of some sort. But this year I’m working on a radical idea. What if, instead of asking someone or ones to be my valentine, I concentrated on being a valentine for another person? And, rather than my wife or my adult children, what if I tried to be an anonymous valentine for an unknown neighbor who really needs a valentine to help them in a really difficult circumstance?

It started with a bold vision. In 2004, Karen Kleinkopf, a mom and first-grade teacher, became motivated to create a change in the community. She saw a need for children in our schools to start eating more nutritionally dense foods and stop eating the foods that were making the community and the world obese. With help from Amy Winston, the Lincoln County Economic Development Office director, they worked together to create a nonprofit organization that would reach as many members of the community as possible and educate them about healthy eating. FARMS was born.

Growing up in Whitefield, I was incredibly lucky to experience a school environment that, even as children, we knew was special. Our little elementary school was the envy of nearby towns, and I am eternally grateful to all the good people involved, who gave me and so many others this exceptional experience.