FEBRUARY 19, 2026 | ISSUE 7

Arts in the Park applications CLOSE on February 23rd. !

Visit our website HERE for more info.

Join the Lincolnville Historical Society for their next Friday at the Museum Event on February 20^th at 7 pm. Doors open at 6:30 pm. The program is titled Living History With Hank Lund: Abigail Briggs: American Patriot. Parking will be tight, so carpooling is suggested.



📍The Beach Schoolhouse, 33 Beach Road, Lincolnville. The Museum will be open at 6:30.

Belfast Flying Shoes will host an English Country Dance (ECD) on Sunday, February 22nd, from 2-5 pm at Unitarian Universalist Church with live music from Carol Bittenson, Cecile Leroy & Daniel Raine and calling by Maura McCampbell & Chrissy Fowler.

Admission is $15-25, and includes punch & crunch. The program begins with a brief intro session to welcome those who are new to ECD.

ECD is a folk tradition similar to our local contra culture, emphasizing both participatory dancing and live music, with partners and neighbors dancing together in a set. Contemporary English dancing has gorgeously varied music and smiling people, with choreography that feels like floating (whether gliding on thermals or being propelled down a river at full spring thaw flood levels – whee!) 

Left Bank Books in downtown Belfast invites the public to meet Helen Whybrow, the multi-talented author of The Salt Stone: Seasons of a Shepherd’s Life. The free talk and book signing will take place at the bookshop on Thursday, March 5, at 7 p.m. 

Whybrow and her partner live and work on an old two-hundred-acre sheep farm in the heart of Vermont’s Green Mountains. The Salt Stones is her intimate and profoundly moving story of what it means to care for a flock and truly inhabit a piece of land. The shepherd’s life unfolds for Whybrow in the seasons and cycles of farming and family—birthing lambs, fending off coyotes, rescuing lost sheep in a storm, and raising children while witnessing her mother’s decline. Exploring the interdependence of animals, as well as of the earth and ourselves, Whybrow reflects on the ways sheep connect her to place and to the ancient practice of shepherding.

The Salt Stones was published in 2025 and garnered numerous prestigious awards. It was long-listed for the National Book Award, a New England Book Award finalist, a PBS NewsHour Summer Reading Recommendation, an Esquire “Best Books of Summer,” and The New Yorker’s “Best Books of 2025.” In The Washington Post, Maureen Corrigan writes: “With her deliberate and revelatory narrative voice, Whybrow leads readers into a deeper recognition of how the sublime and the sinister grow side by side; how everything in [the] meadow is worth observing.”

Whybrow writes that one of her lifelong joys is sitting on the ground, by a river or in the mountains, simultaneously immersed in the living world and in a good book. The best books, she believes, have the potential to make something mundane come alive on a mystical plane and to cause readers to think about something ordinary in a completely new way.

Prior to moving to Knoll Farm, Whybrow was Editor-in-Chief of Countryman Press/W.W. Norton for seven years and eight years at Orion Magazine. She has a master’s in journalism from Harvard, is a visiting professor at Middlebury College, and has taught writing at Breadloaf Environmental Writer’s Conference and the Iowa Summer Writer’s Workshop, among others.

Reservations for the free event are strongly recommended as seating is limited. To make a reservation, call Left Bank Books at 207-338-9009 or email: info@leftbankbookshop.com. Ample free parking is available in front of the shop at 109 Church Street, and in an adjacent city lot.

Maine’s Changing Climate: Historical Trends & Future Projections

On Tuesday, March 17, at noon, Maine State Climatologist Sean Birkel will talk about the vast changes in Maine’s climate during the 21^st century.

His talk, sponsored by the Belfast Garden Club, is free and open to the public and will be held in the Abbott Room of Belfast Free Library.

Since the late 1800s, Maine’s climate has warmed more than 3.5 °F and total annual precipitation has increased. The past two decades have been marked by an increase in extremes such as heavy rainfall and impactful drought. In this presentation, Birkel will explore these changes, how they tie into milder winters and a longer growing season, and what is expected in future decades. For perspective and reflection, the presentation will end with photographs and stories of a bygone era when, during some of the coldest winters of the 19th and early 20th centuries, Penobscot Bay would freeze as far south as Rockland, an event difficult to imagine today.

Dr. Sean Birkel is an Assistant Professor at the University of Maine with a joint appointment to the Climate Change Institute and Cooperative Extension. As the Maine State Climatologist, he provides climate and weather information to Maine stakeholders to facilitate decision-making and planning. Birkel serves on the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the Maine Climate Council.

A Zoom link to the program is available by going to https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/jiokI8wDRV2olY_GIH7pIA

Midcoast Council of Governments is launching a Public Transportation Needs & Interest Survey as part of a regional transit feasibility study. The goal of the survey is to better understand how residents travel today and what would make public transportation a realistic option in the future. Results will inform future planning, funding, and service improvements across the

 Midcoast region.

The survey can be found HERE or by scanning the QR code below.

We are saddened to learn that a cherished member of our Chamber community will be closing their Belfast location.



The Grasshopper Shop has been a meaningful part of our downtown and have helped shape the spirit of our local business community. Store closures are never easy, and we recognize the impact this has on both the business and our broader community.

We hope you’ll join us in thanking them for their commitment to Belfast and continue to shop at their Rockland location!

Waldo CAP Aims To Remain Premier Transportation Service Provider For Waldo County And Beyond

READ THEIR PRESS RELEASE HERE!

Waterfall Arts Welcomes Ellery Chalmers as Youth Program Manager

Waterfall Arts is pleased to announce the appointment of Ellery Chalmers as Youth Program Manager.

A visual artist and educator with deep roots in the Midcoast, Chalmers brings her lifelong experience rooted in community-based arts education and a strong commitment to expanding creative opportunities for young people. From early experiences in painting, drawing, theater, ceramics, photography, and film, to formative studies at the Cambridge School of Weston and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, her artistic journey has been shaped by both creative exploration and a strong foundation in social justice. Chalmers will focus on expanding youth programs, strengthening community partnerships, and increasing accessibility for young artists in Belfast and throughout the region.

The public is invited to meet Ellery at the upcoming Opening Reception for the 10th annual Young Artist Gallery Art Take Over on Friday, March 6th, from 4-7 pm. Learn more about upcoming youth programs at Waterfall Arts and celebrate a vibrant showcase of artwork created by Waldo County’s next generation of artists.

The Penobscot Maine Museum is nearing its $30,000 goal to restore Big Jim and bring him to Searsport this summer! Find out more about the project and donate here: https://penobscotmarinemuseum.org/big-jim/

Dorothy Havey, Executive Director

Director@belfastmaine.org

Kim Grindle, Member Relations Coordinator

ChamberOffice@belfastmaine.org

Board of Directors

President: Michelle Curtis, First National Bank

Vice President: Ryan Harnden, Mathews Brothers

Treasurer: Terri Tower, Camden National Bank

Secretary: Megan McAvoy, MaineHealth Waldo Hospital

Haley B. Hall, Esq., Camden Law

John McKeith, The Belfast Center

Mary Tripp, Bank of America

Staff Photography by Dave Waddell, Down East Magazine