After a Saturday of much-needed rainfall, this morning’s fog cleared off in a spectacular way, allowing Tim Billings of Machiasport to capture this stunning image of Larrabee Cove, everything awash in green and gold. Photo by Tim Billings

Getting to know Washington County often feels like having a big bowl of alphabet soup. It was a few overwhelming years before I could put words behind the initials of groups like the DCC (Downeast Coastal Conservancy), SCEC (Sunrise County Economic Council), or FFD (Family Futures Downeast.)

CCC Director Charley Martin-Berry never minded, though, if I accidentally referred to her organization as the Caring Community Collaborative, instead of the Community Caring Collaborative.

“Either one works!” she’d laugh.

Years later, having seen more of CCC’s important work, I’d say their name could also lead with collaborative. Just take a look at this list of their area partners. You’ll need to scroll for a while.

I’ll wait. 

That’s the CCC’s unique and special gift. In a spirit of savvy, intelligent, and relationship-driven service, they and their partners are always found near the hub of a wheel turning to make real change.

Washington County has incredible strengths – no question – but it also faces serious challenges. We are the poorest county in Maine by median income, and too many Washington County families are impacted by substance use disorder. For many of us considering those problems writ large, it’s daunting – how do we even begin to heal generational poverty and addiction? 

There are people here who know where to start.

Through the CCC and its many partners across the region — each impressive in its own right — tangible progress is being made. Observing their work together, I see what’s possible with an innovative mindset, a compassionate focus, and the wisdom to play the long game. 

Washington County is a place “so familiar with scarcity,” Charley Martin-Berry writes below. “My hope for Washington County is actually all about hope itself.”

I’m delighted for you to meet her in this week’s 5 Questions.

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In addition to her amazing professional work, together with her husband and daughter, Charley Martin-Berry has some impressive gardens!

If you moved here, what brought you here, and what keeps you here? If you’re from here, what keeps you here?

I moved here from Hancock County when I was 15. My mother got a job teaching at Washington Academy. After college, I spent ten years in the Blue Hill area with my husband, and we moved back in 2007. Downeast Maine is home.

What do you think makes Washington County unique?

Even as a teenager, I could tell Washington County was different from Hancock County. And I fell in love with all those distinctions - the way so much work is tied to the seasons, the land and the water; the way people might tell you the most personal things the first time you meet them; the all-out support for athletic teams, neighbors in need, lobsters and blueberries. The work ethic is unique in its physicality and its rhythms. A lot of people are built to hustle with a harder-you-work, the-more-you-earn mindset. As much as folks tend to grumble about people not wanting to work nowadays, I see evidence to the contrary all the time. 

Plus, the landscape is just incredibly unique. Remote, quiet solitude in nature is so nearby. And the ocean is more powerful here; Cobscook Bay and Penobscot Bay for instance are very different. Tides, current, exposure, isolation - if you can navigate safely here, you can probably navigate anywhere.

Could you share a favorite local spot or hidden gem?

I love Long Point Preserve on the East Side of Machiasport. We used to explore that spot before the Maine Coast Heritage Trust was able to purchase it for conservation, and we still do. My mom had a little off-grid home near there when I was in high school. I used to dig clams on those flats and I’d row a leaky plastic boat around the cove, just visiting seals. From running those huge hills on the East Side Road during cross-country practice as a teenager to sneaking lilacs from an enormous tree out there each spring, and standing on the shore at Long Point the evening I went into labor with our daughter, it’s just a really special place for me.

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Machiasport’s Long Point Preserve is a beautiful local hike available to a wide range of abilities. Click the photo above to learn more. Photo courtesy Maine Coast Heritage Trust

What are some of the biggest challenges facing Washington County today, and how do you think they can be addressed?

Hard-working, resilient people and beautiful, accessible public lands are huge assets here, and through my work, I’m aware and always concerned that Washington County is consistently ranked the least healthy county in Maine. High poverty, low educational attainment, an unrelenting opioid crisis, and major access barriers to health services (both logistical and social/emotional) are some of the factors that can contribute to lower life expectancy, higher rates of disease, and poor health outcomes in general. It’s discouraging stuff, and it’s shocking when you look at some of those health measures for the Tribe, where the average age of death is in the early 50s. 

I think there are lots of concrete things that can be done to improve some of these challenges - bricks-and-mortar efforts like developing housing, childcare, healthcare services, and new businesses. And there’s a lot of activity across sectors in all those spaces. These days, I’m really interested in the concept of social connectedness and its role in health and well-being. Isolation is a challenge in rural areas of course, and reluctance to reach out for help or even just for companionship is real in our communities too. Research is showing that healthy relationships, social networks, and even just one person who you can lean on all play a huge role in health and well-being. I’m interested in the ways we can build community infrastructure that supports these kinds of connections and recognizes the needs and offers of all the people here.

What are your hopes and dreams for Washington County's future?

My hope for Washington County is actually all about hope itself. Do people here feel hopeful? Do we see rising birth rates and growing families? Babies can definitely be a sign of hope in communities, suggesting parents’ confidence in the safety and opportunity of the place.

Do people move here hopeful for the work and family life they’ve always wanted? My husband and I didn’t look at the county-level health data when we moved back home in 2007. We came home to family and connections to the land. With so much data at our fingertips today, anyone looking to move here can easily find troubling information about the county and might think twice about relocation.

Successful efforts that create more opportunities and more connectedness in our communities can move the needle, shift a place so familiar with scarcity to one of abundance and hope. So many efforts are focused on improving the place - people doing “what they can, with what they have, where they are.”

It matters. I’m hopeful.

Daily Essay Project

Until my birthday on September 18th, I’m writing one essay a day, just for the practice, the challenge — and the joy! — of it. The only rules I have for myself are they must be daily, I must publish the first draft, and they can be on absolutely any subject. Click the photo above to read The Changing Light, in part about the loss of my father in 2022, and here to read Ostacles “R” Us, or The Magical Land of Bureaucratia. You can read back essays here, or subscribe at the bottom of that page to receive the daily essays via email.

Events and get-togethers are still coming fast and furious. Remember, the more outgoing we are in the warm months, the less we whine about being stuck at home in February! (I’ve actually never proven this to myself — whining is still on the table for February. But I live in hope.)

Minquansis Sapiel will host a series of Passamaquoddy Culture and Nature Tours via Eastport Charter on select dates in September. Trips leave from the Eastport Breakwater/City Dock. The cost of attendance is $95/person with a max of 6 passengers per tour and a minimum of 4 to run. You can book spots through this calendar and/or by contacting Capt. Kinny Corthell at eastportcharter@gmail.com.

Rescheduled due to rain, now happening on Saturday, September 14! You can sign up here.

Thank you to Robert of South Addison for sharing his online calendar of local events. Make a bookmark and visit often! Covering the center and also the eastern edge, bookmark Artsipelago for another fantastic, often-updated listing of local events.

At 6 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 13, Author Maura Jane Farrelly will speak at Porter Memorial Library in Machias. Farrelly’s book, Compliments of Hamilton & Sargent: A Story of Mystery and Tragedy on the Gilded Age Frontier, tells the true story of three people, including Machias native John Dudley Sargent, and the book description intriguingly states that this is a story “about the early demise of our right to be forgotten.” Copies of the book will be available for purchase. Porter Memorial is located at 92 Court Street, Machias.

The Machias Fiber Festival: September 14 in East Machias. This is my favorite fall event and I thank it very much for happening close to my birthday which opens the door to so many possible indulgences. That could be why I have 8 totes of wool upstairs.

On the same day, Sept. 14, Gallison Memorial Library in Harrington will host Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas Ricks, from 1 to 4 p.m. Copies of his new book, Everyone Knows but You, will be on sale. If you like mysteries and Maine, this looks like a good one. The library is located at 1292 Main Street, Harrington.

Antonio Rocha with ‘The Malaga Ship: A Story of Maine and the Middle Passage: At the Eastport Arts Center from 7 to 9 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 14. EAC's Stories We Tell Festival, a collaboration with Sipayik Museum and The Quoddy Tides, continues with The Malaga Ship: A Story of Maine and the Middle Passage. This is a tour de force performance by award-winning and world-renowned storyteller Antonio Rocha.

Live near Jonesboro, want to meet great people? You can’t do better than to fall in with the crowd at the Jonesboro Grange #357. Today, Grange Halls are a dying breed, but the opposite is true for Jonesboro! They’re asking for volunteers for a clean-up weekend on Saturday, Sept. 21 and 22. For more information, email jonesborogrange357@gmail.com

Now you can support the work of the Washington County Almanac with monthly recurring donations! Click the button above to learn more.

This is not in Washington County, but a long stream of Washington County vehicles will be making the trek to and from Unity on the weekend of September 20-22 for one of Maine’s most delightful agricultural fairs. It’s a classic. Read more here.

We enjoy sharing our love of Washington County, Maine, so much that we’d honestly do it for free. In fact, we do! But if you wanted to buy us an oat milk cortado for our troubles, we wouldn’t say no. You can donate by check to our PO Box below, by PayPal, or by credit card.

Thanks!