Dear Sun Spots: How would one be able to contact the Bowdoin town office to donate to the old Carter School Fund to help rebuild it? And how does one go about getting permission to metal detect in the spring at the old school site? Thanks for the help. – No Name, No Town.

Answer: Try contacting the Bowdoin Historic Preservation Committee Chair John Mann at john@mannassociates.net or 353-9047, or at home at 353-8995. The town office can be reached at P.O. Box 35, Bowdoin, ME 04287, 353-2446.

Mann says the committee is collecting bottles at the recycling center at the Bowdoin Town Office complex to help fund the project. A scale model is on display for townspeople to put their bottles in. The committee, town and volunteers are doing the work without any town tax dollars. The bottles generate about $30 a week.

Volunteers are focused on saving the one-room Carter School (circa 1887). Mann says around $50,000 has been donated so far in volunteer time, materials and more. Local groups such as the Boy and Girl Scouts, former pupils of the school, firemen, a crane company, contractor and more have worked on helping to save the school. The project to save the one-room school was started by Girl Scout Audra Knippa who was working on her scout project. Selectmen and townspeople took up the challenge and have given it their efforts. Now at college, Knippa helps out when she returns to town. The plan is to get the building back to its original 1959 condition – the last time any maintenance was completed on the building.

The roof and walls of the school were removed and reassembled at the Bowdoin Town Office complex over the summer. Next summer, asphalt roof shingles and cedar clapboards will be needed to continue the work. Mann says they expect to have the school back to its 1959 condition by the end of next year. But they’re not satisfied with that; they’d like to retrofit the building so it can be used for public meeting spaces.

The committee is also seeking your attic treasures. Items like McGuffey Readers, ink pens, slates and other period (1890-1920) items that may be sitting in your attic would really add to the project. So, column readers, scour your attics, barns and more, and see how you can help out the town of Bowdoin.

To help and to discuss metal detecting, you can also contact members Marc Bernier; Ruth Knippa at 353-6945; John Lambert at 666-3362; Jim Moulton at 666-5686; Melanie Page at 353-2446; and Reuben Wheeler at 353-9447.

Dear Sun Spots: I am writing to thank you for the squash doughnut recipe. I enjoy reading Sun Spots. As soon as I try out the recipe I will let you know how they turned out. I also want to express a special thanks to Jean Doherty and the lady who called me on the phone to give me her recipe for soft molasses cookies. I tried both recipes, and they were very delicious.

Now I need your help again. When I was in Florida last year, I met a lady who lived in the same trailer park, who crocheted lap throws for patients at nursing homes. I would like to do this myself, and I will donate to the needy as well. I am a disabled lady with a lot of time on my hands. The yarn was donated to the lady in Florida. I am sure that there are organizations and people who would like to donate yarn. It would make a lot of elderly people happy, as well as the needy. I would also like to have a list of nursing homes and organizations that help the needy. I can be reached at 864-5840. – Adella Hayward, Rangeley.

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