Must be done: Take the tree down, take the lights out of the lilac bushes, take the wreath down. For heaven’s sake, take the jingle bells off the front door. They’ve hung there since early December 2009. They don’t ring much — everyone comes in the kitchen door — so are easy to forget.

As friends enjoyed breakfast together one morning over New Year’s weekend, a brisk manager type stripped lights from the doorway and marched off with the poinsettias. Behind the manager’s departing back, a little chill.

Still, offing the decorations in one sweep makes sense. Last Thursday, sun streaming through the lovely old windows in the Rumford Falls Auditorium, there stood three of the Christmas trees that shone brightly at the Christmas Tree Festival in December. Oh, but they looked forlorn now!

Forlorn is not in the vocabulary of the Chisholm Ski Club and the managers of Black Mountain of Maine. Last week’s U.S. National Championship Cross Country races had everything — even snow. The latter was in question, especially after a weekend of thawing that seriously diminished the snow cover.

Not to worry. Snow-making was concentrated in one area near the lodge. Trucks hauled loads of snow from there to the farther trails for grooming. Jeff Knight figured importantly in the operation. His fishing buddy Bob Colby said Jeff is a real celebrity, dark glasses and all, since being featured on the evening news.

The spirit of the gathering on Black Mountain was contagious. Young competitors pitched in to help Black Mountain staff and hordes of Chisholm Ski Club volunteers work on the racing trails.

“It felt like heaven,” Jolene Lovejoy said. “All that positive energy!”

Craig Zurhorst’s work to get media attention for the Rumford ski event was a tour de force. You had to notice television and newspaper coverage, lots of it. Watch for more on “Bill Green’s Maine.” Joe Volkernicke got miles of footage that will air on Access Channel 7.

Hard to estimate the economic boost that some 400 skiers and 100 coaches will have had on River Valley businesses. But make no mistake, Rumford and the River Valley looked great in the limelight, er, snow light. More, more, more, please!

Here’s more: The much-beloved Greater Rumford Community Center, that is, the Rumford Mechanics Institute, is planning its centennial celebration for July 3. That’s not the actual birthday, but a great time to attract many participants and great interest. A street dance is planned and possibly a chicken barbecue. The building will be open to all to tour.

There probably won’t be a lot of speeches but Director Bob Anderson — on the job for 25 years — hopes to have some “Community Center’s Volunteers of the Year” reflect on the center and its role in their own and other area lives.

The Mechanics Institute was incorporated in May 1910. The institute building was completed in October of the following year, and the dedication ceremony was held the next month.

Some Thursday between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. walk right by the Christmas trees that gather dust in the municipal auditorium and head for the Rumford Historical Society office. Have a look at the program for that dedication. (It’s filed under Mechanics Institute.) Bound in soft leather, the program offers a history of the institute’s establishment.

Really, Hugh Chisholm & Company were something else! A quick read suggests they could handle themselves very well in today’s financial world.

But more important is the lofty purpose Chisholm had for the institute: It “…was to furnish to wage earners of Rumford the best quality of physical and mental, social and moral improvement at the least cost, the cultivation of a more intimate acquaintanceship between the employed and the employer.”

Among the rules and regulations: no games on Sunday and no smoking on the third floor, except in the suites, nor in the ladies parlor nor the library.

There’s more, of course. Recommended reading.

Linda Farr Macgregor is a freelance writer; contact her at [email protected].