DEAR SUN SPOTS: Please help us find the address of the person wanting Shaw’s stamps for her granddaughter’s wedding gift. I bet if her address were published her mailbox would be full! Thank you. Great job! — No Name, Turner

ANSWER: Sun Spots struggles constantly with the contact information issue. Everybody wants to be No Name, but how can you get the requested items if people don’t know how to find you?

Maybe the Shaw’s requesters will write again.

DEAR SUN SPOTS: You recently published the name and telephone number of the current person to contact regarding the qualifying documents to request the inscription of a name on the Veterans Memorial.

I failed to save the information. Would you please publish it again? Thank you. — Pat, North Monmouth

ANSWER: The next letter is signed by the contact person you seek.

DEAR SUN SPOTS: The L/A Veterans Council wants to thank you for all you have done for the area veterans.

We want to remind your readers that now is a great time to give our military heroes the gift of remembrance and have their names etched in stone on one of the monuments at the Veterans Memorial Park by the Great Falls in Lewiston.

This would make a great memento to their service to our country, and it could be free, too. Village Inn owner Norm Vallee will pay the inscription fee of $35 for one veteran each week. You just have to register (fill out an application) at the Village Inn, 165 High St. in Auburn.

Each week Vallee will pick one name from among those who register to be inscribed on the next monument. The Village Inn will pay for their inscription as a way of giving recognition to these veterans. There is no purchase at the Village Inn necessary to enter.

Any veteran who has served honorably, furnishing either a DD214, honorable discharge document, is eligible. The veteran can be active service, retired or has died, man or woman, having served in the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Merchant Marine, National Guard or Reserve. As long as they lived or have lived in the state of Maine.

This would be a great gift to remember your family member or friend for the upcoming holidays.

Again, Sun Spots, thanks for your great column! — Normand Cote, vice chairman, L/A Veterans Council, nmcote@roadrunner.com, 207-782-1725

DEAR SUN SPOTS: After reading the many letters on the topic (May 21, Sept. 22 and Oct. 21, 28), I am wondering how many of your readers know just how important “Mark Trail” is and has been to several generations of outdoor enthusiasts.

For example, did you know there is a 14-mile section of the Appalachian Trail running through the 16,000-acre Mark Trail Wilderness in north Georgia? Were you aware that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has used “Mark Trail” to teach children about the importance of conservation and protecting our environment?

In addition, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration began using Mark Trail as its mascot in 1997. He even became the spokesman for the National Weather Service’s emergency weather radio!

I have to confess that I didn’t know all of these facts either until 2007 when I decided to try to talk this newspaper into reinstating my beloved comic strip. I only knew that in the early 1950s my grandfather started reading “Mark Trail” to me, carefully pointing to each word and making sure I understood the action portrayed by the drawings. Almost religiously, until his death in 1982, no matter where I was living at the time, whenever we spoke or got together we would discuss whatever disaster or adventure Mark and Andy, the faithful dog, were involved in.

More than ever we need examples of this type of media: One that teaches our kids good values, a love of animals, birds and our beautiful land, as well as ways to protect our wildlife habitats.

While it would be farfetched to attribute my love and respect for nature to reading “Mark Trail,” this “comic strip” certainly has more educational value than most. Mark is always in the midst of an environmental issue that affects all of us at some level. He brings to light subjects like the recent one about the poaching of rhinos for their horns. He can’t solve all the problems, but he has a darn good record at Lost Forest. — Wendy Hutchins, Andover

This column is for you, our readers. It is for your questions and comments. There are only two rules: You must write to the column and sign your name (we won’t use it if you ask us not to). Please include your phone number. Letters will not be returned or answered by mail, and telephone calls will not be accepted. Your letters will appear as quickly as space allows. Address them to Sun Spots, P.O. Box 4400, Lewiston, ME 04243-4400. Inquiries can also be emailed to sunspots@sunjournal.com.

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