Springtime is a Tough Time
Springtime has become another painful season since losing Mark. Some of this for me might be that spring signified baseball season and the sport was part of the bond we shared as father and son. Then, there’s Mother’s Day and Father’s Day…and on and on it goes.
This is now the third one without him. Each one has sucked in its own unique way. Spring will probably always be a difficult season for us as parents without the son we loved more than life itself.
Back in 2014, Mary decided that she wanted us to participate in the Providence Rhode Races that spring. This would be an excuse to spend a weekend in Providence, seeing a lot of Mark. There were never enough of these given what’s happened.
Mary’s two nieces, Aja and Joanne, decided to join us and their cousin, Mark. The four of them ran the half marathon. Me, I opted for the shorter option, running the 5K.
[Running as a family, May 2014)
The weekend was gorgeous and warm. We saw Mark each day, had dinner with him, and visited the place he was living at the time. All of us recognized that we’d spent a memorable 2 ½ days together.
Last fall, Mary told me she wanted to gather together a team for the 2019 Providence Rhode Races. I tossed around some names and we settled on Every Mile Yeah, a nod to Mark’s Every Day Yeah adventures.
My wife (and Mark’s mom) is a force of nature. No wonder Mark had his drive and determination, given the mom he had. She managed to coordinate the logistics of team sign-up as well as handling the t-shirt design and production. On top of that, she found a restaurant that could accommodate a dinner the night before race day on Sunday.
Prior to dinner together, we had a great turnout at Brown’s John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library. We gathered at Mark’s garden. We wanted members of Every Mile Yeah to see the monument/plaque and the Eastern Redbud that’s been planted there as a memorial to the poet, performance artist, and activist who graced the campus for a decade prior to leaving on his final walk.
[Members of Team Every Mile Yeah at Mark’s garden, Brown University]
Sunday morning brought rain and it was cold and raw. Yet, more than 40 people turned out to participate with Team Every Mile Yeah. Some ran and some walked. All of us were arrayed in the green t-shirts that Mary had made-up for members of Team Mark.
[Running in the rain and remembering Mark]
The weekend was an emotional one. We got back to Maine and felt wrung-out. But we were able to raise $2,500 for the Mark Baumer Sustainability Fund.
Mark graduated from Greely High School in Cumberland, Maine. As a member of the Class of 2002 at Greely, this exceptional public high school prepared Mark well for the life he would lead and the adult he became afterwards.
This year, we were pleased to accept our first applicants for The Mark Baumer Memorial Scholarship for Student Athletes. The $1,000 scholarships are targeted to both one male and female student athlete who exemplified qualities that Mark cultivated and began exhibiting during his high school years at Greely.
We ended up with an exception group of students applying for these two scholarships. In fact, narrowing the choice down to two recipients was no easy task.
Our two candidates, however clearly were a cut above and we’re thrilled to be making the award to both Peter Lattanzi and Julia Bisson.
Peter played four years of hockey at Greely in addition to lettering in lacrosse for three. He will be attending St. Francis Xavier University and majoring in biology.
Julia was the Maine high school state diving champion her junior and senior years of high school. She also was a National Honor Society member. She is heading to Bates College, majoring in English.
Both of them held jobs during high school. Their applications also were accompanied by stellar letters of recommendation. Scholarship-giving like these first awards helps us as a foundation have a hand in cultivating a new generation of young leaders, aware of their responsibility to be change agents.
In April, our treasurer, Paul Scalzone, was on-hand when a group of high school students from Maine Coast Waldorf School visited Growing to Give at Scatter Good Farm in Brunswick to volunteer and spread the compost over the farm’s gardens. This followed-up Mary’s visit to the farm a week earlier. We’re thrilled that our compost delivery was made and as Mary reports, the farm benefits greatly from our investment. Like all the organizations we’ve chosen to partner with, the farmers care about the planet and are doing tangible things to make sure that Earth is protected through climate-friendly farming practices. Your donations to the Mark Baumer Sustainability Fund ensure that we can support organizations like Scatter Good Farm, Sea Change Yoga, and Cultivating Community.
[Students from Maine Waldorf School with fund treasurer, Paul Scalzone]
[Compost funded by the Mark Baumer Sustainability Fund, being spread at Scatter Good Farm]
Mary was able to attend the Sea Change Yoga’s Yogathon on March 31. The fund was a sponsor. Mary invited her sister, Suzanne to attend with her. Mary offered the following about the event:
It was nice to meet the people at Sea Change Yoga.
It was a very uplifting day. They had four outstanding presenting teachers. They were Jacqui Bonwell, Katie Beane, Terry Lacy and Jen Queally.
I looked around and thought Mark would have loved this. Mark would have loved what Sea Change Yoga is doing. They are changing people’s lives for the better.
I met a person who works for Cultivating Communities. Another organization we are funding.
It was a very emotional day for me. I cried a lot. The day felt healing.
I think we should continue supporting Sea Change Yoga.
In mentioning Cultivating Community, we have the following information to share from Lesley Heiser, their community relations director:
For 18 years, Cultivating Community has been helping develop a Maine that’s more abundant, resilient, welcoming, & vibrant. On this path, it has been our honor to co-create healthy food access & food-based opportunities with hundreds of New American farmers, thousands of community gardeners, thousands of children & youth, & even more eaters.
Investors whom we are honored to consider friends, like the Mark Baumer Sustainability Fund, have been essential contributors to this work, collaborating with us and with communities to create a new reality in the growing season of 2019. Your gift means that:
Six hundred young people will receive food-based leadership development & education & develop their own voices.
Thirteen community gardens will serve more than 500 gardeners and more than 500 volunteers & double as sites for education, leadership development, & community development.
Maine’s largest land-based program for farmer training, operating in two counties, will create access for 100 of Maine’s newest Americans to land, skills, support, & resources.
Our Fresh Start Farms food hub will provide a CSA program that reaches hundreds of customers; facilitates SNAP & WIC access at farmer-led farm-stands in several small cities; and supports diverse food-based gatherings & happenings.
Thanks to you, the result is a Maine where, increasingly, people have the opportunity to grow their own food, where people young and old of all backgrounds have the opportunity to cultivate and exercise their vision and leadership, and where healthy food for all is at the heart of connection, growth, and well-being.
Our board met last Sunday. We had a chance to look back and recap our efforts thus far and begin looking out into the future. We are encouraged at what we’ve accomplished over the past year, with almost no administrative expenses whatsoever. What you donate to the Mark Baumer Sustainability Fund gets plowed back into doing work in the community and supporting the kinds of things Mark was passionate about.
Won’t you stand with us and support our efforts to carry forward Mark’s memory, as well as remember him for who he was: an amazing force for good who showed us what commitment to a cause is all about.
As always, feel free to connect with us via email, or by picking up the phone. If you still do the handwritten thing (which is very cool!), a note to P.O. Box 10602 in Portland, Maine 04104 would make us very happy.
Continuing Mark’s memory and mission!
~Jim