Acting on its goal to expand activities for local residents “beyond the walls of the Community Center and out into the world,” the Center’s van has been in overdrive since it was acquired in April.

In fact, the van has been in use so much that it’s suprising to ever see it parked at the small mall.     

As Director Jane Good said in a recent email to Jonathan Tindal, president of the Boothbay Harbor Rotary Club, the Center is experiencing “wonderful success” with its van trip enrichment program.

Trips have included the Farnsworth Museum in June for the Marguerite Noah exhibit, “An Art-filled Life.”  July featured two trips, one to the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath for an exhibit called “Into the Lantern: A Lighthouse Experience”; the other to Pemaquid Point.

In August, the van brought area residents to Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village in New Gloucester for the Maine Native American summer market and demonstration, which included members of the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Micmac and Maliseet tribes.

The Maine State Museum’s Thos. Moser exhibit and the Back Road Quilters Show in West Gardiner have been visited in recent months.

From now through next June, the van will take residents to six matinee performances at the Portland Stage Theater.

A large poster in the Center’s office serves as a wish list for future van trips, showing Red Claw games, the Victoria Mansion and Owl’s Head Transportation Museum among the many destinations.

The van doesn’t always leave the peninsula in its travels. After the recent storm, the Center noted in a Register posting that “We took the van to Ocean Point this morning to look at sea birds coming in to shore during the storm. What a spectacular sight!”

Local events for the van have been the Windjammer Parade, the Fall Foliage Festival, Rotary Derby Party and the Chamber of Commerce annual awards dinner. Community members are provided with transportation to the YMCA walking program.

The van is also used by People-Helping-People for medical appointments, grocery shopping and transportation to and from home to the Community Center.  Good explained, the trips build friendships among passengers and “nourish the human connection.”

The purchase of the seven-passenger Dodge Caravan from Hawke Motors was made possible by contributions from community leaders, including local businessman Paul Coulombe and wife Giselaine and members of the Congregational Church, the Rotary Club of Boothbay Harbor and Captain Bruce White.

Other donations increased the fund which was started with contributions by Patricia and Trudy Seybold, Sean Lewin and George Whitten. Additional contributions came from Mike Tomko, Martha Cowdery, Carol Cragin and Lizzy Villaume. Hawke Motors contributes free service including basic oil changes and discounts on parts and tires for the vehicle.