Dear Editor:

The last meeting of the Parent Support Group at the Community Center for the 2016-17 season will be this Saturday, May 13. As we wind down to break for the summer, I’d like to thank those who made it all possible.

Patty Seybold wrote the grant that we received from Maine Community Foundation - Lincoln County Fund. Jane Good oversaw the free on-site babysitting and made sure we had a safe and enriching environment with lots of activities for the children, as well as nutritious snacks. Adult volunteer sitters that gave up several Saturday mornings included: Erin Barter, Christina Barter, Bonnie McKenney and Kim Burnham. Student sitters who completed the Red Cross Babysitting certification and were a great help with the free on-site babysitting included: Grace Campbell, Emily Echols and Isaac Wyer. All the sitters did such a great job that the children would look forward to coming and they showed a lot of progress with their behavior and communication. Parents were able focus on group discussion without having to worry about their children.

In addition to our discussions on positive discipline methods, we had some wonderful guest speakers providing expert information on various topics. Vicki Kenny from Lincoln County Dental spoke to us about oral hygiene last October. Leslie Livingston with Healthy Kids gave a very informative talk on sleep. Kate Marone and Patricia Buck-Welton from Healthy Lincoln County talked to us about safe storage of drugs and keeping kids off drugs. Lara Cogar, also with Healthy Lincoln County, gave two talks on nutrition that included some hands-on learning through preparation of kid friendly healthy recipes. Desirée Scorcia, children’s librarian at the Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library, spoke about how to encourage your child to read and then did story time with the children. Lucy Smith with Healthy Kids spoke on Active Parenting -- positive discipline and communication.

Evelyn Andrews at Hannaford put together lovely gift bags with store items that were donated as door prizes for each of our 15 meetings.

We plan to have a parent group again next fall and would like to hear from parents/grandparents/caregivers regarding suggested topics of discussion. Please contact me at 633-1162 or at lizlussier@netzero.net with any questions or suggestions.

Liz Lussier

Parent Support Group Coordinator

The Community Center

Boothbay Harbor