Unity - Unity Barn Raisers will host a Day of Service on Saturday, October 2 at 1pm.  This fundraising event is designed to rally both sponsors and volunteers alike to help make positive changes in our community.  Volunteers for the UBR Day of Service will gather at the UnityCommunity Center. Teams will then tackle projects in Unity's unique public spaces: clearing trails, maintaining flower & vegetable beds, weatherizing the Community Center, painting community sailboats, and harvesting vegetables for the local food pantry. After great work and fun with a team, volunteers will be able to feast free at the Community Meal, beginning at 4:30pm at the Community Center.  Dog Wants Out will entertain with lively music during the meal; all are welcome for the $7 local lasagna meal. 

“This is a new fundraising event for Unity Barn Raisers, designed to provide fellowship while serving the community,” says John McIntire, Chair of the UBR Board.  He added that sponsors to date are Unity Foundation, Unity College and Unitel.  “These local businesses and organizations are helping to make possible the ongoing work of UBR.  We’re looking for more sponsors to raise funds for UBR, while supporting a great event that will bring community members together for worthwhile work,” stated McIntire.  For those interested in volunteering for the event, sign-up by calling the UBR office at 948-9005 or online at www.unitybarnraisers.org.  Unity Barn Raisers is a community betterment organization serving Western Waldo County with three areas of focus:  downtown vitality, rural vitality and community health and wellness.

Next February's Camden Conference on "The Challenges of Asia," has already begun to inspire a series of community events in the Midcoast area, starting  Tuesday, Sept. 14, at 6:30 p.m., with a talk by Prof. Paul Holman at the Belfast Free Library on "The Kremlin in Asia."

This presentation, which is free and open to the public, will explore and explain the strategic choices facing the Kremlin, stressing the implications for Asia. Winston Churchill famously described Russia as "a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma," yet Russia today is far less mysterious than during the dark days of the Cold War.

Holman will take a close look at how the world has changed since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Russians and Americans used to see each other as bitter enemies in a global struggle for power, but now both are locked in protracted struggles against Muslim insurgents and have suffered terrorist attacks in their own capital cities.  He will argue that the United States cannot achieve its own objectives in Afghanistan or the rest of Asia without careful analysis of Russia's national interests in the region.

Holman is a visiting professor of international relations at the University of Maine, Orono, serving concurrently as an adjunct professor at the Naval War College.  He has co-edited a number of books, including the multi-volume series "Fundamentals of Force Planning," and "Ethnic Nationalism and Regional Conflict."

His many articles on national security have appeared in Naval War College Review, Strategic Review, U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, Brown Journal of World Affairs, Argentinian Naval War College Review, Air Force Magazine and U.S. Marine Corps Gazette.

From 1996 to 2003, Holman served as professor, Department of Security Studies, George. C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. There, he directed the 15-week Executive Course, teaching mid-career military officers, diplomats, and parliamentarians from all of the formerly Communist countries of Europe and Asia.  He now resides in Camden and serves on the Camden Conference Board of Directors.