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BCHC Community Connections
Greater Biddeford - Saco Music Hall of Fame Ceremony Show Coming May 5, 2024!
The greater Biddeford-Saco area has a long-standing history of diverse musical and artistic talent, from the early days of Painchaud’s Band, vaudeville, the Old Orchard Beach Pier featuring the likes of Rudy Vallee, to present day and music is such an important part of all cultures. Whenever people celebrate, get together for special occasions, or with family and friends, music, along with food, is a big part of it!
What better way to celebrate, preserve, and share our cultures than celebrating the music around us and that which helped to shape our lives?
Biddeford Cultural and Heritage Center is proud to be launching The Greater Biddeford – Saco Music Hall of Fame. The first ceremony will be held at the Biddeford Middle School Performing Arts Center on May 5th, 2024 at 2 pm.
Tickets are available now online and at MidTown Music at 321 Elm Street in Biddeford. They can also be obtained by emailing music@biddefordcultural.org or calling 207-283-3993.
It’s going to be a great show and bring back great memories for many! Hope you can join us!
Get your online tickets and learn more today by clicking the button below!
Shouting Out Our Thanks!
Thank you to all who are supporting the Greater Biddeford-Saco Music Hall of Fame!
A special thanks goes out to Let’s Roam and Adventures from Scratch who have donated a special prize, Scavenger Hunts by Let’s Roam .
This prizes will be raffled off during the GBSMHOF event and is sure to be loads of fun for those exploring the local communities!
Indigenous Storytelling with Anne Jennison
November 9, 2023
Anne Jennison is a traditional Native American storyteller with both European and Abenaki heritage. Anne’s storytelling skills have been polished by more than 30 years of experience sharing Indigenous lesson stories with audiences of all kinds. With Master Degrees in both Storytelling and History, Anne also brings a wealth of cultural and historical knowledge to enrich her retelling of timeless Abenaki & Wabanaki stories. Anne is listed on the New Hampshire Traditional Artists Roster as a traditional Abenaki storyteller & craftsperson and on the New England Foundation for the Arts roster as a Teaching Artist and a Touring Artist.
Anne is also the current Chair for the NH Commission on Native American Affairs and a member of the Indigenous NH Collaborative Collective (http://www.indigenousnh.com). Additionally, she is an Affiliate Faculty member for the University of New Hampshire’s Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS) Minor, a co-creator of the “People of the Dawnland” interpretive exhibit about the Abenaki/Wabanaki peoples as well as a consultant for the Abenaki Heritage Initiative at Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, NH. For more info: https://www.annejennison.com
We are so fortunate to be able to offer this wonderful storytelling event featuring Anne.
BCHC is also working with Biddeford Public Schools to offer the program to students where it will be offered at the Middle School as part of their curriculum. Later in the evening, at 6:30 pm, the presentation will be held at McArthur Library for the general public.
We hope to see you there!
Meet Our 2023 Volunteer of the Year!
On Sunday, September 24th, BCHC held its annual Volunteer Appreciation Event and we are pleased to announce our Volunteer of the Year, Diane Beaupre!
Diane has worked tirelessly on behalf of the cultural center. She is often one of the first to volunteer for helping with events, whether it be cooking, helping out, being there. She has helped at many events, always with a smile and great attitude and attends our monthly meetings regularly. She is currently processing the Norman Beaupre Collection and sometimes brings her father, Norman, in to help with the finding aids and provenance. Her energy and positivity is infective.
Diane is a gem and we are so fortunate to have her support on behalf of Biddeford Cultural and Heritage Center!
BCHC Vacationland Raffle Fundraiser is Over!
Biddeford Cultural and Heritage Center picked the final Vacationland Raffle winners at our Volunteer event on September 24th.
The winners have all been contacted and $2044.98 was raised.
Thank you all for your continued support of BCHC!
Congrats to all 2023 Hall of Fame Inductees
Congratulations to all new inductees to the BCHC Hall of Fame, Harold Alfond, Paul Gagne, David Flood, Urbain Ledoux, and Dane York.
The 2023 Biddeford Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony was held on Saturday, September 23rd at Biddeford City Hall. Once more it was a great success with lots of smiles and happy faces.
The banners of all inductees are now flying proudly on the streets of Biddeford!
For those who may not have been able to watch live on Biddeford Public Access, you may now find the video on the Biddeford Cultural and Heritage Center You Tube channel or through the City of Biddeford’s website. You can also learn more about the Hall of Fame on our Programs page HERE.
Thank you for your continued support of this very important program.
Business After Hours
As Saco-Biddeford Chamber of Commerce members, BCHC was fortunate to have the opportunity to sponsor a Business After Hours event. Working with the Biddeford School System and Adult Ed Dept, the organization worked to feature all the organizations the community center, an old school and special building, which has so much history and stories to tell, in hopes of showing what those organizations do, and what a valuable service and impact they all provide to the community. A tour was provided to highlight this.
Organizations housed in the center include the Over 55 Club, Meals with Wheels, Biddeford Parks and Rec Dept, the Rotary Club, Biddeford ELL students and Biddeford Adult Ed, La Kermesse, St. Louis Alumni, Biddeford Cultural and Heritage Center and much more!
Biddeford Cultural and Heritage Center showcased some of their collections, featuring the music we all grew up with, bringing attention to their newest program, the Greater Biddeford – Saco Music Hall of Fame. Music is such an integral part of all cultures and heritage.
BCHC was able to provide a glimpse of what the cultural center is doing and has been up to for those who might not know what it is about and even found a few volunteers as a result.
Three door prizes were raffled off to attendees courtesy of Biddeford Parks and Rec, Dizzy Birds and Jewel of India.
The turnout was great, as well as the food. Thanks to Dizzy Birds for catering! It was amazing and an overall great time!
Thank you to all who made this possible and all who took the time to attend. It was nice meeting and seeing you all!
Your continued support of our organization is invaluable and greatly appreciated!
Our New Voices of Biddeford
The newest Voice of Biddeford is here and you don’t want to miss it!
Learn all about our beautiful Biddeford City Theater during this video tour provided by Mark Nahorney, Renee O’Neil, and Alyssa Rojecki Forcier, and facilitated by Tom Girard and Nicole Morin-Scribner.
BCHC Cultural Cuisine at RiverJam a BIG Success!
The BCHC Cultural Cuisine at RiverJam Fest was very popular. So much so in fact, that we ran out of food once more!
Thank you to all who helped to make this possible, our great cooks, outstanding volunteers, and visitors and community. Without your involvement and continued support, this would not have been possible.
Thank you Merci Gracias
Grazie ευχαριστώ Dankie
Shukran Obrigado Obrigada
Շնորհակալություն. Mamnountakek
Have you tried geocaching? BCHC is excited to be a part of the Adventure Lab app!
BCHC is excited to be a part of the Adventure Lab app! Here’s a fun activity to do with Museum in the Streets!
Geocaching is an outdoor recreational activity in which participants use a mobile device to visit places at specific locations all over the world.
Nancy Platt, an avid geocacher, built an interactive, location-based walking tour of the 30 Museum in the Streets locations using a phone application called Adventure Lab. You navigate to a location, in this case a Museum in the Streets sign, where you are prompted by the app to answer a question once you are within 50’ of the sign. The answer would be found by reading the MIS sign and is then entered into the app. After a person visits all 30 MIS locations, they will be able to find the bonus geocache which is a tag in the shape of the City of Biddeford logo.
There are over 50,000 travel adventures worldwide and many in our immediate area. The app is fun to have while traveling or just to see what is around you in Maine!
Please visit this site and see what geocaching is all about! If you think it looks like fun, please download the free app and start your geocaching adventure with BCHC!
https://www.geocaching.com/sites/adventure-lab/en/
Preserving the Past.... Look how far we've come!
In the beginning......how we started.
The Archives and Collections of BCHC are growing thanks to a wonderful team of volunteers and under the great leadership of committee chair and archivist, Anastasia Weigle, Ph.D.
Anastasia is a true gem and her leadership has been instrumental to the development of our archives and collections program as well as the building of a resource library with well over 1000 books in our database. We are truly fortunate to have her on board!
Things actually looked much worse when this journey started, but with perseverance and a little hard work, things are looking much better. We are moving forward and hope to be in a position to share our collections with others soon.
If you are interested in helping with archives and collections, please be sure to contact us via the email address, archives@biddefordcultural.org. We are currently looking for library help with organizing and cataloging the resource book collection.
And.... look at us today!
Thank You All For Your Support
Biddeford Cultural and Heritage Center would like to thank all those who support us during our fundraising events throughout the year, from the Annual Appeal, our GotSneakers Collection, the Vacationland Raffle, to the Flatbread Community Bake Day, and more!
You are all the glue that makes what we do possible. Without you and your continued support, the mission of the organization would not exist.
Be sure to sign up for our mailing list today to keep up with all the news and events.