Mose Price and his wife Cindy moved to Harpswell in 2008, retiring in 2009, and he has been an active member of the town from the start.
He serves on three different town committees, participates in the Harpswell Community Players, and has volunteered as a Kedger for the Harpswell Anchor since we relaunched in 2020.
According to the dictionary, to “kedge” is to move (a ship) by hauling on a rope fastened to an anchor that has been dropped some distance from it. So a “Kedger” is someone who volunteers to assist the Anchor in many ways: preparing our subscriptions, staffing our merchandise table in the summer and helping with events. Recently they’ve started a program to host a salon-series discussion group, to mail extra copies of obituaries to grieving families, and to send welcome messages to new Harpswell residents.
Mose has become one of the leaders of this collegial group, training new members and schlepping all five hundred subscriptions to the post office every month. One time Mose even used his truck to move all of our office supplies into a storage unit in Cooks Corner!
When asked why he volunteers for the Anchor, Mose says “It’s become a strong, integral part of the Harpswell community. It’s become much more inclusive, and I really like that it provides local news. I read every one of those in-depth articles, word for word.”
One recent afternoon I sat down with Mose to talk about the importance of local news. He thinks of local coverage as a public good, and something that everyone should support. He told me his wife Cindy put it in a different way: “Harpswell is a community that helps itself. HAH (Harpswell Aging at Home) is a good example of that, and so is the Anchor. The paper provides information we need to help ourselves. Like the Community Calendar – that section can go on for pages – and it encourages people to get out, get connected.”
As the paper is published by a nonprofit organization, we don’t have to rely solely on advertising to support our operations. Mose understands that that ad-based business model has run its course, and that’s why so many local news outlets have closed.
“But in order to succeed, the community needs to fill in those gaps that ad revenue leaves,” Mose adds. “We have to make sure the paper continues, to read it, to learn new things. You have to keep your mind going all the time or you’ll just get real old real fast.”
