The summer crowds are gone, the fall foliage but a memory, and the year-long, community-wide celebration of the Acadia Centennial is going out with a bang, not a whimper.

Some of the hundreds of volunteers helping to get the carriage roads ready for winter during Take Pride in Acadia Day in 2011. (NPS Photo / D.R. Hunt)

Among the events still on the Acadia Centennial calendar to keep the celebration going between now and Dec. 31 (and beyond, especially with an Acadia Bicentennial Time Capsule to be opened a century from now):

• Take Pride in Acadia Day, the premier Friends of Acadia volunteer effort to get the carriage roads ready for the winter, on Nov. 5, registration required
• Screening of “Becoming Acadia: The Story of Acadia National Park,” a film by Dobbs Productions, narrated by former NBC News correspondent Jack Perkins, at Southwest Harbor Library on Nov. 19, free but registration required
• “Century One: Acadia” exhibit of 100 paintings by Kaitlyn Metcalf at Ellsworth Public Library from Nov. 7 – Jan. 7, with a presentation by the artist on Nov. 9
• Free admission to the Abbe Museum through Dec. 17, as a result of support from Machias Savings Bank
  

  Free 100-mile virtual Acadia Centennial Trek ends Dec. 31.

• “An Acadian Winter” presentation with photographer and seasonal park naturalist Bob Thayer, at Ellsworth Public Library on Dec. 8
• Free 100-mile virtual Acadia Centennial Trek with optional finisher’s medal available for purchase to help support the park, sponsored by Acadia on My Mind, ending on Dec. 31
• Acadia Bicentennial Time Capsule Dedication on Dec. 10, at the final gathering of Acadia Centennial Partners and Friends of Acadia during this Centennial year

Acadia Bicentennial Time Capsule to inspire future generations

For those of us who’ve come to know and love Acadia any time during its first 100 years, and want to share an idea of what should be put in the Bicentennial Time Capsule for the Acadia lovers 100 years hence, the Acadia Centennial Task Force is now taking suggestions. Ideas from the 450 Acadia Centennial Partners are especially welcome.

Because the time capsule is small – a stainless steel 22-inch cube designed to remain stable for a century – items can only be text or images on acid-free paper that is 8-1/2 x 11 inches or smaller, or items represented in digital form.

Already slated to be included in the time capsule: The Acadia Centennial Web site; Centennial coverage by the Mount Desert Islander; and video and audio of scores of Centennial events.

The entire Acadia Centennial Web site, including this historic photo of George B. Dorr and Charles W. Eliot, is among the items slated for the Acadia Bicentennial Time Capsule. (Image courtesy of Acadia Centennial Task Force)

To boost the chances of your idea being chosen by the Time Capsule Working Group, your e-mailed proposal should include a statement of 100 words or less describing your item and why it should be included; and a 100-word description of the item to be read by fans of Acadia in 2116, upon the occasion of the Acadia Bicentennial Time Capsule being opened.

Don’t think you’ll be around in 2116 for the opening of the Bicentennial Time Capsule?

Even if you can’t be there in 2116 for the opening of the Acadia Bicentennial Time Capsule, you can visit it on display at the Bar Harbor branch of Bar Harbor Bank & Trust. (Image courtesy of Acadia Centennial Task Force)

That’s OK. You can visit it in the lobby of the Bar Harbor branch of Bar Harbor Bank & Trust, an Acadia Centennial Partner and Signature Sponsor. The polished stainless steel capsule will be nestled in a glass-and-cherrywood case, with a framed explanatory display above it.

Stopping in to visit the Bicentennial Time Capsule and taking a photo by it can become part of your Acadia tradition.

You can tell your children and grandchildren, nieces and nephews, to tell their kids and grandkids, nieces and nephews, and so on. And perhaps a future descendant will be there at the opening of the Acadia Bicentennial Time Capsule.

That way, your love of Acadia, and the memories of your having been part of the Acadia Centennial celebration live on. And that way, you celebrate our past, and inspire our future.