Our Maine Street's Aroostook Issue 11: Winter 2012 | Page 35

his frustrations and his fears. He drank heavily until he became an alcoholic. He joined the AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) in 1981 and has been sober since then. He picked up strength and became a prominent businessman, owning his company known as “Corbin Services,” a catering business that he owned for over twenty-five years. He volunteered his time to numerous organizations and worked his way up to being director of the Lions Club for two years, director for the Chamber of Commerce for four years, chairmanship as town selectmen for 6 of his 12 years, and director of the Aroostook County Action Program (ACAP) for five years. He served on the Advisory Committee and the Legislative Policy Committee of the Maine Municipal Association and was part of the Northern Maine Regional Planning Commission. He received the honors of Citizen of the Year, Young Man of America, and received the State of Maine Jefferson Award. He also was affiliated with the Cancer Society for the District County de Madawaska, New Brunswick, Canada and has raised thousands of dollars for them. What makes Dick an outstanding individual is that he accomplished all these even though he has been stricken with Hodgkin’s disease since 1969. But all through his dark years and low points of his cancer existence, Dick made a pact with God that if God would spare his life for as long as he could, he would build a special place for cancer victims to go to. He kept his Promise and started building in 1991. He named it “Mizpah,” a Hebrew word that means “A place to help one another.” Mizpah is a sanctuary place located up in Northern Maine in Aroostook County in a town known as Grand Isle. Over the years Mizpah has grown and became a non-profit status, has a seven-member board of directors in place and is valued close to a quarter of a million dollars. It is a place to gather, help, support, and to comfort each other. They come to experience the emotional bond between people in hopes of lifting the pain of grief. Mizpah’s family is big and covers visitors from all over Canada and the United States. The grounds are opened from May to October and is being visited by over five thousand visitors per season all FREE OF CHARGE. Over twelve buildings are situated on a fourteen-acre lot with an additional seventy-five acres with marvelous landscaping for people to enjoy. A reflecting pond stocked with rainbow trout is amongst the buildings overlooking the Cancer Survivor Wall, dedicating past and living cancer people. The Wall is also utilized to honor non-cancer people in memory of WINTER 2012 Mizpah 35