Motor Booty Affair will perform a free community concert at 7:30 p.m. in North Conway's Schouler Park May 18 as part of the valley's Be Kind Fest, May 17 through 19. The Jeremy Dean Band will open the show at 6:30 p.m. (TOM EASTMAN PHOTO)SPRING GREETINGS FROM THE “Kindness Capital of New England,” where everything from butterfly releases and disco music will be celebrated as part of the valley's second “Be Kind Festival Weekend.”

It looks as though the weather will be kind to all of us as at that as we prepare to congregate in North Conway's Schouler Park Saturday evening, wearing our bling, disco clothing and Afro wigs as Motor Booty Affair comes to town for a free concert beginning at 7:30 p.m.

Kudos to WMWV 93.5-FM and Magic 104 for sponsoring the free show, which is to begin at 6:30 p.m. with a performance by Jeremy Dean's always excellent (and danceable) Dream Machine.

The Be Kind Fest kicks off Friday at 6:30 p.m. with a talk at Kennett High's Loynd Auditorium by motivational speaker Michael Chase, founder of the Kindness Center. This will be his third appearance before local students. His talk will be sponsored by Settlers' Green OVP, MWV Kiwanis and Old Navy, and is to be followed by a social hour under the Kindness Tent at Schouler Park, according to Be Kind Fest organizer Michael Kline.

(Be advised that the advertisement for Chase's Friday evening talk has a caveat saying that the subjects may not be appropriate for children under 12).

The late Ian Meserve (far left) is shown with Chas Riopel, Mike Jenne and Tom Eastman at the Ham Arena after playing the first game in the Ian's Endless Hockey Game Fundraiser in winter 2012. Meserve, 44, passed from cancer May 5. (KYM CAMPFIELD PHOTO)
By Tom Eastman

CONWAY — The valley lost another good one Sunday.

“SkIan” — Cranmore ski instructor, North Conway assistant golf pro, Kennett freshman football coach, umpire, referee, ardent Ham Arena hockey player/team captain, and Horsefeathers barkeep — Ian Charles Meserve was all of those things, as well as a dad and husband. He succumbed after a valiant fight against metastatic melanoma cancer May 5.

He was 44.

A Mass of Christian Burial was held at Our Lady of the Mountains Catholic Church Thursday morning, followed by a reception at Cranmore.

As a teammate and fellow past cancer battler, it is hard to see Ian go at such a young age. He embodied the best of the valley's active lifestyle, from Cranmore's sunny Meister race slope and race course, to North Conway Country Club's verdant links and Kennett High's Gary Millen Stadium.

As a bartender, everyone loved him.

His enthusiasm on and off the ski slopes, golf course, gridiron and Ham Arena ice was uplifting to all who had the pleasure of knowing him.

These buds are for you  ... and you ... and you, and ....

After a brisk April, May blossomed beautifully with warm temperatures and shades of bright green and yellows this week, all set against the beautiful white-decked splendor of Mount Washington, where the spring ski season continues in Tuckerman. (Thursday's U.S. Forest Service snow rangers advisory warns of the following dangers: falling ice, undermined snow, and crevasses. Visit www.mountwashingtonavalanchecenter.org for the scoop).

Local businesswoman and teaching chef Steffani Adaska (above) of the Bernerhof Inn Cooking School is shown at Fenway Park last Sunday, with a sign showing North Conway’s support for victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. Steffani and family had tickets for Friday night’s game, but it was canceled due to the lock-down in the hunt for the suspect, so they got to go Sunday instead. A memorial walk/run is being held by the White Mountain Milers April 27 at 10 a.m. at Purity Spring Resort in East Madison. Participants are asked to wear Boston sports attire and to make donations to One Fund Boston. (COURTESY PHOTO)“Those we love don't go away, they walk beside us everyday. Unseen, unheard but always near. Still loved, still missed, and held so dear.”
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Thursday marked a strange and sad anniversary for we Eastmans, as it was the fifth anniversary of the passing of brother, husband, dad, uncle and community leader R. Stephen “Steve” Eastman (July 5, 1949-April 25, 2008).

Five years? It doesn't seem possible, more than one friend has commented, including Roy “The Skiing Dj” Prescott, who dedicated a playing of Bob Dylan's “Forever Young” on the airwaves of WMWV 93.5-FM during “The Morning Show” with newsman Gair MacKenzie Thursday morning.

The good and light that Steve brought to this community during his 34 years here continues to shine on.

That thought occurred to me during the September 2008 “Tournament of Mud” Parade, the first held after his passing. As the Muddas team did their amusing and first-place-winning “Mud Thriller” skit there in front of the North Conway Train Station, I remember smiling inside, appreciating the mirth that Steve had brought to the valley when he co-founded Mud Bowl in 1975, and the Tournament of Mud Parade in 1981.

I looked to the heavens, and silently said, “See, brother? The fun and good that you started lives on.”

Mud Bowl ... The Spring Shampagne Stampede scavenger hunts in North Conway in Aprils of old ... Winterfest ice skating derbies on the Schouler Park skating rink ... Steve, in his role as publisher and co-founder of The Mountain Ear, and as a chamber of commerce member, had a way of bringing fun to this community, as if it were just a big college campus, just as he had done when he was student body president at Plymouth State College.

He always said you could get away with a lot of things in this town if it was for the right cause.

His motto was: “Love everyone. Hold no grudges. Good deeds do count.”

That motto is on his tombstone in Kearsarge, and words to that effect are also engraved onto a boulder that was moved to the top of Hog Coliseum the fall after his death, during the dedication of Steve Eastman Memorial Field at the community-built, world class mud football stadium behind the North Conway Community Center.

As reader John Macdonald noted when I posted a notice on the fifth anniversary of Steve's passing on Facebook Thursday morning, “Best motto ever.”

His life was short in years, but his years were not short in life. His best achievement? Being a great dad to his and Sarah's children, Emily and Grant.

Steve made his mark. And so can we. Let's all try and do some good for someone in Steve's memory.

•••
BOSTON MEMORIAL: In a similar vein, hats off to all the first responders who bravely gave of themselves in the Boston Marathon bombing aftermath. It's only been 11 days, but look at how the world has changed, and how we've all had to take stock of the good and evil that exists in this world.
We can all show our support for the victims, medical personnel and law enforcement by participating in a Boston Marathon Memorial Walk and Run, a 2.62-kilometer event set to be held at 10 a.m. April 27 at Purity Spring Resort in East Madison. Registration is at 9 a.m. at Milt's Place by the main parking lot.

All are encouraged to wear something with the word “Boston” on it, notes Paul Kirsch of the White Mountain Milers.

“This event is welcome to all.  This will be a celebration of all that is good in our community so that we may send good vibes to Boston,” notes Paul.

The event will be free, but donations will be accepted for One Fund Boston, the fund which has already raised $20 million for victims.   

For further information, visit www.whitemountainmilers.com.

See you there!