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DKG Practice/Program

wagon ride were just some of the many highlights. Maine’s Rena Kearney recalled that she had often
brought her fourth and fifth graders for field trips to Kings Landing from their school in northern Maine.
Joan Somerville of New Brunswick observed:
My best memory of the Kings Landing conference was the large number of Maine sisters who
attended the event. It was memorable in that we were able to resume our cross-border tradition after
COVID and to experience the impact of personal growth and commitment to the Purposes of Delta
Kappa Gamma.
The evening was spent at the Fredericton Inn, the lodgings for the night. A delicious dinner, engaging
speakers, and wonderful conversations among members from both countries were relished by all. Attendees
enjoyed the presentation by the first guest speaker, Jacques Poitras, CBC political reporter and author
of five nonfiction books, including Imaginary Line: Life on an Unfinished Border (Poitras, 2011). He
presented the fascinating history involving changes in the boundary of New Brunswick and Maine. The
border between Maine and New Brunswick was not settled until the Webster-Ashburton Treaty was signed
in 1842. Hendrickson, Maine State President in 2019, recalls that she was privileged to sit next to Poitras:
We talked about the connection between Maine and New Brunswick. Living in Aroostook County, I
have heard many people, including Rena Kearney, say they were going to visit friends “over home.”
When the Webster-Ashburton Treaty was agreed to, determining the border between the United
States and Canada, many families found themselves in “different countries.”
The second speaker, Anne Mitton, a DKG colleague from Beta Chapter, Fredericton, shared “Reflections
of New Brunswick,” highlighting her own humorous personal experiences relating to New Brunswick
inventions and historical “firsts.”
The professional development session involved all DKG members in small-group discussions on
mutually relevant topics, such as membership, member
participation, leadership, mentorship, and fundraising.
The insights gained and shared were valuable sources
of information and suggestions that group members
took back to their respective chapters.
Sunday morning featured a visit to the School
Days Museum in Fredericton. Highlights included a
replica of an early 20th-century one-room schoolhouse
complete with the rules on the board, recordings of
interviews from past provincial educators, and displays
of early textbooks, historic classroom materials, and
various educational artifacts. A New Brunswick
teacher commented that she had a teacher who wore
the same outfit that was on display in the museum
classroom, and a Maine member recalled that she had
taught from the home economics textbook that was
exhibited. Participants enjoyed reliving memories of
their past educational experiences by traveling back to
a time when they and their predecessors were taught.
This museum experience enriched the participants’
belief that, as Robert Penn Warren, American poet and

Maine State Organization President Priscilla novelist, stated, “History cannot give us a program for
McFarland and New Brunswick State the future, but it can give us a fuller understanding of
Organization President Dianne Caron reach ourselves, and of our common humanity, so that we
across borders in 2023! can better face the future” (Warren, 1946).

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