BETHEL — The Mahoosuc Arts Council recently presented Outstanding Service Awards and added two members to its board.

Outstanding Service Awards were presented to board members of the Mahoosuc Arts Council at the 2014 annual meeting. For many years of dedicated volunteerism, awards were given to Kathy Hodsdon, Melanie Ellsworth and board Secretary Linda Stowell.

In addition, Hodsdon was voted to serve as the new vice chair, and Edison Quinatoa of Bethel and Dennis Camire of West Paris were each appointed to the board of directors.

A former professional musician from Quito, Ecuador, Quinatoa was a member the Philharmonic Orchestra in Quito. After six years of touring internationally, he began his teaching career at Colegio Menor, a private international school in Quito. 

Quinatoa is now working in the music department at Gould Academy, teaching courses and directing the band, and takes every chance he gets to play his flute, saxophone and as many other instruments as he can get his hands on.

Recently relocated to western Maine, Camire lives in West Paris, teaches at Central Maine Community College, and runs the nonprofit, “Maine Poetry Central,” which curates The Portland Poet Laureate Project and The Minute with the Muse Video-Poem series.

A graduate of the University of Maine at Farmington and Wichita State University, his poems have appeared in The Mid-American Review, Poetry East Magazine, The Spoon River Poetry Review and other small journals and online magazines. As a board member for Mahoosuc Arts, he hopes to organize and host poetry readings and workshops throughout the area.

For more information about Mahoosuc Arts, go to mahoosucarts.org or call 824-3575.

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