The scenic byways include Routes 4 and 17, from Madrid to Byron, in the Rangeley Lakes; the Old Canada Road, Route 201, Solon to Jackman; Route 27 from Kingfield to Coburn Gore, and Route 26 from Newry to Grafton.

Before a large audience on September 12 at Portland's State Street Church, McNair read poems from Fire and other works. He was introduced by novelist Cathie Pelletier. The reading was sponsored by the Council's Maine Center for the Book and made possible by an award from the Center for the Book of the Library of Congress through the generosity of AT&T and the Carnegie Corporation.

Thoughtful Giving

Why do people give? Why do certain people give to certain causes but not others? Why do some give so much, others very little? Do we define a "gift' to include volunteering one's time and talents? Above all, what role have giving and serving played in creating American society?

These are some of the questions to be considered in reading and discussion groups throughout Maine over the next three years, thanks to a $250,000 grant to the Maine Humanities Council from the National Endowment for the Humanities. After a pilot year in Maine, the project will expand to include Georgia and Utah, with a potential audience of thousands of members of community organizations around the country.

Thoughtful Giving: Philanthropy as Civic Engagement is a scholar-led series of public conversations using history and literature to explore the ways in which individual acts of giving have shaped civil society in this country. The project grew out of the statewide discussions sponsored by the Council last October in response to the events of September 11 and earlier Council initiatives on civic leadership and philanthropy.

As many observers noted, Americans responded to September 11 with extraordinary generosity, in both charitable donations and offers of volunteer service. This new degree of civic engagement was clearly a response to a national emergency. But did it also reflect a deep need to re-connect with neighbors and communities? Or, once the moment has passed, are we going to return, in Robert Putnam's much-quoted phrase, to "bowling alone"?

The answer to that question is embedded in American social, cultural, and economic history. Thoughtful Giving aims to create a forum in which citizens can meet and reflect on this history in a series of text-centered discussions.

Readings will come from a new anthology, The Perfect Gjft: The Philanthropic Imagination in Poetry and Prose (Indiana University Press, 2002), by Amy A. Kass, who teaches humanities at the University of Chicago. Her selections range from Homer and the Bible to Andrew Carnegie and Eudora Welty. They are linked by a common thread: if we are continually faced with choices about whether and what to give, which factors shape our decision?

Starting this winter, the Council's Thoughtful Giving pilot project will involve a variety of community groups in Maine, including high school students, residents of a retirement home, and members of a service organization. They will attempt to link the readings with everyday realities in Maine, a state which reports one of the lowest per capita giving levels in the country.

In its second year, Thoughtful Giving will be available free of charge throughout Maine in the Council's popular Let's Talk About It reading and discussion series, which is co-sponsored by the Maine State Library. The project will also travel to Georgia and Utah, under the auspices of those states' humanities councils. They were invited to join because of very different patterns of philanthropy in their regions.

In the third year, a Thoughtful Giving website will allow general access to the project, including a resource guide for literature on philanthropy and volunteerism, making it possible for anyone to convene similar groups in other states.

Thoughtful Giving was described as an exemplary proposal' by one of the anonymous reviewers on the NEH's evaluation panel. "This is an unusual and fresh topic to tackle, potentially creating a fascinating dialogue that could have far-reaching consequences. On the one hand, the project has practical implications for society, and, on the other, it is deeply tied to American social history."