The gravitational pull of the full moon is stronger than Klara Tammany thought. 

The Center for Wisdom’s Women executive director posted information about a singing circle that would be held once a month on the full moon.  

“We were expecting maybe a dozen women,” Tammany said. “We counted 24.”

Women from as far away as Bangor joined hands and sang as the wolf moon arched overhead. 

“The purpose is just to get women together and sing,” Pat Gardiner of Lewiston said. 

Gardiner is an ordained interfaith chaplain who interned at the women’s drop-in center and never left. “It’s an incredibly special place,” she said. 

Gardiner is one of seven volunteer “companions” at the center. A companion equates to a “good listener,” Tammany, the center’s only paid staff member, said. “They are the core that keeps this place running.”

Tammany said that adding a singing element to the center has been in the works for a long time, “because it’s a good excuse to get women together.”

“With all these women, nobody cares if I sing very well,” Brenda Akers of Lewiston said.

“Anybody can do this. We sing only simple songs that are easy to learn,” Gardiner said. 

The intention of the circle is to draw more diversity to the center. 

“This is not just for at-risk women,” said Tammany, who is hoping to pull women into the center from all walks of life. Local business owners sat hand-in-hand with women with background issues during the first two full-moon singing circles. 

“If we just get women in the door, they buy into it,” Tammany said. They either come for support or they come to contribute.

Gardiner lived in Brunswick when she offered her services as chaplain and interned at the center. She moved to Lewiston so she could help more. “I feel very privileged to be here.”

Three Catholic nuns opened the center inside a former laundry room of a children’s orphanage in 1999. Volunteers took over with fiscal sponsorship from Trinity Episcopal Church in 2008. Thirty-two volunteers logged 2,428 hours to assist with 2,789 individual visits in 2012. 

“We are growing solidly, slowly,” said Tammany, who points out that a religious affiliation is nonexistent at the center. “You can be any faith or none.” 

“We are starting our fifth year here. No one thought we could make it,” Tammany said.

The women pulled in by the full moon proved them wrong, “It said to me that it’s possible,” Tammany said. “Every full moon, we are going to sing.”

The next singing circle will be March 27.