Jana Burgoyne selects roses Sunday, Feb. 13, while making a Valentine’s Day arrangement for a customer at The Bankery & Skowhegan Fleuriste in downtown Skowhegan. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

Members of the United Steelworkers Local 9 join with others during a rally Tuesday near the Sappi paper mill in Skowhegan. The union’s contract with the company expired in August and workers are pushing for a new contract with higher wages and better benefits. Michael G. Seamans/Morning Sentinel

Paige Reed surveys the crowd of classmates at Erskine Academy that greeted her Tuesday afternoon when she arrived at the China school. The senior is currently battling cancer and students raised over $14,000 to assist her family as she receives treatment in Boston, according to the school’s headmaster. Andy Molloy/Kennebec Journal

Waterville’s Keira Gilman is comforted by Mount View head coach Mark Cooper after the Purple Panthers lost in a Class B North girls basketball preliminary game Tuesday in Waterville. Michael G. Seamans/Morning Sentinel

Lewis Mendall moves one screwdriver with his knee to move floor pieces into alignment Tuesday while using another to tighten a bolt holding down the floor at the Augusta Civic Center, in preparation for the annual high school basketball tournament. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

Special Olympics skier Jon Carroll, 32, of the Momentum Windham team, pushes away from the start of the 50-meter race Tuesday during the Maine Special Olympics Cross-Country Skiing competition at Quarry Road Trails in Waterville. About 40 competitors took part in the event. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

A customer exits a barbershop Thursday onto a sidewalk covered with melting ice and snow in Gardiner. Temperatures across Maine rose into the mid-50s. Andy Molloy/Kennebec Journal

Dakota Turcotte packs after a day of ice fishing at Lake George Regional Park in Canaan on Thursday. Michael G. Seamans/Morning Sentinel

An Eastern Bluebird on Sunday with a berry in Richmond. The bird is recovering territory in Maine and is often considered a harbinger of spring. Andy Molloy/Kennebec Journal