As we grapple with the horrific events unfolding around and before us, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and powerless. While we can’t single-handedly solve the myriad crises before us, we can gather the courage to see and move beyond hurt, discrimination and rage. We are reminded of everyday people in Maine who have done just that — modeled humility, empathy and respect for others as they do the messy work of building a future for all of us.
These are individuals who, for the most part, have no special advantages conferred by positions of power but who see gaps and challenges and do what they can to fill them. Persistence is a signature attribute – they are people who have vision and who embrace the long view.
Laura Benedict, left, owner of The Red Barn in Augusta, hugs her new friend, Paula White, of Lewiston. Benedict brought the restaurant’s food truck to Lewiston to raise funds for the Families and Victims Fund for those affected by the Oct. 25 mass shootings at Just-In-Time Recreation and Schemengees Bar & Grille.Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal
Among them was a friend we just lost: Lois Galgay Reckitt. She began over 50 years ago quietly advocating for domestic violence victims. Reckitt became both a relentless advocate for women and an early leader in the LGBTQ+ community, fighting for equality at the state and national level. She embraced unpopular causes – domestic violence, women’s rights, sex trafficking – but her commitment to press forward never wavered and she never hesitated to engage with those who resisted. While in the Maine Legislature, her resilience was often tested, but her dedication never faltered.
Both Wayne Newell, a Passamaquoddy educator, and Allen Sockabasin, a Passamaquoddy tribal leader, rose above childhoods of persistent poverty and racism to doggedly pursue their passion for preserving tribal language and cultural traditions. Although both are now deceased, their legacies not only inspire and educate coming generations but cement native language and cultural traditions in state history.
Newell celebrated the arts of native music and storytelling, helping to create a tribal dictionary and a tribal language writing system while writing numerous books in his native Passamaquoddy language. Sockabasin, too, recognized the power of music and native language to build Passamaquoddy culture. He developed a phonetic language system for teaching a new generation of native speakers after finding fewer than 25 native speakers in Indian Township. He also created a 19,000-word dictionary for the Passamaquoddy and Maliseet languages in collaboration with linguists, archivists, educators and tribal members.
Laura Benedict, owner of Red Barn in Augusta, is a businesswoman and a recovering alcoholic who decided to give back. The Red Barn is a very successful restaurant now, but her struggles with alcoholism put the business in jeopardy of closing many times. She turned her life around through rehab in 2014, declaring that recovery and authenticity now fuels her business. A legend in Augusta, Benedict has raised over $4 million for veterans, elder care facilities and other community organizations while also providing free meals to nursing and veterans’ homes across Maine.
Portland Ovations Executive and Artistic Director Aimée Petrin believes in the power of live performance to celebrate the creativity and brilliance of regional, national and worldwide diversity. Grounded in a commitment to anti-racism, Petrin tirelessly pursues Ovations’ quest to awaken and deepen a regional and statewide appreciation of cultural diversity by bringing performers from the far reaches of the world, and those closer to home, to the Portland stage. Ensuring that performances reach the broadest spectrum of people is paramount in this quest; last year 130 events, many free, were viewed by over 10,000 students and 40,000 audience members. “Imagining the possibility and taking the leap” is the promise she brings to this work.
“Home is where the heart is.” For over 30 years, Maine’s greatest advocate for unhoused – homeless – people has been Mark Swann, director of Preble Street. He has spent three decades advocating for people who have nowhere else to turn, providing supports to vulnerable individuals struggling with a range of health, social and relational challenges. The work is increasingly complex: partnerships and collaboration are key, especially as the numbers of unhoused people climbs higher. “All of us are invested in creating a better Maine” says Swann, as he moves into a fourth decade of work that is “not for the faint of heart.”
Education, the adage goes, is the great equalizer. But if you are a poor or low-income single parent, beginning that journey is neigh impossible. Until you encounter Moriah Geer, Moxie Case Coach at Maine Equal Justice, who a decade ago found herself homeless, living in a domestic violence shelter with two small children. To move her family from poverty and trauma to greater stability, she enrolled in college, obtained public benefits and spent eight years navigating an unfriendly system. Through the Parents as Scholars program, she eventually earned her Bachelor’s and Master of Social Work degrees. She now works with people to navigate the public benefits system, advocating for them to access needed help so they don’t have to go through what she did. Education was her pathway out of poverty.
If there is a theme uniting these individuals, it is pushing on — creating hope and building community even as people, experiences and events push against them. We are grateful for their work, fraught with formidable challenges we know, but inspirational as we gather our own courage to move forward, with hopefulness, in these turbulent times.
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