Julia Coady is a familiar face in town. Not just because she has run the Greene Village Day celebration since 2021, but because of how she builds community all year.

Coady, 36, brought back the scholastic book fair to Greene, restored hiking trails and has made a traditional town parade possible every summer. Recently, she was also a poll worker.

Coady wants others to have the sense of community she had as a young girl in Connecticut with working-class parents who made time to connect with their neighbors.

“If you build it, they will come,” Coady believes. “I’m trying to emulate that here in Greene and in the surrounding towns, especially with everything going on after the pandemic. Times haven’t been easy.”

Julia Coady is an organizer of Greene Village Day, a festival and parade held to celebrate the community and the history of Greene. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Coady moved to Maine for a job after college a little over a decade ago and fell in love with a Mainer. They decided to call Greene home. Now a mother of two, Coady’s dedication to the Greene community has grown after having kids.

“I want to be a good role model for my children and others, because I want people to see that if you put in the work, you can just do so many amazing things,” Coady said. “Seeing people happy, seeing people getting something out of community events and gatherings like that is everything to me.”

Anna Swiatocha, secretary at the Greene Town Office, called Coady a “huge asset” to the community.

“She does so much for the town and really works her butt off to accomplish what she’s out to do or been asked to do,” Swiatocha said. “She helps at the school. She does stuff for the town. She works with our athletic association. She’s involved with the Androscoggin Grange No. 8. She’s pretty much everywhere. I don’t know how she does it all, to be frank.”

“I can’t do it all on my own. It takes a village,” Coady said. “And that’s what I love about Greene: We are a village.”