To read the original newsletter click here.
To view related articles on Maine Senator Chloe Maxmin’s work in the Booth Bay Register click here.
Follow Chloe’s path on her official facebook page.
RECOGNIZING SCHOOL STAFF WHO GO ABOVE AND BEYOND
The Maine Department of Education recently began accepting nominations for the RISE Award! The Recognizing Inspirational School Employees (RISE) Award is a federal award passed by Congress and overseen by the U.S. Department of Education. It’s intended to honor and promote classified school employees who provide outstanding service. Maine DOE will put forward two finalists from Maine, who will then be in the running to be named the national recipient of the award!
A classified school employee is defined as an employee who works in any of the following occupational specialties:
- Paraprofessional
- Clerical and administrative services
- Transportation services
- Food and nutrition services
- Custodial and maintenance services
- Security services
- Health and student services
- Technical services
- Skilled trades (pre-kindergarten through high school)
This is an excellent way to recognize the dedicated, hardworking and caring individuals who go to work every day to ensure our students can learn to the best of their abilities. Anybody can nominate a school employee for this award, so if you know someone in these fields who has gone above and beyond, don’t hesitate!
The deadline to nominate a school employee is Wednesday, October 13, and you can do so by clicking here.
CELEBRATE PUBLIC LANDS DAY!
This Saturday, Sept. 25 is National Public Lands Day! Established in 1994 and held annually on the fourth Saturday of September, the day is the largest single-day volunteer event for public lands in the country and is also a fee-free day at our National Parks.
Maine’s public lands are a treasure and are a big part of what makes our state such a great place to live and visit. That’s why in the bipartisan biennial budget that we passed, I supported $40 million in funding for the Land for Maine’s Future program, which is dedicated to preserving land across the state for its natural and recreational value. These funds will ensure that generations to come will be able to explore and visit the most extraordinary parts of our state.
Foliage season has also begun now that cooler weather has arrived. Throughout the fall, the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry will provide updates, maps and weekly foliage reports based on the changing landscape. This is a great resource for folks who are passionate about one of New England’s greatest traditions: leaf peeping!
STANDING UP FOR OUR DEMOCRACY
Mainers take our duty to participate in our democracy seriously. Maine consistently leads the pack in voter turnout, with about 78 percent of eligible Maine voters casting ballots in the 2020 election. To make sure that Maine continues to be a bastion of democracy, I made campaign and election reform one of my priorities this past legislative session.
Last week, I shared how honored I was to have been awarded a perfect score by Democracy Maine for my votes to strengthen voter rights, fix our campaign finance system, modernize our elections and make our government more accountable to Maine people. I write more about this important work in my most recent column, which is published monthly in the Boothbay Register and Wiscasset Newspaper.
PROTECTING REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM
I also wrote recently about my disappointment and disgust at Texas’s new law that restricts abortion rights. Since then, I’ve proudly to joined 896 other state lawmakers in demanding the Supreme Court protect reproductive freedom and uphold 50 years of legal abortion in all 50 states as it decides the future of abortion rights in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case.
Texas is already showing us what a world without the protections of Roe v. Wade looks like — one where wealthier people can travel to get reproductive care while poorer, often Black, Latino, and Indigenous people are stripped of their rights. We can’t let that become the norm and endanger millions of pregnant women and people throughout our country.
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