13 Oct I say goodbye, you say hello!
Was it really only five years ago this fall that the fires out West tinted the sun rising over the ocean here beside the coast of Maine a sinister shade of scarlet which so frightened me that I vowed to find a way to fight the climate crisis? Only a brief blink of time since I reached out to friends to see what we could do to fight climate change, and together we formed FreeportCAN and envisioned the task of educating and supporting ourselves and our neighbors to live in a way that supports life on the planet by reducing our use of fossil fuels?
Back then we weren’t sure what kind of resistance an organization like ours might encounter. Back then many people in town weren’t talking about the climate crisis and the local municipal Freeport Sustainability Advisory Board, FSAB, was focused on recycling and not climate. Town Council members were not in agreement about making carbon reduction a priority.
In the four years since this organization was birthed, resistance to talking about climate change in this community has drifted away like an early morning cloud and the town has made reducing carbon for itself and its citizens a priority. FreeportCAN has become a proper 501c3 with a mighty Steering Committee, a stellar website and hundreds of followers and, over time, hundreds of volunteers. We’ve had renewable energy workshops and re-fashion shows and locally-sourced farm dinners. We’ve sponsored and run the weekly Farmers Market and proposed successful changes to our building codes and produced a slick Green Guide for low-impact shopping. Saving Planet Earth signs dot our backroads. The Town Council applied for and was awarded a state Climate Action grant to fund a Town Climate Action Plan which has been finalized and approved.
Four years. They have flown by like the hummingbirds outside my window. And like the hummingbirds, it is time for me to leave my perch as leader of this organization and hand it over to new (and younger) leaders who can refresh the organization with energy, new directions and schemes.
Sadly, our new leaders are also poised on a difficult edge and face cold and unpredictable headwinds. Despite overwhelming agreement among scientists all over the world, this administration has called the climate crisis a hoax and has ordered places like Acadia National Park to remove all signs that make any reference to the climate crisis. The cycle of denial is recurring, denial birthed in part, I believe, as a push-back on our successes. This is a time for stubborn resolve and renewed commitment.
I want to thank all of you in the community for all you have so generously contributed to our work. I want to thank you for your kindness to me, your openness to my enthusiasm and passion this work. For years as a psychotherapist I worked in secret behind closed doors to produce change in individuals and couples. The shift to working in public, on the other side of the door, where I was no longer the expert in the room, was swift and dramatic and dizzying, but I have learned so much from this late-life walk on the wild side with all of you. Thank you and goodbye. I am still here at the end of the long dirt road I live on and will look forward to encountering you all out and about while continuing to do work with FreeportCAN around climate resilience and even solar balcony panels.
And now, ladies and gentlemen, I want to present you with two of FreeportCAN’s shining lights: Judy Wood and Laura Hench. Judy and Laura will co-facilitate FreeportCAN this year and will help navigate the direction of change this organization will put in its compass for this next phase of our work.
So I say goodbye and Judy and Laura say hello.
– Kathleen
Hello from Judy and Laura!
As fall starts to really show its glory, the change in the seasons is also an appropriate moment for FreeportCAN to “turn over a new leaf”. We’re making some exciting changes that will help us grow stronger as an organization, and help us focus our energies where they’ll be most effective.
After almost four years of incredible leadership, Kathleen is stepping down as Coordinator. Thankfully, she’s not going anywhere and will continue to be right here working with us! Thank you, Kathleen, for all the energy, inspiration and hard work you’ve brought to this group! We intend to continue the path of progress and passion you’ve set.
We’re excited to be carrying on the important work of FreeportCAN as Co-Coordinators for the coming year. A little background on us.
Laura has called Freeport home since 1990, and is a retired science teacher at Brunswick Junior High, and the mother of three grown children. Before moving to Maine, she worked for an energy conservation engineering firm in Boston, and prior to that she earned her degree in energy conservation management from the University of Vermont. Respecting and preserving nature has always been important to her, but the importance and urgency of living sustainably has truly amplified over the past decade as climate change becomes ever more obvious.
Judy has lived in Freeport since 1994, and is a marketing professional, the mother of two, and grandmother to two. A strong believer in the power of individual action, she’s worked on a number of town boards and organizations, including Freeport Conservation Trust, Freeport Design Review Board, and the Planning Board for 7 years. She’s driven by the imperative that we all must learn to live sustainably in our community, so that we leave a livable world for future generations.
We both have been involved with FreeportCAN since its inception, and continue to be motivated by its grassroots approach of empowering and inspiring individuals and local government to take action. We’re eager to continue moving ahead with everyone who has brought us so far, as well as collaborate with local organizations in and around Freeport who are also striving to make meaningful change.
Thank you for all you do! We’re looking forward to continuing our work together!
– Judy and Laura