Celebrating 20 years!
Thank you to the many attendees and sponsors of WMA's
20th Anniversary Community Dinner including:
Bangor Savings Bank Foundation, Kennebec Valley Council of Governments,
Inn at Winter's Hill, Unity Foundation, Heritage House Restaurant, Sugarloaf Mountain Corporation,
The West Wind Group, Franklin Savings Bank, Franklin Printing, Cabins to Castles, Mountain Counties Heritage, Ameriprise, Marble Family Farm, Sunday River, Main-Land Development Consultants,
Ridgewood Power Management,
and Cianbro.
And thank you to keynote speaker
Joel Haskard, Clean Energy Resource Teams (CERTs),
Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships,
St. Paul, Minnesota
(Click here for more about CERTs)
Thank you to ZEVULON who provided music for the evening.
Congratulations to Phillips Elementary School, winner of the 1st Jane deFrees Youth Rural Leaders Award and Piscataquis Tourism Task Force, winner of the Biennial King Cummings Leadership Award.
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King Cummings was instrumental in the founding of the Western Mountains Alliance. In 1987 he brought together business and community leaders to talk about economic and community development in western Maine. Their early work inspired the formation of an organization dedicated to improving the lives of people by providing educational opportunities, using natural resources wisely, developing leadership capacity and supporting a regional identity for the four counties of western Maine. |
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King was a native of western Maine and was among those who cut the first trails at Sugarloaf USA. He served on numerous boards, including the Maine Community Foundation and the Nature Conservancy. A successful businessman, King was known for being a genuinely civic person who worked behind-the-scenes on behalf of the people of rural Maine. He believed in bringing diverse viewpoints together to find solutions and was known for his ability to look at the region’s challenges with the big picture in mind. |
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Jane deFrees was a resident of Rumford Center and a founder member of the Western Mountains Alliance. She was know for putting her tolerance for alternative views, passion for the truth, and advocacy for fairness and equity for all people to work as a tireless community builder. Jane taught public school, operated an alternative summer school for youth, established Beacon House in Rumford, and was instrumental in bringing Tri-County Mental Health services to Oxford and Franklin County.
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During her lifetime served on numerous boards and committees, including President of the State Board of Education and the Chairperson of the Maine Task Force on Mental Health.
Jane believed strongly in every person's capacity to succeed and that people should contribute to the community they live in. In an article in the Sun Journal in 2000, Jane said of western Maine's future, that she believed with the entrepreneurial spirit and new technology, [western Maine] has a great future. "But people have to believe in it."
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For more information, email Kathleen Beauregard or by phone 207-778-3885.
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