Courtney Lee Courtesy photo
South Portland High School graduating senior, Courtney Lee, is the recipient of the 2021 South Portland Land Trust scholarship. Lee exhibited a passion for sustainability through participation in the Beekeeping, Environmental and Outing clubs at the high school. She plans to major in environmental science.
South Portland Land Trust offers a $500 scholarship every year to one graduating South Portland High School senior. Recipients are chosen by the South Portland High School Scholarship Committee.
Rotary Club awards scholarships
For more than 30 years, the South Portland/Cape Elizabeth Rotary Club has awarded $1,000 each to students who demonstrate exceptional service both in their schools and communities.
The name of the scholarship is the Rotary Club of South Portland/Cape Elizabeth Service Above Self Scholarship. The program has a long-standing mission to acknowledge good character.
This year’s recipients in Cape Elizabeth are Julia Torre, Swetha Palaniappan, Hannah Liess, Finn McQueeney, Lila Gaudrault and Jinya Fisher-LaPlante.
South Portland recipients are Connor Dobson, Fiona Stawarz and Kyle Rand.
Also receiving a scholarship is Sasha Garland-Dore from Connections Academy. Garland-Dore is a Cape Elizabeth resident.
Farm Service Agency Committee nominations sought
Farmers and ranchers have until Aug. 2 to nominate candidates to serve on the Cumberland/York County Farm Service Agency Committee. The U.S. Department of Agriculture accepts nominations each year in certain local administrative areas for individuals to serve on the committees.
“The Aug. 2 deadline is quickly approaching,” said Laurie Thiboutot, executive director for the agency in Cumberland/York County, in a news release. “Committee members play a critical role in the day-to-day operations of the agency and are vital to how FSA carries out disaster programs, as well as conservation, commodity and price support programs. This is your opportunity to have a say in how federal programs are delivered in our county.”
This year, Cumberland/York County is accepting nominations for administrative areas 3 and 4, which include the towns of Cornish, Parsonsfield, Limerick, Newfield, Acton, Shapleigh, Waterboro, Lebanon, Lyman, Dayton, Biddeford, Saco, Old Orchard Beach, Scarborough, Cape Elizabeth, South Portland, Portland, Gorham and Westbrook.
Agricultural producers who participate or cooperate in a USDA program, and reside in the administrative area up for election this year, may be nominated for candidacy for the county committee. A cooperating producer is someone who has provided information about their farming or ranching operation to the farm service, even if they have not applied or received program benefits.
According to the news release, “Nationwide, more than 7,700 dedicated members of the agricultural community serve on FSA county committees. The committees are made up of three to 11 members who serve three-year terms. Individuals may nominate themselves or others and qualifying organizations may also nominate candidates. The USDA encourages minority producers, women and beginning farmers or ranchers to nominate, vote and hold office.”
Producers should contact the Cumberland/York County office how to get involved. To be considered, a producer must sign an FSA-669A nomination form. The form and other information about FSA county committee elections are available at fsa.usda.gov/elections. Election ballots will be mailed to eligible voters beginning Nov. 1.
South Portland Land Trust receives Community Outreach Grant
South Portland Land Trust received a $12,500 grant from the Davis Conservation Foundation to support its outreach efforts with South Portland’s diverse communities in the city’s West End. The grant, Digging In: Engaging Diverse Communities in Conservation, enables the trust to build capacity to create meaningful opportunities to connect with community members typically excluded from conservation work.
According to a news release, “As Maine’s fourth largest and third most diverse city, South Portland has historically been committed to open space preservation. However, it is not immune to the same challenges of many coastal communities, including ongoing development pressure and an increasingly limited number of parcels of undisturbed field, forest, wetlands, and watershed within city limits, many located along sensitive and historically mismanaged watersheds, like Long Creek, Trout Brook and Barberry Creek.”
For nearly 35 years, the land trust has primarily worked “behind the scenes” to negotiate easements with the city, support and facilitate real estate transactions, and host clean-up events on their network of trails. A strategic planning process conducted in 2020 in collaboration with the National Park Service and Southern Maine Conservation Collaborative, highlighted the building of new pathways for community members to engage with the land trust’s work and mission beyond the day-to-day usage of trust properties. One of the key commitments the land trust board has made is to focus its energies on community engagement, with a particular emphasis on reaching the city’s more diverse communities.
“We are thrilled that the Davis Conservation Fund sees the critical importance of this work,” said Alex Redfield, land trust board member and Fundraising Committee chair, in an email. “As a land trust, we are committed to ensuring that our trails and lands are accessible to all community members and this grant is a terrific first step in that direction.”
According to the news release, the grant allows the land trust to: create and host a series of workshops on working across culture and difference (open to all interested partners and land trusts); develop and host three community events on South Portland Land Trust’s West End trails, all of which drain to the embattled Long Creek watershed and are located less than a mile from South Portland’s largest and most diverse housing complexes at Redbank; support the trust’s program coordinator in outreach efforts to these communities. Outreach materials, including maps, event flyers, etc., will be translated into French, Somali and Portuguese.
South Portland Land Trust will announce workshop and community event details later this summer. For more information, email Michelle Smith, program coordinator, at michelle@sopolandtrust.org.
South Portland Public Library hosts Destination Storytime
South Portland Public Library has brought back story time on location at Bug Light Park in South Portland.
According to a library news release, “Destination Storytime is held on Tuesdays at 10:30 a.m. and will for the foreseeable future as our outside program space will be out of commission this summer due to construction.”
Destination Storytime will meet near the Liberty Ship in Bug Light Park and will include stories and songs. All ages are welcome. The library will have story time blankets available to sit on but participants are welcome to bring their own.
South Portland Parks and Recreation has helped the library take story time on the road.
For more information about Destination Storytime, call Youth Services at 767-7660, ext. 3 or visit SouthPortlandLibrary.com.
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