Rep. Dan Ankeles, D-Brunswick, welcomed Cecelia Smith, an eighth grader at Brunswick Junior High School, to the Legislature’s Transportation Committee on Tuesday, where she presented testimony in support of L.D. 21. Cecelia Smith testified in favor of naming a portion of the Maine Turnpike after Samantha Smith. Cecelia was inspired to do so after her class was recently assigned a research project where the students were asked to learn about and present on an American who has changed the country for the better. Her research subject was Samantha Smith, a bold and inquisitive 10-year-old Mainer who in 1982 wrote directly to then-leader of the Soviet Union, Yuri Andropov, imploring him not to start a nuclear war. Cecelia took this assignment to the next level, embodying the lessons learned from Samantha, by traveling to Augusta and testifying in honor of Samantha. Photo contributed by the Maine House Majority Office