PMA Magazine

Being Penobscot, Sarah Sockbeson saw baskets in museums and family homes. She was told stories about her great-grandmother who was a basketmaker in the early 1900s. She wanted to be a part of this tradition, but the techniques were not passed down in her family. Then in 2004, she apprenticed with Jennifer Neptune as part of the Maine Arts Commission Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. She showed Sarah how to split ash splints, prepare materials, and to do the traditional techniques necessary to weave ash and sweetgrass baskets.

Vien Dobui was born in Virginia under the Year of the Dog and raised in California. He is the co-owner and chef of CÔNG TỬ BỘT, a restaurant located in a gentrifying neighborhood of Portland, Maine. Often described as “Vietnamese” or “Asian”, CÔNG TỬ BỘT strives to explore preconceived notions of race, gender, and equity. The restaurant has been recognized by the James Beard Foundation and other local and national press.

Pam Cummings was born and raised in Portland where she attended Portland Public Schools. She is currently pursuing her Masters degree. She is the proud mother to two adult children and serves as President and Co-Director of Educational Programs at The Abyssinian Meeting House. She has over 20 years of experience in identifying and cultivating partnerships with local business leaders, fundraising, and event planning.

As Officer-in-charge and Keeper of family lighthouses (Monhegan Island Light; Fort Point Lighthouse in Stockton Springs; and Browns Head Lighthouse on Vinalhaven), Ernie DeRaps lived with his wife and children. He enjoyed having his family near, watching the children grow and helping to teach them. Lighthouses attract many visitors and it was always a pleasure for him and his wife Polly to greet these guests and make them feel welcome. After his retirement, he decided to paint every lighthouse on the coast of Maine.

Farmington, Maine, native Seth Wescott started snowboarding at the age of 10 in 1986. It has since shaped his life and travels, leading him to a 20-year tenure on the U.S. snowboarding team—for which he won gold medals in the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics—and traveling from Antarctica to Greenland and many places in between in search of interesting places and amazing mountains to ride on.

The first female governor of Maine, Janet Mills was sworn into office on January 2, 2019. Governor Mills first entered public service as assistant attorney general. She was elected the first woman District Attorney in New England, co-founded the Maine Women's Lobby, and was elected to the Maine House of Representatives. She also served as Maine’s first and only female Attorney General.

Muhidin Libah was born in Southern Somalia, grew up in a Kenyan refugee camp, and came to the United States in 2004. He has a degree from the University of Southern Maine and has co-founded multiple nonprofits including the Middle Juba Relief and Sustainability Organization, Somali Bantu Community Association of Syracuse, and Somali Bantu Community Association of Maine. He is a family man who just celebrated the birth of his 10th child.

Growing up in Alaska, Jessica Leahy has always been curious about the connection between humans and forests. She moved to Maine in 2005 to become a forestry professor at the University of Maine. She researches environmental attitudes and behaviors towards forests, forestry, and other natural-resource management. In her spare time, she and her husband work on their woodlands, which includes the Wicopy Woods Tree Farm in Sebec.

Kazeem Lawal moved to Maine and became involved more here than in any community he'd lived in before. In 2012, he started Portland Trading Co. At his store, everyone is welcome. His background is in engineering—his dad’s profession. His mother traveled the world sourcing fabrics and bringing them back to Nigeria. Though neither lived a full life, Kazeem strives to achieve all they could not. He wants his story to be told, his voice to be heard, to touch lives.

Walter Boomsma is author of the book Exploring Tradition—Celebrating the Grange Way of Life. He currently serves as Communications Director for the Maine State Grange. He loves working with children and is a proud member and program director of Valley Grange in Guilford, where they work closely with school districts in the area. They believe that building strong communities means building strong kids and building strong kids means building strong communities.

Ahmed Abdirahman was born in Somalia in 1981. Due to civil war, he lost his father and two siblings. After fleeing Somalia, he lived in Kenya in a refugee camp until immigrating to the USA. In 2005, he co-founded the Maine Muslim Community Center, where he serves as Executive Director. He is a respiratory therapist at Mercy Hospital, and additionally works as a counselor, where one of his roles is to teach doctors about Somali beliefs and cultural norms.

Brother Arnold Hadd was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. His interest in communalism led him to the Shaker religious community. He visited the Shakers for three years and eventually joined in January of 1978. Since that time, Brother Arnold has been a farmer, gardener, herdsman, printer, cook, baker, author, editor, historian, Trustee, and Elder.

Sheila Jans is a development consultant and founder of CultureWorth, a consultancy based in Madawaska that focuses on strengthening communities and the economy. Sheila works throughout the U.S. and Canada, and is currently writing a corridor management plan for Maine’s first cultural byway in the St. John Valley.

Don Cyr is the founder and director of the Musée culturel du Mont-Carmel, a former Catholic Church in the village of Lille along the St. John River, which he has been restoring for the past 35 years. Don teaches history and art at the University of Maine at Presque Isle and at the Maine School of Science and Mathematics.

Sarah Workneh is Co-Director of Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture.