Sarah Hansen joined Greater Portland Landmarks as the Executive Director in June 2019. Prior to joining Landmarks, Sarah served as Director of Preservation Services at Maine Preservation for two years. Sarah discovered her love of community revitalization as a history major at Connecticut College and furthered her studies with an MA in Preservation Studies from Boston University.
After working with Boston Main Streets, she joined the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s regional office in Denver covering South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana. Her career also includes positions at Colorado Preservation, Inc., the Architectural Heritage Foundation in Boston, the Washington state Main Street Program, and the Arkansas Community Foundation.
Sarah currently serves with a number of organizations, including Maine’s Main Street Advisory Council, the Maine Alliance for Smart Growth, the Cultural Alliance of Maine, the Village Review Overlay Committee for the City of Westbrook, and the governance committee for the National Preservation Partners Network.
Sarah is a proud fifth-generation Maine native and is enjoying immersing her southern husband Cary Tyson in the wicked awesome culture of the state.
New Member Maggie McGauley
By Erik Jorgensen
Mike Fortunato introduced our newest member, Maggie McGauley, who grew up in Keene, NH and moved back to Maine after time spent in Chicago. She’s a medical recruitment specialist and is currently working for MaineHealth. When not trying to land an anesthesiologist or a kidney specialist, she can be found running, gardening or hanging out with her dog. Maggie is very excited to get involved.
Nora Tafuri Receives Youth Scholarship Award
By Erik Jorgensen
John Thompson introduced Anna Gervais, Director of Student Life at Baxter Academy, who announced this month’s Youth Service Award recipient Nora Tafuri. Gervais noted that Nora has been the driving force behind the school’s Interact Club. She spent 3 weeks in Fiji last year conducting after school activities and painting a kindergarten classroom. She is committed to continuing that work online. In addition Nora organizes and participates in a wide range of other community activities, from coordinating blood drives, to working with Maine Family planning, to volunteering at Preble Street.
Nora spoke about the current clothing drive she’s working on and thanked the club for the recognition and check for $1,000, which she said would come in handy for college. She said she was uncertain which school she would attend, but is “praying for good results” from the admissions process. She asked that the $100 contribution that accompanies her award go to Preble Street.
Bits and Pieces | by Erik Jorgensen
President Ellen Niewoehner convened the meeting of 39 Rotarians and two guests from Baxter Academy.
Juliana L’Heureux, moved by the historical events of the past week, provided as our invocation the lyrics of American Anthem, a song by Norah Jones featured in Ken Burns’ epic World War II series, The War. It’s a beautiful song about the defining event of the 20th Century and can be viewedhere.
District 7780 is working statewide with 2 other Districts on supporting the COVID-19 vaccination efforts. Governor Peggy Belanger encouraged us to become involved with our local EMS or vaccination sites to provide logistical or other support. Tom Ranello noted that the Salvation Army may be a vaccination site, and he wants to know if the club would be interested in getting involved. There were several who expressed interest. Tom will gather more information.
2,500 children’s masks were donated this week to the Boys and Girls Club of Portland as part of the district’s mask distribution initiative.
For anyone interested in trying their hand at writing a district grant, training will be held on the evening of February 4th. Club grant writers are particularly encouraged to attend. President Ellen can provide details.
The Rotary Grove East End bench dedicated to Loretta Rowe is now funded, but fundraising continues for a possible scholarship. Please send checks to Elise Hodgkin.
Maine’s Hospitality Industry Devastated by COVID
By Dick Hall
Steve Hewins, President & CEO of Hospitality Maine, shared the impact of the COVID pandemic on Maine’s hospitality industry. Hewins recalled speaking to the club four years ago when he talked about Portland’s need for a convention center. Now, he is in the center of the maelstrom around the pandemic, spending a lot of his time helping his organization’s members react to governmental mandates, secure personal protective equipment (PPE), and obtain financial assistance.
“First, the dining industry was hit with the Governor’s executive order in March of 2020, which included a ban on indoor dining. The dining industry dropped to almost nothing,” Hewins said. Conversion to takeout has been successful for some, but fine dining has really suffered. Hotels have never had any restrictions, so they housed front line workers and COVID patients.
Hewins helped write the PPE regulations for the hospitality sector. The draft regulations were submitted to the Maine Center for Disease Control on April 22, 2020. He said the regulations are extremely rigorous, and hotels and restaurant folks are trying hard to do things right. He admitted to a few outliers, but said the vast majority are working to follow all the rules. “Out of 5,500 establishments, there were only 16 cited by the state,” he said. “Not statistically significant.”
In May, Hospitality Maine collaborated with community colleges, after writing a safe operations curriculum, to develop a program to certify those who completed the program. They created the first such program, which has been expanded to other industries. Hewins acknowledged that sometimes the group conflicted with the governor, particularly with the issue of visitors. When the first group of states could return, there was a run of business in September, with a huge influx from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, who were warmly welcomed.
Hospitality Maine requested $800 million in financial assistance and assisted in writing the Federal Cares Act, which resulted in $200 million for Maine. Loans and grants up to $100,000 were made available, with $53 million going directly to the hospitality industry, with recipients getting an average of $36,000.
Hewins said it continues to be a difficult time for the industry. A University of Maine study forecasted there would be 28,000 unemployed hospitality workers and industry losses of more than $1.7 billion by the end of 2020. It looks like this will prove to be very accurate. Many closed businesses may not reopen. Some are hibernating and hoping to reopen when things get better. The Federal Government has extended unemployment without requirements to look for work. This helps employees but may delay people coming back to work until they feel very safe. “Real people have been hurt by all of this,” he said, acknowledging that he becomes very emotional when talking about the damage.
In the meantime, Hewins reported that large hospitality venues will be used for vaccination sites. The Samoset in Rockland is planning to handle 400 vaccinations a day for at least two to four months. A vaccination site at Scarborough Downs will be opening soon. He said empty ballrooms all over the state are being offered as vaccination sites. Hewins said the group is attempting to help hospitality workers qualify as essential workers and vaccinated as part of the 1B group to get them back to work.
April is the traditional month for the industry to ramp up. Hospitality Maine is collaborating with community colleges to get workers ready to “re-educate, re-train, and restart.” The organization has created a program on Customer Service—Maine Style. Maine has the opportunity to lead the nation in the hospitality industry, Hewins said. Airlines do not expect business travel to ever come back due to changing work patterns, and luckily Maine has never been strong business destination—“maybe not getting that convention center was a good thing,” he said. But he believes opportunities look great for leisure travel to Maine. The hospitality industry is the second largest private employer in the state, and is the keeper of Maine’s brand. With minimum wages going up, the industry will have fewer workers who must be better trained. Training at the community colleges will have multiple steps, with the chance to continue and ultimately get a degree.
Hewins revealed he is stepping down from his CEO role in 3 weeks to shift over to leading the Hospitality Maine Foundation, which supports industry workers. His replacement has already been hired and being on-boarded now.
Moment of Reflection
To the New Year
With what stillness at last
you appear in the valley
your first sunlight reaching down
to touch the tips of a few
high leaves that do not stir
as though they had not noticed
and did not know you at all
then the voice of a dove calls
from far away in itself
to the hush of the morning
so this is the sound of you
here and now whether or not
anyone hears it this is
where we have come with our age
our knowledge such as it is
and our hopes such as they are
invisible before us
untouched and still possible
—W.S. Merwin
(Merwin stripped his poetry of punctuation and most capitalization believing it gave his poems more freedom and light.)
Preservation for two years. Sarah discovered her love of community revitalization as a history major at Connecticut College and furthered her studies with an MA in Preservation Studies from Boston University. 
who announced this month’s Youth Service Award recipient Nora Tafuri. Gervais noted that Nora has been the driving force behind the school’s Interact Club. She spent 3 weeks in Fiji last year conducting after school activities and painting a kindergarten classroom. She is committed to continuing that work online. 
