Stefanie Trice-Gill is a change agent and multilingual connector with a passion for helping Maine employers find diverse professionals to build their team. Stefanie is the owner of IntWork, a diversity hiring and retention company that matches employers with diverse, minority (BIPOC) and immigrant talent spanning a wide range of roles.
Prior to returning to her home state of Maine in 2009, Stefanie founded an Equity Council and Office of Diversity for the New York City Public hospitals under the Bloomberg administration, where she redesigned public health programs across all five boroughs to more efficiently serve immigrant populations. Her improvements resulted in $1.4 million in annual cost-savings and were featured on the front page of The New York Times Metro section. For this work, she received awards from both Harvard Medical School/Mass General’s Disparities Solutions Center and the City University of New York, where she earned her MBA.
When she returned to Maine to raise a family, Stefanie took part in Leadership Maine and learned about the state’s skills gap and its economic impact. At the same time, she was meeting many refugees and asylum seekers arriving in Maine – and discovering that they have exactly the skills that our state needs to thrive.
A few years later, at Women’s Startup Maine, Stefanie pulled together a team of immigrants and other women who helped her develop the IntWork name and brand.
Since its launch in 2019, IntWork has successfully matched Maine employers with hard-to-find diverse talent, helping them build stronger technical and leadership teams.
Katie Brown introduced Derek Pierce, principal of Casco Bay High School, and Stephanie Doyle, a guidance counselor, to present a Youth Services Award to Olivia “Liv” Weeks. Liv transferred to Casco Bay as a senior and, according to Derek, immediately raised the bar for the senior class. “What is important to know is that Liv is one of a kind,” he said. “She is a passionate learner, a kind and caring human being, and some who is on a constant quest to make the world a better place.”
Doyle’s award letter, read by Pierce, described her as “a thoughtful scholar, a talented artist, a creative thinker, a grounded human and one of the most all-around solid students that I have had the chance to work with in all my years as a school counselor.” Pierce noted that “in the past two weeks she has received a HOWL (Habits of Work and Learning Student of the Week)- selected by her teachers, and a pathway award for perseverance by her peers. To be honored in back-to-back weeks by the school is a great testament to what she is bringing to the classroom."
Pierce added, “During her weekends instead of catching up on her sleep, she wakes early in the morning on both Saturday’s and Sunday’s to work at Holy Donut. When she does have down time, you can find her sketching beautiful pieces of art, reading a novel or engaging in deep conversations about our political climate and how to make positive change.”
Liv Weeks is an active member in the Casco Bay A-Z Alliance, as well as the Justice Action Initiative – a group aimed at banning all incarceration of youth under 12. Liv, broadcasting from the terrace outside of her school in a fierce wind, thanked the club for the scholarship and indicated she was directing the $100.00 charitable contribution that goes along with it, to the Maine Youth Justice Program.
Bits and Pieces | by Erik Jorgensen
It was a beautiful Friday noon when 47 participants gathered for Portland Rotary’s weekly Zoom on March 15. The warm weather sent Erik Jorgensen’s bees into the sky for the first time this year, and Erik noted that all three of his hives appear to have come through the winter strong.
David Small shared a short history of Daylight Savings time in his invocation. If you hate changing your clock, you can blame Benjamin Franklin, who first proposed it as a measure to reduce candle use. Woodrow Wilson started it in in 1918; it ended after the war, returned in WWII, stopped again after that war, then started for good in 1966. It was extended from March through early November by George W. Bush. Now, most places observe it, yet a majority of African, Asian and equatorial countries do not.
Marc Belhumeur and his son Craig Belhumeur were here with us as guests of Mike Fortunato. Lola Achuba, guest of Mark Foster, was back with us, as well. Always great to have visitors on the Zoom screen.
Rotary Skiing had a good day on the slopes Thursday said Bill Blount. He noted that all members who wish to ski next Saturday should meet at 10am at the Whitecap Fire Pit at Sunday River. All are welcome.
Dick Hall recently spoke to seven districts as part of the PETS program, and in Laura Young’s words: “Did us proud.”
President Ellen Niewoehner noted that 5,000 additional masks are coming to the club and will be distributed to Preble Street, the Boys and Girls Club, the Greater Portland Immigrant Center, and others. This batch represents our club’s third helping of masks, all of which derive from the generosity of the Rossi Family Foundation in Connecticut.
Michel Kanyambo shared news from the recipients of our $150 gift to the community in Rwanda who have produced a moving video about the Rwanda food program – don’t miss it. It shows that even a small amount can have a significant impact. We will be sending more funds. Link to the video ishere.
Live + Work in Maine Open
by Dick Hall
Brian Corcoran, CEO and Founder of Shamrock Sports & Entertainment, returned to Portland Rotary March 15, 2021. He told us it is only 100 days until the Live + Work in Maine Open at the Falmouth Country Club. The event will bring 600 golf professionals to Maine on June 21-27, 2021.
The Live + Work in Maine Open was conceived two years ago, and is now part of the Korn Ferry Tour. The mission in bringing the event to Maine is to drive economic, work force, well-being, and charitable impact to communities. It will deliver $8 million in economic benefit to the state, including $100,000 in charitable support to the Barbara Bush Children’s Cancer Center at the Maine Medical Center.
Brian said the event will be great for kids and help them to be proud of their state. The event offers as much for non-golfer as the golfers, and will include:
Youth clinics hosted by tour pros
Workforce recruitment and development
Health and Wellness activities
Brian mentioned Alex Baldwin, PGA Korn Ferry Tour President, and Deane Beman, Honorary Chair and former PGA Commissioner, as key partners in the Live + Work in Maine Open. Although several organizations stepped up with five and six figure sponsorship commitments, all wanted the event named the Live + Work in Maine Open.
Sponsorship partners include MaineHealth, Bangor Savings Bank, and Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield. Key golfers who will attend are Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Thomas, Jason Day, and Tony Fineau who together have amassed: (550+) PGA Tour wins, (24) Major Championship Wins, and (5) FedExCupchampions. Brian noted that 75% of the current PGA Tour membership started on the Korn Ferry Tour.
Brian shared that the tour attracts the educated and affluent, as well as business decision makers to Maine, which is key to the strategy of Live + Work in Maine. The Falmouth Country Club and the state offer all the first-class amenities these groups expect. Approximately 600 ticketed attendees and another 600 golfers and staff are expected on the course daily, and all necessary COVID safety protocols will be observed. The tour starts Monday June 21 with a final round on Sunday June 27. Thursday, there will be special activities to honor health care workers.
The tour will also support Drive for Kids, a statewide relief effort for child hunger, blood insecurity, and child care. Additionally, support will be given to Full Plates Full Potential and the American Red Cross.
Brian noted a wide variety of events will take place during the Open. He also said that 175 volunteers are needed daily on a part and full-time basis to perform ambassadors, hospitality, and registration duties. For more info on volunteering and the event, see the linkhere.
Moment of Reflection
CLOSE
is what we almost always are: close to happiness, close to another, close to leaving, close to tears, close to God, close to losing faith, close to being done, close to saying something, or close to success, and even, with the greatest sense of satisfaction, close to giving the whole thing up.
Our human essence lies not in arrival, but in being almost there, we are creatures who are on the way, our journey a series of impending anticipated arrivals. We live by unconsciously measuring the inverse distances of our proximity: an intimacy calibrated by the vulnerability we feel in giving up our sense of separation.
To go beyond our normal identities and become closer than close is to lose our sense of self in temporary joy, a form of arrival that only opens us to deeper forms of intimacy that blur our fixed, controlling, surface identity.
To consciously become close is a courageous form of unilateral disarmament, a chancing of our arm and our love, a willingness to hazard our affections and an unconscious declaration that we might be equal to the inevitable loss that the vulnerability of being close will bring.
Human beings do not find their essence through fulfillment or eventual arrival but by staying close to the way they like to travel, to the way they hold the conversation between the ground on which they stand and the horizon to which they go. What makes the rainbow beautiful, is not the pot of gold at its end, but the arc of its journey between here and there, between now and then, between where we are now and where we want to go, illustrated above our unconscious heads in primary colour.
We are in effect, always, close; always close to the ultimate secret: that we are more real in our simple wish to find a way than any destination we could reach: the step between not understanding that and understanding that, is as close as we get to happiness.
David Whyte, Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words
Speaker Schedule
March 19 | Stefanie Trice Gill, IntWork LLC
March 26 | Hannah Pingree, Maine Climate Plan
April 2 | Brit Vitalius, Southern Maine Landlord Association
April 9 | Mark Burnett, Cannabis Industry / Higher Grounds
April 16 | Bill Benson, Boots 2 Roots
April 23 | Chris Busby, The Mainer (formerly The Bollard)
April 30 | Peter Vigue, Cianbro
May 7 | Eliah Thanhauser, North Spore Mushrooms
May 14 | TBD
May 21 | Ian Dorsey, Mast Landing Brewery
May 28 | NO MEETING
June 4 | TBD
June 11 | Wade Merritt, Maine International Trade Center
June 18 | Glen Cummings, President, University of Southern Maine
Liv transferred to Casco Bay as a senior and, according to Derek, immediately raised the bar for the senior class. “What is important to know is that Liv is one of a kind,” he said. “She is a passionate learner, a kind and caring human being, and some who is on a constant quest to make the world a better place.”
