"A Special Thank You"

Gerry Clement's enthusiasm and dedication to the Maine Speakout Project will be sorely missed as she steps down from the Board of Directors after nearly seven years as a contributing member. Fortunately for all, she will continue to volunteer as a speaker. In this capacity, she will continue the important work of changing people's hearts and minds through the telling of personal stories. Gerry's story of her son, Ben, is powerful and very touching, and over the years has challenged many listeners to examine their attitudes about lesbians, gays and families. On behalf of the Board and staff of Maine Speakout, I wish to convey my appreciation and heart-felt thanks to Gerry for her years of social activism.

I also wish to recognize the contribution of Ben Bigney, who is leaving the Board to roam around Europe for an indefinite period of time (I'm jealous). Ben is a skilled musician and has shared those talents through a number of fundraising concert events for Speakout. Additionally, he is a tireless member of the Program Committee, planning the community events that further the mission of promoting mutual respect and understanding among people of different sexual orientations. Ben's energy, dedication and humor will be very much missed.

--Kate Neale
President, MSOP Board of Directors

House News

Dan Neuville is a senior English Major and the President of the Student Government Association at Saint Joseph's College of Maine. Besides being a full time student and devoting approximately twenty hours weekly to Student Government, he was also required to execute 70 hours of service for this Honors Capstone Experience. The Honors Program at Saint Joe's is an accelerated program where students learn the interdisciplinary aspects of art, history, science, math and literature through studying both ancient and modern pieces and in active fields of study. The final objective of the program is to complete the Honors Capstone in the last semester of senior year to draw together all the aspects learned previously in the course and to reflect upon them. Included was a service learning piece which required the students to devote 70 hours to an organization in the community to build not only the community itself, but to build character within the students and a desire to want to give back and promote positive change.

Dan chose to devote his time to Maine SpeakOut Project, where he is already a trained speaker and new to the Board of Directors this past fall. Maine SpeakOut is an organization Dan truly believes in and has faith in the work they are setting out to accomplish. There is a great need for the LGBTQ community to find equal rights and respect in our communities in Maine. Since Dan is aspiring to be a high school teacher, he believes there is a great need for safe schools legislation and supportive community programs for sexually diverse youth. Part of the work he has done for the Maine SpeakOut Project this semester has been reorganizing the Charlie Howard Memorial Library, integrating new books into the collection, and making a clear catalogue of the books. He hopes in the future to set up a library program for the community to borrow books and to create a master catalogue of all the books in the library. Dan has also worked in the office to help with bulk mailings, faxing and data entry into the database. His assistance has been greatly appreciated, and we look forward to his continued support.

This semester, Dan was also required to read The Cathedral Within by Bill Shore, which talks about the need for coalition and community building and the need to give back. Throughout the book, Bill Shore uses the metaphor of a cathedral to depict the need and desire to give to the community and how a community rises to accomplish a goal. He emphasizes that the great cathedrals of Europe took many centuries to build; yet the workers never gave up on completing the task. It is true that we may never see the fruits of our labor and we cannot evoke change as quickly as we'd like, but we can create a stable foundation to help those in the future. Dan truly believes in the need to have faith in the organizations we participate in and the work they execute since they could be building monuments for the future despite the fact that we may never see the beauty of the finished product. Because of this faith in the Maine SpeakOut Project, Dan believes they can evoke positive change in the communities of Maine and will eventually accomplish many of their goals. The motto of Saint Joseph's College is Fortitudo et Spes, which is Latin for courage and hope. Dan believes we must have courage for the present and hope for the future in order to build the cathedrals and goals we envision.

Congratulations!

Jonathan Lee, founder of the Maine Speak Out Project, was honored in March 2002 by the Maine Lesbian & Gay Political Alliance with a Community Service Award for his work on behalf of GLBTQA individuals.