We met this past Wednesday to continue Mobilizing Maine at the (quite lovely) Hampton Inn. The group for our region (as they had two other meetings – one farther north, one south) was fairly large, and representative of several important and diverse sectors interested in the economic wellbeing of our region. The subgroups have (from April to now) set their foundation, identified a variety of goals, and are getting down to the business of answering the “What are our Indigenous Resources?”
Two areas which the group has set, what they themselves admit are aggressive, and somewhat controversial goals include: a population of 75,000 for 2015; and an average wage of $38,000 for that same year. This would be an increase of 4.1 percent in population, with the dramatic emphasis being on young people ages 20 to 45 years old. So, we’ve spent some time the last week, thinking about how we might help Momentum Aroostook, and what we might be doing to encourage our young people to stay, or come back to The County. Not problems we’ll solve overnight, but did you see President Obama on Letterman this past week? If there were easy answers, the problems wouldn’t make it to his desk?
Surely, we need to think of these goals as items we can make a difference in, and share in the responsibility in being part of our own solution. We still don’t know why we should be twittering, but every time I see Larry King has a twitter account, I am again feeling nettled we don’t have a good use for ours. I asked one of my much younger Momentum Aroostook/UMPI ladies to help me with this, and I’m confident the neighbors will help us find a good utilization … so, give us a few more weeks, and then check out our tweets/twitters/weebles/woobles/something. Huh?
Let’s try to think of reasons our young people should be staying. I know, I do remember a time when I thought having to stay in The County was a punishment akin to a slow torturous “I’m a Loser” death. So I left. Now I attribute that attitude to youth: I’ll give you this could be an excuse, I recognize this! Perhaps it’s just a part of human nature, we get to a spot we need to leave the nest. Try it out, see what we’re missing. Is the grass greener?
So but surely we recognize we are all invested in The County, and being from here? Caribou is a place you want to be from, and a place we need to figure out how to instill in our people into want to coming back to. Our sense of place is dynamically important. We’re safe, we’re friendly, we’re family. Our potato farmers are people we are proud of. We can afford to buy a house, and we can be reasonably sure our children are safe, and are going to get good educations, with lots of recreational people who care a great deal about them.
We have four postsecondary educational programs in The County, and so many dynamic entrepreneurs who want to stay here, from away, who want to be here with us. Eye contact is important. People stop for us to cross the roads, they make eye contact as we go to the post office, pay for our groceries, and they still want to take the groceries to our cars for us. They hold open doors, and they smile as they wave in their cars to each other.
So, when you find a good reason for us to tweet your adult children, let me know! Next week, I’ll tell you the really exciting topic about Potato Farming, and why they might just pick it as one of their two programs to asset map in the Mobilize Maine process!
Wendy Landes, MPA, is the executive director of the Caribou Chamber of Commerce & Industry. She can be reached in person at 24 Sweden Street, Suite 101; by telephone at 498-6156 or via e-mail at wlandes@cariboumaine.net.
