HOULTON, Maine — The Houlton Rotary Club met Monday, June 1, for its eighth virtual meeting. Nick Hallowell was a welcomed guest of Rotarian Cam Clark. Hallowell is a fellow Husson graduate of Clark, and is the new branch manager at Bangor Savings Bank in Houlton.
Rotarian Jon McLaughlin, executive director of the Southern Aroostook Development Corporation, was the guest speaker, and discussed some of the projects and updates the corporation has been managing.
McLaughlin cited several individuals he has most recently been assisting with their small businesses, including Corinne Watson from Tiny Homes of Maine, and Josh Nadeau of Caribou, who, with the help of SADC, plans to purchase his own small business upon graduating from high school.
McLaughlin informed Rotarians that SADC does a lot of committee work, as well as working with individuals and businesses to plan and promote economic growth in the area. SADC has been collaborating with the Greater Houlton Chamber of Commerce to start a business group called Succession 60, where one-hour workshops are conducted in which an expert in a particular field comes to present in their area of expertise.
Before the onset of COVID-19, several speakers gave presentations during those luncheon workshops. Among the speakers were Jennifer Buckingham from the Temp Agency in Presque Isle, who presented about hiring and firing employees; Andrew Putnam from Katahdin Trust Company, who educated the group on Cyber security; and most recently, Melissa Page of Dead
River, who spoke about getting the most out of your professional meetings.
Mclaughlin reported that each of these workshops have been very informative and helpful for the group.
The East Grand Economic Development committee headed up by Elbridge Cleaves has been working with SADC on growing their committee. McLaughlin, along with board members Jerry York, Chris Anderson, and Peter Chase, have been coordinating with the new committee to promote tourism and economic growth in the East Grand lakes area.
McLaughlin also touched on the Attraction Committee, which he is a member of. Anderson recently gave a presentation about the missions and goals of this committee. McLaughlin reiterated that the Attraction Committee would like to bring Houlton alumni back to the local area, and have them bring their businesses back to the area with them, perhaps even remotely. He noted that several young people from greater Boston and other cities have moved back to the area for the summer while working remotely from their parents’ homes, due to the virus being prevalent in their areas.
McLaughlin also mentioned the Attraction Committee’s plan to celebrate the solar eclipse in 2024. He stated that there was a town in the Midwest where the eclipse was centered in 2017, and they were able to bring thousands of tourists to the area to view and celebrate the eclipse, thereby boosting their local economy.
The Attraction Committee is hoping to hold a similar event in Houlton in 2024.
Another SADC supported committee is the Education Committee. The Education Committee consists of Rotarians Jon and Josh McLaughlin, as well as Tracy Rockwell, Jane Torres, and Joe Fagnant, and was founded to help support local students to receive an education and learn skills that will serve them well upon entering the workforce.
The students are in grades 8-11, starting the program out as eighth-graders. Each student has been assigned a local adult mentor from the business sector. Some of these students may be trained and employed by local area businesses while attending school, upon graduation, or after receiving a degree.
The mentors were meeting regularly with their prospective students until the impact of COVID-19, and now many mentors are communicating with the students via email. The committee will reconvene to instill modifications for the group which adhere to new pandemic guidelines. McLaughlin sees this committee as holding a lot of promise for area youth as well as local businesses, and hopes that many of these students stay or return to the area upon graduation.
The Houlton Stimulus project has been the most exciting committee McLaughlin has most recently been a part of. His son, Josh Mclaughlin of J McLaughlin Construction, LLC, and SADC president, spearheaded the project and started it as sort of a “dare” from another local businessperson. McLaughlin was aware of a similar project in Madawaska in which town funds were used.
This group did not want to use Houlton town funds however, and instead used only private funds from other area businesses and individuals. The group initially thought it would be difficult to raise $5,000 for the project, and instead were overjoyed that they raised $53,000 in less than a week and a half.
Ultimately, $105,000 was dispersed to 107 local businesses as a result of the fundraising done by the Houlton Stimulus Project. McLaughlin reported that they would do a few things differently if they were to conduct another similar project, however, he was proud of the hard work and team effort, as well as the outcome of this project.
