Student honored at Blaine House

Charity Axe, a student of the Carleton Project, Houlton was one of eight youth recognized by the First Lady and the Maine Children’s Cabinet as a “youth who inspires” at a ceremony at the Governor’s residence in Augusta. Axe received the Keeping Maine’s Children Connected award for “Youth Who Rock.”
    “These awards are a unique opportunity to acknowledge youth who have persevered in their lives to continue their education,” said Susan Lieberman, director of KMCC.
A friend who nominated Axe for this award, wrote that she encourages her peers to work hard on their schoolwork and not to let anything get in the way of their dreams, quoting Axe’s mantra of, “If your dream gets interrupted, then it wasn’t a big enough dream.”
Keeping Maine’s Children Connected, an initiative of the  Children’s Cabinet which includes the departments of Education, Labor, Health and Human Services, Corrections and Public Safety, and Maine’s Chief Justice Leigh Saufley, aims to improve educational outcomes for youth whose schooling is disrupted because of homelessness, hospitalization, incarceration, foster care placement and/or high mobility.
“This initiative recognizes that instability in a child’s life puts great pressure on their focus and ability to maintain their schoolwork,” said First Lady Karen Baldacci. “Keeping Maine’s Children Connected helps bring dedicated individuals together to ensure that no child falls through the cracks.”
For more information, contact Jessica Siraco, Keeping Maine’s Children Connected, 822-0279 or visit www.maine/gov/education/speced/kmcc/index.htm.