 Welcome to CTN member highlights. I'm Leslie McVane, and my guest today is Sammy Potter, a senior at Yarmouth High School. Hi, Sammy. Hi, thank you so much for having me here. Yeah, well, you've been, you've sort of excelled in high school, in sports, and organizing events, and you've made a difference at the high school over your four years, and it's branched out into the greater community, and now you've come up with this idea called a day of hope. Let's talk a little bit about what that is, and why you decided this was something you needed to do. Sure, so I think as many people are, is really evident in the era now, is, you know, we're really living in an era of uncertainty for a lot of people. There's fear among some people. There's uncertainty, and you know, I wanted to try to create an event that was nonpartisan, but had the central focus of hope, and where we can get hope, how we can use it to make a positive impact, because, you know, where I find hope has to do with my family, has to do with my friends, and my peers, and trying to make a difference with them, but I want to know where other people get hope, and how they use it to make a positive impact, and hopefully that can help my friends, my peers, and people in Maine understand, you know, why it is so important to be hopeful, even in times of uncertainty, and in that way, try to make a difference. Yes, and you brought together people from sort of a wide range of areas to talk about in sort of a TED talk kind of way, about what they do to find hope. That's exactly right. So I wanted to try to get people from a variety of venues, not just politics, but business, music, art, and we almost got somebody from food, but that didn't end up happening. So we have six speakers from those core areas, and while they're each talking about it from their own perspective, we prompted each of them with the simple idea of what gives you hope, and how do you use that to make a positive impact, and it's really incredible to see, even from my perspective right now, of what they're going to be talking about based on their own perspective of where they're coming from, because somebody, we have one person from Music who's coming, who obviously has a much different perspective on where they get hope than one of our political speakers, and it's just incredible to see the confluence of ideas and what brings people to try to make a difference in Maine. So you got this idea, and then how'd you go about putting it together? You had to approach the high school, because it's going to be at the Yarmouth Auditorium, Yarmouth High School Auditorium on December 2nd from one to 330? One to 330, that's right. All right, so what did you have to do? What were the steps? Sure, so the first thing I knew I had to do was find a venue. I initially wanted to do it at the Merrill Auditorium, but then I really realized that where I've gotten my sense of self has been at Yarmouth High School, and I wanted to make this about my community, about trying to help my community of Maine, but specifically my community of Yarmouth High School, so I thought what more fitting place to have it than Yarmouth High School? So I dealt with the bureaucracy of the administration to get that approved, and then from there it was trying to convince and create a group of speakers that I felt best as a microcosm was indicative of a variety of areas, but could speak and had been successful in Maine, so I wanted to get somebody from each of those core areas. Unfortunately, I had known some of them from prior things I have done, like Senator Kathy Breen spoke at an event that I organized a year ago, so I had contact with her, and just a variety of different ways that I had come into contact with people. One thing I will say is that I tend to be pretty shameless in just emailing somebody if I find their email, so that was definitely very helpful in getting a few speakers on board who I didn't know. It's so easy in this day and age to try to contact somebody, and I've been pleasantly surprised that if you have an idea that people care about their, they're willing to help you and they're willing to be involved, so I curated a speaker list and then recruited a couple of my friends to help out because I really want this to be about students, about young people, about inspiring young people, so I curated a group of students at my high school, there's five of us strong. We applied for a grant with what's called the Yarmouth Education Foundation, and they are funding us to put on the event. That's terrific. Let's talk a little bit about who the speakers are. Sure. You mentioned Kathy Breen. That's right. But we've got a few others. Do you want to go through the list? Because I've got it here. I'm sure you know who they are. I know by heart, that's for sure. So we have Senator Kathy Breen. We have former gubernatorial candidate and entrepreneur, Elliot Cutler. We have musician Spencer Alby, who I mentioned before. We have Jess Knox, who is an entrepreneur in Maine. We have Leslie Silverstein, who is a immigration lawyer in Maine and somebody that is very, very incredibly inspiring in that area, so she's going to be bringing that perspective of immigration in Maine and why it's so important to be a community of immigrants and how even in Maine, which is the least diverse state, how we really are still a community of immigrants. So we have those five. And I mentioned, sorry, I'm going through the list. Oh, yeah, yeah, because we're doing in my order here. Oh, okay. Who did I know? Ethan. Right, I didn't mention that. Sorry, Ethan. So yeah, Mayor Stirling is going to be speaking at the event as well. Right. Well, that sounds like a great lineup and really some very different perspectives. So tell me who your other co-workers are in organizing this. Sure. I mean, really, it's just my friends who are as motivated as me to be working on an event like this. So I have my buddy, Ben Cox-Vaxson, who is a junior at high school. We were on cross-country together. And he really helped me formulate this idea when I was thinking about it, because the onus of this is really about we're in a time of uncertainty. And us young people, especially in Maine, we want to move the state forward, we care about the state. And he's one of one person who cares about it as much as I do. And then I have my friend, Sage Waterston, who's also a senior at high school. And then my friend, Sam McJarrison, who is a junior at Normouth High School. So the four of us are working hard on it. And we're making some great progress. So this came to you. I think it's a great idea. I hope everybody goes. But has there been a lot of discussion among the kids in your school about what's happening in the world, what's happening locally, what's happening in the state, about this sense of what can I do, not a lot of hope out there. How are they talking about it in the high school? That's a really good question. And it's one of the things that motivates me most to try to make a difference in my community in Maine. I find that there's somewhat of an even split. I think that a lot of kids are really hopeful and still have that idealistic sense about us. There's a classic stereotype of an 18-year-old kid who wants to do everything in the world, has no idea how to do it. I think that's me, and that's a lot of my friends. But I also see some young people fall victim to cynicism a little bit. And I really aspire to President Barack Obama's idea that as long as we don't let cynicism protrude into society, then our best days are ever ahead of us. So what my goal is in this event is a microcosm of it. But as a whole, I think what's so important for young people in Maine and around the world is to stay hopeful and continue to be that idealistic self that we can be. But it is definitely evident that cynicism is kind of brewing and is on the outskirts of society. And I want to do my best to try to keep it there. Well, I think that's wonderful. And it's inspiring for me to hear this. So let's go through, before we say goodbye, when it is, how they can contact you. You want to? Yeah, sure. So we have a website that is very easy to use. It's www.dayofhopemaine.com. You can check out the speaker list. You can check out more about what they're speaking about. There's an easy way to contact us on there. And you can get tickets. That's right, you can get tickets for $7 on there. And so it's going to take place on December 2 from 1 to 3 p.m. at Yarmouth High School. Tickets are very easy to purchase on the website. And all of the, we haven't quite identified where the proceeds are going to go to yet, but they will be donated to a Portland charity. Well, thank you. And you are a good example of our future. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. And thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. Another, anytime.