 Good evening everyone. Thanks so much for being here tonight for our rescheduled annual meeting. We're very, very pleased that it's not still snowing like it was back on the original date. So, so happy to see all of you. I know that all of you are well aware of Portland Trails, but I will just reiterate that Portland Trails is working to transform greater Portland into a healthier community for people-powered transportation, conservation, and recreation. And we're working to do that by creating and maintaining a network of trails and green spaces that connect all the people and places in the greater Portland community. So that's what we try and keep in mind at all times, what our mission is, and try to be sure that that's what we're working for. If you're a member of Portland Trails, this is your meeting. You get to vote on the slate of officers and ensure that Portland Trails keeps going in a manner in which you want it to. So hopefully you all signed in when you came in the door. If you are a member, you have a vote. If you're not quite yet a member, we certainly encourage you to join us. You can do that tonight right back there, and that would be great. We do have to document everyone who is here at the annual meeting. That's just part of the business of running an organization. So we try to keep our business portion of the meeting to about 15 minutes, and then we'll go into our 15 by 15 presentations, which are always really inspiring. I find them at least inspiring, and hopefully you will too. So who do we have in the room tonight? Maybe you're one of our 1700 trail volunteers, or one of our 150 event volunteers. Maybe you're a member of the board. Maybe you're an advisory council member. Maybe you're a race participant or a bicycle commuter or a transit rider or a walker. Any of those many, many ways in which we all work to utilize the trails and the connections in Greater Portland. I'm sure we have some of all of you here tonight. So welcome. I'd like to start by going through some of the accomplishments we've had in our 26th year this year, and they've been many. So here are a few of them. In collaboration with the City of Portland Parks Department, we made significant trail upgrades in the trail network behind paths and the Casco Bay High School. If you've never explored that area, I'd encourage you to do so. We also rerouted part of the Stroudwater Trail to make it safer and more easily usable. We made great progress in restoring the health of the forest and the estuary ecosystems at Burley Mile Pond and in the Brickyard Point area of Falmouth. We had our fifth successful Sundays on the Boulevard year, five years already, where the Boulevard is closed from eight to four on Sunday to traffic and everybody can get out and play. That is going to start up next Sunday, and I hope that you'll take advantage of going out and enjoying the Boulevard when the cars are not there. So those are some of the highlights of the past year, and we certainly are expecting this next year to come with many highlights as well. I want to be sure and do the most important thing tonight, which is to thank everyone who enables Portland Trails to do the work that is so vital to all of us. First and foremost, thank you to every supporter and member of the organization. Without you all, Portland Trails wouldn't exist. It's as simple as that. So thank you, thank you, thank you to our supporters and our members. A huge thank you to the staff of Portland's Trails. Small but mighty is how that staff can best be described. So Cara Waldrick, our executive director, continues to do great work, keeping the vision clearly in front of us at all times and pushing things forward. Jamie Parker, heading up the Trails area, keeping the Trails well maintained for everyone and having that vision of where to go next and how to go about it. Daniel Bishop, our volunteer coordinator, Trails coordinator, handling all of the many, many hundreds of volunteers who really enable the Trails to stay well maintained. Jen Goldman, our development director, who has over the past 18 months really brought our fundraising to a whole new level, solidifying our systems, reaching out to many more contacts, coordinating wonderfully successful house parties over the last few years, introducing the organization to a whole host of new supporters. So a big thank you to Jen and her work. I do want to take the time to also thank Katherine Buxton, who has been a member of the staff, unfortunately recently left us, but had been our outreach and communications coordinator, did great work on our website and our social media strategies and communications. I know you've seen her work and heard from her, though you might not have known it, and we owe her a big debt of gratitude. So thank you to Katherine. Nora Hefner, you met as you walked in the door is holding down not only the internal workings of development, but also communications now in Katherine's absence and doing great work for us. And finally Laura Newman, who is part of the school greening group that is doing great work at the schools in our community. So I would ask you to acknowledge the staff and their great work if you would. A big thank you also to all of the board members who are here tonight. I'm not going to introduce them to you right now because that will happen a little bit later. But without them also it would be very difficult to continue moving the organization forward as you might guess. And our advisory trustees the same. So all of these groups are vitally vitally important to the organization. And we thank all of you and all of them for enabling this work to get done and get done really well. I will end my remarks with just a few comments on two of our directors who have unfortunately decided to step away from their roles on the board this year. But lucky for us are going to continue with us as advisory trustees. So kind of word to the wise it's very hard to get away from Portland trails. Keep this in mind. But the two are first Nate Dyer. Nate has been a director for the past four or five years lives in Westbrook and played a critical role on our trails committee throughout his tenure helped with connecting Westbrook into the Portland trail system on the greater Stroudwater piece of the trail and continues to do that work. He also is such a wonderful proponent of active transportation. He comes to every trails committee at eight o'clock or 7 30 in the morning always by bus or on his bike which is how he gets around everywhere. So he lives he lives the Portland trails philosophy and we're sorry to see him leave the board but certainly thrilled to have him continue as an advisory trustee. The other person that I'd like to acknowledge tonight who is leaving our board is John Osborne who is here with us this evening. So John maybe you could stand up briefly and give us a wave. There is. So John Osborne has served on the Portland trails board for 15 years and he has done critical work throughout that time. He served as the treasurer of the organization. He served as the president of the organization. He has pretty much done it all but throughout his tenure has always had trail development and maintenance as his top focus has been a member of the trails committee forever and as a lawyer always brought that critical thinking to the group as new trails were being envisioned was always willing to ask the questions whether they were the hard ones or the easy ones always all the questions that needed to be asked. He was a great person that will continue to do this for us to be looking at what was going on in Greater Portland always with his kind of strategic Portland trails hat on saying now how is Portland trails positioned in this discussion or this project and looking out for the better interests of Portland trails. Finally John reviews all of our contracts with his great eye for detail and has has helped Portland trails in innumerable ways throughout his tenure. So as it has become a bit of a tradition for Portland trails we have a small token of our appreciation which is a gift certificate to fleet feet so he can be sure and have good shoes as he's out walking on the trails going forward. So thank you for your service John. We really appreciate it and with that then I'm going to turn the microphone over to Kate O'Brien. She is going to call our actual business meeting to order. Good evening. It's my pleasure to officially call the business portion of our annual meeting to order. I'd like to introduce to you our slate of trustees that are up for reelection this evening. Please stand when your name is called. Andy Abrams original election in 2006. Wendy sure set original election in 2012. Kate O'Brien who's already standing original election 2015. Alex Yagerman original election 2015. And Matt Ball original election 2015. And Matt's not here this evening. Do you elect to approve these directors to a three year term? And may I have a motion to approve? Thank you. May I have a second? All those in favor? The eyes have it. Thank you. And now we have two potential new board members. The first who has been both been nominated to the board of trustees Jenny shy and a little bit about Jenny. She's lived in various Portland neighborhoods since 1975. She's married to John Ryan and they have one son Thomas Ryan. In 2011 they joined two other families to build a new three family home. For over 30 years she's worked as a licensed main architect designing many small institutional and residential projects. And over the past decade she's expanded her painting and printmaking practice. She's a member of the Peregrine Press and works every day in her own studio. She also walks to and from work recently sold her car and bought a new three season city bike. Yes. May I have a motion to approve her nomination? May I have a second? Wonderful. All those in favor? Thank you. Our second nominee to the board this evening is Laura Barger. After nearly 20 years of living in San Francisco and New York Laura has recently returned to her home state of Maine and resides in Falmouth with her husband and two children. She's a native of Bangor and attended Colby College where she held marketing roles at a number of consumer brands notably Virgin Mobile, American Express and Bank New York Mellon. Laura currently serves as chief marketing officer and center for financial at the Center for Financial Services Innovation. A non-profit whose mission is to improve the financial health of Americans. For the past two years she's led organizations influence and engagement strategy through a mix of communications, content strategy, events and media relations. Laura's passionate about supporting the growth and innovation of Maine and its economy and has moved back to enjoy the terrific lifestyle benefits of living and working in an environment with such incredible natural resources. She's an avid hiker, skier and cyclist and has been exploring all that Portland has to offer including Portland trails and is excited to bring her communications experience to help the team in any way possible. I am so excited we have these new board members. May I have a motion to approve Laura's nomination? Second? All those in favor? Wonderful. The eyes have it. Thank you. And now may I present to you the full board of trustees for 2018. These are the officers who serve two-year terms. Wendy Surchtett, president, Kate O'Brien, vice president, Yvonne Moomey, treasurer, Rachel Alfon, secretary and Rob Levin, president emeritus, trustees, Andy Abrams, Mark Arianti, Matt Ball, Laura Barger, Jennifer Kutschel, Matthew Forsyte, Laura Greenstein, Bill Hall, Alex Yagerman, Jenny Shieh and Stephen Wells. And our advisory trustees, Colin Baker, Ellen Belknap, Roger Burley, Michael Brennan, Heather Chandler, Jim Cohen, Nate Dyer, Elizabeth Ehrenfeld, Bruce Hyman, Tom Jewel, co-founder, Susie Kist, Bob Krug, Brie LaCasse, David Latel, Burnham Martin, Jay Peter Monroe, Eliza Cope Nolan, John Osborne, Phil Parrier, Aurelia Scott, Nathan Smith, co-founder, Richard Spencer co-founder, Phil Thompson and Lois Winter. Thank you very much. Now I'll pass the mic back to Wendy for the treasurer's report. I think you'll agree that's quite a group of people directing the organization and moving it forward. So thanks to all. Matt Ball, unfortunately, is unable to join us tonight. So I'm pitch-hitting for the treasurer and will give you a quick synopsis of the financial report. The strategic plan continues to drive our organization and how we spend our time and our money. Our operating budget was just over $500,000 in 2017. The vast, vast, vast majority of those funds come from supporters, individuals, corporate supporters, membership, event sponsors and event participants. Without all of you again, I can't say it enough times, the organization would not function. And so it's hugely important to say thank you to all of you for those contributions. In addition, however, it's not just the $500,000 that makes Portland Trails work. In addition, we had in 2017 over 900 volunteers put in over 5,000 hours of work. They moved hundreds of yards of stone to strengthen trail surfaces and work with erosion and mud troubles. They built or rebuilt scores of bridges. They cut or took out in any way possible hundreds of invasive plants that, sadly, most will be back this year and will go after them again. They moved many truckloads of trash and litter off the trails. And every single mile of the 70-plus miles of trail was pruned, raked and made better by those volunteers. So that's the secret sauce to keep everything moving forward and so well positioned for all of us to use. So thank you. Thanks to all of you, all of our supporters and our volunteers. We were able to end the year in the black, which is always a huge positive. And we're looking forward to doing the same in 2018 with your continued support. So thank you very much. With that, I would like to conclude that actual business portion of the meeting. So do I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? Any second? All in favor? All right. So that's it for the business portion of the meeting. Thank you for joining us for that little segment. I would like to just put out some save the date information to you. On June 2nd, National Trails Day, we will once again be doing what we call the Forest City hike. It's 10 miles across the city, all on Portland trails. If you haven't done it before, you really should think about doing it. If not this year sometime, I did it last year, and it's really well, well, well worth doing. So Saturday, June 2nd, you can sign up at our website, www.trails.org. You'll really enjoy it. Also, for save the dates, we have the City at Your Feet multi-modal scavenger hunt coming up on July 21st, where you will walk, run, cycle, and take the bus to find clues around greater Portland. Tons of fun, see new things, meet some new people. Definitely worth looking into. July 21st. We have the Trails to Ale, which this will be our 19th running this year. September 16th, the 10K, and our holiday dash, which is a 5K on December 9th. So lots of fun events coming up and things to keep a watch on at the website and in the newsletters coming forward. So again, thank you. And now I'm going to turn it over to Cara to get the real interesting and inspiring part of the meeting moving forward. Thank you, Wendy and Kate. And thanks everybody that's here. Make sure to get some snacks because I'm sitting back there for the rest of the night and I don't want to eat them all. My name's Cara. I'm the Executive Director of Portland Trails. First off, I want to thank Space for hosting us again. I think this is our fifth or sixth, 15 by 15, and they have been gracious hosts every year. Also, thank you to Portland Media Center, who is filming back here and in a couple of weeks video of these presentations will be on their website as well as ours. Also want to thank Dutch's Terracotta Pasta, Hannaford and Standard Baking for all those yummy tempting treats back there. Thank you to our members, volunteers, board, staff and everyone who pitches in in all the different ways that everyone in this room has pitched in. So we're 27 years old this year. Most often people ask us what we're doing. So a little preview for 2018. We'll be doing significant trail upgrades through Evergreen Cemetery if you're out there today. They were in action today and yesterday this week you'll see a lot of changes out there. Significant upgrades in Four River Sanctuary. We'll have a seasonal staff person focusing entirely on Four River Sanctuary this summer. We'll have habitat restoration throughout the whole trail network across the four communities. Supporting groups and building community cohesiveness in their neighborhoods in their way. And with the rapid pace of new construction and development in Portland, we will always have our eye on the ball of walking and biking opportunities that arise. We also, as Wendy mentioned, it's time for another Sundays on the Boulevard and that starts this Sunday. But I think what's really exciting is why we're transforming Portland into a healthier community for people, power transportation, conservation, recreation. Why we are creating and maintaining a network of trails and green spaces that connect people with places. I'll give you a few logic-based reasons right now and the rest of the evening you're going to hear a lot of heart-based reasons. We do it for humans. When a trail or a green space is within a half mile of a person's home they're more likely to utilize it. People who regularly use green spaces are going to be physically, mentally, and emotionally more healthy. Healthier individuals leads to healthier communities and thriving and diverse neighborhoods. Healthier schools and a more resilient and robust economy. We do it for nature. Green spaces and urban areas provide crucial wildlife habitat, important water and air quality benefits, as well as natural ways to decrease storm impacts. Why do we care about people power transportation for the community? When a town or city is built at a human scale versus an automobile scale it encourages healthier exchanges between people. It encourages more walking and cycling which supports small businesses. Research shows that someone that exchanges their 30-minute car commute every day for a walk or a bicycle commute gains as much personal happiness and well-being that it is equivalent to the good feelings you feel when you fall in love. That is why we do what we do. This is all based on studies and statistics and intellectual reasons, but the stories you will hear tonight will provide evidence from the heart. We all have stories to share. Tonight you'll meet some amazing people who are brave enough to get up here and tell their stories under the constraint of a 15 by 15 format. For that alone they deserve our admiration. Combined, tonight's stories reveal the character of our community. It's easy to see where our neighborhoods and transportation systems and schools can use improvement. It's easy to complain about what is wrong, but it takes an entirely different spirit and set of skills to instead see opportunity and start working towards solutions. That's the spirit of tonight's presenters. These are the doers. These are the solutioners who resolve problems by creating positive processes and outcomes that strengthen our community. Portland Trails is honored to host some of Portland's rock stars tonight. It is their spirit and tenacity and humor and mindfulness that make Portland Trails community unique. Thank you to each of our presenters. And thank you to our audience. You have a job tonight too. To support the brave presenters with cheers, thumbs up, yee-haws, way to go, whatever moves you. You also have stories to share of moments when you chose to make a difference. So after five presentations we'll have an intermission to make space for everyone to chit-chat and share their stories and get a drink at the bar. Please do not be shy about sharing your story. Our community is strengthened by that sharing. I'm thrilled to introduce tonight's emcee. Some might say that Ed Cecilvic needs no introduction, but I disagree. He's served the residents of Portland both at the State House and City Hall since 2002. While he has taken his responsibility to his constituents very seriously, Ed always has a corny joke to share. If you attend a public community meeting, or any of them, which we hope you do, you will soon run into Ed, if you haven't already. Ed says, I love running on Portland Trails. I love bringing people together in all sorts of ways. This June 2nd I will travel to Webster, New York to celebrate the 20th anniversary of donating my bone marrow boy, who is now a 30-year-old man. He has celebrated his birthday, his birthday on June 2nd ever since. Maybe this is why I live to bring people together. I think you will find Ed's enthusiasm for transit, trails, and his fellow community members contagious. Alright, before we go any further, let's just show our brave and trepid presenters how much we are looking forward and supporting them tonight. The only reason I agreed to do this is because I really want to see these presentations. So let's get right to it. So welcome to the Portland Trails 15 by 15. Tonight we've got nine presentations from some really cool people doing amazing work here in Portland around land conservation, trails, active transportation, and generally increasing the health and sustainability of Greater Portland. We just heard Kara say, nothing like going out and taking a nature bath every day. And thanks to Portland Trails, just about everyone in Portland gets the chance to do that if they just step outside of their house. Sometimes they even take the bus to a new trail you haven't taken. So here's how it works for these brave people. They each have 15 slides that change every 15 seconds, like clockwork. That is just under four minutes total, although for some of the presenters, that four minutes seem like 44 hours. But we here for you guys. Most of them have done nothing like this before. We'll hear from five people as Kara said take a little break and then we'll have four more people. I guarantee you it's going to be worth every one of those four minutes for each one of them. After intermission we'll come back together and be just as enthusiastic as we were in the beginning. So we're going to cheer wildly. We're going to listen attentively. We're going to discuss passionately. And this crowd, that's not exactly a stretch for you guys. Please turn your cell phones off, turn your ringers off on the phones. And the presenters, we've got a bell up here so that when the presenters come up here, ring the bell and that's the signal to begin the slides. 15 slides 15 seconds each. So without further ado for our first presenter, Christina Egan. She's worked abroad and throughout the U.S. on smart growth, energy transportation, climate initiatives for 25 years. Knowing Christina, that means she started when she was in kindergarten. Although she was not born here, her first choice for a place to live is Maine and she is definitely here by choice. Christina's been the executive director of the Greater Portland Council of Governments, yay couldn't ask for a better executive director since the summer of 2016. She has no spare time because she has a 12 year old boy who keeps her very busy a lot of outdoor time. She has a more than full time job at GP cog and she loves to come and do things like this and I will go off script here so be careful. One of the great things about Christina is her field of vision is one of infinite possibilities. So put your hands together and let's bring Christina Egan up. I am an incurable optimist but I don't want you to think that I'm a blind optimist. I've just had the great fortune of living in many places and seen in my life the great stuff that happens all around me and it gives me hope. That great stuff is also happening in Greater Portland and in the lakes region and I'm going to share some of that progress that we're all making collectively. It's easy to focus on political discord or all the crises that we see around us but we shouldn't lose sight of the many points of light in our corner of Maine. Residents have a clear vision of the future and where they want to head. They have a clear vision of hope and they aspire. We're making strides towards realizing that vision. At the Greater Portland Council of Governments we have the pleasure of being part of many of those strides, many people in this room in fact. So let's start the celebration of the many innovative things that are going on in our region. People in the region want prosperity. We live in the most prosperous part of the state but many people are left behind. Some of the brightest lights for economic development are our small businesses which is a new center innovating agriculture. Their food ends up at places like Fork Lab incubating small businesses and mature businesses like Holy Donuts have grown out of that. Residents want sustainability. There's lots of work ahead of course to prepare for climate change to transition to energy independence. Pictured here are two of my heroes, Julie and Troy and they're doing this work in the city but there's evidence all around the region that people care about the environment. There are bag fees throughout the region, solarized free port that help me get solar panels on my house and LEDs along the base side trail that many of you walk. Another bright light is Thrive 2027 which is hundreds of organizations led by the United Way who are working together to achieve three audacious goals to tackle poverty. The collaboration is inspiration. I'm going to shine a spotlight on transportation right now because I've been in this field for 25 years and transportation means a lot because it means to an end that's worthwhile. Doing transportation right is a way to make the world a better place. So let's start with serving our seniors. The region is graying. We've got a silver tsunami. Rural elderly have trouble getting around. Cumberland has launched a ride service. It's totally volunteer run and it's helping their elderly. Next let's talk about public transportation. It is on the move in this region and I'm not kidding. When I moved to Freeport, yeah. When I moved to Freeport there was no train station, there was no bus service. Now I've got both. And we also have a new hub in South Portland. We've got upgraded ferry terminal. We've got shelters around the station and coming soon the Husky Line which is going to go to Portland to Gorham. It's going to increase ridership 25%. We're on the cusp of completing 16 miles of the east coast greenway. I know you want to cheer for that. Yeah. And a recent campaign filled the gap with money and Scarborough. And looking to the future too we did a feasibility study of adding a trail along the rail from Portland to Yarmouth. This year are serving electric vehicles. This is an area of rapid technological innovation. I can see a future where car batteries are powering all of our homes. And we really need to embrace this future and our communities and our residents are. And speaking of technology, we have more changes on the way with autonomous vehicles and shared mobility. Maybe good, maybe bad but it's really up to us to shape the adoption of those technologies. If we make the right choices we can increase safety and mobility and decrease emissions. So transportation is connected to the economy, education, healthcare, the environment, housing. We need to connect the dots but even more importantly we need to connect to one another. No one town, no one agency, no one person, no one organization can build a brighter future alone. And when we connect we should do it with a can-do attitude. No more pessimism in Maine. This work is really hard. We need to encourage each other. We need to try new things. So as we leap into the future we face challenges. But people of the region are innovating at the grassroots level. We can build on their successes and our successes. At GPCOG we're working to bring the pieces of prosperity together and the people together. We want to lock arms with all of you as we move for a future. Let's keep our vision in sight and let's approach it all with incurable optimism. It would be nice if only she was passionate. Wow. Thank you for starting us off, Christina. That was awesome. That was awesome. And we're just getting this party started, folks, because next up Marsha Greenberg is currently living the life she wants. Actually it's the life I want too and when you hear it's the life we all want, I think, as an enthusiastic entrepreneur and leadership consultant. She was a partner with the Greenshoe Group, an international consulting firm for 20 years. She spent the last four years living and teaching at a university in South Korea. We've heard that name in the news a little bit. She and her husband Steve recently walked 500 miles across Spain completing the Camino de Santiago. It's the new satellite facility for Portland Trails, I think. I volunteer. She hopes to spread that joy to others through her new business Buen Camino, Finding Your Way. Marsha lives on Peaks Island where she's raised her two sons. She spends time with her amazing grandchildren. She runs marathons, runs, swims, bikes, triathlons and loves to laugh and boy does she have a great laugh. I hope you'll hear it tonight and eat great food and drink good wine. Put your hands together. Let's bring Marsha up here because we're going to have a good time. Before I hit the bell I just want to say one thing and that is that I'm trying to make the connection between my walk and bringing people together to find their way right here in Portland. Buen Camino, the ubiquitous greeting among those walking the Camino, it simply means good way. This journey was one of discovery, reflection and action for me. This time last year my husband Steve Shewitt and I walked the Camino de Santiago. We began in France, crossed the Pyrenees, walked 500 miles to Santiago, Spain. The path is well worn. About 300,000 people did some part of that walk last year. So I realized early on in the journey that it was filled with metaphors and lessons, and that I just might be able to transfer what I was learning to my everyday life right here in Portland. Where we have several paths in many journeys, Portland trails is a great example of paths worn. In 2015, this is old data, there were nearly 600,000 users uses on the back Cove in the eastern prom alone and I'm sure that's much more now. We're all seeking to find our way no matter where we are. So I thought through my journey people could learn what is important to them, realize their dreams, create visions, and get on their path. So I started offering workshops for people to think about having a life filled with joy doing exactly what you want, examining what might be in the way, and creating action plans. Here's some of the lessons I learned along my Camino. Day one. The journey can be really long and really demanding. So I went from 12 pairs of socks to two. Lesson. Less is more. I left lots of other things behind as well. Next, I brought things to leave along the way. Some mementos. Things that meant something to me. This is a picture of the Iron Cross. It's a place, very sacred part of the trail and people leave lots of things. So the lesson is what we leave behind really does matter. When the hills were steep and the road was challenging, I listened to the birds for inspiration. I brought what was in the background for me normally right to the foreground. And the lesson? Listening to the voices that you want to hear for inspiration. Stay away from the people who discourage you. Keep moving, no matter how small the distance. That brings us closer to our goals. Even the baby steps. Every path has two directions. Where you've been and where you're going. The lesson? Use the path you've traveled on in the lessons that you've learned to inform your next steps. The journey. For me, a big part was learning that when I stepped away from my daily life, reflected on my visions, my dreams, my goals, my values, I saw things that I may never have seen before. So I encourage you to challenge and stretch yourself while you tap into your courage and your abilities. Get inspired and stay inspired. I invite you to come on a journey with me and discover what's next for you. In the words of Mary Oliver, my favorite poet, tell me what it is you plan to do with your one, wild and precious life. So my next workshop is on June 9th. Wayne Canino. Thank you. I'm going to be going back to those lessons. Thank you, Marcia, for sharing those with us. Our next presenter, Zach. Okay, where's Zach? Alright, alright. Zach, Rada or Ruda? Ruda. I knew I was going to get it wrong. Zach Ruda founded Rewild Maine in 2016 to run a series of educational programs in Maine that focus on preserving and teaching the small scale, place based living skills that allow our ancestors to thrive for hundreds of thousands of years before industrialization. Zach enjoys reading, learning, long walks in the woods, something probably unites us. He started leading wild food tours in Portland after enough strangers on the street asked him to, and he's still figuring it out. So let's bring him on up here and welcome him so we can figure it out together. Hi, so yeah, I'm Zach. I don't have a script. Well, I missed it. So that was a shot of the acorns, right? Okay, great. Rewild Maine is an educational nonprofit program series and we focus on place based living skills, which means basically the big word is bioregionalism, right? The way we live is connected to the space. So acorns are edible. A lot of the slides that I brought are basically just to demonstrate a lot of wild foods that are available on Portland trails that we're teaching people how to connect with. So acorns, you just have to leach the tannins out. Tannin is essentially what makes red wine that astringency. And then these are a series of products that can be made with acorns. A crispy nuts on the bottom, acorn muffins. We're going counter clockwise. Pancakes, bread. This is an acorn jelly and then an imitation acorn tempeh. Milkweed is edible at several stages and we are always essentially on the lookout for the right way to use the plant, right? Because when we catch it at the right time, shoots or these flower buds can make a really delicious fritter in this batter here. But animals like them too, right? So we're trying to use things in a way that really we talk about regenerative gathering, right? Or tending the wild spaces so that we can preserve these plants and actually make them grow more so that milkweed is a favorite of, I don't know if you know this monarch butterflies and then you can see a bee in the background too enjoying it. And you don't eat the flowers when they're open anyway, just the unopened buds. This is a nice shot of three plants, a few native and one invasive cattails, stinging nettle and horsetail, which to some people, you know before I started learning about plants it's just like a sea of green. And a lot of times we can enjoy the trails, Portland Trail System but the more that we can understand, we've all got these needs, right? We have a need for food, we've got a need for tools or shelter. This has got a million names, Shadbush or Juneberry. These are just a couple of berries series. This is choke cherries, right? So these are all maybe berries that people here are using the Portland Trail System and I don't know if everybody here knows all about wild foods. I'm sure there's some people who've heard some of the stuff I'm talking about. But if you see this and you say, oh that's a choke cherry or maybe it was a wild black cherry, right? So this is a cherry which is a... I don't really know the connection to. I think it's several different types of cherries. I don't know the connection to the modern right? What we see in the grocery store. But it's edible and it's surprisingly delicious. Boy I wonder how much I'm sweating. Is it visible sweat? Because I probably should have taken my sweater off. This is autumn olive or autumn berry, right? This is two baskets of dandelion flowers. So these are things, a lot of these things are invasive plants, right? This is technically an invasive plant and autumn berry, the previous picture is a frustrating invasive, right? So we're talking about managing these invasive plants. The baskets are actually made from bittersweet which is an invasive and if we can find a reason to pull them out, a reason to use them to make baskets, then there's a motivation to go and pick them, right? Or we can make wine, right? Like I haven't bought alcohol for my house in over a year. Well because I'm still drinking but because it's all dandelions or autumn olive or whatever. This is a candy product. This is like a pat de fouille, like a jelly candy. This is like what your grandmother would give you right around the holidays, that hard jelly candy. But it's a delicious thing and the more that we can find out to complete a sentence from several minutes ago, we've got these needs and the more that we can remember that our needs are supported by the earth, right? Not necessarily the grocery store, right? There's a disconnect there. We see the food in the grocery store. We don't see where it actually comes from. This is an acorn cookie, delicious thing. And so to remember our origins basically is our mission. I think this is the last slide here at Rewild Main. Is it frozen? Oh, terrific. Thank you. Alright, Zach, you've given us a challenge. Now when I go running in the morning on Portland trails, I'm going to have to bring two bags. One for my blogging. We all know what blogging is. Running and picking up litter while you go. Zach, you've got to come up with a name for running while foraging. Alright, alright. See, I love this crowd. I could go on about our next presenter but I won't because I want to get her up here, not me. But boy, this is an amazing person. Christine Grimondo has been a senior planner for the City of Portland's Department of Planning and Urban Development since 2014 and planning years are kind of like dog years. That's like 100 years of planning that she's been doing. Shepherding long range projects and boy in Portland they are long with implications, huge implications for Portland's land use, public spaces, housing and more. But she's been working to create great communities for a lot longer than that. We're not planning Portland and it seems like she's planning Portland all the time because those meetings go till two in the morning it seems like. She loves exploring new cities, cycling mains coast and making slow but certain progress on her first novel in which case I hope I'm going to be treated well in that novel and that treatment. Maybe not. Anyway, please put your hands together. Let's give Christine a very warm welcome for being here tonight. Oh, oh, you're right on me. Okay. All right, Portland's plan 2030. It's the city's recently adopted comprehensive plan which is a big picture view of what we want and what we need Portland to be for the next decade that I had to privilege to help shepherd into existence recently. And it's as far reaching as it sounds. It includes goals for the economy, the waterfront, city streets, housing parks, Portland's history in neighborhoods, rising seas and ultimately our common values. Now we could have created this plan by sifting through reams of paper and having the usual sorts of meetings and we did some of that too but the process needed to be more for a project this sweeping and this important. Besides after a while the usual forums can start to feel a little like this. This cartoon of hell is the rare planner humor but it's also serious. Making pronouncements from behind the desk is not how this plan is going to be successful or credible. So with that in mind we hit the streets with the Portland shaped table to find people who might not have a particular interest in city planning but with a lot on their minds about where they live and where they work. So Portland planners went out to parks and squares. First Fridays and farmers markets, schools and soup kitchens, churches and libraries to talk and to listen. The city itself was crucial context and catalyst for a collective conversation and we are fortunate to have a fleet of citizen activists who consistently volunteer and attend meetings but Portland is more than its regulars. It's also new immigrants and youth and the homeless and parents with young children and challenging schedules and we don't hear from them as much. So outreach incorporated translation and interpretation, child care and food, varying locations and times. The process was about hearing new voices trying new things, making connections and maybe even having some fun. Now of course not every meeting was equally fun as evidenced by the looks on these peak-silender faces. Some were serious some were playful. Honestly some of the things we tried worked a lot better than others but we learned a lot along the way. Now if you ever find yourself demoralized by the news I would recommend writing news with students their vision included headlines such as Best Smelling City which the treatment plant was going through a rough patch that week so no homelessness and clean waters and amazing transit. So we ran around town talking with people for over a year then what? What does that all mean? We turned it into something. Eventually whether it was news headlines or maps or server responses there was tons of feedback to sit through and make something meaningful of. We translated what we heard into recommendations for where we need to make better trail and transit connections how we should grow, what we should preserve and by the way that Portland shaped table it's still in my cubicle if you want to rent it out for a wedding or graduation come talk to me after. The big idea is that bubbled up across thousands of pieces of input were synthesized into the plan's righteous vision for an equitable, sustainable, dynamic, secure, authentic and connected city. But it's not vision alone. Portland's plan 2030 was not written to sit on a shelf. It's a community made document that's poised to influence decisions that will impact Portland's future for a long time. It's both an aspiration and it's a tool. So the plan's complete and now the work begins of turning aspiration into action and some of this will be simple and some of it will invariably be messy and maybe even some will be contankerous. But as someone who lives and works in this fantastic place with so many passionate people I wouldn't have it any other way. Thank you. How fortunate are we to have people like her helping guide this city and we've got another great presenter before intermission but you see these people are great connectors. They're like a trail system all amongst themselves weaving everyone together. This is what's really cool about tonight. So our next presenter before our little short intermission Lauren Sullivan founded and is the co-executive director of Reverb along with her husband Adam Gardner of the band Guster. Who likes Guster here in the room? Yeah. Basically Lauren worked as a campaigner with the Rainforest Action Network and with New York City's partnership for parks helping communities to advocate for and reclaim their parks, gardens and green spaces. During that time Laura felt very keenly that the environmental movement was too insular, not tonight and that as advocates we need to break out of our respective bubbles using the powerful and universal language of music. Boy those meetings would be a lot more fun if they were set to music. Lauren and Adam merged their two worlds of environmental advocacy and music and thus Reverb was born. Let's Reverb it with Lauren. Let's bring her up here. This is so exciting. What a beautiful sea of faces. Okay. Ring the bell. Alright. Good evening. Thank you so much to Portland Trails for the invitation to be here tonight. It's a wonderful way to celebrate your work, Portland Trails and our community. So again my name is Lauren Sullivan. I'm the co-director of Reverb and in a nutshell we work to harness the cultural power of music to protect people and the planet. So go back to the beginning. I was born and raised here in Maine. I also had a mother that brought her family to protests in marches causing trouble wherever she went. Nature's power and the power of activism were instilled in me from the get go. Cut to college where I met my college sweetheart Adam Gardner of the band Guster and my now co-director at Reverb. Fast forward to grad school where I went to the Audubon Expedition Institute where I did a short internship with none other than Portland Trails. Back in the day the importance of Portland Trails work was clear to me from a very very young age. After grad school I worked as a campaigner with the Rainforest Action Network as you mentioned and a community organizer in New York City. Through that work I felt the urgent need to get out of this environmental bubble and that kind of cyclical conversation and nodding of this and I wanted to connect with the average everyday citizen. I wanted to educate about the amazing campaigns of so many worthy non-profits while Adam was lamenting the fact that the touring industry was so disposable and tough on the environment. We saw an opportunity to connect with music fans and also reduce the environmental impact of tours. So in 2004 with the support of Bonnie Raitt and her manager Kathy Kane Reverb embarked on her maiden voyage with the Bear Naked Ladies and Alanis Morissette. We recycled, we fueled with biodiesel, invited out dozens of local and national non-profits and enlisted hundreds of volunteers. Thankfully the model proved to be a good one and I'm proud to say that Reverb is heading into our 15th year of work. We've been on 240 tours, offset over 119 tons of CO2, worked with over 4,000 non-profits and 25,000 volunteers. Thank you. Over the past few years we've developed a new marquee program called Rock and Refill where we encourage fans to dish disposables and drink from the tap. Through this program we've kept 1.8 million disposable plastic water bottles out of landfills. Over the years we've also had the honor of working with such diverse artists as Dave Matthews Band, Drake, Maroon 5, Janelle Monae, Zach Brown Band, Alabama Shakes and Pink to name a few. We've had the wonderful experience of understanding the power that our voices have, the power of artists and fans' voices to create change and to in essence radiate out a message of action and positivity to help this one beautiful planet we call home. And of course the seed to all of this work begins here in Maine. The stunning beauty of our state offers inspiration to us all. It informs who we are and inspires us to do good work, not just for our community but for our planet. And I consider Portland Trails to be the proud of that ship, not only for the city but for our state and beyond, internationally even. It's a wonderful beacon. Reaver has been fortunate enough to partner with Portland Trails at Thompson's Point with our rock and refill program during service projects with our mutual friends at Allagash Brewing, as well as during the Guster on the Ocean weekend last year. The profound power of being out of nature has been studied and proven. We are happier and when we have access to the outdoors, Jamie, we are more likely to become stewards of our planet. Like the universal language of music, the universal world is one of the most powerful connectors that we have and we all know that because we're here tonight. We all love our city, we love our interconnectedness, be it through music or by way of the trails here, which are the life blood of our community. And now more than ever the world needs us and the earth needs us. So we've got to band together, use our voices get out there and be of service to our community and the planet. And again I just want to truly thank Portland Trails team for inviting me out to be a part of this evening. It's really really inspirational. I've been so inspired by what I've already heard and I can't wait to hear more. And I just want to thank all the presenters and supporters in the room for the great work of Portland Trails and all that you do. So thank you. You know I just got a comment on that picture of Jamie Parker because tonight just like Jamie, everyone presenting tonight, they're all stewards aren't they? They're stewards of our community, stewards of our planet as just said. And one thing I've learned the hard way about if you follow Jamie Parker into the woods on a expedition at this time of year, you better have your hip waiters on. I learned that the hard way. So speaking of trail stewardship, just before we go on intermission, Portland Trails is looking for about a dozen volunteer trail stewards. You don't have to steward the whole planet, just a small portion of the trail on the planet. The job includes walking or cycling your designated trail each week and we all it's like falling in love, you get to fall in love every week, get all those good things going or you can on your commute to work or school on a trail or you exercise on a trail like me. You may be the perfect person for the job. Visit Daniel at the Portland Trails table in the back of the room to find out more and I think it's a volunteer gig that will make you feel wonderful about your time on the planet. So before we continue I just want to echo some of the thank yous that Kara already put out because I don't think you can say thank you enough. So I too want to thank Space Gallery for hosting us again and the Portland Media Center. I almost called them their old name CTN but they are Portland Media Center and they do phenomenal work connecting this community. The video will be on both, yeah let's give Portland Media Center a hand. And I don't know about you but I'm definitely going to be looking for this on both Portland Trails website and the Portland Media Center's website because there's a lot to take in here tonight. It's a great format but I'm a little slow so I'm going to look forward to being able to see this again. I also want to thank because I'm all about the food and as we saw there's a lot of wild food out there again thanks to Zach for pointing that out but we want to thank tonight since we didn't, we're not on the trail Dutches, terracotta pasta, hanaford and standard baking for those yummy snacks that keep us all going so let's give them a thank you. And since I know I think we're all inspired tonight so a couple of just suggestions. Go to Trails.org you can, if you're not a member I'm sure everyone here is a member and if not you're about to because you're going to go on to Trails.org not during the presentation though, wait till after the presentation. And you can also sign up to volunteer for a work day. That's really important folks. As this trail network that we love and use has grown and grown and grown it can go from my house right in Portland and do a ten mile run nine and a half miles of which are on trails. But that doesn't happen by accident and those trails don't stay maintained by accident and it's great that so many people, you see the numbers it's great that so many people are using the trails but guess what the more people that use a trail the more wear and tear there is on that trail so we need some maintenance so please you can sign up, Portland Trails makes it so easy to volunteer. We heard about already and it sounds pretty exciting the City of Your Feet scavenger hunt July 21st I guarantee good weather that day, money back guarantee and this one is a great, the 10k trail to ale September 16th and if I'm not mistaken registration just open online if I'm not mistaken yes, don't wait on that one go home tonight and register for that. And again if you're out on the trails consider becoming a trail steward I hope some of you signed up so who's ready to dive back in? There's no flagging energy here and this next presenter perhaps might not need an introduction but I think actually she does Kara Woldrick I was about to say she grew up but I should actually started growing up because one of the great things about Kara she's not yet grown up and that's one of the best things about Kara huh so she started growing up in a warmer place where outside time was an all day kind of thing at seven years of age her favorite hobbies were climbing trees not surprisingly and having picnics with a dog in the backyard her preferred activities are still pretty much the same because she figured out just like my mother did that growing up is way overrated riding bikes, kayaking, trail running, skateboarding, cross country skiing they're all vehicles to get out and experience the natural world firsthand Kara's Instagram account, Maine Urban Foraged chronicles her adventures in food preservation and foraging among Portland's trails and green spaces. Kara's convinced that places shape people as much as people shape places. She also believes that playfulness and laughter are key ingredients in all successful movements we are so lucky that Kara is the Executive Director of Portland Trails let's bring her up here with a big welcome at Portland Trails we try to authentically work in ways that make our values transparent but at this moment in time it's imperative for us to clearly articulate our beliefs we believe in nature in the city. Portland Trails believes that when people come together to work toward a vision that reflects and illuminates our entire community's shared values we are taking the radical step of creating the world we hope for. Portland Trails believes that people are healthier when they move their body every single day the opportunity to be physically active needs to be accessible to all members of the community so we have a trail or a green space within a half mile of every residence we believe that plants and animals and ecosystems deserve special treatment healthy soil water and water are the building blocks of all life and we should value them as much as the health of our children because they are deeply intertwined we believe that trails are part of the transportation network whether it is to get to school the bus work a brewery the grocery store a concert it's important to us that our trails get you where you want to go hate speech has no place in our community an incident on a trail on August 21st forced to us to examine how we respond to acts of racial and religious intolerance silence was not an option we believe the interconnected walkable neighborhood scaled for people are our successful past and they will be our prosperous and joyful future everyone deserves a walkable neighborhood walking was the original form of transportation horses bicycles trains they came next they are transportation not alternatives E.T. is alternative transportation we work with neighborhood groups, businesses, developers, municipal staff and elected officials schools, private foundations, students and residents and we believe that trust is our most valuable currency Portland trails believes that real change happens when businesses and government and nonprofits and citizens work together that this is what democracy looks like as they think they do and that we should probably all take the bus and train more often we believe that transit has the power to change a community we believe in the little moments of delight that make people's days brighter whether it's a glimpse of Casco Bay from the midslope trail a child chasing a butterfly in a school garden or a hammock along the four river at just the right place these are the moments that matter we believe that silliness and joy are essential ingredients in community transformation I see you back there Sheila like you we know that a walk in nature can change a life that going outside is often the best medicine we don't need the data in thousands of studies that prove this to be true because we witness it we witness you do it every day we believe that you and you and you and every single one of us right here in this room is an important part of creating a greater Portland with healthier people ecosystems and neighborhoods and that together we are unstoppable I'll follow her how about you right out into the woods right out into the woods Cara thank you our next presenter Peter Monroe is a former journalist and retired landscape architect who has so little to do that he spends at a time walking along chunks of the Camino de Santiago in Spain I don't know if he ran into Martian Steve Italy in France he enjoys taking talking in more than one language sounds like he that comes in handy at city council meetings and acts like he knows what he's talking about which also comes in handy at city council meetings about which there are sometimes serious doubts no comment and just like I believe it was Oakhurst Dairy he likes the Oxford he's lived in the West End more than 30 years and in Orano in the late 1940s but as a flat lander born in D.C. he can ride a unicycle and wishes he could have conversed with Frederick Law Olmstead but tonight he's going to converse with us please welcome Peter Monroe I couldn't be more proud that I've been associated with this organization for 25 years just gameplay the best absolute best but I'm now involved with another organization which I'll tell you about 18 months ago I hadn't even heard of this group Citizens Climate Lobby now I spend almost all my time working for it I would urge you to follow the path that I have taken working to modify the massive midtown project with Portland Trails I discovered that the biggest threat to the project was not us but sea level rise insurance companies insisted that the buildings be two feet above Somerset Street they even offered lower rates if the project were six feet above Somerset Street Jill and I had solar panels on our roof for five years but how many solar panels would it take to counteract the billions in subsidies that Congress grants annually to coal and oil companies so 18 months ago and flooding and climate change are real Somerset Street has flooded twice since we were in the military for days at a time it wasn't even raining climate change is happening now so 18 months ago we went to see facing the surge about the increasing sunny day flooding in Norfolk Virginia of the three groups speaking afterwards only this group I had never heard of Citizens Climate Lobby had a laser focus on a national solution to climate change only it offered intensive training to Lobby Congress and it had lobbied Congress for ten years about the non-partisan climate solution called Carbon Fee Individend so within six weeks of having seen that film I was in Suit and Tie in Washington DC with alongside three other main volunteers we were constituents trained to meet with King and Collins, Pingree and Polyquan our optimism was transparent and we had reason to be optimistic that day more than 600 of us volunteers from around the country met with more than 300 members of Congress or their staff last June I was among more than a thousand volunteers meeting with 90% of Congress constituents are the most greatest influencers of Congress we talked with them about Carbon Fee Individend the fee will place a constantly rising price on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases this rising price would reduce the use of fossil fuels and drive innovation and clean energy the dividend will distribute all monies collected in equal shares to all households in monthly environmental security checks like social security these dividends will pay for the rising cost of gasoline heating fuel and carbon rich goods last year we met with all our members of Congress including Senator Collins we are welcome to back because we are prepared and respectful we bring endorsements and research responsive to our members concerns we are building relationships with them the house has ever growing climate solutions caucus it now has 74 members provides a major source of bipartisan optimism about climate a Democrat can join only if paired with a Republican like Noah's Ark it is already prompted to pro-climate actions meanwhile the unreported sea change among congressional GOPs toward climate seven times more Republicans now supports climate solutions than just three years ago as a result citizens climate lobby has reason to be optimistic that within 15 months a Republicans will cosponsor a carbon fee and dividend bill in Congress we owe it to ourselves our grandchildren all planetary life forms to adopt a version of this as soon as possible a congressional staffer told us recently you are doing the hardest work in Washington we need it keep it up to grow your optimism about this crucial subject come join us thank you walk in the halls of Congress after that I think you need to come back and walk the four river trails to be renewed I have a feeling next we've got some excitement we've got a two for one deal for over 15 years Addie Smith Reinman has successfully engaged people with projects that celebrate local identity shared histories and future use she's thrilled to put these skills to use as the new ish executive director of the Portland society for architecture a wonderful organization here in Portland she lives in the Parkside neighborhood with her husband Josh the 20 month old son oh oh oh Lee and their dog auto that's who I think the pizza chain was named after in a historic home that will likely remain in a state of perpetual potential I love that when I was in real estate I could have described all my listings perpetual potential she can often be seen riding around town on her 1938 Raleigh gazelle safety roadster named Georgie or tending to her pollinator garden on 6th Street and Jocelyn Booth is relatively new to me looking for a quality of life change she and her husband moved to Portland three years ago from Washington DC an architect by profession Jocelyn is also food travel and outdoor enthusiast Portland is a pretty good place for that experimenting with new recipes of the newest Portland restaurant that could be a full-time job in and of itself and we're enjoying a glass of wine as some favorite pastimes when the weather is right Jocelyn loves hiking camping and boating and is always looking for the next challenge to tackle like coming up here tonight she has a life goal of visiting all of the national parks and with 29 of the 58 under her belt is halfway there and I personally want to know if she has a favorite yet so please put your hands together and let's welcome Addie and Jocelyn well thank you Portland trails for all of this this is fabulous oh this is a bell okay great well thank you for the opportunity to talk about the Bramhall Square design competition this is actually initiative led by a local business owner from Peloton Labs and the Parkside Neighborhood Association they came to the Portland Society for Architecture and the main chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects to ask them to help reimagine this square it's really part of the chain of the Congress Street parks and parklets and with the investment that was being made in Congress Square and Lincoln Park they thought hey what could we do with our little corner here the corner has a bit of challenge it's at the intersection of Cumberland Deering and Congress Street has a steep slope has some pretty significant runoff there has been some investment made over the last couple of years with limping up the trees accountability and visibility but it's really not the place to gather so they hosted a series of charrettes in the last couple of years to get stakeholder involvement in the fall of last year PSA and ASLA with these two with Parkside and Peloton we hosted a design competition and got about 13 entries of design professionals landscape architects urbanists and artists and dreamers and some themes that arrived platforms for public art the bus station this is on the main Congress Street route just creative ways of interpreting places to gather places to activate there the lighting is another key piece stormwater management incorporating historic materials but using a contemporary flair seating is also a key part to this I mean again it's an odd corner lot with a pretty intense acoustic environment so thinking about nestling in and being comfortable but then also fun and whimsy this is one of the most brilliant a series of bears embedded into a blueberry patch with views out to Mount Washington what could be better there was one choice that bubbled up with a jury and a public voting system and that was up the WBRC submission and Jocelyn Booth is going to talk about that and walk you through all right so I worked with a great group of designers at WBRC to come up with this idea and what we really wanted to do is show the potential of this site and sites like it around Portland and what is possible even on a difficult site so we tried to work with the existing conditions of some manholes control panels and really the grade input drop from one side to the other and trying to come up with a system of really interesting retaining walls and steps to mitigate that and make it more usable so one of the things we wanted to do is focus this view out to the northwest and doing that with the slope of the benches to provide access through the site where otherwise you couldn't get through to provide transportation bike racks it's on a major bus route so really looking at providing a new bus shelter there that would work with it and the bus shelter would have sitting along the street and again using that idea of retainage along the backside of it to mitigate the slope providing safety lighting on the site both in the canopy itself and in the bench seating the tree lighting that's so nice in Portland and then one of the other things that we were looking at oh so here's the view from the top we've divided the site into two tiers the upper tier would have a seating area for hanging out relaxing tables you can see the bus shelter and the view off to the northwest a bird's eye view of that you can see the overall site in a second there we go with kind of containing the red brick around the site and then using a new material in the inside to create a sense of place really give this park an identity we've kept the four trees that are there one of them would have to come out with the regrading but we're looking to replace it with something ornamental low maintenance here's a view of the lower tier of the park and this is meant to be something more fun and playful interactive for people coming through we have these play mounts and interactive seats and using the grading to create a sense of safety and separation from the street so bringing it all together we have kind of the bus park at the upper level the seating tier in the middle the play area all trying to you know give a purpose to this park and showing the potential of parks around Portland and really the what's next for this this was an ideas competition so it's really to engage those stakeholders the city and also those that can make an investment in these improvements and to dream big and to think big because that's where it comes from so thank you wow talk about seeing potential where most people just see wasted space thank you guys so much for bringing that forward and I still want to know though which one is your favorite national park maybe someday it'll be bram hall park got a dream big got a dream big that's what tonight's all about right okay and we are going to wrap up with a awesome presentation the unsinkable molly brown along the panopscot river in orno main she escaped the claustrophobic nothing to do small town blues by going to college in an even smaller rural new england town not to be fooled twice she headed west for the next 15 years where fate would have it met a guy who also grew up in the panopscot they returned to main to focus on the diametrically opposed activities of raising kids and surfing although I'm thinking if the wave motion is right it can kind of rock him just I don't know molly prefers to make art over meals to her family's dismay unless she get into this edible arts thing maybe you and Zach can get together afterwards so please let's give a huge welcome to molly brown well this is wonderful to be here I've actually known about a lot of these organizations and being a little busier than I want to be haven't been able to learn about a lot about them so this has been awesome to get like an interesting person introduction alright so my name is molly brown and I have a background in geography I have a PhD in human geography and I'm an artist and so I kind of ended up having to combine the two I do maps commissions for people workshops all kinds of things my real focus is how hand drawn work connects to our feeling attachment to place so I was going to be a planner actually and then I kind of got off track so this is sort of the visual back story of where I went so what I started to do is draw those maps of my sort of flow my travels and I couldn't help just kind of drawing the process of going through the places I was at I ended up traveling the world for about a year trying to make maps for people in rural communities and I thought well what importance would a little drawing do it well it turned out that actually hand drawn maps are an amazing way to show people how the evocativeness of a place so this was in Peru actually and I was on a year round I just had one for one year I had a pen and paper and I drew this map of this is fast Lake Titicaca at the end of the year this was Mongolia and this was also just on a horse this one was off the horse with a pen and paper showing this journey that people took up to see the reindeer people in Mongolia so I had this amazing year but I came back and kind of post college post fellowship blues what do I do well I got a job in my hometown near my hometown trying to display the open spaces of Bangor and so this isn't to how to get there but it's how to evoke that feeling and showing a community where their open spaces are this is a site this is the Great Bay I actually didn't know the Great Bay exist until I did this it's all embarrassing a little main trick but they wanted a floor map and so we did this watercolor map and then what we were able to do we wanted kids to interact with it more not just be visual so it's on the floor and this is actually a kid's foot size and if you walk around you kind of get the sense of what a mile is and so they can feel that and so connecting maps a little bit more to place experientially so I also did fun maps for people mental maps of places they care about and these are kind of fun and cartoony but it's amazing how much power they actually evoke for people when those little symbols and cartoons represent a real memory with real people and real love so I noticed that a lot of times it wasn't about how beautiful the map was it was making sure those little places that they loved were on that map and the power of a little place like where Barbara went to smoke her cigarettes but in the way that the little tin can how important that was for someone and we don't do this well in our societies really really trying to express how we're connected to place so I started doing workshops at libraries here and all around the state encouraging people to go through a process to find these places that matter to them and doing little water colors not too intimidating and so they walk out with these little water colors of a place that they may have even forgotten was so important to them but in this hand drawn process they realize oh my gosh it was my grandmother's driveway and I love that place so it's being able to take the art process and remind people how important little places are and speaking of little I love actually working with kids the most I've been doing this a lot in the public schools and getting them to map the places that matter to them and the routes that are important to them and then we've been working on also like a bigger mural projects where they learn a little bit of sort of the visual language of the built environment and starting to piece apart Portland and take little pieces and study them and paint them and they also get to pick one place that's really special to them either historically or through life like Dunkin Donuts or something they care about and transpose that so you may see these around in Rosemont Market and other places in the public library but basically this has been sort of my most fun project to date which is taking students work and combining and making these representations of Portland through the kids because quite honestly I think we all know there's nothing like a hand-drawn painted map by a child to evoke something that's actually all deep and very real to all of us so there's a magic in that and yeah I look forward to doing more thanks. You know these things may come in handy when you're trying to get from point A to point B and you're not quite sure where you are but you know I just found my kindred spirit I like to bring maps to bed with me at night my wife maybe not so much like that but to me a map tells so many stories oh god that is so cool well let's give a huge round of applause to all ten of our presenters I think I can speak for everyone in the room that we're very glad that you all were brave enough to take on the challenge of this format stand up here with the slides going every 15 seconds because that was amazing and I'm coming walking away tonight with realizing the power of connectivity I mean the maps just connecting people with spaces connecting people with their planning process here in the city connecting people with their path in life so much about this is connections and I'm just just some things just random thoughts that came to my mind during the Sundays on the Boulevard those came about by connecting the need to do a stormwater project on Baxter Boulevard to clean up Casco Bay blocking the traffic and we said well gee we're getting along without it let's try it now it's an institution right or just the other day I participated in the US on Husky Day of Service and we were cleaning up the shores of Back Cove and it was kind of cool to clean up the shores of it was frustrating in that there were so many cigarette butts in the parking lot smokers are sedentary on the trail there's no more cigarette butts just by the parking lot also kind of I mean a real challenge that I think we all we picked up a lot of discarded needles which is disturbing and challenging but on the plus side we didn't pick up a single plastic grocery bag not one huh four years ago they were plastic leaves everywhere and floating so we can make progress by working together I want to thank Portland Trails for putting on this tremendous event I want to thank the staff the board the volunteers of Portland Trails for making this city and this region such a wonderful place to live I'm already looking forward to my morning run tomorrow morning and getting out and falling in love all over again just again some reminders I haven't heard it before but I don't want you to walk out the door without thinking about the 10 mile four city trail hike it's going to be a really fun walk across the city on Saturday June 2nd the city at your feet multimodal scavenger hunt how cool is that alternative transportation as well as real transportation on July 21st the monthly trail volunteer work days have already started the next two and I'm definitely going to sign up for one of these May 12th and June 2nd May 12th is coming right up June 2nd the trail to AL 10K Sunday September 16th that is an event not to be missed and already thinking about when the snow flies although there was ice on the trail yesterday in the Fort River on the bridge the Portland Brewers Holiday Dash December 9th just to keep you going on that so one more round of applause for our presenters please because this was phenomenal and everyone go take a hike