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 Margaret Chase Smith visits with students in 1987.
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Margaret Chase Smith created the library in part to provide herself a forum for meeting with students. Through her
own example, she hoped to inspire young people to aspire and to serve. To continue this important
legacy, the Margaret Chase Smith Library maintains a field trip fund to ensure that Maine school children continue to learn
the virtues of achievement and good citizenship. While at the facility, students watch a twenty-minute video on Senator
Smith's life and tour her house, the museum, and the archives. Teachers interested in bringing classes may request funds by
contacting the library.
FIELD TRIPS 2002-2003 During the 2002-2003 school year, the Margaret Chase Smith Library hosted nearly 1500 young people as part of 66 school and youth groups. The majority of these visitors were invited to tell about their service projects and were rewarded with donations to support their charitable causes. Since 1998, almost 250 groups from throughout the state of Maine and from preschool to high school have benefited from this program, receiving over $50,000 in assistance. Over the past six years, the library staff has been repeatedly amazed by the breadth and depth of students' commitment to improving their schools, communities, and world and to helping those in need because of poverty, sickness, and disaster. It has affirmed for us that the vast majority of young people are good kids willing to do good works. They organize food, clothing, toy, and blood drives. They mentor the young and visit the old. They care about the environment and all creatures great and small. They send aid to orphans in Romania, provide relief for refugees in Kosovo, collect textbooks for students in Kenya, explore female empowerment in South Africa, donate health and school supplies to the poor of Ecuador, and bring the skills of peer mediation and community building to Guatemala. They join student leadership, peer mediation, and alcohol awareness groups; Key and Service Clubs; and Civil Rights Teams. In short, they serve! GROUPS
10/03/2002 Bloomfield School (Skowhegan)
12/03/2002 Cascade Brook School (Farmington)
01/08/2003 Lawrence High School (Fairfield)
02/06/2003 Waterville High School
03/03/2003 Messalonskee High School (Oakland)
04/01/2003 Cornville Elementary School
05/05/2003 Winslow High School
06/02/2003 Atwood-Tapley School (Oakland)
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Copyright ©1999 Margaret Chase Smith Library. | |
