Kevin Gallagher - Freeport area Personal Insurance Agent

I have a daily regimen of swimming laps at the Freeport YMCA. Recently I've had the pleasure of meeting a fellow Pownal resident, Kevin Gallagher. He and his family moved up from Portland in 2004 to enjoy country living with the convenience of easy access to Maine's largest city. Kevin and his wife Mia treasure being able to walk in their woods, keep chickens and the occasional pig, and enjoy the peaceful life. I was interested to learn that Mia Dyson is the minister at the South Freeport Church.

Kevin grew up in the Fairfield county (Westport, Norwalk) area of Connecticut which is about an hour from New York City. As this is the day after the Patriots lost to the New York Giants, it is important to point out that Kevin is a passionate Patriots fan who is heart broken as I am about the game last night. Kevin spent the summer of 1974 up the coast in Friendship which made a great impression on him. In 1982 he moved to Maine to work at Portland Stage Company as Lighting Designer and Master Electrician. After different careers that included work as an electrician and social worker, he raised mllions of dollars for Friends of Casco Bay and the Univeristy of New England. Kevin is now proivding insurance protection to families and businesses throughout southern Maine through his work for J.C.Milliken Agency and Guardian Life.

Kevin has served as a Board Member of MaineShare, the Pownal LandTrust, and the Maine Society for Clinical Social Work, as well as Chair of the Finance & Stewardship Committee at Mid-Coast Presbyterian Church in Topsham. Now, his free time is spent driving his four children around, reading, and cheering on the Celtics. Give him a call at 651-9411 if you wish an insurance quote for Auto, Home, Busienss, Life, Disability, or Long Term Care.

Scott Krouse - Executive Director of the Freeport YMCA

From early childhood to the present day, the Y has been an integral part of Scott's life. Raised in Boothbay Harbor by parents who are from Pennsylvania (his dad from Allentown & his mother from western PA), Scott feels there is no better place to live than in Maine.

He feels very lucky to be working as Executive Director at the Freeport Y which is one of three facilities that comprise the Cumberland County YMCA. An avid basketball and baseball player in high school, Scott picked up golf and tennis when he went to college. He felt golf and tennis would be activities he could enjoy for a lifetime; he also became a tennis coach during college. Scott graduated from Boothbay High school and moved on to further his studies at Springfield College in Massachusetts where he majored in Sports Management. Scott then went on to pursue a Masters degree in Education from Springfield College. As part of his graduate work Scott completed an internship with the Boston Celtics working in their front office.

Mike Harrison, a former Executive Director at the Boothbay Harbor Y, proved to be very helpful in Scott's emerging career. For starters, Mike employed Scott at the Boothbay Y during college allowing him to work in many departments experiencing the true diversity the Y offers. As he emerged into the world of work, Scott started out at the Portland Y where he was a sports and recreation director. He eventually became Executive Director of the Portland Y.

Scott handles multi-tasking very comfortably or so it seemed to me when I saw him handling situations that arose and needed his immediate attention. As I waited to interview him, Scott lead a tour of board members through the new construction site that will give the Freeport Y very needed space to expand. Susan, one of his employees, was informing Scott about a critical repair needed in the women's shower area. As Scott and I sat down to talk, he told me he had to prepare for a board meeting later that day.

Scott spoke earnestly about his goal to raise $167,000 for financial Aid to both individuals and to families who can't afford the many wonderful programs that the Y offers. I learned that noone is turned away from the Y due to inability to pay. The Y provides financial assistance in many different ways such as: childcare, summer day camp, membership, adaptive services, swim team, etc. The need for financial assistance continues to rise. For example, this year alone there are 110 members on the Stripers swim team; over $5,000 has already been provided in financial support for children to swim on the team.

The next time you visit the Y ask for a copy of their Long Range Strategic Goals. I had no idea that the Casco Bay Freeport Y serves 600 indivduals every day! How do all of these activities happen and who are these faithful workers? Scott says that a Y is as strong as the community that supports it. The Freeport Y wouldn't be what it is today without the dedicated support of all their volunteers. In fact there is a goal to double the number of volunteers this year. Another major goal this year is to address the high incidence of obesity, chronic disease, and other healthcare crises among our community. For web information, click http://www.cumberlandcountyymca.org/ To suport the financial aid program, call 865-9600.

Royal River Natural Foods - A one-of-kind Maine organic store!

I had just read an article in the newspaper titled "Happiness is a warm 'thank you' in the Christian Science Monitor before my interview with the owner at Royal River. Marilyn Gardner, the Monitor staff writer, says "Ask bosses what makes employees happy at work, and many are likely to think in terms of tangible rewards: a good salary, a pleasant office, generous benefits." Marilyn goes on to say, "...workplace specialists are discovering that for many workers, the "happiness factor" depends heavily on intangibles, such as respect, trust, and fairness"

Ruth Finch who comes from Connecticut is the founder and owner of Royal River Foods. She is fully committed to taking good care of her workers. This fact is proven out when former workers move away, but return to Maine to visit Royal River and express their appreciation for the special place that it is. Customers like this place so much that they periodically ask Ruth whether she would consider opening other stores in Maine or even out-of-state. For Ruth, her workers are like extended family and she takes good care of them by offering a profit sharing program. Founded 14 years ago when Ruth had two small children, she came up with the idea to start her own organic market. She said to me that she had no idea how hard it would be to start her own business. Had she known, she might not have even tried.

Royal River is all about providing quality organic food and being one of a very select few outlets that support Maine organic farmers. Ruth began her career in organic natural food working many years ago at the "Good Day Market" in Portland. Ruth first started Royal River Natural Foods in Yarmouth, at that time hardly anyone in this area knew what Tofu was. Today world headquarters is located in a beautiful building on US Route 1 in Freeport.

Tina Wilcoxson, the general manager, is from the county. She has been with Ruth for 12 years. Tina said that in 2007, 25% of goods sold at Royal River were from ME organic producers. Tina loves the work culture at Royal River so much as evidenced by her 12 years of service. She said, "If I didn't like it here, I would have moved on a long time ago". Tina's husband calls her the "mayor" because she is recognized everywhere she goes. When Tina and her husband reached the summit of Tumbledown mountain, within minutes a Royal River customer was madly waving and hollering out her name.

Doug hails from Easton Massachusetts. He is the grocery manager who coined the phrase "the home office is upstairs" Indeed the home office of Royal River Foods knows how to satisfy their Freeport, Pownal, and Yarmouth customer base. Ruth saw a customer in the store that has been shopping here for 14 years. You'll see her in the above photo with Ruth's arm around her! So, no need to call Austin Texas to find out what the corporate office feels is right for the Maine organic client base! I don't think I will ever feel quite comfortable shopping at the new Portland big box organic food store ever again.

Sharon Hughes & the Freeport Hardware Crew!

While visiting with business owner Sharon Hughes Saturday morning, I learned a wonderful story about the woman and her very capable crew that make Freeport Hardware a "true value" to the Freeport community. Sharon didn't want me to take her picture without including all the employees that make her company such a success. Candidly, she admits she couldn't operate Freeport Hardware without their fine customer service and their depth of knowledge about the products that she sells. Sharon and her late husband Mark ran the business for many years. Mark's life's dream was to own a hardware store. For years Sharon and Mark were climbing their respective corporate ladders as they moved about the country. It was hard on her family because they weren't able establish roots and strong ties to a community. Sharon described her life as fairly ordinary until she and Mark embarked on their small business journey of a lifetime. Mark and Sharon mortgaged just about everything they owned to start the business. I don't recall how many years they ran the business together before Mark contracted cancer and passed on. Sharon, alone at the helm at Freeport hardware, without seemingly any working knowledge of running a hardware store had some important decisions to make. I'm sure she had many a sleepless night wondering which direction to take with the business. But she forged on with the business and with her employee partners who keep the ship profitably on course. Sharon says she never goes home at the end of a day without learning something that is pretty cool about the hardware business. Sharon's expertise is in the area of finance and she mentioned working with such companies as M&M Mars and McGraw Hill in New York.

A native of New Hampshire, Sharon and her family regularly came to Maine during summer vacations in the Kezar lake area. Sharon and her husband were so glad that they landed in Freeport because she feels the residents are so wonderful and were so supportive when Mark passed on. She and I agreed that this town is a great community of both locals and people "from away". She has one son who graduated from Stonehill College in Massachusetts and is now working in Manhattan for Goldman Sachs. Given recent events on Wall Street, I'm sure he is helping Goldman Sachs chart a steady course through some pretty stormy times. One day, Shaon hopes her son will come back to Freeport. For more information, call 207-865-9557.

AutoWerkes Maine - European Auto Service

I am having a blast this week meeting so many remarkable business people in Freeport. Today I interviewed Voit Ritch, owner of AutoWerkes Maine which specializes in fine European automobile service and sales. A native Pennsylvanian like myself, Voit lived and worked in the Lehigh Valley area of PA http://www.lehighvalleypa.org/. Voit has considerable professional experience working on foreign cars. I'll let you click on his website for a more complete presentation of his professional qualifications http://www.autowerkesmaine.com/. But before you click away, let me share with you an interesting fact I learned about him. Voit was a partner in AIR Corporation. What is AIR? Bill Cosby, one of my all time favorite comedians, had a funny answer to that question in a 1960's record album. Anyway, in Voit's case, I learned that AIR stands for Automotive Import Recycling. In the late '70's and early 80's AIR Corp. would do a "total makeover" of an old BMW or Volvo in just 8 to 10 days. For many years, Voit enjoyed coming to Maine in the summer and he always found suitable work here. In 1982 he moved here for quality of life reasons including more affordable real estate and less clogged highways. Today, he has his new auto repair business in Freeport. Voit is a real estate investor in the Augusta area. I'll have to help him invest in property here in the Freeport area. So, drop in and introduce yourself to Voit or to his service writer and parts manager Ryan Jenks. Autowerkes services BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Audi, and Mini brands as well as Volvo cars. For more information, call 865-6600.

Freeport Tack Company - Lisa Judd owner

You would really enjoy getting to know this fascinating Freeport business owner as I did earlier today. Lisa hails from Massachusetts, yet was brought up in Saudi Arabia in the port city of Jeddah. Her father worked for an American company with a base of operations in Saudi Arabia. As a young girl she got to know Prince Sulton's daughter who was an avid horse back rider. Lisa and her Saudi friend had access to the Sulton's horses and rode horses over a vast area on his land. I mentioned to Lisa that I visited Jeddah 10 years ago when I was shipboard director for Class Afloat www.classafloat.com , a 188' tall ship that served as a floating high school for Canadian and American children. Lisa said she sailed on the Red Sea in small sailboats known as Lasers. The Red Sea is known to have a large white shark population and Lisa said it wasn't as much fun to snorkel after she saw "Jaw's" in a Saudi Arabia theatre. She grew up without TV in Saudi Arabia and it served her very well because she took advantage of all that a woman could enjoy in that country. As you may know, women can't participate fully in that country as they do here. For example, women can't drive cars. Lisa mentioned that there was a pool near her home where the Americans and other foreigners lived, however, the pool was segregated in such a way that there were hours for men to swim and hours for women to swim. She lamented the fact that she never got to swim with her father. Lisa and her family knew friends who lived in Tehran back in the 1970's and several of her family friends became hostages during the crisis in Iran during the Carter era. When Lisa reached the age of 15, she had to leave the country as the government felt that western teenage values were in stark contrast to Saudi values. The government paid for her to attend a fine school in New York; although Lisa laments that she didn't opt for a private school in Italy or elsewhere in Europe. Lisa speaks Arabic, French and of course English. She came to Maine to attend Bates College and is a trained Speech Therapist. In April of 2003 she started to work at Freeport Tack company. By December of that year, the owner decided to move on in her life and sold the business to Lisa. She has an active local clientele including a number of clients from Quebec and other parts of Canada. So, please stop in to see her fine store before Lisa moves next door where she will double her current retail space. For more information, www.freeporttack.com or call 865-1811.

Imported Motor Cars of Freeport

Mark who is featured here in front of his new business, Imported Motor Cars of Freeport, has extensive experience in the automotive business. Last year he bought the building here at 353 U.S. Route One in Freeport which previously operated as Freeport Automotive, a small local used Volvo dealership. Mark has an active Mini Cooper business including European cars such as BMW, Audi, Mercedes, VW, Saab and Volvo as well as Japanese brands. Many of his cars are purchased at the Manheim auction located one hour west of Philadelphia where I'm from. Each car he purchases is subject to a thorough inspection to make sure he offers customers the best quality used vehicle. Mark is thrilled with his new business and is amazed how all the details of purchasing the business all fell into place. He leases a space behind his showroom to a company that focuses on foreign car repair, a business that will be featured in a upcoming sofreeport post. Go online at http://www.importedmotorcars.com/ to check out his inventory. Or call Mark at 865-0008.