Story and photo by Marc Glass

Former history teacher Kristie Littlefield ’96 says, “It was not easy to leave that realm.” Fortunately for students and communities statewide, her classroom only got bigger.

As school partnership coordinator for the Maine Community Heritage Project (MCHP), she supports eight communities awarded $10,000 grants by the Maine Historical Society (MHS) to capture their history. The funding, made possible by a National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum & Library Sciences, supports online archival activities undertaken by partnerships of schools, libraries, non-profit organizations and historical societies.



“The beautiful thing is that the projects are so unique, but in the end add to the knowledge about Maine’s story,” says Littlefield, who assisted teachers with developing integrated curricular activities, digitizing historic documents and artifacts from local collections for uploading to the MHS Maine Memory Network, and creating online exhibits for specific local history topics. “The students learned research skills and historical methodology while expanding access to the ever-growing record of local heritage.”

Littlefield got to see a lot of Maine history in the making as she traveled to Bath, Farmington, Hampden, Islesboro, Lubec, New Portland, Presque Isle and Thomaston. And she found UMF fingerprints all over the projects. Mt. Blue Middle School teacher Wendy Simpson ’97 was involved along with Theresa Overall, assistant professor of education, and UMF students Chris Brennick, Laura Columbia, Michael Cummons, Kathleen Kelley, Chris O’Neil, Cassie Richardson and Chris Webb. Bath Middle School teachers Amy King ’97, Jason Meserve ’01 and Jim Morin ’72 helped shape their town’s project. MSAD 74’s Petrina Bearor ’77, Julieanne Belanger ’86, Katie Hall ’04, Amanda Pingree ’06 and Jamie Steward ’02 captured New Portland’s heritage, while Presque Isle Middle School teacher Julie Gardner ’94 and Georges Valley High School teacher Steffany Tribou ’05 did the same in their communities.

Littlefield, who will support other Maine towns and schools in the second round of Maine Community Heritage Project awards through June 2010, says the Institute of Museum & Library Sciences sees Maine’s program as a potential national model for archiving and exhibiting local history.

“In education, we sometimes lose sight of the things we’re doing right,” she says. “The Maine Community Heritage Project is a great example of how Maine is on the cutting edge.”