There was a great coming together in the crowded Town Council chambers last week as the town paid tribute to six visionary women who created Freeport’s comprehensive social service agency.

Former Town Councilor Ed Bonney, Town Council newcomer Bill Rixon, Lt. Susan Nourse of the Freeport Police Department and many others paid tribute March 3 to Suzie Harding, Betsy Ruff, Carol Southall, Janice Fogg, Sherri Smith and Vaughndella Curtis, who all shared the Citizen of the Year award. The seventh “founding mother” of Freeport Community Services, Muriel Wilson, has died. Linda Harding stood in for her mother, who was unable to attend the event.

The “founding mothers” received plaques and bouquets, and then gathered for a reception down the street at the Freeport Community Center, a venue they could only have dreamed of when they planted the seeds for Freeport Community Services some 41 years ago. Melanie Sachs, executive director of Freeport Community Services and Town Council chairwoman, had tears in her eyes.

Nourse had recommended the women for Citizen of the Year. Rixon is chairman of the Town Council subcommittee that decided this year’s winner.

Rixon read the first half of Nourse’s nominating letter.

“They individually and collectively have looked out for each other and for the community,” Rixon said. “Using their network, they were able to identify people in need.”

Freeport Community Services provides essential needs such as food, heat, clothing, medical equipment and transportation to residents of Freeport and Pownal.

Nourse noted that “these ladies are not ‘shrinking violets.’ They are full of vim and vigor.”

Smith was “the glue that held FCS together,” Nourse said, and Harding created a job bank.

“There is no way to quantify all the contributions of these women,” Nourse continued. “They have given Freeport a legacy that will stand the test of time.”

Bonney, who worked to bring the Amtrak Downeaster to Freeport and has served the town for decades, “roasted” the honorees. Then he got serious.

“They truly deserve all the accolades that you can shower on them,” Bonney said.

Sachs called for a recess in the Town Council proceedings. Well-wishers and old friends hugged and reminisced with the founding mothers, who then proceeded to Freeport Community Services for the reception.

Prior to leaving, Smith told Tri-Town Weekly that Freeport had no social services umbrella in the mid-1970s, as did its neighbors, Brunswick and Yarmouth. Smith, who now lives in Durham, had worked for what then was known as the Department of Human Services, and also ran a computer business in her Flying Point Road home. She was set up to help get Freeport Community Services off the ground.

“We decided to begin a referral service, so the FCS phone went into my home,” Smith recalled, “and I was the voice of FCS early on. I started a bereaved parents’ group because I lost my first child to SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome).”

Smith was touched with the Citizen of the Year ceremony.

“I’m totally overwhelmed,” she said. “This was a total labor of love. Freeport had no services, and all these people had all these needs, so it just evolved. These are friendships that are so deep. We just love each other. We’ve got a ton of stories to tell.”

Ed Bonney and Betsy Ruff, one of the Freeport Community Services founding mothers, enjoy conversation on March 3 at the Freeport Town Hall, as the Town Council recognized the women with its Citizen of the Year Award. Staff photo by Larry Grard

Copy the Story Link