Hartman award recipients named

ORONO – Gov. John Baldacci will pay tribute to Maryann Hartman at the 19th annual Maryann Hartman Award ceremony 5-7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 13, in the Buchanan Alumni House at the University of Maine.

The awards are named for the late Maryann Hartman, associate professor of speech communication and distinguished educator, feminist, scholar and humanist. Hartman was Baldacci’s professor and debate coach at the University of Maine.

Each year the Women in the Curriculum and Women’s Studies Program of the University of Maine recognizes four Maine women of achievement whose accomplishments provide inspiration for other women.

This year’s recipients are:

. Denise Altvater of Perry, who has integrated traditional cultural practices into her work with and on behalf of Wabanaki youth.

. Vivianne Holmes of Buckfield, who, as a farmer and cooperative extension agent, has provided support for women farmers.

. Leigh Saufley, the first woman to serve as chief justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.

In addition, Safia Nur, a 2004 graduate of Lewiston High School who has worked courageously for civil rights in her school and beyond, will receive the Maryann Hartman Young Woman’s Social Justice Award.

A 1976 graduate of the University of Maine, Leigh Saufley of Portland is the first woman ever to serve as chief justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court and the youngest chief justice in Maine’s history. A graduate of the University of Maine and the University of Maine School of Law, she served as one of Maine’s first female deputy attorneys general. She was appointed to serve on the Maine District Court in 1990, the Maine Superior Court in 1993 and the Supreme Judicial Court in 1997, before being appointed chief justice in 2001.

As justice, Saufley has been particularly concerned with the issue of domestic violence as well as the safety and accessibility of the courts. She has served on the boards of the advisory committee for professional responsibility and the advisory committee for the future of Maine courts, among others.

Agricultural educator and activist Vivianne Holmes of Buckfield has been a mentor, advocate and organizer for Maine women farmers for more than 25 years. She is currently an extension educator for the University of Maine Cooperative Extension in Androscoggin and Sagadahoc Counties.

She was instrumental in organizing the Women in Agriculture Network within Maine and New England. Using workshops, conferences and farm tours, Holmes has provided the leadership to enable Maine women farmers to gain access to funding capital and current research on the best management and agricultural practices. In addition, she is a founding member of Daughters of Yarrow, a study and support group for lesbian farmers.

She currently serves on the board of directors of the Maine Women’s Fund.

As the director of the Wabanaki Youth Program of the American Friends Service committee in Perry, Denise Altvater has worked to provide opportunities and support for tribal youth. She is one of the primary organizers of the annual Youth Wellness Institute and has helped to create the Wabanaki Youth Alliance, which trains youth from each community in topics chosen by the young people.

With other adults who had been placed in foster homes as children she helped train more than 500 Maine Department of Human Services workers in how to comply with 1978 federal law designed to reduce the high number of native children being sent to live with non-native families. She is also a founding member of Silent Cry, a group for sexual abuse survivors which has since evolved into an activist group called Screaming Eagle. In 2001 she received the Leadership Award presented by the social justice organization, Leadership for a Changing World.

Safia Nur came to Lewiston three years ago. She was among the first Muslim students to attend the Bowdoin College Upward Bound residential program.

Trained by the Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence, she worked in her school community to organize the pro-diversity group that stood strongly against the white supremacists that marched in Lewiston. She spoke eloquently at that rally.

“Working for social justice takes passion, patience and heart. I can’t think of another student who embodies these three qualities to a larger extent,” noted Bridget Mullen, director of Upward Bound at Bowdoin. Nur is now a first-year student at the University of Maine majoring in international affairs.

The ceremony is free and open to the public, but registration is requested.

To obtain more information and to request an accommodation, call Angela Olson at 581-1228.