BATH — Darreby Ambler was named Citizen of the Year during the Oct. 6 Citizen Involvement Day celebration, held each year as part of Bath’s Autumnfest event.

The Waterfront Park ceremony also hosted 54 nonprofit organizations and groups.

Ambler, who was vacationing and unable to attend the event, helped launch another annual citywide celebration, Kindness Day Bath, in 2014. Students Bryanna Ringrose and Taylor Bisson were part of Ambler’s Dream Team, a program she offers through Morse High School’s guidance department.

“I am deeply honored,” Ambler said Monday. “Bath is full of so many wonderful people that I feel lucky every day to live here.”

Also a supporter of Bath’s ArtVan program, Ambler has helped in subsequent years to coordinate the program, in which groups, individuals and businesses from around the community host a variety of kindness stations. Those include “Pat-a-Pet,” where household animals give and receive affection, and “Have Your Portrait Drawn by a Child.”

“With infectious positivity and boundless energy, Darreby Ambler is at the heart of Bath’s spirit,” a Citizen Involvement Day press release stated, noting that she was being honored for “her contagious cheerleading and goodwill to honor the good in Bath.”

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The city’s “Set for Success” program, which provided free school supplies to Regional School Unit 1 students through a day-long program Aug. 19, earned 2018’s Community Project Award. Jamie Dorr and the Midcoast Community Alliance debuted the initiative this year, raising about $30,000 toward the supplies and backpacks and also funding haircuts and manicures.

With mental health awareness and suicide prevention among its key objectives, the Alliance also offered a resource guide, posted at https://goo.gl/BPJgh1, that includes information on each RSU 1 school, MCA, managing back-to-school stress, technology and youth mental health resources, and after-school and extracurricular activities.

Mary Louise Blanchard, who in 1999 began the AARP Foundation Tax Aide Program to provide Mid-Coast residents with federal and state tax preparation at no charge, earned the Al Smith Community Spirit Award. She hosts Bath’s program at Patten Free Library from January through April, processing more than 4,000 tax returns each year – almost 500 of them from Bath residents.

Addie Hinds, the 2018 Youth Award winner, is MCA’s youngest member at the age of 12. She advocates for her fellow Bath Middle School students to ensure they know they matter and to stop youth suicide. Hinds has also contributed to Set for Success and takes part in her school’s Kindness and Wellness clubs, and Kindness Day.

Mae Winglass also won this year’s Youth Award. Along with being senior class president at Morse High, she has participated in initiatives such as Shipbuilders Committed, Youth Education and Sports Day Youth Leadership Day, Pies for Polio, and the Morse All-Sports Boosters.

Winglass also works with disabled youth through the unified physical education class and unified basketball team. The city noted that her “consistent commitment to her community, specifically her classmates at Morse High School, deserves recognition.”

Alex Lear can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 113 or alear@theforecaster.net. Follow him on Twitter: @learics.

Darreby Ambler, pictured here with her father Peter Stalker, was named Bath’s citizen of the year Oct. 6 at the city’s annual Citizen Involvement Day celebration.


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