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I met Clare in the Winter of 2015 at the McDonald’s on KMD in Waterville. My first impression is that she was a person with a great personality and was very easy to talk to. She was providing elder care services about six nights a week, but was looking for something more. She was bright, hardworking and creative, but as she stated “I don’t really fit into any pigeon holes.” I told her about my magazine, What About Maine, and said that I needed help, especially with sales in the Waterville area. Clare said, “I can to that!” So we gave it a try and went on the road one afternoon. I thought if she can sell one ad, I’ll hire her. Well she sold three ads and the rest as they say is history. Two of the three ads she sold that day are still in the magazine today: Dixon’s Market and B&F Vegetables. What I didn’t know then is that Clare had done this type of work before in the early 70’s when she ran a weekly newspaper called “The Twilighter” that was distributed in the Waterville area. She sold the ads and wrote stories there too.
Clare has been a driving force and an inspirational reservoir since the day she started working at What About Maine. “I LOVE MY JOB!” she says, “I love all my clients and I love helping them get their messages out.” She enjoys telling the stories that no one else is telling. People like to read about local businesses and learn how they work and what makes them successful. Clare has come up with many new ideas for the magazine including, Maine Maple Sunday section, Apple Harvest, Food for You and ME, and “how about we add glossy pages.” Her philosophy is “Let’s give it a try!”
Clare has had many adventures at What About Maine, like visiting a yak farm in Dresden, looking for loons with Captain Gary on the Snow Pond Cruiser, riding in an ATV through the Sugarbush at Raider’s Sugarhouse in China and interviewing Chase and Ryan from Maine Cabin Masters for a featured article.
When Covid hit in 2020, we did not publish a Magazine in April or May of that year, and we had some discussions about whether we would ever publish again. Well, Clare wasn’t having any of that! She doubled her efforts to get things going again and we published in June and have been going strong ever since.
Over the years Clare keeps pushing forward. She loves the friends she has made and is always looking for ways to make the magazine better, including a push on social media that has been taking off in the last few years.
Thank you Clare for all that you do, I really appreciate you and have enjoyed working with you for the last 10 years. What do you think? Should we go for 20?
— Marty Allen, Owner, What About Maine?