BYRON – Patricia Duguay feels particularly blessed by the people who’ve served as her mentors, who’ve steered her into a life of helping people and the environment.
“Jane deFrees had a sense of the way the world was. She believed in not feeling discouraged, but not to take the flak, either. And she believed in not letting anyone hold you back,” said Duguay about one of the major influences in her life.
DeFrees was a community activist who served on a variety of boards and gave of herself in numerous ways until her unexpected death in 2004.
Duguay, the executive director of the River Valley Healthy Communities Coalition for the past nine years, seeks out the needs of the community, then if there is no resource to fill a particular need, she tries to create a source.
“I had decided a long time ago that keeping the kitchen floors shined just didn’t do it. I was fortunate to be able to stay home with the kids for a while, but I wanted to make a difference, to leave some sort of legacy. I’ve learned that little things can have a big impact,” she said on Wednesday.
One of the top projects right now that she believes will help River Valley residents is the dental sealant program. All youngsters in the second grade are eligible for the free program, something that she be
lieves is especially important because of the number of area
dentists who will be retiring in the next decade or so. She’s working on that, too, to try to find a way to bring dentists to the area to serve peoples’ needs.
She also credits her great-grandmother, Gladys Freeman, a teacher who was always doing for others, and former University of Maine System Rumford/ Mexico director, David Ackley, who gave her a sense that she didn’t have to conform and that life wasn’t just a box.
“I decided I didn’t want to be a secretary, but to have one,” she said. At age 30, she returned to college.
But more than attending college, she believes many of the volunteer and paid jobs she has had have made a huge difference in the River Valley area.
She’s particularly proud of starting the recycling program in the area about 15 years ago.
“That was individual change,” she said. “Sixty-percent of people participated in it. There was a big empty building, and some people said it couldn’t be done, to get people to recycle. But it has been sustained, people participate and it exists today,” she said.
Before she settled on working for the environment and finding solutions to fill needs, she had held jobs ranging from banking to freelance writing.
“I discovered that I didn’t want to write about the environment or other things, but to do something about it,” she said.
One of her most recent successes was spearheading a fund drive so the town of Byron could buy the nine acres surrounding the popular picnic spot along Coos Canyon. In less than four weeks, she, along with a group of volunteers, managed to raise the $10,000 needed.
“If a need exists, I’d like to think that I’d step up and take it on,” she said.
She serves on a variety of boards right now, including Community Concepts, the Northern Oxford Solid Waste board, the Med-Care ambulance service board, and the Community Advisory Panel.
“I feel a real commitment to this area. There are so many opportunities here to do whatever you want, and everyone is so welcoming,” she said.
Duguay is originally from Otisfield. She moved to the Rumford area in 1984 when she married her husband, David.
“I feel really blessed. I was born into a family where all my needs were met, and I haven’t had to suffer a lot in life. All people are people and maybe some have gotten a raw deal. I do this not from obligation, but I can, so I do,” she said.
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