2023 Gerda Haas Award Recipient

With joy we announce that this year's Gerda Haas Award recipient is Corey Hinton. A citizen of the Passamaquoddy Tribe and attorney for Drummond Woodsum, Corey leads the firm’s Tribal Nations Practice Group, working on federal Indian law and policy, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, employment matters, economic development, environmental and natural resource issues, and the fee-to-trust process. His experience in natural resource management, including Tribal and non-Tribal owned land, includes Improved Forest Management and carbon offset projects. He has represented clients before a variety of federal administrative agencies including Indian Health Service, Environmental Protection Agency, and Department of the Interior. Corey also works with non-profits that serve indigenous, socially-disadvantaged, and underprivileged communities, and he serves on the Executive Committee for the Thompson Brothers’ 4 the Future Foundation, which inspires youth by creating community-based opportunities at the intersection of culture and healthy lifestyles. Somehow he finds time to be with his family, take Passamaquoddy language classes, organize sports and life skills camps for Tribal Nations youth, and volunteer for the Maine Justice Foundation. Join our Annual Meeting on September 21st to meet Corey and hear him speak. He's an inspiration and delight!

Student Award Recipients

Quinn Bolster received the The Mathilda Schlossberger Outstanding Student of the Year Award for their remarkable painting Agnes and Her Mother. A junior at Casco Bay High School, Quinn was a student in the course “Art and Genocide: A Case Study of the Holocaust” which explored how individuals protested the Holocaust, and how artists created powerful forms of activism during such dark times. Some of the student artists attended our 2022 Annual Meeting to speak about their process and projects. One was Quinn, who wrote that their reflection is a painting of Agnes Gertrude Wohl (maiden name Mendelovits) and Agnes' mother.  

Brooke Chase, a senior at Poland Regional High School, received the The Lawrence Alan Spiegel Remembrance Scholarship of $1,000 for her essay entitled “Dagger of the Mind.” The essay explores the complicated question, "What pushes a person to brutally murder their neighbors?" She delves into the long history of antisemitism, Nazi propaganda, and dehumanization, citing historians and scholars to bolster her explanations. Brooke concludes, "Learning about the Holocaust affected the way I view the world by showing me the darkest aspects of human nature. Researching how quickly ordinary people can lose their humanity and succumb to their deepest and darkest urges was utterly horrifying and eye-opening."