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Jalyn Drost is a graduate of Medomak Valley High School in Waldoboro and of Olympia Snowe’s Women’s Leadership Institute. She will attend the University of Maine at Farmington in the fall.
Earlier this month, I had the honor to participate in a meeting with Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland when she visited the Frances Perkins Homestead National Historic Landmark.
The visit by the secretary was part of an effort to decide if the Frances Perkins Homestead should be designated as a national monument by President Joe Biden.
The Frances Perkins Homestead in Newcastle is a very special place and Frances Perkins was a very special person.
Perkins broke down barriers for women, worked tirelessly advocating for workers’ rights and addressed issues of poverty and inequality in America’s society. She is deserving of a national monument because her work was so instrumental in the ongoing fight for social justice and continues to influence the lives of working Americans today.
Perkins was the very first woman to serve as a Cabinet secretary for a U.S. president. For 12 years, she was labor secretary for President Franklin Roosevelt. She cared about working people and fought for a minimum wage, 40-hour workweek and Social Security.
She put the values she learned in Maine and from her grandmother into action, and our country is better for it.
It’s one thing to learn about history in a classroom, which is certainly important. It’s another to learn about history where it actually happened — just down Route 1 from where you live.
I am a 2024 graduate of Medomak Valley High School in Waldoboro and of Olympia Snowe’s Women’s Leadership Institute. In a few days, I will be attending the University of Maine at Farmington to study elementary education. I first visited the Frances Perkins Homestead this past spring with my Snowe group.
We sat down with the staff, walked around the house and grounds and learned about the incredible impact that Perkins has had. Part of what I learned from that visit is that in addition to all the other contributions that Perkins has made to the United States, she was also a social worker, teacher and college professor.
I left feeling both inspired and empowered.
By designating the Frances Perkins Homestead as a national monument, we are showing future generations, especially young women, that they deserve to be in the conversations of our future and that they can make positive impacts on their communities.
As a future educator, this homestead is where my students could learn about our history and be inspired to make history themselves.
I am someone who has been fortunate enough to visit multiple national parks and monuments across our country. I know their job is to preserve and shine a light on the people and places that shaped the world we live in today.
Perkins is more than worthy of earning a national monument, and what better place than where she found her strength and energy.
Maine is so incredibly proud to be a home for Perkins, I hope that Biden will help us ensure that her story lives on here by making the Frances Perkins Homestead a national monument.
