Evening for Environment
A Celebration to Benefit Maine Conservation Voters and Maine Conservation Alliance
The Evening for the Environment will be held on Thursday, October 23, 2025 at UNE’s Innovation Hall in Portland, ME.
Our community will come together for an exciting night to honor the environment that we all love. For 23 years, the Evening for the Environment has brought together community advocates, legislators, business leaders, environmental visionaries, and philanthropists to celebrate the bold work done by MCV, MCA and our allies.
Click here to learn more about being a *business sponsor or a **nonprofit or foundation sponsor.
Answers to Evening for the Environment Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) are here!
Featured Artist
Samaa Abdurraqib
Samaa Abdurraqib currently serves as the Executive Director of the Maine Humanities Council. Prior to working at Maine Humanities, Samaa held positions at the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence, the ACLU of Maine, and was a Visiting Professor of Gender & Women’s Studies at Bowdoin College. She has served on the board of several Maine-based nonprofits, and has worked with many nonprofits and organizations as a contract consultant, a leadership coach, and a facilitator. Samaa was recently certified as a Maine Master Naturalist, which allows her to lead outdoor teaching experiences for people who want to learn about the beings (plants, insects, animals) in this region.
Samaa is also a published poet. Recently, her poetry can be found in Cider Press Review, december magazine, and Obsidian: Literature and Arts in the African Diaspora. She’s the editor of From Root to Seed: Black, Brown, and Indigenous Poets Write the Northeast (2023). She has been supported by residencies at Hewnoaks and Monson Arts. Her most recent chapbook, Towards a Retreat, will be published by Diode Editions in 2025.
Featured Speakers
Pete Maysmith
Pete Maysmith is the 7th president of the powerhouse advocacy organization League of Conservation Voters which influences policy, holds politicians accountable, and wins elections in order to create safe and healthy communities protected by a just and equitable democracy.
Pete has been at the forefront of environmental leadership for over 30 years, fighting for clean air, clean water, protecting public lands, and a safe climate and environment for all. Pete developed, managed and raised hundreds of millions of dollars since 2017 as the Senior Vice President of Campaigns for LCV. In that role, Pete worked alongside his superstar team conducting elections, advocacy and organizing programs, public opinion research and messaging strategy.
Pete is a proud product of LCV’s unparalleled Conservation Voters Movement network of state affiliates and became the founding executive director of Conservation Colorado in 2009. He oversaw a sevenfold increase in the organization’s budget and growth to more than 36,000 members, while successfully pushing for stronger clean energy policies, protections for public lands and the state’s first-ever water management plan. Under Pete’s leadership, Conservation Colorado grew to be a decisively influential policy and political operation.
Among Pete’s proudest accomplishments over his career in politics and advocacy is the network of highly skilled and exceptional political and environmental staff he was fortunate to hire, train and work alongside. He is committed to strengthening democracy and is a member of the executive committee and board of America Votes.
He graduated in 1991 from Duke University with a Public Policy degree and graduated with honors from the University of Denver school of law in 2008. When he’s not leading winning campaigns, you might find Pete running, riding his bike, cooking, reading, and spending time with his three amazing, red-haired daughters.
Lucy Hochschartner
Lucy Hochschartner grew up in the Adirondack mountains and saw the impacts of the climate crisis firsthand — with droughts, extreme flooding, and the loss of winter. From a young age, she recognized that while we had the technological solutions to solve the problem, corporations and their political influence were standing in the way. So, she dedicated herself to youth activism, electoral campaigns, and then legislative work as MCV’s former Climate and Clean Energy Director. She is now the Campaigns Director at Public Grids, where she is supporting a nationwide movement to deliver universal, clean electricity by removing corporate profit and control. She lives in Portland, and when she’s not working, you can probably find her out looking for snow, mountains, or snacks.
Adam Nordell
Adam Nordell is a campaign manager at Defend Our Health, where he helps PFAS impacted communities and their allies advocate for health-protective policies in Maine and across the country. Nordell’s particular focus around PFAS in farmland stems from his experience as a co-owner of Songbird Farm, a diversified organic vegetable and grain farm in Unity ME, which was heavily impacted by historic sewage sludge applications.
Kaya Lolar
Kaya Lolar is a young writer, educator, and activist who is passionate about the art of storytelling and using it as a practice for changemaking at all levels. Born and raised on Indian Island, Kaya is a citizen of the Panawahpskek (Penobscot) Nation in what is now called Maine. Over the past six years, she has dedicated much of her time and energy towards advancing the teaching of Wabanaki Studies in all Maine schools. During her junior year of college, she began contracting with the Maine Environmental Education Association. She graduated this past spring from Harvard University and now works as MEEA’s Policy and Wabanaki Studies Coordinator, where she continues her mass efforts towards a more holistic Wabanaki Studies education for Maine students and pushes forward a variety of environmental education-related solutions in the state legislature.
Francis Eanes
Francis Eanes is the Executive Director of the Maine Labor Climate Council, a coalition of labor unions dedicated to building out the labor movement’s vision and plan of action on climate and clean energy, and ensuring climate policies benefit working class people and communities. He has been with since it launched in 2022, and oversees overall organizational operations, campaign strategy, union and external partnerships, and fundraising. Prior to joining MLCC Francis was a founding member of the Bates Educators & Staff Organization’s organizing committee, a wall-to-wall effort to unionize non-tenure-track faculty and staff at Bates College in fall 2021. He lives in Auburn with his wife and two young kids.
Information Tables
MCV/MCA envision a Maine where nature and people thrive through an inclusive, just democracy, a sustainable economy, and equitable access to a healthy climate, land, air, and water. It takes the good work of so many to forward this vision. We are delighted that several Maine-based social justice and/or youth-focused nonprofits joined us during the Evening for the Environment’s reception to provide information about the work that they are doing to push for a sustainable and more equitable Maine.
Committees
Premier Hosts
Phil Coupe and Alexis Pappas
Bill Ginn and June Lacombe
Nancy Grant and Mike Boyson
Karen Harris and Rob Gips
Brigitte and Hal Kingsbury
Jennifer Melville and Alex Abbott
Suzanne and Neil McGinn
Super Hosts
Penny and Dirk Asherman
Cathy Lee and Robert Moyer
John and Susan Piotti
Kathy and Chuck Remmel
Ken Spirer and Joan Leitzer
Kate Williams and Evan Adams
Carol and Joe Wishcamper
Host Committee
Dan and Joan Amory
Deb Burd
Elizabeth Ehrenfeld
Ivan and Mary Fernandez
Charles Gauvin and Gina Sawin
Fiona Gordon and Stuart MacNeil
Christopher Hamilton
Daniel Hildreth
Jerry King and Grace DeGennaro
Molly and Toby McGrath
Mary and Kenneth Nelson
Melissa Paly
Bill Pedersen
John and Susan Piotti
Gary Stern and Demetrios Karabetsos
Didi Stockly
Barbara Trafton
Mike and Tara Williams