This Memorial Day weekend, we pause to remember the challenges our state and our nation have overcome in the past and reflect on the challenges we are overcoming today with courage as one people. 

Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

These last fifteen months have been an extraordinarily difficult time for our country and for our state. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought pain, illness, unemployment, financial hardship, death and loss to many families. 

As we reflect upon these hardships, Memorial Day also causes us to remember all that we have endured, fought for and survived throughout our history. “Still,” as Maya Angelou would say, “we rise.”

Memorial Day brings respect and a sense of history as we honor those who perished to preserve our country and to protect our freedoms. When I think of those who served their country, I think of the courage they showed in the toughest of times.

Forty-six years ago was the end of the Vietnam War which sent 48,000 Maine men and women to that far-off battleground and took the lives of more than 340 people from Maine.

Sixty-eight years we ago saw the end of the Korean conflict, “the forgotten war” so called, which took the lives of more than 33,000 Americans, including at least 244 Maine soldiers.

Seventy-six years ago this month was V-E Day, the fall of the Third Reich, and, later that year, the end of the Second World War, in which 80,000 Maine people served and more than 2,000 lost their lives.

Those Mainers – and many more – served and fought with determination and great hope for our collective future. A determination and hope that I respect and hold today. 

Still, we rise.

Over the past fifteen months we’ve faced an enemy that is real, deadly but unseen, as sure a killer as any enemy we have fought in our history.

We fought this foe as a nation and as a state, not with soldiers huddled in bunkers but with social distancing, not with torpedoes but with face coverings. These have been our strange and novel armaments, our only sure ammunition against this deadly enemy. Still, we rise. We are winning this war too.

More than 70 percent of Maine people eligible have now had at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine. More than half of all our people, including children not yet eligible, are fully vaccinated. Something to celebrate today. Our rates of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to fall. That is nation-leading progress and it is because of you, the people of Maine.

You have rolled up your sleeves to protect yourselves and the people whose names you may not even know — the people you meet on the street; people who work in the restaurant, the packing plant or the store; the nurses, doctors and folks who care for the sick; and the veteran who deserves to live the remainder of his or her heroic life with health and happiness, not to be felled by a painful contagion far from family and friends.

Boy we have faced great odds this last year, as generations of Americans have before us. Still, we rise.

We have the same hope and the same faith in the future, the same commitment to community that drove our predecessors not only to serve and survive against all odds, but to rise again, a unified people, a unified nation. 

The hope of our past and the renewed faith in our future are with us this Memorial Day weekend.

As we gather together with friends and family for the first time in such a long time, putting isolation and fear behind us, let us celebrate and show our great love for our state and our nation and for all of those who have endured so much and lost so much.

Let us honor with reverence all those who have faithfully served our state and our nation in the Armed Forces and those who gave, as President Lincoln said, ‘the last full measure of devotion’.  Still, we have not only endured, we have survived, and still we rise.

To all those who have served and to all those who continue to serve our country: our hearts are with you this Memorial Day, 2021.

God bless you. God bless the State of Maine.

This is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

By keeping our rates of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths down and keeping our rate of vaccinations up, we have maintained our reputation nationally as the safest state in the country and we’ve set ourselves up for a successful summer tourism season.

Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

We have worked very hard over the last fifteen months to get the COVID-19 virus under control so that it is safe for everyone to return to work. Now, vaccines are widely available at more than 250 locations across the state.

And so are jobs. Employers across the state are looking to staff up for the busy summer months in particular, which means there are opportunities for everyone to work, earn a living and contribute to our state’s economic recovery. 

And the Maine Department of Labor is ready to help you.

You can find thousands of available jobs, including remote work, on the Maine Job Link at Joblink.Maine.Gov.

You can obtain counseling from a Career Center to develop your plan for getting back to work or getting the training you need for a new career. And you can obtain child care with the help of new federal funds.

Career Centers also offer virtual job fairs to connect you with employers who are looking to hire someone like you. Less than a week away on June 10^th from 2-4 p.m., Maine CareerCenters are hosting a virtual job fair featuring the Maine Registered Apprenticeship Program and many employers, for example.

More information about all of these resources can be found at Maine.Gov/Labor.

More importantly, if you’re on unemployment, you can also go back to work with substantial part time hours and still keep the $300 a week federal stipend throughout this summer.

The Department of Labor has a calculator online available on their Unemployment Insurance website where you calculate how many hours a week a person can work and still collect partial benefits and the $300 stipend. It’s a win win. I encourage you to check it out.

And keep in mind that work search requirements are tightened, meaning if you are getting unemployment benefits, you are required to actively look for work and to accept positions for which you are qualified.

If you are unemployed and you are offered a job you are qualified for and you turn it down to stay on unemployment benefits, you risk losing those very benefits.

Please do your part. Let’s get Maine back to work, we’re ready.

To succeed this summer, we need everyone working towards the same goal: getting our state and our lives back to normal.

This is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

4^th of July – Independence Day – is rapidly approaching. A day dedicated to celebrating our precious freedoms, and after a long, difficult year such as we’ve all had, it’ll be a day to celebrate freedom and it’ll be most welcome.

Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

As you may know, President Biden called on all states to have delivered at least one shot of the vaccine to 70 percent of all adults by this July 4^th to celebrate our victory over this formidable enemy just as the founders of our nation celebrated our country’s victory in the battle for Independence.

Well in typical Maine fashion, we met President Biden’s goal 53 days ahead of schedule.

Today, more than 74 percent of Maine people 12 and up have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. And we are closing in on having 70 percent of all Maine adults fully vaccinated.

We rank third best among the states in the percentage of all eligible residents fully vaccinated.

Maine people are resilient, but we also rely on each other. Our nation-leading progress in beating back the pandemic and getting our state back to normal is truly due to the more than 876,000 Maine people who have already rolled up their sleeves to be vaccinated.

We should all celebrate this milestone, but hey let’s not stop there – let's keep going.

We know the best way to protect yourself, your loved ones, and your community is to get vaccinated.

And unfortunately, there are dozens of people still getting very sick and who are in the hospital today, in ICU even, people who were not vaccinated against the deadly virus.

To encourage even more people to get their vaccine, I’ve announced this week the “Don’t Miss Your Shot: Vaccinationland Sweepstakes.”

Using federal funding, no state dollars, one vaccinated person will win $1 for every person vaccinated in Maine by the Fourth of July.

If the drawing were held today as I am recording this, the prize would total $876,655. A pretty good piece of change. But, for every person vaccinated between now and 6:00 a.m. on July 4, 2021, we will add another dollar to the prize. The more people vaccinated — even with one shot — the bigger the prize.

All residents of Maine age 12 and up who have received at least one dose of Moderna or Pfizer or the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine since December 15^th of last year, can enter for a chance to win the prize. 

Registration is required and the deadline to get vaccinated and register is 11:59 p.m. on June 30, 2021 – about two weeks from now, or a little less. You do not have to be fully vaccinated by June 30^th to qualify, but you do have to have gotten at least one dose. 

To find a vaccination site near you, go online, visit the State’s vaccination website at maine.gov/covid19/vaccines or call the Community Vaccination Line at 1-888-445-4111.

We’ll even get you a ride to the vaccination site if you need one.

Registrations for the Sweepstakes are accepted now. You can go online again at maine.gov/covid19/vaccines for more information or again call the Community Vaccination Line at 1-888-445-4111. 

We will randomly select a winner on July 4th.

Don’t miss your shot. By getting vaccinated you could win nearly a million dollars and, with every person that gets vaccinated, a dollar more is added to the pot.

Maine people look out for each other every day, without fanfare, without fuss, and that has been especially true these last fifteen plus months.

Despite risks to yourselves, despite the adversity of our time, and through courage, compassion and perseverance, you have all helped our state survive this pandemic.

You deserve a reward for rolling up your sleeve and for proving that Maine people will always have each other’s backs. Don’t miss your shot.                                                                                                                                                                          

This is Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

Classroom learning is critical for the social and mental and academic development of our kids. With the progress we’ve made in vaccinating people, there should be no barriers to getting our kids back into the classroom full-time this fall.

Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

Maine consistently ranks among the best states in the nation for COVID-19 vaccinations, with over 70 percent of our entire population having received at least one dose. We are making meaningful progress protecting Maine people, including those age 12 to 15 who just became eligible last month for vaccinations.

As of June 9, almost 40 percent of Maine youth of that age have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 19 percent have received final doses.

With the progress we have made in vaccinating Maine youth and containing the spread of COVID-19, we have been gradually relaxing the physical distancing requirements in schools that participate in our pooled testing programs.

Earlier this week, we announced that remaining physical distancing requirements in all schools will be relaxed next school year.

As a result, we expect every school to offer full-time, in-person learning in the fall. We also strongly encourage schools to participate in our pooled testing program to further reduce the risk of COVID-19 for students who are not yet eligible for vaccinations and to limit educational disruption due to quarantining if a student is identified as a close contact. Pooled testing allows schools to easily test many staff and students all at once and to respond quickly to any positive cases and limit the spread of the virus.

Since the fall of 2020, nearly all Maine preK-12 schools have been providing in-person instruction to students.

School administrators and teachers have worked hard all year to protect their students from the virus and to provide them with a good education and to meet so many of their other needs. By following public health and safety protocols, school staff have successfully kept the rate of COVID-19 transmission in schools lower — much lower — than the state average.

I am deeply grateful for their herculean efforts, but like most Maine people, I also worry about the children who have been left behind academically and emotionally in these last fifteen months of remote or hybrid learning. Trying to learn online with no internet or slow internet, or with a disability, or with English as your second language, or with just no one to help you at home — that’s all unbelievably hard. And parents across the state have struggled to juggle homeschooling and jobs. 

Getting our kids back into the classroom is critical to their recovery, and to ours.

This fall, with more students and school staff vaccinated and with the spread of COVID-19 slowed, every school in Maine will resume in-person, full time classroom instruction. 

This is Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.