Who We Are & What We Do

MidCoast New Mainers Group mobilizes local support to welcome immigrant families and foster intercultural connection across southern Midcoast Maine. We strive to create safe, vibrant, and diverse communities by providing scholarships, mentors, and connections to local resources.

Our Story

MidCoast New Mainers Group (MCNMG) came together in 2017 as an interfaith collaborative with Brunswick Area Interfaith Council (BAIC) serving as its fiscal agent. From 2017-2019, MCNMG worked with representatives of local faith communities and other community members and organizations to welcome and support the integration of about seven asylum seeker families into the Bath, Brunswick and Topsham communities. That work included providing security deposits, material support and help with connecting to schools, healthcare and other community resources.

With the unanticipated arrival in summer 2019 of families urgently and temporarily housed in Portland Expo, MCNMG joined other community partners and immigrant organizations to help settle more than 25 families in housing in Bath and Brunswick. Since 2019 MCNMG, has worked with The Emergency Action Network (TEAN) of Brunswick, local faith communities, community partners and individuals to connect families with resources for housing, food, clothing, health care, language learning, education, enrichment, employment training, immigration status legal assistance and ongoing cultural orientation and interpretation.

MCNMG continues to collaborate with community partners and immigrant organizations in the planning and settling of more immigrants locally as housing and other services become more coordinated and available.

Our Board

Andree Appel

Andree Appel is a mostly retired Physician Assistant who has been with MCNMG since its inception. Prior to retirement, she spent many years at Oasis Clinic, first as a volunteer and later as its first Executive and Clinical Director. Having moved around the country and lived in Germany as a child, and having lived and worked on the Navajo reservation in New Mexico, in Alaska, and with the Peace Corps in Cape Verde, W. Africa as an adult, Andree learned to value the beautiful diversity of people and cultures and would like to see that diversity celebrated in our community as well.

Carol Kalajainen

Carol Kalajainen has been a part of Mid Coast New Mainers since 2017. She is a retired ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) teacher, having taught English to children, university students, and adults in Malaysia, New Jersey, France, and Maine. She has an MEd in Language Education from Rutgers. Past non-profit board experience includes organizations for the arts, children’s issues, education, and cultural adjustment. Carol has two daughters and four grandchildren. She moved to Brunswick in 2003 where she now lives with her husband and their communicative cat.

Diana Krauss

Raised in Philadelphia by recent immigrants, Diana first came to Maine to attend Colby, but left the state for a graduate degree at BU and a career in theater in various backstage positions. After returning to Maine, she embarked on a 30 year second career as a high school English teacher. Now as the Adult Literacy Services Coordinator at Midcoast Literacy, and a new member of this Board, she is able to combine her experience growing up with her love of language and be of service to Maine’s immigrant community.

Georgianna Wright

Georgie lives in Bath with her husband and two children, ages five and seven. She has been working with the Mid Coast New Mainers Group since 2019, both as a member of a Family Support Team, and as a board member. She is currently taking time to be with her children and work with Midcoast New Mainers Group, but prior to this she spent ten years as an elementary teacher and three years as the Director of Lower School at a private school for children with language based learning difficulties in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has a bachelor’s degree in Education, and a MA in Education: concentration in Language and Literacy.

Odette Zouri

Odette Zouri moved to Maine with her family in 2016 from their home country of Burkina Faso. Prior to emigrating, Odette worked for the Ministry of Environment in wetlands protection. Currently, she is a Certified Nursing Assistant at Midcoast Hospital while she pursues a Bachelor of Science in Nursing at the University of Maine at Augusta. Odette lives in Bath with her two children, ages 16 and 11. She joined the Board of Directors to be an inspiration for new Mainers, their voice at the table, and a reflection of what the result of MCNMG work can look like.

Vanessa Mayer

Vanessa Mayer joined the board in 2022 and is a member of the finance committee. She is the business manager for Now You’re Cooking and has served on the development committee at Patten Free Library. Vanessa has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education. She lives in Bath with her husband, two children, and their golden retriever. Having grown up in Bath, Vanessa is thrilled to share her love of this great community with new Mainers and assist in making their transition easier.

Karen Armstrong

I moved to Maine in 2020 after a thirty year career in information technology. I have always been interested in the history of immigration to the US. In 2013, it became personal. My daughter was able to adopt a baby boy from Ethiopia. As I watched her go through the immigration process with her son, I became concerned about the many hurdles that the Government had put in place to prolong this process, to collect thousands of dollars in fees, and to cause all sorts of worries for people like my daughter. Our grandson finally was able to become a US citizen when he was 4 years old. Once retired, I looked for a way to get involved with the immigration situation in Maine. My involvement with MCNMG has shown me ways volunteers like us can help the new Mainers coming to our state find a place in a community and a path toward citizenship.

Nadine Twagirayezu

Nadine has been a board member since 2020. She first heard about Midcoast New Mainer’s support group from one the members in 2019. She got interested right away about the support that was being offered to newly arrivals in the Brunswick and Bath area and started to participate in the group meetings. An immigrant herself, she is passionate about social justice and want to assist in welcoming other immigrants who want to integrate in Maine. She is an accredited representative at Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project where she mostly works with asylum seekers.

Sara Namwira

Sara Namwira is originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and says, “I chose to be a member of the New Mainer’s board, to help New Mainers integrate into the community like I did.”

Anna Dienhart

Anna moved to Maine in 2016, after retiring from a later-life career as a Professor, Academic Administrator, and Individual, Couples, and Family Therapist. Earlier in her life, Anna worked as an International Economist for large, multi-national corporations. In retirement, Anna has looked for opportunities to combine her background in business, with her passion for connecting with and assisting people as they live into their full potential. Anna first volunteered with Mid-Coast New Mainers Group in 2020 developing a resource guide for volunteer family mentors. Later she began driving New Mainers to English classes. In 2023, Anna became a mentor to a family living in Bath, and in 2024 she joined the job coaching initiative. Becoming involved with MCNMG and
discovering the amazing families and community of “New Mainers” in the Brunswick-Bath-Topsham area has been an engaging, enlightening, and rewarding late-life experience. Currently, Anna continues her commitment as a family mentor, sometimes job and life coach, and now also serves as the MCNMG’s Treasurer.