We are in the home stretch for the program year, and all students who are prepared for official HiSETS are scheduled. Many will finish in the next couple of weeks. Congratulations, Graduates! 🎉 This is a monumental achievement that requires incredible resilience, discipline, and hard work. Balancing life, family, and work while hitting the books is no small feat—you truly earned this moment.

On the first Tuesday of May, fifty Boothbay Region Elementary School children headed for the trails after the bell rang. May Movers was back. The timing is no accident. Extracurricular sports wind down before the school year does, leaving a stretch of weeks where the structure and energy of organized sports disappear. May Movers was built to fill that gap. Barbara Crocker and her daughter Allison launched the program two years ago with a simple conviction that kids who stay active stay connected, and that running is a sport where anyone can feel successful. As part of a Boothbay athletics family dynasty, they now teach side by side at Boothbay Region Elementary School in adjoining second grade classrooms. "We take different roles and play well off each other," Barb said. "The kids benefit from hearing different points of view and different styles of teaching." Along with Lady Dribblers, their before-school basketball club for girls, May Movers is designed with a longer arc in mind: building the kind of early relationship with movement that supports mental health, feeds into middle and high school sports, and keeps kids engaged in school when it matters most. "We have kids who struggle in the classroom," Allison said, "and they are thriving out there. Hopefully that means when they see us in the hall, they know there are adults who care about them at school. And we know they can do hard things."

With funding from Education Boothbay, BRES launched one of Maine’s first middle school esports programs, giving students an inclusive, new opportunity to develop teamwork, critical thinking, and leadership skills. Guided by teacher Jeremy Phelps, the program is more than gaming—it’s about growth. Phelps says, “It’s incredible to watch our team building communication skills, creative problem solving and resilience under pressure that will serve them far beyond gaming.” Research shows that students in extracurriculars tend to score higher in math and reading, especially with exposure to positive adult mentors.