JEFFERSON — Tomlin Perkins Coggeshall, of Newcastle, will be honored during a dinner at 6 p.m. Saturday, May 5, at the Damariscotta Lake Farm, Route 126, according to a news release from the Lincoln County Democratic Committee in Waldoboro.
The biennial Frances Perkins Award Dinner honors a Lincoln County Democrat who exemplifies, through their efforts, the continuing legacy of Frances Perkins. Perkins, whose family is based in Newcastle, served as Secretary of Labor for all three terms of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. As the first woman to ever hold a cabinet position, she was the lead advocate of the New Deal for Social Security, workers’ hours, compensation and unemployment insurance, as well as for child labor laws, according to the release.
Coggeshall is Frances Perkins’ only grandchild.
Coggeshall and his husband Christopher Irvine Rice have lived in the Perkins family residence in Newcastle since 1995 when they moved in with his mother to help her manage in her elder years. After his mother died in 2003, Coggeshall pursued the founding of a center based at the family homestead to preserve Frances Perkins’ legacy while carrying on her efforts. Coggeshall and Rice and were successful in creating the organization, which was incorporated as the Frances Perkins Center, a Maine nonprofit, in 2009.
Three guest speakers will take part in this year’s program: Dr. Christopher N. Breiseth, Frances Perkins Center Treasurer; Hon. Margaret “Peggy” R. Rotundo, Frances Perkins Center board member; and Christopher I. Rice, member of the Frances Perkins Center Advisory Council.
For more information or to register to attend, email Betsy Wooster, LCDC fundraising chairwoman, at betsywooster@gmail.com or visit lincolncountydemocrats.com.
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