Communities That Care

Dick was born in Rockland, lived in Thomaston in his elementary years, and graduated from Waterville schools and the Univ. of Maine. He retired to Rockport in 1997 after an exciting 35-year career in Washington, DC.

While in the Washington area, Dick was involved for many years in his suburban church’s youth group ministries. This gave him a perspective on well-to-do kids, their aspirations, etc. He also headed up a Friendship Team of members from a collection of suburban churches that met with inner-city leaders (the team’s focus was an inner-city pastor and congregation). Monthly meetings in the inner-city and many activities associated with families and kids who lived in “the projects” and expressed little hope of personal or occupation success gave Dick insights into at-risk families and kids that will last a lifetime.

Dick’s career gave him a good understanding of organizational and personnel management. He retired as a civilian U.S. Government equivalent to a 2-star military general, so brings a high level of managerial experience and exposure to CTC.

Neal started his career after college in the Washington, DC area as an auditor for the Reznick Group where he worked for five years before going to work for one of his clients as the Vice President of Finance for LDG, Inc a small commercial real estate developer in the Washington, DC area. Neal is a certified public accountant with a bachelors of science degree in business administration majoring in accounting from West Virginia University and has a master’s of science in real estate from John Hopkins University.

Neal relocated to the midcoast in February 2010 with his wife Nicole O’Brien Blake who grew up in Rockport and got involved in Five Town Communities that Care through his wife who served as interim STAR coordinator prior to the birth of their daughter in January 2011.

Neal is employed by Camden National Corporation as an Audit Officer and serves as Treasurer of Five Town Communities that Care and serves on both the executive committee and funding workgroup for the organization.

Lisa has been involved with Five Town Communities That Care since 2004, serving in many roles. Currently, Lisa is the chair of the Community Data Workgroup. She lives in Camden with her husband and four children.

Ken began working with Five Town Communities That Care in 2004 and serves on the Funding Workgroup. Ken is a financial advisor with Edward Jones in Camden where he moved along with his sweet bride, Vera, in 2004 from Memphis, TN. They are parents of 3 adult children and 2 granddaughters who are expected to eventually follow their parents wisdom to Maine.

Lynn grew up in Rockport and is a graduate of Camden-Rockport High School and the University of Maine. She comes to FTCTC following involvement in our local schools. She was elected to 3 terms on the Five Town CSD and the MSAD #28 School Boards, serving from 1999-2008. She chaired the MSAD #28 Board for 5 years, chaired the CSD Curriculum Committee for 7 years, and chaired the Building Committee for the new Camden Rockport Elementary School from 2006-10.Lynn became involved in FTCTC in 2009 by joining the Coalition Maintenance Workgroup. She considers it an honor to be elected to the Board of Directors because of the organization’s impressive work led by such dedicated people.

Lynn and her husband, Dwight, live in Rockport. They have 2 adult children, Peter and Emily.

Adam Kohlstrom has been at Chestnut Street Baptist Church in Camden since 2003. The first five years he served as Pastor of Family and Youth and since 2008 as Senior Pastor. Adam moved to Camden from Massachusetts where he served for four years as Director of Youth at a church with a teen ministry that involved over 80 students. As an undergraduate, Adam studied Youth Ministries at Eastern University in St. Davids, PA. He received his Master of Divinity degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, MA. Adam has been involved with FTCTC since its inception in 2003. He used to facilitate the Teen Forum meetings, currently serves on the Youth Involvement Workgroup, and leads the Guiding Good Choices parenting program. Adam tries to stay connected with teens and is regularly involved with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) at CHRHS. He is excited to be a part of helping the five-town community become one in which adolescents might thrive. Adam enjoys reading, writing, playing guitar, spending time with his family, and drinking wicked-good coffee. He resides in Camden with his wife Leah and three children Samuel, Joshua, and Abigail.

Mr. Lesmerises grew up in the Mid-Coast area and is a 1988 graduate of the Camden-Rockport High School. Upon graduation he entered the United States Air Force, where he served for eleven and a half years. His military service culminated in the prestigious assignment to the White House Communications Agency where he provided direct support to the President in Washington DC, Camp David and while traveling. During this time he also taught at several martial arts schools including a non-profit which specialized in keeping kids from joining gangs. After an Honorable Separation from the Air Force, he worked for several years as a Computer Security Engineer for various government agencies including several members of the Intelligence community. He is now the Chief Instructor of Mid-Coast Martial Arts which is dedicated to empower the lives of the Mid-Coast community through innovative martial arts training.

Ed is a local boy, who grew up in Lincolnville and graduated from Camden Rockport High School in 1993. He has a BA in Sociology from Wheaton College in Massachusettes and a MSW from the University of Maine at Orono. He is currently employed as a Clinical Social Worker with Harbor Family Services in Rockland. Ed resides in Lincolnville with his wife Tracee, daughter Margaret, and young son Andrew. Ed has been involved with Five Town Communities that Care since 2007 and is the chair of the Youth Involvement Workgroup.

Peter started his career as an expediter for Pintoff Productions, a New York based film production company. During his stay there he apprenticed as a film editor. He then moved on for a short stay with National Recording Studios as a set up man and apprentice engineer. While at National he participated in one of the first 16 track sessions in N.Y.

For the next two years Peter was Stage Manager, Technical Director, or Lighting Designer for various Summer Stock and National Tour productions including STOP THE WORLD I WANT TO GET OFF; THE HOSTAGE; SOUND OF MUSIC; CAROUSEL; GYPSY and many others. During this period he designed the lights for the Off Broadway success NOAH.

Peter joined Staging Techniques in 1967 where he expanded his skills to include slide programming and live audio engineering while continuing as a Technical Director.

His programming credits include such clients as IBM; PANASONIC; JOHN DEERE; 7UP; and COCA COLA. In addition, he was part of the team that developed multi screen projection for opera and legitimate theater with Ron Chase and Skip Palmer. Among the productions conceived in this technique were TOMMY; A VILLAGE ROMEO AND JULIET; SEAGULL; LULU; TURN OF THE SCREW; KOANGA; and BEATRIX CENCI.

As Technical Director he has supervised shows for BOEING 747-400; NYNEX; AMERICAN EXPRESS; BELL HELICOPTER; HONDA MOTORCYCLES; WEIGHT WATCHERS; MICROSOFT HOME LAUNCH; HBO MOVIES IN BRYANT PARK; AND THE EXPLORASORABUS.

Peter has performed house or monitor mix for Della Reese, Paul Anka, Cleo Laine, The Pointer Sisters, Tony Bennett, Petula Clark, Ella Fitzgerald, Sha Na Na, Stevie Wonder, Crystal Gale and The Four Tops. As engineer for industrial shows he has mixed orchestra and cast for clients such as COCA COLA; BEECHAM; BEATRICE; BOEING; GOODYEAR; GOODRICH; CONTROL DATA; IBM; TOYOTA; BELL SOUTH and HONDA among many others. Peter is a graduate of the Syn Aud Con Sound System Design school and a member of the Audio Engineering Society.

William Shuttleworth is the Superintendent of Schools for SAD 28 and Five Town CSD, bringing 42 years of education and public service experience to this area.  He was previously the Superintendent and creator of the first RSU in the state of Maine, in the Bath surrounding schools where he worked for 7 years.  A psychologist by training before entering education, William served as an Air Force psychologist during the Vietnam War. Since, he has been a teacher of the emotionally disturbed, a school psychologist, principal, Director of Special Services, college professor and superintendent.   Most of his key learnings about life have come from raising three great children and being a close part of his grandchildren’s lives.   He lives in town, loves to cook, build rock walls, agonizes over the NYT crossword and attends a myriad of community and school events.

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