The University of Maine at Augusta welcomed young children and their families to the Augusta campus on Saturday, October 3, for the Fall Into Reading Festival, a free celebration of literacy, community, and connection hosted by the UMA Education program.
The event was organized by Assistant Professor of Education and Graduate Program Coordinator Dr. Leigh Alley, who wrote and received a Transforming Lives Council mini-grant to support it. Rooted in Alley’s nationally recognized work in whole-child education, the festival reflected a central premise of that work: literacy and learning are inseparable from the relationships, belonging, safety, and social-emotional conditions that support children’s development and well-being.
That philosophy shaped the afternoon. Children ages 3–8 and their grownups enjoyed a screening of the film Spookley the Square Pumpkin, a story walk, costumes, a character parade, and trunk-or-treating with UMA and more than a dozen community partners. The Education program gifted every child a softcover copy of Spookley the Square Pumpkin along with supporting social-emotional learning activities families could continue at home. Further extending the event’s mission, and UMA’s decades-long commitment to reaching into every corner of our state, additional books were donated to each of the grades PK-4 students of one of Maine’s island schools.
For UMA Education, the festival was also an extension of teacher preparation beyond the classroom. Whole-child education asks future educators to understand children within the families, relationships, communities, and systems that shape their lives—and to recognize that meaningful support is never the work of schools alone.
Alley developed the event with assistance from UMA Associate Professor of English Caleb James, who helps lead Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library—Kennebec County and coordinated the participation of several community partners. Education students Delaney Barry and Heather Wolfe served as student leads.
The festival also put community policing into practice. Chief Noel March, Director of the Community Policing Institute, played a central role in planning and carrying out the event alongside Alley—two collaborator-colleagues who frequently co-author articles and develop framework standards blending educational leadership with public safety. The efforts of UMaine Chief of Police William Flagg and Officers Alyshia Dillon and John Skroski were also integral to the event’s success. Their supportive presence reflected community policing through partnership, service, relationship-building, and active participation in community life—not simply through a security presence.
That work fit naturally within the festival’s whole-child foundation. Children’s safety and sense of belonging are shaped by the people and institutions around them, making public safety, educators, families, and community organizations part of the same broader network of support. Alley and March made that partnership especially visible as the festival’s grand marshals, appearing as Ms. Frizzle and the Magic School Bus, leading festivalgoers throughout the afternoon’s events.
Conor Lipchus and Peter Starkey were also central to bringing the event together, while the invaluable support of President Jenifer Cushman and UMA’s Transforming Lives Council helped to make the festival possible.
UMA was joined by Family Violence Project, Hannaford, The Village ME, Connected Credit Union, Help Me Grow Maine, Augusta Elks #964 Youth Activities Committee, Lithgow Public Library, Healthy Communities of the Capital Area/Kennebec County Youth Advisory Board, Literacy Volunteers of Kennebec, Augusta Pediatric Dentistry, Wipfli, Tobacco Free Kids, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library—Kennebec County, and Southern Kennebec Child Development Corporation. That breadth of partnership was not incidental to the event; it was part of its purpose and impact. Whole-child education requires looking beyond the boundaries of a classroom and recognizing the network of people, organizations, and resources that help children thrive. The Fall Into Reading Festival brought that network together in one collaborative and welcoming space—giving families a joyful afternoon centered on literacy, experiencing whole-child practice in action.
