Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens recently hired a new Marketing Content Coordinator, Tory Paxson. Paxson is responsible for preparing the content for the website, electronic newsletters, press releases, social media, and more. In the few weeks that she’s been in her new role, Paxson has immersed herself in the Gardens and has learned about every aspect of the organization so that she can update the public on what’s happening and what’s new.

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens is pleased to welcome Tory Paxson to the marketing team and would like to share this brief interview with a “hometown girl.”

CMBG: Are you originally from Maine?

TP: My family came to Maine during an exploratory year traveling the East Coast in a camper. Boothbay Harbor was near the end of our trip, and Mom didn’t want to leave. After a tour of the local elementary school and a cursory look into nearby real estate, it was decided: in 1996, we packed up our house in Pottstown, Pennsylvania and moved into old Doctor Gregory’s house on Eastern Avenue.

CMBG: Is there a Boothbay Harbor memory you’d like to share?

TP: As I grew up, we grew into the community. Or rather, the community enveloped us. My mom, Sandy Paxson, has been on the School Board for 16 years. My father, the late Don Paxson, used his free time in retirement to substitute at the school and coach the BRHS soccer team. Everybody seemed to know us, and everybody waved when passing us on the street.

CMBG: What’s your education and work background?

TP: I was a part of the BRHS graduating class of 2008, and went off to Bangor to study marketing, web and graphic design at New England School of Communications, helped by a scholarship from the Boothbay Region Art Foundation. I received a bachelor’s in communications in 2012, and promptly moved back to the Harbor. I worked as the assistant manager in the Palabra Shop in downtown Boothbay Harbor, and then later added on substituting at the YMCA daycare in the winter.

CMBG: So you left to go to school yet you came back to this region to live?

TP: Unlike so many of my peers, it seemed, I was determined to figure out a way to stay in Boothbay. I am so excited to be working at CMBG. Beyond the opportunity to do something I love while getting to live in Boothbay Harbor, I am surrounded by people who are so enthusiastic about what they do. The Gardens has been one of my favorite places to spend time, and now I get to go to work in this beautiful place.

The Gardens is fortunate to have someone in this important communications role who knows and loves the region as much as we do. Be sure to say “hi” to Tory on the CMBG Facebook page, Instagram, at the Gardens, and when you see her around town.

For more information, visit www.mainegardens.org, or call 207-633-4333.