If you've ever had the pleasure of knowing Trae Stover, you already know she's one of those people who just makes everything better. She is warm, funny, and genuinely one of the most caring people you will ever meet. After forty years with the Wiscasset School Department, she is retiring this June — and while we are so happy for her, there is no question that she will leave an enormous hole in our hearts and in our school.

It all started with what Stover jokingly calls a lucky landing. She was 22 years old, fresh out of college with loans to pay, when she was hired just days before Labor Day weekend. First grade wasn't necessarily the plan — it was simply the opening. But once she stepped into that classroom, she knew she had found where she belonged. "My heart lies in first grade," she has said, and after four decades, there's no reason to doubt her.

That first year was equal parts chaos and joy. There were no photocopiers yet, so her whole family sat around the kitchen table helping her cut out Clifford the Big Red Dog shapes for name tags. A piano appeared randomly in her classroom. School secretary Jeanette Pitcher helped her navigate those first uncertain months, and mentor Ginny Kane was one of the first people to show her what great teaching really looked like. Jane also gave her a piece of advice Stover still passes along to every new teacher she meets: Start putting money away for retirement every month, and keep upping it when you can. She also nearly sent home blank report cards that first year after forgetting to copy her handwritten drafts before sealing the envelopes. She survived that, too — and never stopped laughing about it.

Over four decades, Stover worked under 18 superintendents — some more than once — and alongside eight principals. She mentored student teachers, guided ETEP interns, served on what feels like every committee the school ever created, and volunteered to be the Snow Day Chain Caller, which, if you know Stover, tells you everything about the kind of colleague she has always been. She adapted through wave after wave of educational change — No Child Left Behind, Maine Learning Results, scripted programs, NWEA testing, and then COVID, which tested everyone in ways no training could have prepared them for. Through all of it, she focused on what mattered: the kids in front of her.

More than 700 students have passed through her classroom across three generations. She has taught the children and grandchildren of former students. Some of her coworkers today once sat in her first-grade classroom themselves. "It's always so wonderful to hear what they remember," she says, "and to carry those connections into the next generation."

In 2022, she was named Lincoln County Teacher of the Year, and she earned every bit of it. But awards only tell part of the story. It's the way she fights for every single kid, even when it isn't easy. It's the way she calls families before school even starts in the fall, just to introduce herself and help children feel comfortable before the first day. It's the way she writes thank-you notes back to students for every small drawing or act of kindness, because she wants them to understand what gratitude looks like in practice. And it's the way she notices the people around her — showing up with flowers on Administrative Assistants' Day, remembering every birthday, every milestone, every difficult week.

Her classroom has always been full of life and full of tradition. Every year, her students raise monarch butterflies and release them together. There are walks to Wiscasset Public Library and the community playground, Thanksgiving collaborations with Morris Farm, fourth-grade buddy programs with Lynn Morissette, and reading challenges over every school vacation and summer. And then there are the things students carry with them long after first grade is over: Bananaphone, the meowing cat clock, the treasure chest, and a stuffed penguin wedding at Popham Beach that former students still laugh about years later.

Teaching 6- and 7-year-olds also means living in a constant state of delightful surprise. There was the boy who, after a lesson on how penguins care for their eggs, proudly shouted across the room, "Who wants to mate with me at recess?" There was the child who, noticing her black eye after a medical procedure, dramatically shielded his face and whispered, "I must look away from you, Milady." And then there was Lucky, the class rabbit everyone assumed was male — until Lucky returned from a vacation at a student's home having given birth to five babies. Stover will keep you laughing for an hour with these stories, and she has 40 years' worth of them.

Of course, not every memory from 40 years in a classroom is funny. Stover has also sat with grief. She has lost students — Sarah, Stephen, Dane, Trey, Cameron — and those losses have stayed with her over the years. Like many longtime teachers, she carries both the happy memories of those students and the sadness of losing them far too soon.

She will tell you that her favorite part of teaching first graders is that they still believe in everything — the tooth fairy, monarch butterflies, the magic of learning to read. She loves the moment a child picks up a book and suddenly the words make sense, that look on their face when the light goes on. And she loves the lessons that go completely off track due to first grade minds and curiosity, and lead to even better teaching, learning, engagement and memories. After 40 years, none of that ever got old.

What kept her in Wiscasset for 40 years, through at least 11 moves and countless changes? The answer has always been the same: the people. The colleagues who became her closest friends. The families she's known and followed for decades. The way this community wrapped itself around her and her classroom year after year. "My job was always my first priority and my anchor," she says, and the community gave back just as much as she poured in.

Now, it's time. Stover is stepping into a new chapter with the same open heart she's always brought to her classroom. She's looking forward to volunteering, exploring Maine, walking more, gardening, reading, and reconnecting with family and friends. She talks about retirement with the same excitement she brought to her classroom every year. "I have hopefully helped build countless futures. Now it's time to build my own."

Trae, you have touched more lives than you will ever fully know. You have been a champion, an advocate, a mentor, and a friend to so many of us. Your kindness, your humor, and your absolute dedication to every child who ever walked through your classroom door have made this school and this community a better, warmer place. Thank you for 40 beautiful years. Thank you for the love and care you gave to generations of students. You will always be a special part of Wiscasset and we will miss you dearly! Congratulations, Trae. Wiscasset has been lucky to have you for all these years.