Great Falls Forum with Vanessa Paolella
The 2025-2026 season of the Great Falls Forum continues Thursday, May 28th, featuring Vanessa Paolella with a talk entitled “What the World Doesn’t See: The Everyday Lives of Children in Madagascar.” Ther free, public program will take place from 12 noon to 1 PM in Callahan Hall at the Lewiston Public Library.
Vanessa Paolella is a returned Peace Corps volunteer and the founder of the Meylou Fund for the Deaf, a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding opportunities for deaf children in Madagascar. She lives and works at the Fianarantsoa School for the Deaf (SEMAFI), where she helps care for more than 30 boarding students. Before moving to Madagascar in 2023, she worked as a staff writer at the Sun Journal, covering education and local government. She is a 2021 graduate of Bates College.
Admission is free to all Forum events and reservations are only required if attending via Zoom. The Zoom registration link is here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_pE0eRAsPTMO85tByne8XJA
The program is a bring-your-own, brown-bag lunch event. Coffee and bottled water will be available on site at the library.
The Great Falls Forum speaker series is co-sponsored by Bates College, Lewiston Public Library, and the Sun Journal. The Lewiston Public Library is located downtown at 200 Lisbon Street at the corner of Pine Street. More information on Thursday’s lecture is available by contacting the Lewiston Public Library at 513-3135 or LPLReference@lewistonmaine.gov.
