![\"Photograph](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2013\/03\/C9-Many_and_One_7575.jpg\")
<\/a>Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College<\/p><\/div>\n
The January 2003 event in Merrill Gym grew out of a letter that Lewiston mayor Laurier Raymond sent to Lewiston\u2019s growing Somali community the prior October. Claiming that their presence was depleting municipal resources, Raymond asked Somali elders to discourage friends and relatives from coming to town, predicting that continued immigration would mean \u201cnegative results for all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sparking widespread outrage, the letter was welcomed by one tiny constituency: a Wyoming-based white supremacist group who saw it as an invitation to hold a rally in Lewiston for their cause.<\/p>\n
A determined group of local citizens would have none of that, though. \u201cThis is not who we are, and we have to make sure people know that,\u201d said the late Dean of the College James Carignan \u201961.<\/p>\n
So under the banner of the Many and One Coalition, organizers mounted a counter-rally that drew 4,000 to Bates \u2014 Somali residents, Bates folks, justice activists and top Maine politicians \u2014 with John Jenkins \u201974, a former mayor of Lewiston and Auburn, serving as master of ceremonies. Drawing national attention, the rally inspired related programming that included church vigils around Maine.<\/p>\n
The supremacist rally across town, meanwhile, drew about three dozen participants.<\/p>\n
The anniversary was noted this winter with a commemorative event organized by Welcoming Maine, an immigrant-advocacy organization founded by Sarah Davis \u201910. \u2014 DLH<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College<\/p><\/div>\n
Close to Home<\/h3>\n
Jenny Bergeron \u201914 of Lewiston can rest assured: She already knows she\u2019ll be heading to medical school.<\/p>\n
Bergeron, a biochemistry major, is the first Bates student accepted to the Tufts University School of Medicine\u2019s Early Assurance program, guaranteeing her a spot in the med school\u2019s class of 2018 after she graduates from Bates next year.<\/p>\n
Bergeron will join Tufts\u2019 Maine Track program, reserved for Bates, Bowdoin, Colby and UMaine graduates. Bates students do \u201cvery well\u201d gaining admission through Maine Track, says Karen Daigler of the Bates Career Development Center, ticking off a number of recent grads now at Tufts.<\/p>\n
Established in 2008 as a partnership between Tufts and Maine Medical Center, Maine Track includes clinical rotations in rural Maine. The program seeks to train more doctors to serve rural Maine, where, according to state data, only 39 percent of residents have a primary care physician. \u2014 HJB<\/p>\n
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Lewiston Facts<\/h3>\n
Bates students make up about 5 percent of Lewiston\u2019s population.<\/p>\n
Bates is the third largest employer in Androscoggin County.<\/p>\n
When Bates needs to remove building furniture temporarily, a Lewiston moving company stores it.<\/p>\n
President Spencer ate at a local brew pub, Gritty McDuff\u2019s, on her first visit to Bates.<\/p>\n
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