Interview on Marie Gauthier

When the phrase “Strong, powerful woman” is mentioned, Marie Gauthier comes to mind first. She is an influential individual in her communities. As a student athlete, I’ve watched her countless times bring homemade baked goods to cross country meets, and cheer on everyone in Nordic skiing races with her loud bell necklace. As kind and thoughtful as she is, she is also very dedicated and hardworking. She belongs to an assortment of committees, legions, and associations. She holds multiple positions within these communities, such as the president of the Mohawk Trail Music Association, The president of the Western Mass League of Women Voters, an authoritative figure in the state league of Women Voters, and was previously a co-president of organizing the now discontinued Collective Poet series. She is also a mother of three. Mrs. Gauthier is a charismatic and welcoming woman, and remains humble and reliable, always.

She has a long list of titles, yet, when asked about time management, Mrs.Gauthier smiles “It's not that hard,” she said, “it's about making choices and how you spend your time.”

She explained that the State League of Women Voters hold all of their monthly meetings online, which is helpful, in terms of saving time with transportation. They are far less busy in Winter and Summer time as well, allowing her more time for herself, her family, and other responsibilities. “Be careful how you schedule your time,” she advised, thoughtfully. “When we are mindful and purposeful with time, we realize how much time we waste.” She then talked about how when we are more “Intentional with time, you can find that you can do more than you thought that you could.”

Inspired to make a difference, Marie has risen to the occasion on multiple different levels. When she is inspired to make a change, she does her research and goes for it. “I always like to contribute to my communities.” She and her friend had done this very thing when they went to the Brattleboro Literary Fest and were inspired. After seeing many crafty works, she and her friend then formed the Collective Poets Series, where great poets were gathered from all over the area to perform and share their pieces with one another. This was unfortunately discontinued when covid struck Western Massachusetts.

She found herself applying for the Mohawk Trail Music Association, as her oldest son joined the MT band. Later on, so did her second son. Since then, she has maintained the president role. “She helped me get acclimated in the community itself when I joined, and introduced me to a lot of new people.” The Mohawk Trail Music teacher, Annalee Clough, said. “She organizes everything - like the baked potato fundraiser, which is the event that we get all of our profits from.”

Although she is proud to be an executive part of the state league of women voters, she prefers working in smaller groups, like the local league, so that she can do her hands on work and be a part of the action. Marie discovered that Western Mass did not have a women's voters league, so she went to the state, and got together a group of people, who are today the Western Mass Women's Voters League.

“I like that they’re all very woman centered.” She said, in reference to the multiple roles she holds within her communities. In regards to the voting leagues that she is a part of, The state league’s job is to be the oversight role of smaller committees. She says that it feels like more of a principal position than say, a teacher or a student, who actually gets to see the change happening and be a part of the action. Her state-level job entails dealing with budgets and a lot of telling the smaller committees what to do.

The most stressful part of being a community leader in these roles is planning events. “filling volunteer roles and turnout,” she said, emphasizing this point. The event itself cannot be successful unless there are enough bodies to fill the slots. Additionally, the executive director of the women's voting league is retiring. “It’s a lot to deal with at once” she said, in reference to not only the upcoming 2024 election, but also the potato sale, which is the main fundraiser for the Mohawk Trail music association.

Voting season is always a busy time for the Franklin County League of Women's Voters, especially with all of the calls they are receiving. Occasionally, they will get calls during election season from people in Franklin County Ohio. These callers tend to think that they are calling their local voters league, not the somewhat distant state of Massachusetts' one.

An instance that has stuck with Marie Gauthier is when a woman called from North Carolina on behalf of her father to check on his registration. Over the course of this exchange, they found themselves talking about voter ID laws. They had conflicting opinions on the aforementioned laws. However, after having a conversation, the woman was actually responsive to Maries argument.

“Voter ID laws create unnecessary barriers.” she told me. This can be a problem, as voting itself is one of the most basic rights an individual should have access to, living in a democracy. Many people are very rigid in their beliefs, and refuse to let their opinions be altered by other people, or to see the other side’s perspective. However, this was not the case with the woman on the phone. “She was actually quite responsive, and said that she had never thought of it in that way.” Marie said appreciatively. “Many people hold strong to their own opinions - it was nice to know that I got through to someone.”