NORWAY — Joan Beal of Norway has announced her candidacy for the District 81 seat in the Maine House.

Beal is a retired teacher, mother and grandmother and has been a longtime Norway community volunteer and activist, serving on the Budget Committee, Comprehensive Planning Committee and Climate Action Advisory Committee.

She has served as a court appointed special advocate for children, worked in the community lunch program, served as a Western Foothills Land Trust volunteer, and was a founding member of Norway Landmarks Preservation Society. She is a member of the Norway and West Paris Unitarian Universalist Churches.

Beal said in a written statement that she was inspired to run, in part, by the many proactive pieces of legislation that have been passed in the recent legislative sessions, policies that help working families, that address catastrophic weather events and climate change, and others that have begun to deal with the crises in mental health, education and health care. She also is concerned with the current and potential crises in housing, climate, economic disparities and reproductive rights.

“I love Maine and the Oxford Hills and want to be part of making our state safe and just for the future of all our people. All the residents in the small towns of our district need sustainable jobs, a clean and healthy environment and access to good education and health care,” she wrote in the statement.

“We have seen devastating climate events that are straining the resources of small towns all over the state and we all will need to step up and act together to make our state work for everyone,” she said.

District 81 includes Albany Township, Greenwood, Locke Mills, Mason Township, Norway, South Oxford, Stoneham, Stow, Sweden and Waterford.