During Saturday’s Windham Summerfest Parade and festivities, Bill Diamond and the Walk a Mile in Their Shoes Foundation were honored as this year’s recipient of the Modern Woodmen of America Hometown Hero Award, presented annually to recognize individuals and organizations who have gone above and beyond in service to their community.
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| Bill Diamond and the Walk a Mile in Their Shoes Foundation were honored as this year's Modern Woodmen of America Hometown Hero during the Windham Summerfest on Saturday, June 21. Diamond created the nonprofit group in 2023 to prevent child homicide and the abuse of children who are under the supervision or direct cate of the State of Maine or in the state's Child Protective System FILE PHOTO. |
From 1989 to 1997, Diamond served as Maine’s Secretary of State and during his tenure he was credited with improving efficiencies within the Department of State. Before he was the Maine Secretary of State, Diamond served three terms in the Maine House of Representatives and later was elected as a State Senator representing Windham. He has extensive experience as a small-business owner in Windham for more than four decades, and as a teacher, principal, and Superintendent of Schools in the Windham and Raymond school systems, where he worked for 20 years.
In creating the foundation, Diamond says that children associated with state care have been dying at record levels and something needed to be done to prevent that.
“How many more children must die before we make meaningful changes,” he said. “The problems are not partisan based. They are the concern of all of us. This is the most important thing I’ve ever been able to do, nothing comes close.”
To learn more about the issue, Diamond said he’s attended many child-homicide trials and sentencings over the past years and each time he does, he’s made aware of the gruesome and sad details of an abused child dying needlessly.
“Each time the fact is reinforced that we have the capabilities to fix our broken child protection system, all we need is the will to do it,” he said.
The Walk a Mile in Their Shoes Foundation is duly filed with the Maine Secretary of State and supported and guided by an advisory board consisting of experts in the field of child protection and child welfare. One of the purposes of the Walk a Mile in Their Shoes foundation is to bring people from a variety of interests and backgrounds together to develop meaningful strategies for positive changes to protect our children who are the innocent victims of a broken system.
“Since the foundation was founded, we’ve mobilized families, foster parents, legislators, law enforcement officers, health care and childcare providers, educators and others in advocating for change in Maine’s child welfare system,” Diamond said. “We’ve brought people together on social media and at rallies at the State House and beyond and used our platform to inform the public of the ongoing dangers Maine children face.”
After months of interviews with stakeholders of all kinds from around the state, the foundation released a report in December 2023 detailing how Maine’s child welfare system leaves children, caseworkers, foster families and others without the support they need to be safe and successful.
“We identified many of the same issues that the Maine Child Welfare Ombudsman Program, an independent watchdog, has identified in its annual report for the past several years,” Diamond said. “The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services came to similar conclusions in November 2024, when it issued a report finding that Maine did not comply with screening, assessment and investigation requirements for responding to reports of child abuse and neglect. Maine’s DHHS has also seen fit to spend nearly $1.6 million in recent years to contract outside entities to examine the child welfare system, just to be told the same things: the system has serious flaws that are leaving children vulnerable to abuse, neglect, and in the worst cases, death.”
He said the intent of the Walk a Mile in Their Shoes Foundation is to work with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of Child and Family Services in a joint effort to improve the state’s child safety policies and practices and make a difference.
Having the foundation honored as a Modern Woodmen of America Hometown Hero for this year’s Windham Summerfest came as a surprise to Diamond.
“I was not expecting any recognition although I will say we have so many dedicated volunteers who constantly give their time and energy to help vulnerable children who are living in unsafe and often times life-threatening circumstances,” he said. “These volunteers deserve this honorable recognition which has a history of outstanding recipients over the past years. All we hope for as a nonprofit organization is the reward that we save the lives of infants and young children by using whatever influence we can muster to rescue these children from ongoing abuse and too often eventual murders. To be recognized as a Hometown Hero is a privilege and heartwarming, however maybe the most important result of this award will be to help us build awareness of who we are and our mission which is to help vulnerable children who most people never see or even know exist.”
To learn more about the Walk a Mile in Their Shoes Foundation, visit https://walkamilemaine.org/ <
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