Medomak Middle School math teacher Andrea Williamson is a bundle of energy. When the holidays draw near, her soul is filled with an infectious spirit that spreads cheer and joy to her students, staff, and anyone that comes in contact with her.
From the Monday after Thanksgiving until the final day of school before the holiday break, Williamson dons a different Christmas outfit every single school day.
“My coworkers at MMS love it, and some join in, which makes it so much more fun,” Williamson said. “My teammates in the red wing all decorate their rooms and now wear some holiday clothing as well. They say they got to do something to keep up with me. It makes it fun for the students. They all have a great attitude and love working with the students so anything we can do to help them, we do.”
The more bling, lights, and red and green on her apparel, the better. Each day she dresses in a different theme, tasking her students to try and guess what it is. While some of her head gear is repeated, no shirt, sweater, earrings, necklaces, or socks are repeated over the 25 days between the holidays.
“I have a different shirt or sweater, plus different earrings, necklaces, and socks that go with each outfit. No redo’s,” Williamson said.
Her holiday spirit isn’t exclusive to Christmas, however.
“I love holidays and I do this for all holidays. I know that not all people love holidays like I do, but the purpose of why I do this is to make people smile.”
Williamson credits the origin of her holiday apparel to her mother-in-law, Elaine, who one day started buying her Halloween socks.
“(I’m) not sure why, but she did, so I started wearing them,” Williamson said. “She kept buying me them. I also bought a few, and before I knew it, I had enough Halloween socks to wear to school each day in October.”
When Williamson said she didn’t have any Thanksgiving socks, her mother-in-law started looking for turkey socks. When she could not find any, she took a pair from her daughter and gave them to Williamson.
Amazon and other online stores came about, and it became easier to find different socks. Williamson’s students, children, and her husband, Richard, started to buy her other holiday socks as well. She then found “a lot of cool decorations” at stores during Christmas and made them into necklaces, which she would then pair with socks for a different outfit each day during the month of December.
But it didn’t stop there. Her son, Taylor, and her husband soon began buying Williamson ugly Christmas sweaters as well.
“Before you knew, it I had a collection,” she said. “Yes, I have bought some of these myself, but I get them as gifts from my family and from my students.”
Her children, Micah and Kytana, used to find their mother’s ensembles were embarrassing, but they both came around, Williamson said. Micah then even took after her, donning a bright pink suit for Medomak Valley High School’s annual Paws for a Cause pink-out game, which raises funds for breast cancer charities in Maine.
Kytana, a junior at Medomak, has also gotten used to her mother’s holiday apparel and is now one of the people buying Williamson earrings and shirts.
“It brings joy to all, or so I hope,” Williamson said. “I had one student ask the other day, ‘Mrs. Williamson, why do you wear these outfits?’ I told her that ‘I know not all people love holidays like I do, and I know that some people have a hard time with the holidays, but when you go home and think of me, what do you do?’ The girl said, ‘I smile or laugh.’ I said ‘exactly, that is why I do it.’ I want to bring joy to everyone. My outfits do this, as you never know what I might be wearing.”
In addition to bringing joy, Williamson’s ensembles also pay tribute to her mother-in-law the person who started it all two decades ago with a pair of Halloween socks. Elaine Williamson has since passed away.
“I do it in her honor,” Williamson said.
A resident of Nobleboro, Williamson is in her 24th year of teaching. She started her career at Mt. View before teaching in Colorado for a year.
“I moved out there to do my graduate work, but there was no ocean, and I missed my family, so I moved back,” Williamson said.
For the past 22 years, Williamson has been a part of the RSU 40 faculty. She started at D.R. Gaul Middle School in Union, and when Medomak Middle School was built, she transferred there.
In addition to teaching, Williamson has a 26-year history of coaching both at the middle and high school level, including nine years with middle school soccer, nine years with girls basketball, and four years coaching softball.
During her senior year of high school at Lincoln Academy, Williamson began her coaching career at the age of 18 helping with the CLC YMCA in Damariscotta. Since then, she coached girls soccer, girls basketball, and track in Union; soccer and basketball through Waldoboro Recreation, and softball with Little League.
At Medomak Valley, she coached the JV girls soccer team and assisted with the varsity team, and assisted the varsity girls basketball team for two years. Her other coaching experiences include softball at Mt. View, junior high girls basketball in Colorado, and club softball, girls soccer, and girls basketball at Unity College.
Although she wore black and white during her time as an LA Eagle, Williamson now bleeds blue and gold, the colors of the Riverhawks and Panthers. Her children played sports in the RSU 40 system, and her daughter is currently a member of the varsity girls basketball team.
The family, no matter how busy schedules are, always takes time to go on a vacation together during the two-week period there are no sports during the summer. These family trips now include Micah and Taylor’s wives.
Whether in the classroom teaching the times tables, or on the sidelines coaching, Williamson strives to brighten the lives of those around her with boundless energy and infectious spirit.
“A smile can take people a long way, a laugh or a thought can also help people. Today in our world we have so much negativity and sadness. If I can make one person smile I have done my job,” Williamson said. “That is why I do it, that is why I am a teacher. I want to help them to become wonderful adults.”
(Do you have a suggestion for a “Characters of the County” subject? Email info@lcnme.com with the subject line “Characters of the County.”)
