Happy New Year!
Rhode Islanders are hardworking, gritty people.??
The gifts are unwrapped, and Rhode Islanders are trading in their Christmas stockings for confetti and noisemakers.
New Year???s Eve is a time to reflect on the year that???s gone by, and make plans for the year to come. When I think about 2017, I think about the Rhode Islanders I???ve met who inspire me to keep working hard to move our state forward.
In August, I met a young woman at CCRI in Warwick. College had never been something her family could afford, but she knew she needed a degree to get a good job. She told me she heard about the Rhode Island Promise proposal, and she checked the newspaper every day to see if it had passed.??When it did, she was one of the first students in line to enroll. Thanks to our hard work, young people like her all across Rhode Island now have the chance to go to CCRI and earn a degree without the debt.
Last month in Pawtucket, I met a man named Evan. A few years ago, he was working a desk job. But what he really wanted to do was manage his own business, so he started his own cleaning company. He quit his desk job and now, thanks to a loan from Commerce RI, he???s quadrupled his business.
Rhode Islanders are hardworking, gritty people and when we work together, we???re unstoppable. Over the last few years, we???ve cut our unemployment rate by a third and together, created thousands of jobs. We???re on a roll. So as we look to 2018, let???s keep the momentum going. We???re going to keep moving Rhode Island forward every single day.
So from my family to yours, have a happy and healthy New Year.
GINA