LYNN — Nicole McClain has spent her entire life in Lynn — she was born at the former Lynn Hospital and raised by a single mother with three siblings in West Lynn at Marian Gardens.
McClain, who ran for an at-large seat on the City Council this past fall, attended the cosmetology program at Lynn Vocational Technical Institute, became a hairdresser, and joined the Army National Guard during her junior year when she was 17.
She spent 11 years in the National Guard, and served two tours in Iraq; one in 2004, and another in 2008.
“I wanted to try something different and change the trajectory of my life in some way,” McClain said about joining the Guard.
For her efforts in the community, McClain has been chosen as Essex Media Group’s “Person of the Year” for Lynn.
McClain added that during her time in Iraq, it was hard witnessing bombings, people being hurt, sleeping in tents and enduring sandstorms.
Even though it was a difficult time, McClain said it wasn’t all bad because it helped her adapt to different situations and understand people better.
“We’re working together to accomplish a mission and we don’t always get along,” McClain said. “There’s a lot of different attitudes, cultures and perspectives on life, but being in the military taught me how to navigate those situations in an effective way.”
While in Iraq, McClain began an online bachelor’s program in childhood education at Ashford University, which she finished after returning home.
She then got a job working at Bright Horizons in Cambridge, before opening her own daycare, which she ran for six years out of her house.
McClain is now back to working at Bright Horizons as the health and safety director, where she oversees COVID-19 precautions, screens families for COVID-19 and takes care of the kids.
Before this position, McClain worked at the Lynn Public Library and LEO Head Start (Learning through Empowering Opportunities).
In addition to her work in the community, McClain also founded the North Shore Juneteenth Association.
“I started this to celebrate African-American culture closer to home,” McClain said. “I would always have to go to Boston to celebrate Juneteenth, so I wanted to start that celebration closer to home and share it with the community.”
This nonprofit organization holds events and partners with other organizations to expose communities in the North Shore to Black-American culture in order to create change and dismantle racism.
North Shore Juneteenth quickly expanded throughout the cities and towns in the area, and shares more positive images of Black Americans.
“There’s not that much going on where people are exposed to positive images of African-American culture,” McClain said. “There’s so many negative stereotypes that are in everyday society. For nothing to be happening in this area of Massachusetts to negate these stereotypes, I thought that we needed to do more, so now we do a lot more than just the Juneteenth celebration.”
McClain founded North Shore Juneteenth in 2017, but since the killings of Black Americans including Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, McClain said North Shore Juneteenth has gained more importance because people are seeing the unjust treatment of Black Americans for themselves.
“With everyone stuck at home because of COVID-19, people were really paying attention to this and opening their minds to what is going on in the Black community,” McClain said.
When establishing this nonprofit organization, McClain said a lot of people came up to her and said they didn’t even know Juneteenth existed — mostly because schools don’t teach anything about it.
McClain has been working to get more of this education and Black history into the world, particularly into schools, so people know about Black, female suffragettes and other key historical figures in Black history.
“We really just try to educate people because it feels great to hear that people are learning something because the organization exists,” McClain said.
The organization collaborates with numerous communities on the North Shore, hosting events and Juneteenth flag raisings in Lynn, Marblehead, Beverly, Everett and Salem.
Growing up in a diverse city like Lynn, McClain said it is important to know about other cultures and acknowledge history ― work she plans to continue doing in Lynn and other North Shore communities.
