To the Editor:

I am writing to thank every person who voted for me on Saturday for Milford School Board and those who were supportive of my candidacy in various ways.

Congratulations to Jenni Siegrist and Kevin Drew for being elected to the School Board positions. Thank you to Rick Wood for also running for the board. I really respect your efforts and thank you for your time and support to our schools. Hopefully you will continue to support our town and schools.

I want to thank my wife, Jennifer, and my sons, Matthew and Sean, for your support and love. We had a blast during the campaign and yesterday at the polls. Thank you to my friends and loyal supporters who so generously contributed their time and effort to me in running for School Board the last month or so.

Special thank you to Todd and Carla Boudreau for all the time spent guiding me through the campaign and all the signs we put up and just took down this morning.

Although I am very disappointed with the outcome, I feel this was a rewarding campaign. I understood it was a long shot and that this was going to be a challenge running against name recognition as a first-time candidate. Even in my loss, I won! I had the opportunity to meet so many people in the Milford community and learn more about the school system. Thank you, Jane Tessier, for your input and support.

There are no words to express my gratitude for your confidence in me. I am humbled to get the number of votes and support I received as a first-timer. I will continue to make myself available and become involved in the community to get to know even more people in the town. It was a great start and great experience more people should take advantage of. I know more about the school system now than I did before I started. I have a great deal of respect for our principals, teachers and staff. I will continue to influence positive change to support our students, teachers and our community.

Yes, I agree it was a disappointing turnout at the polls (1,865 votes cast, with 11,128 registered to vote). As a town, we need to improve the way we communicate with the people in our community. I am going to influence change so we can improve our voter turnout for the next elections. Our residents need to be more involved and better educated on the issues and articles that are affecting their community.

This campaign may be over, but I am starting today on my next campaign and will be looking forward to your input and support for next time. Thank you again; it has been a privilege to get to know all of you I can now call friends.

Mike Hannon

Milford