Elinor Goldberg has been the president of the Maine Children's Alliance since it was founded in 1994. Alliance staff members, led by Goldberg, spend their time advocating for better health care, education and economic opportunity for Maine's children.

When the feds want to cut budgets and those cuts will hurt children, Goldberg is right there, charts and figures at hand, telling them just why they shouldn't do it.

When the state Legislature considers an expansion of the school breakfast program, Goldberg is there, providing expert testimony on the role of school breakfast in helping children learn.

When Maine policymakers, school officials and parents struggled over how and why to do school consolidation, Goldberg and her staff provided expert guidance on the need and rationale for such a bold move.

This week, Goldberg, known as Ellie to her colleagues and friends, was recognized by the national organization Voices for America's Children with the Florette Angel Memorial Child Advocacy Award.

It's given every year to a person in the United States who has provided exemplary leadership in working on behalf of children. It's a formal, fancy way of recognizing what many of us already know: that Ellie Goldberg is the kind and devoted aunt of every Maine child. We should all call her Aunt Ellie.