Downeast Community Partners Names Maine Seacoast Mission Partner of the Year
Downeast Community Partners (DCP) presents award for Partner of the Year to Maine Seacoast Mission staff. L to R: Megan Burgess, Mission President Scott Planting, Wendy Harrington, Betsy Fitzgerald, DCP Board President, Maurice Tenney, MSM, Scott Shaw, MSM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Date: December 11, 2018
CONTACT: Sarah Nugent
207-664-2424 ext 5944 sarah.nugent@downeastcommunitypartners.org
Scott K Fish
Maine Seacoast Mission
207-458-7185 sfish@seacoastmission.org
Downeast Community Partners Holds First Annual Meeting, Names Partner of the Year
Cherryfield, ME — On December 4 at the Cherryfield Academy Community Center, Downeast Community Partners (DCP) held its first annual board meeting.
Prior to the regular business meeting, there was a presentation by DCP staff Bobbi Ann Harris and Craig Smith, and Maine Seacoast Mission staff Wendy Harrington and Scott Shaw on the Home Repair and Weatherization 2018 program. This program is a partnership between the Maine Seacoast Mission and DCP which brings together federal and state funded programs, with a grant from the C. F. Adams Charitable Trust, and volunteer labor to repair and weatherize homes in Washington County and the Schoodic Peninsula area of Hancock County.
This program is a wonderful way to blend the work of Maine Seacoast Mission with that of DCP for maximum positive impact on the homeowners and their families.
Because weatherization dollars are federally-sourced, there are limits to how they can be spent. When the Weatherization work is complete, a house must meet certain federal standards. The available dollars are often not enough to get some homes to those standards. In the past, DCP staff regretfully would have to walk away from such projects.
With this partnership and the foundation funding, the Maine Seacoast Mission is able to go in with volunteers, and materials paid for by the CF Adams Charitable Trust funds, and complete enough of the repairs for DCP to weatherize the home, possibly replace the heating system, and work on the roof, among other things.
By the time both groups are finished, the house meets the federal guidelines. More importantly, the house is weather-tight, and a Maine family is warm, safe, and dry.
Thanks to this program, its partners, and volunteers, 26 houses are now in much better repair in Washington County and the Schoodic Peninsula.
It is no surprise the Board of Downeast Community Partners named the Maine Seacoast Mission as its first partner of the year.
“The staff at Maine Seacoast Mission have been great to work with. There is no question in my mind that this is one of those times when a partnership goes beyond just a good working relationship to a place where people are totally invested resulting in quality repairs and more homes getting done.” said Mark Green, DCP Executive Director.
For more information about Downeast Community Partners and the opportunities provided, call Mark Green at 610-5904 or email him at mark.green@downeastcommunitypartners.org
