March 28, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Business community responds to call for help

VAN BUREN — With three children of her own and Christmas around the corner, Lynn Couturier of Van Buren was deeply moved by the plight of a grandmother raising two granddaughters on a fixed income.

Beverly Cullinan, who moved to Van Buren five years ago, is among a growing number of older Americans who, for a variety of reasons, find themselves raising their grandchildren.

Cullinan, who also is raising a 12-year-old granddaughter, subsists on $312 a month, which must cover heat, utilities and other basics. In spite of that, she welcomed 6-month-old Brittany Marie.

“I had very short notice, less than a week,” Cullinan noted.

When the infant arrived a few weeks ago, little else came with her. There were only some diapers and a small bag of clothing, most of it too small and none of it warm enough for a Maine winter.

Couturier and Cullinan met through Cullinan’s granddaughter, Melissa, and Couturier’s daughter, Amy, who are school friends. When Couturier learned of Cullinan’s need for baby items late last week, she felt compelled to help.

“It’s something a lot of people can relate to,” Couturier noted. The region’s economy has been less than rosy for the past several years.

“I somewhat set myself on a crusade,” Couturier said. She first sought help from church charities but was turned away. “That disappointed me,” she said. But it didn’t stop her. She next turned to the region’s business community.

She was uncertain what reaction she would get. All she had for proof that she wasn’t a scam artist was a Christmas card she asked each donor to sign.

Response, she said this week, was overwhelming. Nine Aroostook County merchants came through with gifts ranging from $20 to more than $100 in value.

Contributions of clothing, baby food, diapers, warm snowsuits, hats, a gift certificate — even a crib mattress — poured in from Keegan Variety in Van Buren; Miller’s Discount Store in Caribou; Walmart, Mad Hatter, Smythe’s IGA Plus, Kmart, Rugged Bear, J.C. Penney and the T-shirt shop at the Aroostook Centre Mall, all in Presque Isle.

“Most of the (merchants) I spoke to were mothers themselves,” Couturier said. Many already had donated to programs for the less fortunate but, “They said they were going to make an exception for a special little girl. I’d like to thank them all from the bottom of my heart. It’s really nice that people care.”


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