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LEEDS — The Rural Community Action Ministry, based in Leeds, is celebrating 25 years of hard work helping other people.
The program which spans 13 communities in Androscoggin, Oxford and Kennebec counties provides comprehensive social services, from help with a vegetable garden to volunteer labor to build a house. Started in 1970 when about a dozen churches from Buckfield to Litchfield joined hands with the Rev. Carl Geores, the now-retired minister in Leeds, Wales and Hartford, RCAM is ready to celebrate a milestone.
From noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 19, the interdenominational program will be host to the 25th Anniversary Family Festival on the grounds of the old Leavitt Institute near Leavitt Area High School in Turner. Tickets are $6 for adults and $3 for children. Children age 5 and under get free admission.
Among the entertainers will be folk singer Martin Swinger, the Zingo Zango Generic Jug Band and Maine humorist Joe Perham. Local auctioneer Abe Additon will auction off “some of the best homemade pies Maine produces,” according to promotional literature on the event.
“Talking about helping people is one thing. This is an organization that actually goes out and does it,” says Leeds dairy farmer John Nutting, a former state legislator who is volunteer fund-raising director for RCAM.
“When I got done in Augusta, I started this,” says Nutting. “I felt this was extremely important to me and to the area.”
The biggest effort by RCAM is on upgrading substandard housing and building new housing in the area. Churches from around the country send teams of volunteer carpenters, most of them teen-agers.
“It’s amazing to see how much these kids will grow in a week,” said Nutting. “Most of them will have done no construction work whatsoever.”
The housing effort has attracted the attention of the group Habitat for Humanity, which may send its own volunteers next summer, according to Nutting.
“In a year, several hundred houses will be improved,” Nutting said, “from putting in plumbing to a new roof, insulation or just a set of steps.”
RCAM helps low-income people obtain low-interest loans for housing improvement or construction from the Maine State Housing Authority.
Another major effort is helping elderly people grow their own produce in vegetable gardens and then can it or freeze it for winter sustenance.
The outreach program provides visits to elderly people and transportation for grocery shopping or doctor visits.
An adolescent pregnancy program includes school visits, lessons on avoiding pregnancy, and nutrition and parenting advice to pregnant girls and new mothers.
RCAM also maintains a small emergency shelter for homeless people or those burned out of their homes. And it sponsors about 15 local food banks.
“As funds have dried up, we’re trying to raise more money ourselves to help people,” said Nutting. “Many different churches have gone together in this effort. We’re just attempting to help people who need help.
“Yes, it’s religious-based. It’s rural, small Maine towns. Government services aren’t quite as easily available.”
Nutting explained how the Department of Human Services wanted everyone from this far-flung rural region to travel to Auburn to get Food Stamps and home heating assistance.
RCAM succeeded in persuading bureaucrats to let clients sign up for services at the RCAM headquarters in Leeds instead of traveling miles out of their way to Auburn.
Pat Flewelling is executive director of the Rural Community Action Ministry and there is a small paid staff, but many volunteers.
Nutting says his group has been praised by the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee for getting a lot of mileage out of a small amount of funding. RCAM gets a small state appropriation.
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