THOMASTON – “Four hundred pizzas, please … and hold the anchovies.”

Pizza parties inside the Maine State Prison, as well as cookouts, walkathons and raffles, have been some of the ways inmates raised money for critically ill and dying children.

And they came up with $1,900.

On Thursday, the inmates donated a check, two wagons adapted for children with special needs, and a large handmade dollhouse to the Jason Program, a nonprofit organization that helps children throughout Maine who are facing life-threatening illness.

Two inmate groups – Long Timers and Jaycees – raised the money over the past year by boosting prices for their food affairs and funneling the profits into a savings account for the charity. The special equipment wagons were modified by inmates involved in the prison industries program.

And the dollhouse was a first-time effort for inmate James Savage Sr.

The sturdy oversized wagons will be used by ill youngsters who have outgrown strollers. Inmates at the prison made canvas canopies and cushions for the carts and fitted them with large pneumatic tires and brakes.

After accepting the inmates’ gifts, Kate Eastman, executive director and co-founder of the Jason Program, applauded the inmates for their contributions and told them that a “special little girl” had just come into their care and would receive the doll house.

“The Jason Program is about community,” Eastman said. “It takes the entire community of Maine to take care of these children.”

The all-volunteer program provides grief support, counseling, hospice services and other palliative care to critically ill and dying children in Maine, said Heather Caldwell, who works for a Portland-based marketing organization that donated its services to the program.

Eastman helped develop the Jason Program. Her interest was sparked by a promise she had made to a dying friend. He was named Jason, and she says he taught her how to live. So she wants to do the same for others.

The program team, based in Cumberland, includes Eastman, a medical social worker; Dr. Gary Allegretta, a pediatrician; Greg Burns, a primary nurse; and Mary Lee Wile, a spiritual adviser.

In Maine, one to three children die each week from a terminal illness, Caldwell said.

So far, the Jason Program, which was started about a year ago, has assisted 11 children and their families in Maine, Eastman said.

Jeffrey Merrill, warden of the Maine State Prison, said an inmate read about the program and wrote to the group, expressing an interest in helping. Through that contact, prison officials met with the executive director of the program, then told the other inmates about it.

Inmate Ron Boobar, vice president of the Jaycees, said that some of the money donated was raised through “pizza feeds,” where 400 pizzas were ordered and sold to prisoners at a “marked up price.”

Esther Riley, administrative coordinator at the prison, said the Jason Program topped the usual fund-raising pizza orders, which for other charities is usually around 300. The inmates placed orders ahead of time, she said, noting that the prison uses several area businesses that deliver. The money for the food is then taken from each inmate’s individual account and is shifted to a charity fund.

A special account was established solely for the Jason Program, she said.

In the case of cookouts, a menu is distributed, orders are taken and the food is bought at area supermarkets. Usually, prison staffers pick up the food and it is cooked outdoors at the prison. The inmates pay an established price for the meals.

Inmate Dean Curtis, a past president of Long Timers, pointed out that $700 was raised through a raffle for a television. The television was a demo from a company that solicited prison officials for purchases, Riley said. Although prison officials did not opt to buy from that particular company, the business agreed to donate the television for the raffle, she said.

When asked why the inmates chose to contribute to the Jason Program, Boobar said, “It’s about the kids. It ain’t about who we are.”