Since moving in 2000 to its new facility on Mount Hope Avenue in Bangor, United Cerebral Palsy of Maine no longer has to juggle the responsibility of providing its services – for people in our area with disabilities – from three separate locations.

UCP’s Lynn Boulger explained that its children’s services formerly were offered in Bangor “in the bunkers at 103 Texas Avenue and at another site on Main Street, and our administrative offices were located at 115 Main Street.”

“But, now, we’re all under one roof, and we’re also on the bus route,” she said, which makes it much easier for those who require that city service.

While enjoying the experience of being able to serve 3,000 people under the age of 21 from one location, Boulger said, UCP is “at a critical juncture” in its mission “to advance the independence, productivity and full citizenship of people with disabilities.”

Concerned that UCP has “to make choices as never before, choices to cut programs that parents rely on to keep their children safe and their families together,” UCP decided to launch its first-ever capital campaign to raise $1.53 million to accomplish three objectives.

The first, Boulger explained, is to “house UCP in a permanent location.”

“We’d much rather pay off the mortgage,” she said, “or not have to pay rent” and be able to use that money for needed services.

The second objective of this first capital campaign is to renovate and maintain buildings, including winterizing and updating the bunkhouse at Camp Capella on Phillips Lake in Lucerne-in-Maine.

The third campaign objective is to “initiate an endowment fund that would provide direct support to new and existing programs.

“These three goals will ensure all people with disabilities, of all kinds, have access to comprehensive services from trained and caring professionals whether they are able to pay for those services or not,” Boulger said.

Most of the people UCP assists live in Penobscot County, although the organization’s work reaches people throughout Maine.

Though the agency’s known as UCP, it also serves people besides those with cerebral palsy.

It assists individuals with autism, Down syndrome, severe developmental disabilities and delays, spina bifida, and mental health diagnoses such as attention deficit-hyperactive disorder and depressions.

The campaign received generous contributions from individuals such as Dr. Charles Dixon and Dr. Stephen Cook, and a $100,000 donation from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation.

Also helping get “the campaign off to a great start,” Boulger reported, were contributions from the William Bullock Jr. Family Foundation, the Leonard and Renee Minsky Foundation, and the Pentagoet and Kenduskeag foundations.

Generous contributions also have been received from the Bangor Daily News, H.E. Sargent, HEALTHSOUTH, Merrill Merchants Bank, WABI-TV, Webber Oil Co., Miller’s Restaurant and KeyBank.

Through late last week, Boulger reported, the campaign had raised slightly more than $930,000.

“We are really at an exciting part of the campaign,” Boulger said. “We have new reports coming in every day.”

Boulger said UCP is eager “to pay down and pay off the mortgage, and eliminate overhead costs so we have more direct service money to put into our kids.”

Additionally, not having those expenses will enable UCP “to get kids off the waiting list,” she said, and will let the organization start its endowment.

This is certainly a rewarding period for everyone associated with UCP, an organization that has served our area so admirably since the 1950s.

To help UCP reach its goal in its first capital campaign, contact Boulger by writing UCP of Maine, 700 Mount Hope Ave., Suite 320, Bangor 04401, or call her at 941-2952, Ext. 225.

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In last Thursday’s column I wrote about “Reflections of Angels,” the weekend retreat for families with children who have Down syndrome.

Thanks to a recently obtained grant, families need only pay for meals when attending the event which runs from Thursday, June 27, through Sunday, June 30, and will be held this year on the campus of Maine Maritime Academy in Castine.

For more information about this special weekend, call Michelle Harmon at 825-4726 or e-mail camproa@aol.com.

Congratulations to University of Maine at Fort Kent senior Jann Jackson of New Sweden, who is one of three college students who recently received the Maine Campus Compact’s 2002 Student Heart and Soul Award for outstanding contributions in community service and service learning.

The other recipients were Trung Trong Huynh of Portland, who attends Bates College in Lewiston, and Eric Staples of South Portland, who attends Southern Maine Technical College in South Portland.

Jackson is coordinator of UMFK’s Students of Community Service.

In that position, she oversees student leaders who manage programs such as Big Brothers Big Sisters, America Reads and Special Olympics.

Jackson is also director of the Aroostook Teen Leadership Camp, a summer program for children in grades eight and nine.

She also serves on the board of the National Association of Teen Institutes, and is a member of the Community Alcohol Drug Education Team and a youth minister.

Maine Campus Compact is a statewide coalition of college and university presidents established to encourage and enhance campus engagement in the community that presents this annual award to three undergraduates in Maine who have exhibited a exceptional commitment to community service.

Joni Averill, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402; 990-8288.