Major corporations often provide generous grants and donations to local organizations, but that much-needed and much-appreciated funding doesn’t just fall out of the sky: You have to apply.

So today, we should give a kind pat on the back to all of the individuals who do the research, labor over the forms, get the applications in on time and do such a good job that, when the final selections are made, their organization is on the grant list.

Whether a trained grant-writer or a volunteer, how they do that job makes all the difference in the end, and the efforts of those who provide that service should not go unnoticed.

At least 20 people in our area will have their quality of life improved by regaining lost hearing thanks to a $9,000 grant from Rite Aid Foundation to the Warren Center for Communication & Learning in Bangor.

Administrative director Mary Poulin announced that the grant would benefit the Regional Hearing Aid Bank, which accepts hearing aids from the community, refurbishes them and gives them to people who cannot afford to purchase them.

ReHAB accepts both behind-the-ear, or BTE, and in-the-ear, or ITE, models. While BTEs can be refurbished, ITEs cannot and are sent to a recycling facility. The Warren Center receives a monetary credit to help cover costs of the program.

Poulin reminds you this program depends on donations and wants you to know the Warren Center needs BTE models.

The unused hearing aids can be delivered or mailed to the Warren Center, 175 Union St., Bangor 04401.

For more information about the program or contributing to it, call 941-2850.

Stepping Stones, a division of Maine Adoption Placement Services based in Houlton, received a $25,000 grant from the UPS Foundation.

Sen. Susan Collins, an Aroostook County native, was in attendance when the check was presented to Stepping Stones director Luetta Goodall.

The agency was selected to receive the grant from several nonprofits located in New England, New York and New Jersey.

Stepping Stones is a residential and transitional living program of MAPS, formerly known as My Choice, that serves at-risk youth and young mothers.

Bangor Symphony Orchestra recently received grants from the Target Stores 2004 Community Giving Program and the Simmons Foundation to fund its Know Your Orchestra educational outreach program.

BSO education coordinator Surya Mitchell arranges for groups of musicians, and sometimes music director and conductor Xiao-Lu Li, to visit area schools to perform and conduct workshops and demonstrations.

Now in its third year, this grant is targeted specifically for outreach in rural schools.

To schedule a visit at your school, call (800) 639-3221 or 942-5555.

Carrie Anderson of the Bangor Y reports its after-school program has received $5,000 from J.C. Penney to help provide more staffing and transportation, develop after-school activities and curriculum, and purchase supplies.

The Bangor Y program was one of 305 programs chosen from 600 throughout the country that applied for the grant.

Many of you dined at Maine McDonald’s restaurants Nov. 18-20, during which those establishments were celebrating World Children’s Day by donating 15 cents from certain purchases to Ronald McDonald House Charities of Maine.

On behalf of RMHCM, McDonald’s owner-operators Gary Eckmann and Doug Quagliaroli recently presented Penobscot Community Health Center a $12,600 grant for startup costs of an asthma screening, treatment and education program.

Manna Inc. received $7,000 to help with the purchase of new equipment and materials for its Little Friends Childcare program.

More than $127,000 has been given to children’s programs by RMHCM this year, according to a release, bringing the total donated since the charity was founded in 1989 to $970,000.

Among the programs in our readership area receiving grants was $9,000 to Waldo County Preschool and Family Services to help with early childhood curriculums at six of its centers.

The Woodland School District received $7,505 for its Lifelong Physical Fitness program, and Greater Houlton Christian Academy $7,000 for its Learning Through Movement physical education program.

According to an RMHCM release, other area grant recipients this year were Katahdin Area Boy Scout Council, Bangor Ronald McDonald House, Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockland and Hospice Volunteers of Somerset County.

And more good news for Manna’s Capital Campaign came in the form of a gift from Wal-Mart Corp.

Allison Carson of the Bangor Wal-Mart reported that last month Wal-Mart Corp. presented Manna $25,000 for its Capital Campaign Fund.

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