Mainers give generously to Katrina relief effort

Today, if all goes as planned, pupils of Dedham School, which is prekindergarten through grade 8, will be presenting a check for more than $1,000 for hurricane relief to a representative of the American Red Cross.

Principal Kathy Lawson explained the pupils raised the money through a variety of activities.

“It was mostly the middle schoolers and their adviser groups,” she said of those involved in activities that included Fling the Football.

For this fun event, pupils bought chances to throw a minifootball into the basket of a three-wheel bike while physical education teacher Tim Pierson “peddled it around the gym,” Lawson said.

A bake sale, bottle drive and auction helped raise funds as did a movie night that featured a “family dinner package” where families purchased a movie ticket, pizza and soda for one price.

Originally, Lawson said, the funds were to be raised for Hurricane Katrina survivors but now will go to whichever hurricane survivors the ARC determines need those funds the most.

Between Sept. 3 and Oct. 9, Maine McDonald’s restaurants and their customers donated more than $18,500 through Ronald McDonald House Charities of Maine canisters at individual restaurants.

The gift was matched, 100 percent, by McDonald’s corporation, and all funds, reports Ronald McDonald House president Sheila Peabody, were donated to assist with rebuilding the Greater New Orleans Ronald McDonald House.

Additionally, Ronald McDonald Houses and one Ronald McDonald Family Room provided lodging and other services for pediatric patients relocated from hospitals in the affected region.

Nearly $55,000 was raised through the Maine Credit Union’s monthlong campaign, Helping Those in Need: A Fund for Hurricane Victims, which began Sept. 1.

Funds were sent to the National Credit Union Foundation’s Disaster Relief Fund to help provide money for food, shelter and other emergency needs for those affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Jon Paradise of Maine CU, considers the amount a “testament to the generosity of Maine people.”

Noting that “credit unions are based on the philosophy of people helping people, this is a true example of our mission.”

After Hurricane Katrina, pupils at Vickery Elementary School and Manson Elementary School in Pittsfield organized a fundraising campaign to assist survivors and emergency workers in the Gulf Coast area.

At the same time, according to information provided by Cianbro Corp. of Pittsfield, that corporation’s team members were collecting donations from co-workers for hurricane relief efforts, and Cianbro CEO Pete Vigue pledged a dollar-for-dollar match.

Not to be left out of that opportunity, the Vickery and Manson pupils asked Cianbro for a matching contribution as well, and together the Pittsfield elementary pupils and Cianbro presented the ARC with a donation of $21,674.84.

Students attending Husson College and New England School of Communication in Bangor raised $1,200 during a Rock for Katrina Concert in November, which was coordinated by student Steve Williams.

The funds were presented to Father Bob Vaillancourt, pastor of St. Matthew’s Church of Hampden and St. Gabriel’s of Winterport, and were used to help purchase fuel for three tractor-trailers filled with relief supplies for hurricane survivors that were collected through the leadership of members of those parishes.

In mid-October, Bill Gawley of Brooksville organized a benefit concert at Blue Hill town hall during which more than $400 was raised for survivors of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Gawley extends his “deepest thanks … to the performers” who appeared with him, including Blue Gene, Juliane Gardner, Frank Gotwals and the band Pushing Zero.

He also thanks Carolyn Coe for her behind-the-scenes work; the Blue Hill selectmen who provided the hall free of charge; and those who attended “for their enthusiasm and generous donations.”

Writing on behalf of the Orono-Old Town Animal Orphanage, Michelle Dunphy thanks everyone who contributed to its collection for The Saint Francis Animal Refuge in Tylertown, Miss.

“The donations have far exceeded any expectation we had, and we are very proud to offer the supplies and monetary contributions we have received to Saint Francis,” she wrote.

More than two truckloads of donated supplies were shipped, and more than $2,500 collected to help defray costs of operating the refuge.

Dunphy added “we all are proud of how Maine has contributed, generously, to the efforts for relief for the residents in the Gulf Coast, and the additional generosity of our neighbors in lending a hand for the animal relief efforts is heartwarming and humbling.”

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