Christmas recognition for those who have given

Throughout the year, requests are made of businesses and organizations for everything from financial donations to volunteers to help with specific projects.

For a small, rural state, we are blessed with generous responses to those requests, and it is a pleasure on Christmas Day to share public expressions of recognition and appreciation for that support.

Earlier this summer, Leslie Poake of Project Atrium wrote of “people and organizations that quietly work behind the scenes to help local nonprofits, without fanfare or press conferences. Often these organizations go without much recognition,” and she wanted to do something about that.

During an open house to introduce its new community-based services for teens and young adults with substance abuse problems, longtime supporter Bridget Olmstead presented Project Atrium with a $500 check from Sam’s Club.

Poake also wrote that Charlene Holyoke and First Baptist Church Missions of Bangor “have long supported us” by sending regular, much-needed, unsolicited contributions.

Small nonprofits don’t receive such gifts often, Poake wrote, “and they mean a lot to us in enabling us to continue to achieve our mission” of helping teenagers overcome abuse and mental health problems.

Poake thanks those businesses and individuals who, each day, continue to “quietly help our organization and other local non-profits.”

Shaw’s Supermarkets donated more than $3,300 to Good Shepherd Food-Bank which in turn shared that money with 10 Bangor-area food pantries to assist people during mill closings and a mill fire earlier this year in eastern Maine.

Rick Small of Good Shepherd is pleased that the donation enabled the organization to provide nearly 23,000 pounds of food for families in need.

The Warren Center for Communication & Learning, Bangor’s oldest nonprofit professional speech and hearing center, received a $9,435 grant from the Penobscot Valley Health Association Fund of the Maine Community Foundation.

Warren Center administrative director Mary Poulin reported the money would be used for startup costs of the Center’s All Ears Preschool, a developmentally appropriate, inclusive program for hearing-impaired children.

Penquis Community Action Program received a grant from the Verizon Wireless $1,000 Grant Program for the CAP Law Project.

The Verizon grant makes funds available to nonprofit organizations working with domestic violence survivors, and is a direct result of community members donating unused cell phones to HopeLine, Verizon’s national initiative that encourages consumers to recycle wireless products.

Ashley Pelkey, who served as an intern with Literacy Volunteers of Bangor, announced LV-Bangor received a $1,000 grant from the Best Buy Children’s Foundation.

She said the grant “was made possible through Best Buy’s Tag Team Award program, which recognized the volunteer and fundraising efforts of its employees.”

A local Best Buy employee in Bangor who is also a volunteer with LV-Bangor applied for the award, which was received last fall by the local literacy organization.

In October, Webber Energy Fuels President Mike Shea and Vice President Ray Cota presented to OHI a grant for $10,000 for the Chalila House project.

Bonnie Jean Brooks, president of OHI, reports the Webber Energy Fuels grant will be used for the facility located on North Main Street in Brewer which provides eight one-bedroom apartments for people struggling with both homelessness and mental illness.

It was a pleasure to hear from Deb Whitman of First Horizon Home Loans that, last spring, First Horizon donated $2,500 to the Habitat for Humanity chapter to help a local “family achieve the dream of home ownership.”

First Horizon is a national mortgage company and banking institution with an office in Bangor.

Earlier this year, Julie McQuillan of TD Banknorth and Jan Clarkin of Maine Children’s Trust announced that TD Banknorth had donated $5,000 to Maine Children’s Trust to help with its work in preventing child abuse and neglect in Maine.

The grant came through the TD Banknorth Charitable Foundation, which assists families and businesses in the communities where TD Banknorth Inc. operates.

Bobbi Jo Yeager, executive director of United Cerebral Palsy in Bangor, appreciates not only those who made Thanksgiving pies, but also those who bought them at the annual sale, which raised $800 for UCP.

Coordinated by Deb Perro, more than 100 pies were solicited from volunteer bakers, and the word is that next year the call will go out for more apple pies.

UCP serves children and adults who live with disabilities.

Merry Christmas, everyone. Enjoy your holidays.

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