Meals for ME seeks donations to meet challenge

From Rob Crone of Eastern Area Agency on Aging comes word that its Meals for ME program, serving seniors residing in Penobscot, Piscataquis, Hancock and Washington counties, has accepted the Feinstein Foundation challenge of matching donations.

For agencies who participate in this drive being conducted now through Wednesday, April 30, Rhode Island philanthropist Alan Shawn Feinstein will divide $1 million among those nonprofit nutrition programs throughout the U.S.

Meals for ME serves approximately 200,000 meals each year to people 60 and older, Crone reports.

Those seniors who are “housebound, frail or ill and unable to cook for themselves” can receive home deliveries, while others visit the many “Meals for ME dining rooms scattered throughout eastern Maine.”

In addition to the “hearty, nutritious meals,” Crone wrote, “the dining rooms provide companionship to older persons.”

Your donation is tax-deductible and can be made out to Meals for ME Challenge and sent to Meals for ME, 450 Essex St., Bangor, 04401.

All donations must be received by EAAA no later than Thursday, May 1, in order to qualify for the matching donation.

Online donations can be made at EAAA.org, and information is available by calling Crone at 800-432-7812 or 941-2865.

Here is a reminder from Kathy Crossman, vice president of Community Impact for United Way of Eastern Maine in Bangor, that the Eastern Maine Tax Coalition “is working to ensure everyone in need in our region is able to get their taxes filed at no cost,” she reports, adding “the coalition hopes to increase the number of eligible, low-income workers who receive the Earned Income Tax Credit of up to $4,536.”

She reminds you of the importance of filing a tax return this year, “even if you did not earn enough in 2007 to be required to file a tax return by April 15” in order “to make sure you get on the Internal Revenue Service’s mailing list for the rebates.”

This service is free, and certified volunteers will prepare both federal and state income tax returns.

To find a tax preparation site near you, dial 211, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, or visit www.211Maine.org and search for CA$H.

You can also visit the UWEM Web site, www.unitedwayem.org and click on CA$H, which stands for Creating Assets, Savings and Hope.

Crossman reports the community-based Eastern Maine Tax Coalition is a group of more than 20 area organizations helping families receive full tax refunds in as few as 14 days with electronic filing and direct deposit.

Woodlawn Museum executive director Joshua Torrance reports two new, hands-on workshops to open its 2008 series at the museum on Route 172 in Ellsworth.

Space is limited and reservations for both workshops can be made by calling the museum at 667-8671.

Artist and teacher Anne Claude Cotty will discuss how to make a tunnel book, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, March 15, at the museum.

The cost is $35 for members and $45 for nonmembers. You should bring your lunch. Drinks and desserts will be provided.

A tunnel book is “an art form popular in the 18th and 19th centuries.”

Artist Liliane Kell will teach how to make paste paper, 10 a.m.-noon Saturday, April 5, at the museum. The cost is $15 for members, $20 for nonmembers.

Paste paper was used “as decorative end papers in bound books” and is now used for “end sheets, book covers, collage” and more.

Joan Beach of the Maine State Society of Washington, D.C., Foundation reminds readers the deadline for Maine college students to apply for an MSS scholarship is Tuesday, April 1.

“The Foundation was established in 1991 by Mainers living in Washington, D.C., and belonging to the Maine State Society,” Beach wrote.

“Last year we were able to award over $24,000 in scholarships.”

The application form states that “each scholarship will be in the amount of at least $1,000 and will be awarded only full-time students who have completed at least one year of undergraduate courses at a four-year, degree-granting, nonprofit institution of higher learning in the state of Maine, which must be listed as fully accredited in the latest edition of “Accredited Institutions” published by the Council on Postsecondary Accreditation.”

For eligibility requirements, or information, visit http://www.mainestatesociety.org/ or write Maine State Society of Washington, D.C., Foundation Scholarship Program, c/o Joan M. Beach, 10340 Democracy Lane, Room 105, Fairfax, Va. 2030.

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