December 29—The Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter needs only about $92,000 to reach the round number of a $3,000,000 campaign for a new home and a small endowment! As the new year approaches, please celebrate the generosity of those residents in Central Maine who have already reached out to those most in need and brought us to this point. And in this season of giving, please consider joining them and giving a gift of shelter and helping the Shelter reach a transformational milestone for homeless men, women and children.
With your generous gift today, the Shelter will be able to finish the campaign and break ground in January, and be in the new Shelter by November 1, 2012! If you want your gift to be part of the endowment challenge match, please indicate on your check or, if paying online select the Endowment Challenge Match option.
Do even more! Mobilize your own group, your own church, your own place of business to raise funds for the Shelter. Or click below to read about, watch, and listen to the stories of some of those being helped, what the new building will mean to rebuilding lives, and why you should give.
Read a series of stories on homelessness and profiles of Shelter guests done by The Colby Echo.
To learn more about the Campaign and the proposed new shelter, watch this 10 minute video:
- Take action to rebuild lives. Give today.
- Help harbor families, which are 40% of the Shelter’s guests. Give today.
- Help provide more beds and a safe place for more children. Give today. (In 2010, 76 children were housed by the Shelter. That number will be easily surpassed in 2011.)
- Help Central Maine neighbors. Give today. 90% of the Shelter’s guests have never been homeless before, and the Shelter’s Action Plan Program helps them create a blueprint for rebuilding their lives permanently. Please give today to help more of those in need have access to that Program—either as guests or as families trying to avoid becoming homeless.
The Rebuilding Lives Campaign will support building a new 7800-square-foot facility at Colby Circle and start a small endowment for the Shelter. The new Shelter will not only be bigger, but also have an actual Homeless Prevention Center inside the facility to help both guests and Central Maine families struggling to stay in their homes with the programs and resources they need to rebuild their lives. Your gift today will give neighbors those resources!
Pledges of $1,000 and more can be paid over more than one year; call the Campaign Office to arrange, or to learn about memorial gifts—call Campaign Director Cathy Coffman at 710-4918 or 877-9880 or Executive Director Betty Palmer at 872-6550.
The Shelter serves an area the size of Connecticut where 30,000 adults and 10,000 children live in poverty. It does not take much of a crisis for these neighbors to land on the Shelter’s doorstep. But the Shelter has only 18 beds.
Currently the Shelter’s waiting list is triple its capacity. Among those in need are a mother with 8-day-old twins, a woman ready to birth who has been living in a tent, a two-year old who says “love ya” to everyone, a single woman who has lost her job, an older man whose poor health,... . Each person on the list has a story that could be the story of any one of our neighbors.
Please give to help create more beds to house neighbors who need and want our help.
To talk with someone about the campaign, or to learn about named gift opportunities for gifts of $5,000 and more (payable over a five-year period), call Campaign Director Cathy Coffman at 710-4918 or 877-9880 or Executive Director Betty Palmer at 872-6550.
In its 21 years, the Shelter has helped rebuild the lives of over 6,000 Mid-Maine adults and children. Its success centers around community support and the Action Plan for independent living it requires guests to complete.
We can rebuild lives. We have done it for 21 years. We can provide hope. We have done it for 21 years. With your support. We can end homelessness one child, one person, one family at a time. We have an opportunity.
Please give today.