Free home heating oil for those who fail to qualify for other state or federal aid. Canned food drives. Home insulation installation. Warming centers.
The economy is in recession, but in the Katahdin and Lincoln Lakes regions, helping your neighbor is a growth industry.
And almost all of the ideas are new or less than 5 years old. They come in response to an economic downturn that rivals the Great Depression and from concerns that the poorest and most frail among us need the help.
Recent memory has a big role in the outreach, Lincoln Administrative Assistant Gilberte Mayo says.
“Lincoln people are more apt to step up to the plate at a time like this,” Mayo said Wednesday. “When the Lincoln mill shut down [in 2003], they got a lot of help from other people … now that they are working, they are more willing to give back because they have been there. They know how hard it is to need the help and to ask for it.”
A similar sense of community is found across northern Maine, Mayo and Millinocket Town Manager Eugene Conlogue said. In the Katahdin region, families burned out of their homes on a Tuesday often find most of what’s lost to the fire replaced through donations by the weekend.
“The independent nature of Maine people is set aside when Maine people need help,” said Conlogue, a Millinocket resident who has lived in Presque Isle and Houlton. “They don’t want to interfere in a neighbor’s business, but when they need help, Maine people step up and help.”
Among the efforts to help residents get through the winter:
• Warming centers. With aid from donations, Medway, East Millinocket and Millinocket are set to offer places where residents can eat and relax with their home thermostats turned low, saving fuel costs, starting in January. East Millinocket’s will be at its town office; Millinocket’s at the Stearns Assisted Living Center.
• The Salvation Army, Penquis, a community service agency in Bangor, and the town of Lincoln offer home-heating-assistance programs to residents of Carroll, Chester, Kingman, Lee, Lincoln, Mattawamkeag, Molunkus, Prentiss, Springfield, Winn and Webster who fail to qualify for all other forms of heating aid.
The Penquis “Good Neighbor/Keep ME Warm Fund” serves the Katahdin region towns, including East Millinocket, Medway, Millinocket and Woodville, and towns closer to Bangor such as Enfield and Howland.
The programs are fueled by tax-deductible donations. Anyone from the named towns who needs help or wants to donate may call Mayo at 794-3372 or Penquis at 973-3500 or 800-215-4942. Entering its second winter heating season, as of Wednesday Lincoln’s fund had $11,846 in tax-free contributions and was set to serve 18 families.
The Penquis program recently was boosted by a $30,000 check from Brookfield Renewable Power to help workers laid off from a Millinocket paper mill that temporarily shut down on Sept. 2.
• The food pantry at Howland United Methodist Church at 37 Coffin St. feeds about 100 families a month. The pantry serves Burlington, Enfield, Howland, LaGrange, Milo, Passadumkeag and Seboeis.
• I Care Ministries of Millinocket, at 45 Spring St., offers a food pantry among an array of programs, including meal services and clothing banks, to the Katahdin region, Conlogue said.
“Warming centers are the big thing at the moment,” Conlogue said, “but the churches are a very key resource that doesn’t get as much attention. Yet they are always there.”
• Lincoln’s government also instituted a home-insulation program for disabled residents and senior citizens wherein volunteers insulated three homes, Mayo said.
• Toys for Tots is collecting toys and other items for children in the Lincoln Lakes and Katahdin regions. Several hundred already have been donated.
• The Lincoln Fire Department has begun collecting canned and dry goods and foodstuffs for the Lincoln Food Cupboard on Park Street, Fire Chief Phil Dawson said. Collection points include the Lincoln Municipal Library and the town office.
Personal hygiene items such as toothpaste, deodorant and soap are also welcome.