One of this area’s best-known nonprofits, Power in Community Alliances, has a new director who, from my viewpoint, appears to be a perfect fit for this grass-roots, Bangor-based organization that has been working to support social and economic justice in Maine and El Salvador for 25 years.
You can meet and greet PICA director Tom Grogan when you attend the 24th annual PICA Benefit Auction from 3 to 6 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 20, at Union Street Brick Church at the corner of Union and Main streets in Bangor.
The silent and live auction features a variety of items from weekend getaways to jewelry, pottery, sweatshop-free items, antiques, gift certificates and carpentry work.
Free refreshments will be available while you browse and socialize.
I spoke with Tom recently and learned that his new career is a serendipitous one for the former human services college professor who moved here in 2004 so he could attend Bangor Theological Seminary.
A 2009 graduate of the seminary, Tom is a candidate for the Universalist-Unitarian ministry and part-time director for religious education at the United Universalist Church of Ellsworth.
He and his wife, LyAnn Grogan, training director for Katahdin Friends Inc., have two children. Conor attends Hampshire College in Massachusetts and Caleigh is a student at Bangor High School.
“It just blows me away that this presented itself,” Tom said of the PICA directorship vacancy. “I knew about PICA, but I just didn’t have time to do a lot about it.”
However, the work of an organization such as PICA is “something I’ve been interested in since high school,” he said.
“It’s connecting back to what I felt energized about when I was a student. More and more I realize we were sort of meant for each other.”
Tom said he grew up with learning disabilities and really “didn’t know how to jump into life.”
But, as a young man in the 1980s, he did know that he wanted to work with people in the U.S. who were working with refugees, particularly from Central America and, more specifically, the people of El Salvador who were in the midst of a civil war.
So Tom got into social work and became a professor. Then he decided to go to seminary.
That’s when life got just a bit more interesting as the half-time PICA position became available and Tom was able to reach for a long-held dream.
PICA’s director has established his goals for this new position and will focus on “working with the wider PICA community” on several fronts, he explained.
He and PICA will strive to broaden its membership base, broaden its support network and broaden its coalition involvement.
Tom also believes it is important that PICA “support the existing humane and fair treatment of immigrants in the city of Bangor and surrounding towns, and encourage the development of policies that ensure that fair treatment continues into the future.”
As he embraces his new opportunity at PICA, and continues his commitment to the Universalist-Unitarian community, Tom said he is looking forward to the new direction his life is taking.
“I feel incredibly fortunate to be part of PICA and the wonderful people who have welcomed me into the organization,” he said.
To learn more about PICA, call Tom at 947-4203 or visit www.pica.ws.
Donations to the auction still are being accepted, and if you’d like to contribute you can learn more by e-mailing elleng@pica.ws.
···
The family of Frank J. Soucy Jr. invites you to help celebrate the retirement of one of the founders of Bangor’s landmark Frank’s Bake Shop.
Frank, who is 84, is retiring after 65 years with the popular, family-owned business he co-founded with his father and brother.
His family requests that you help honor him during a reception from 3 to 6 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 13, at Frank’s Bake Shop, 199 State St. in Bangor.
Joni Averill, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402; javerill@bangordailynews.com; 990-8288.