OLD TOWN, Maine — A plan to build a new facility for the Indian Women’s Mission, which distributes food and clothes to women in need, is one step closer to getting off the ground, president and founder Rose Scribner said Monday.
The organization has received a $2,500 donation from a minister in New Hampshire which will be used to put up a telephone pole and bring electricity to its site on Rt. 116 in Old Town. There will be a groundbreaking ceremony on Oct. 13.
Since the late 1980s, the mission has operated out of Scribner’s house on Indian Island, which was built by her great-grandfather in 1910, she said.
In recent years, the number of women being helped has grown to over 200 and the space is now too small to accommodate them, according to Scribner. She said the organization helps all women in the area who are in need, not just those from the Penobscot Nation.
“With the economy as bad as it is, it’s been the women and the children who have been feeling the brunt,” she said.
Scribner, 74, would like to hold job training, nurse assistant training and nutrition classes at the new facility, which she expects could cost up to $200,000 to complete.
She said she has the support of Gov. Paul LePage, who met with her to hear of her plans in 2011 and who she’s invited to the groundbreaking in October. She said his press secretary called last week to get the date of the event.
Scribner said a center of this kind, which will be called the Indian Women’s Mission Organization Center, is desperately needed in Maine.
“We have a lot of children in rural areas that aren’t getting enough nutrition,” she said, which she explained hurts their ability to do well in school. “We do not want to see another generation coming up not being well educated.”
People who wish to make contributions can make checks out to the Indian Women’s Mission Organization Center and send them to 19 West Street, Indian Island, Old Town, ME 04468.
