BANGOR, Maine — When Bill Rae showed up for work early Friday morning, Manna Ministries was still $5,500 shy of the $18,000 it needed for pressing heat, electrical and repair needs.
By mid-afternoon, however, the faith-based nonprofit organization had that amount in hand plus a small cash cushion for contingencies, thanks in large part to area Christian radio listeners.
“Because of Lighthouse Radio Network, WHCF, the Christian radio station, they just presented us with a check for $8,320 that they raised this morning. That puts us over the top to $19,500,” said Rae, executive director of the Bangor-based food cupboard and substance abuse rehabilitation organization.
“It was fantastic, so from me to this fantastic community, thank you,” Rae said. “It’s not believing in Manna, it’s believing in their neighbors and what we can do together to help our people in this community and keeping Manna going and alive and functioning the way we need to be.
“I’m overwhelmed with emotion right now. I really am. I didn’t expect this. I didn’t know if I’d be locking doors and shipping people out and today I’m sitting here almost in tears looking at what this community believes in and how much they do believe in us,” he said.
Tom Obey, the Bangor-based radio station’s president and general manager, said that the money for Manna was raised Friday morning in just an hour and 20 minutes during an impromptu radio version of a telethon.
“Well, we want to give back to the community and I don’t think anybody does it any better than Bill Rae [when it comes to] meeting the needs of the homeless, the less fortunate. I think it’s a great cause that he’s got,” Obey said.
His listeners apparently agreed.
“We are listener-funded radio so to raise extra funds like that and to be able to send some over to Bill was a pleasure for me,” he said.
Rae called on the public for emergency donations earlier this week, saying that Manna needed $18,000 to maintain operations.
As of Wednesday, however, Rae said the nonprofit was still $9,000 short of its goal and might have to scale back its services or “basically shut down.”
The 24-year-old nonprofit operates a 16-bed inpatient drug and alcohol clinic as well as an outpatient service to assist individuals and families dealing with substance abuse.
It also operates a soup kitchen, food pantry and a thrift store and provides food to at least four other food pantries that serve low-income residents.
According to Rae, this week’s call for donations came as Manna faces declining charitable giving, reduced reimbursements from MaineCare and a host of costly mechanical breakdowns, including a furnace and hot water heater that needed to be replaced and a van that soon will need to be replaced shortly.
The cutbacks, Rae said, already have forced Manna to eliminate 20 positions over the past 18 months, reducing its total staff to 22.
BDN writer Evan Belanger contributed to this report.