Celebrate 11 years of the Downeast Table of Plenty
Sunday, October 10 — 3:30 pm to 5:00 pm
Maine Seacoast Downeast Campus, Cherryfield
Please join us. We will honor this special day with a delicious dinner, homemade cake, music, and friends.
This will be the last Downeast Table of Plenty of 2021.
We will reopen again in the spring, 2022.
Learn more about our Downeast Table of Plenty community suppers.
CHERRYFIELD, ME — July of this year marked the end of a remarkable Downeast housing program involving Downeast Community Partners, Mano en Mano, Sunrise Economic Council, The Community Caring Collaborative, and Maine Seacoast Mission. The five nonprofits were tasked with awarding $10K grants to Downeast residents to use either as down payment on a first home or for rehabilitation on an existing home.
The opportunity for this housing assist to Downeast residents was through an equally remarkable anonymous $500K donation to, as Mission Housing Rehabilitation Manager Scott Shaw explains, “assist with housing issues Downeast.”
The five nonprofits agreed to turn $400K into forty $10K housing grants, with $100K reserved for administering the Housing Barrier Removal Fund.
Scott Shaw was part of the selection committee grading grant applications. He said, “Clients who received the down payment assistance were required to meet with financial coach Joe Connors through Downeast Community Partners.” Mano En Mano held the funds and hired Elan Gabel-Richards to facilitate the process.
Grant application responses were graded in three areas:
All forty grants were awarded in three rounds. Ten grants were awarded in January, twenty in May, and ten in July. Twenty-four grants were given for down payment assistance, sixteen for home repair projects.
As of September 16, five grantees had purchased homes. A sixth grantee is under contract on a piece of land for their mobile home. One home repair project is completed; ten projects are underway.
Awardees have up to a year to expend the funds for their projects.
Photos and story by Davis Maine Scholarship Director Christina Griffith.
NORTHEAST HARBOR, ME – The Mission’s first Davis Maine Scholar cohort just returned from a 660 mile, four-day road-trip to visit Wheaton College, Clark University, and University of New England in Massachusetts and Southern Maine. The cohort’s six scholars traveled with two mentors: Davis Maine Scholarship Director Christina Griffith, and Journey Program Director Dakin Hewlett.
Scholars enjoyed campus tours and information sessions, and time with admissions counselors learning about the application process. At lunch, college students shared stories of their studies and life on campus. Our cohort learned about support resources (i.e. academic tutoring, advising) and enjoyed conversation (and even a pizza dinner) with each college president.
From the peace of Peacock Pond on the Wheaton campus, to Clark’s extensive community service engagement in local neighborhoods, to UNE’s research and study abroad opportunities, our Scholars learned much and returned inspired. They represented well their families, schools, and Downeast communities.
In the weeks ahead, Scholars will focus on completing their college applications with new focus and insight given their own lived experiences on each campus.
Davis Maine Scholarships: Learn more.
CHERRYFIELD, ME — EdGE after-school registration is open for the 2021-2022 school year! For more information and to register online, please go to https://www.seacoastmission.org/edge-afterschool/.
If you have questions or need help registering, please call the EdGE office at 207-546-4466.
CHERRYFIELD, ME – I joined the Mission in 2005 as a Site Coordinator for the EdGE Program, worked until 2008 when I pursued other adventures, before returning to the Mission in 2011. I have worked here since. Currently I am Director of the EdGE Program. The strength of the relationships and connections the Mission makes with children, families, and communities brought me back to Maine and the Mission.
Having grown up in Maine, there are many beautiful places that I have enjoyed. Recently my favorite place is simply getting outside with the family, being able to see the excitement of my toddler as he explores. From looking at birds in the backyard to discovering what is underneath seaweed near the ocean. His excitement makes those places my favorite place to be.
Learn more about EdGE.
By Dakin Hewlett, Journey Program Manager
Reflecting on the past three months I’ve shared with students in the Journey program I found myself rooted. Rooted to what, I’m not exactly sure. You most likely don’t know my name. We probably haven’t met since my arrival in Maine from Pennsylvania to step into the role of Journey Program Manager in late May.
I didn’t know what to expect from this dense landscape I was moving to, or how I would engage as an individual from away with the community. My story isn’t new. People often move to different places and must learn to navigate the “first time” feeling. An activity as simple as ordering a drink at the local coffee shop turns disorienting while figuring out where to stand in line.
Learning about a community and your place in it takes time. I wondered how I would connect with Downeast students, how to begin building relationships, and how to lead programming that would resonate with their life experiences.
In June, 7th grade students arrived at the Mission’s Downeast Campus in Cherryfield for our session together. It felt like the first day of school. My voice wavered at times. The group was quiet when I, a stranger, asked them to share a little bit about themselves.
The Journey program is a diverse group of students tethered by shared values. Each cohort identifies group norms that will help guide us through our years together, such as:
It can be difficult to share your own story. But over the next few months, I was humbled to hear many stories told by our forty-plus students. Stories told during hikes, campfires, swimming, car rides, community service, fishing, cooking and in other situations. Students shared their experiences, passions, hopes, dreams, fears, and worries.
With each story I felt more connected to place. They shared their deep roots with Downeast, which allowed me to begin establishing my Maine roots.
Working with Journey students gives me a front row seat to community building, resiliency, hard work, grit, and creativity. The students are connectors, seed sowers, believers, dreamers, and innovators.
As summer ends and another school year approaches, I know each student will step into that feeling of “first day,” and meet it – just as all the Journey students did when asked to challenge themselves to discover something new. Whether it was saying yes to a ropes course, pushing to reach the top of Tunk Mountain, sharing their perspective with peers, or stepping forward to lead an activity, each student pushed further outside their comfort zone.
Experiencing those moments with them is a wonderful reminder for me to embrace this new challenge, and to not be afraid to adapt along the way.
Learn more about Journey.