Insulating interior walls of the ‘Final Phase’ of Weald Bethel Community Center construction.
CHERRYFIELD, Me — The Final Phase construction on the Weald Bethel Community Center is on target for completion by June 1. To better accommodate the skilled, hardworking, volunteer groups who travel here to help, the addition will house 49 volunteers, complete with bathrooms, showers, commercial kitchen. The new space can also be utilized for other Mission programs for students, families, and seniors.
Housing Rehabilitation Program Coordinator Scott Shaw especially cited Lee Watrous (CT) and his work crew, Cumberland Congregational Church (ME), Ascension Lutheran Church (PA), and Assabet Valley Vocational School (MA) for contributing time, materials, and resources to ensure the Final Phase is completed on time.
Fox 22/WVII-TV reporter Jack Hilton interviews Mission Housing Rehabilitation Program Coordinator Scott Shaw on the program’s successful 2017 season, with the help of great volunteers.
The Windham Eagle
October 20, 2017 Local group travels to rural Maine to help those in need
Nine people traveled to rural Maine this September, as part of a group organized by the Raymond Village Community Church in Raymond, to assist with home improvements that will keep at-risk families safe and warm this winter.
The group volunteered through the Maine Seacoast Mission’s Housing Rehabilitation Program, which assists at-risk families by restoring or completely rebuilding up to 20 homes annually.
CHERRYFIELD, Me — Mission Housing Rehabilitation Program Coordinator Scott Shaw recently outlined for President Scott Planting, and the Mission Board of Directors, a summary of the Program’s 2017 season.
Scott Shaw said this year’s “very successful season” involved 15 Volunteer Crews totaling 214 volunteers, who worked on 20 homes and three non-profit local community outreach facilities.
This was the first time the Mission offered online applications for Volunteer Crews, and also other online applications for people wanting help making their homes safe and warm.
Paper applications were also kept available for Volunteer Crews and potential customers.
The online application, “certainly was easier for the volunteer leaders,” said Mr. Shaw. “We received a few (online applications} from homeowners/clients,” but, as a group, this year they preferred the paper applications.
Here is a list of the homeowners and non-profits helped this season:
-Cleaned out attics and basements for weatherization 2
-Community Non-Profit projects 3
With completion of the Cherryfield Campus’s Weald Bethel Community Center expansion expected — to provide Volunteer Crews better living facilities during their stay in Maine — Scott Shaw said, “We have roughly 175 volunteers already booked for just three weeks in June 2018.”
CHERRYFIELD, ME — Mission Director of Services Wendy Harrington, and Housing Rehabilitation Program Coordinator Scott Shaw will be part of a panel at this informational session on resources to help seniors repair and winterize their homes. Download the Repair & Winterize My Home flyer (PDF).
First Congregational Church of South Portland, ME volunteers
Second Congregational Church of Boxford, MA volunteers
First Congregational Church of South Portland, ME volunteers
First Congregational Church of South Portland, ME volunteers
Volunteers from The Federated Church of Chagrin Falls, OH
CHERRYFIELD, Me — Housing Rehabilitation Program Coordinator Scott Shaw sends these field photos of three different Housing Rehabilitation Program Volunteer Groups from Ohio, Massachusetts, and Maine.
The individual volunteers arrive at the Mission’s Cherryfield Campus for two week periods, dedicating their expertise and elbow grease to help Down East Maine families live in safe, warm housing.
The First Congregational Church of South Portland group repaired a home access ramp and painted the trailer of an octogenarian homeowner who remembers at age 8 or 9 years old, around the Japanese attack on Pear Harbor, when the Sunbeam delivered Christmas presents to her Maine island home.
Every year we completely rebuild two mobile homes or houses for local families. The families contribute sweat equity to the rebuilding projects and often have one or more children active in the Mission’s EdGE program. Learn more.
