Latest news with #MaineNeeds
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Kennebunk Cares Closet leaves behind a legacy of giving: 'It feels good'
KENNEBUNK, Maine — Kennebunk Cares Closet officially closed its doors on Saturday, April 12. While many are saddened by its departure, there's comfort in knowing the beloved clothing program thrived five years longer than expected, thanks to the dedication of its lead volunteers, Jack and Mary Bates. The Bateses took over the operation, located in the basement of a local church, during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. At that time, the program was run by local educators who were grappling with their own set of pandemic-related challenges within their profession. 'They were terrific,' Jack Bates said. 'But when COVID hit ... they just didn't have the time to keep it up.' Jack and Mary, who had been volunteering for the program for a few years, did not want to see Kennebunk Cares Closet's door close, so they stepped in and continued providing those in need with clothes that had been donated. Fast forward to 2025. According to Jack Bates, the church needs the basement space that it had been providing Kennebunk Cares Closet to host its classes and other programs. Before anyone thinks that is an unfortunate step for a church to take with a program known for helping the greater community, Bates is quick to make an important point: the demand for the service that Kennebunk Cares Closet provided has dropped significantly in recent years. 'If we were going gangbusters, I'm sure we could have talked them out of it,' Bates said, regarding the church's hope for reclaiming its classroom space. Congdon's Doughnuts legacy lives on: Here's what new owners have planned There are a couple of reasons for that downturn in demand, according to Bates. One, the program never returned to its pre-pandemic strength, given the impacts of that global health crisis on volunteerism and other factors. Getting donations and filling orders became difficult, especially with social workers staying home and schools shutting down for remote learning. The avenues through which needs were conveyed had become limited. 'COVID killed us,' Bates said. Case in point. The program hit its peak of service between September and December of 2019, on the eve of the pandemic, when it filled 1,170 orders. 'After that, it was on the way down,' Bates said. 'This year, in four months, we've only had 50 families.' Another reason for the drop in demand in recent years was that other organizations and programs have stepped up in neighboring communities to help fill the continued need people have for donated shoes, coats, and other clothes. Maine Needs, a nonprofit based in Portland, is one of them – and the one to which Bates encourages people to contact if they wish to donate clothes or need some to wear. The organization has distributed more than one million donated items of clothing in its time and boasts more than 2,500 volunteers. 'Maine Needs is the biggy,' Bates said. 'They have everything.' Bates said their remaining inventory of clothes and shoes soon will find their way onto people's backs and feet. 'We've made sure that where it all goes will be a nonprofit – that nothing will be sold, or anything like that,' Bates said. More: York Beach's Nevada named one of the 'Best New Hotels in the World' by Esquire In its last few months, Kennebunk Cares Closet had three volunteers: Jack and Mary Bates, and a woman named Sheryl. The program, however, has a long list of volunteers who worked hard and made a difference over the years, according to Bates. While Jack Bates is sad to see Kennebunk Cares Closet's door close, he said it feels wonderful to have helped so many people over the years – thousands and thousands of families, as he put it. 'It feels good,' he said. 'Very gratifying.' He and Mary are both retired – he, as a salesman for Sears & Roebuck, she as a coder at the former Goodall Hospital in Sanford – and Kennebunk Cares Closet proved a good match for them in their post-work life. 'We had fun doing it,' Bates said. 'It was a lot of work – a lot more work than you think.' Say you got 20 bags of donations, for example. Bates said he and Mary and others would go through them and often determine that only five of them might have clothing fit for providing to others – meaning, no holes, no stains, no missing buttons, no broken zippers, you name it. 'We made sure everything was wearable – nothing that you'd be ashamed to wear,' he said. Kennebunk Cares Closet did not just help people in town. The program helped everyone everywhere. When asked how far-ranging the program's reach extended, Bates could not answer precisely, but he recalled once helping a family of seven from as far away as Oxford. 'We don't know,' he said. 'From wherever a request came in, we filled them. If you filled out a request in an email, we filled it. We didn't ask any questions. There were no qualifications. If you wanted it, you got it.' This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Kennebunk Cares Closet closes its doors after helping thousands
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Preble Street, Maine Needs team up to streamline donations for homeless people
Apr. 16—Preble Street and Maine Needs will work together to streamline the way clothing and hygiene items are distributed to people who are homeless or have recently found housing. The new partnership will allow both Portland-based organizations to best use their resources to help Mainers in need, leaders of the nonprofit agencies announced this week. Starting Friday, Preble Street will no longer accept individual in-kind, nonfood donations. Instead, donations of clothing, hygiene and household items can be brought to Maine Needs, where Preble Street can access them to meet the immediate needs of its clients. Preble Street will continue to accept donations of food and money. Ali Lovejoy, vice president of mission advancement at Preble Street, said the agency is "thrilled" to partner with Maine Needs. Caseworkers from Preble Street work every day adults and teens who are homeless, as well as people who are newly housed or at risk of losing their housing, she said. "Tents, sturdy shoes, and dry clothing are literally lifesaving to people living outside. Items many of us take for granted make a huge impact for people working to move their lives forward," Lovejoy said in a statement. "With Maine Needs taking on all the collecting and sorting of these key items, Preble Street can continue to focus on other priorities including providing food, shelter, casework, and housing." Maine Needs started as a Facebook group in 2019 and opened a donation center on Forest Avenue the following year. From the start, the organization has focused on collecting and sorting donations to distribute through caseworkers, nurses and teachers. Maine Needs recently moved to a 16,000-square-foot space on Congress Street that allowed it to expand the types of items collected and increase the hours it is open for volunteers to work and for people to drop off donations. "We are honored to be given the opportunity to take this off of Preble Street's plate so they can focus their invaluable energy and resources on feeding, sheltering and supporting even more people throughout our shared community," said Tara Balch, communications director for Maine Needs. Maine Needs accepts donations Sunday through Thursday at the back of its building at 2385 Congress St. Guidelines about donations and lists of current needs are posted at and on its social media accounts. Copy the Story Link We believe it's important to offer commenting on certain stories as a benefit to our readers. At its best, our comments sections can be a productive platform for readers to engage with our journalism, offer thoughts on coverage and issues, and drive conversation in a respectful, solutions-based way. It's a form of open discourse that can be useful to our community, public officials, journalists and others. We do not enable comments on everything — exceptions include most crime stories, and coverage involving personal tragedy or sensitive issues that invite personal attacks instead of thoughtful discussion. You can read more here about our commenting policy and terms of use. More information is also found on our FAQs. Show less
