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LEWISTON — Voting is open until the end of February on $100,000 worth of grants for 45 nonprofits in Maine and eastern N.H., and resident votes determine who gets the $5,000 awards.
Two Lewiston organizations have been nominated for $5,000 grants in the annual Community Matters More grant-making initiative.
The program, in its 11th year, will award the top two vote-getters in nine regions of Maine and Rockingham County, N.H., including write-ins, a $5,000 grant. All other nonprofits on the ballot will receive a $1,000 grant.
The Center for Wisdom’s Women and Tree Street Youth are the Androscoggin Region’s nominees. Both were both supported by Trinity Episcopal Church in Lewiston, which was fiscal sponsor for each of them until they could get their own non-profit status.
The Center for Wisdom’s Women, founded in 1999 and reincorporated under local leadership in 2009, offers safe and sacred opportunities for women in the community, to heal from adverse life experiences, learn to thrive, and enrich each other’s lives. It currently provides a week-day, drop-in center, has a new social enterprise called Herban Works, and is working toward Sophia’s House, which will be a community-based, residential housing and recovery program for women survivors of prostitution, trafficking, prison and addiction.
Tree Street Youth was founded in 2011 by two Bates College alumnae to serve vulnerable youth in Lewiston. In its short tenure, Tree Street has developed into a vibrant hub of youth development — offering a highly affirming environment where diverse youth can improve academics and workplace soft skills, obtain positive social reinforcement, cultivate personal interests, and connect with community. Every day, Tree Street builds tomorrow’s leaders.
Community Matters More voting is open through the month of February and ends on Wednesday, Feb. 28. Voting can be completed online at www.bangor.com/cmm. Paper voting ballots are available at all Bangor Savings Bank branches and at each of the nonprofits listed on the ballot. Grant winners are announced in April.
Since its inception, Community Matters More has provided over $1 million in total grants to hundreds of Maine nonprofits. This is the first year for the program in New Hampshire.
“Each year we love seeing communities big and small rally for their favorite nonprofits,” said Bangor Savings Bank President and CEO Bob Montgomery-Rice. “We are fortunate to be able to support so many nonprofits that play an important role in towns and cities throughout Maine, and now southeastern-most New Hampshire.”
Community Matters More not only provides financial support to the nonprofits, it also generates substantial exposure for the work the organizations do to enhance the quality of life in the areas they serve.
