In these challenging times, what role can Maine Community Foundation county funds and their advisory committees play to help communities thrive?
The county funds, Mary Kate Reny believes, are “true engines and partners” for local organizations. The volunteer advisors, she notes, bring their networks and knowledge of their communities to the table. At the same time, says Ann Marie Bartoo, “It is a huge responsibility to make informed decisions around grantmaking, but also very joyful when we see positive impact on nonprofits.”
In the two years that the Southern Midcoast Committee has been active, advisors have reviewed 89 proposals from 63 nonprofit organizations in the two counties. The grantmaking is diverse, from education and social services to arts and the environment. But demand is greater than the permanent endowed funds can support, so Reny, Bartoo, and their fellow committee members promote charitable giving wherever and whenever they can.
The two women came to Maine via different routes, but each has a special skill set and life experiences that prepared them to become community leaders.
Mary Kate Reny: A Passion for Downtowns
Born in Los Angeles, Reny attended the University of California at Santa Barbara where she earned a B.A. in geography/environmental studies. She worked at Glacier and Yosemite national parks before moving east in 1987. Following a stint at DeLorme mapping in Freeport, Reny spent eight years at the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and then completed a master’s in planning and community development at the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine. From 2001 to 2018 she held various positions at Reny’s.
Reny became committed to creating vibrant downtowns through her work at the family-owned Maine department store. She has shared her passion as board member of the Maine Downtown Center and the Twin Villages Alliance, and as the leader of several community efforts and initiatives benefiting Main Street Damariscotta and Newcastle. “Downtowns are both the physical ‘living rooms’ of communities and their personality,” she says. They are also often “the hub and incubator of the local economy.”
Reny has witnessed the “tightening” of community bonds through her work to address food insecurity. In what she calls her “pandemic pivot,” she became part-time coordinator this summer for Lincoln County Gleaners and the Free Summer Meal Program.
As Reny considers the future of the midcoast region, her deepest hope is that “people acknowledge their commitment to this shared place we love, and simply start there.”
At top: Mary Kate Reny visits “Lulu the lunch wagon,” a mobile meal unit launched by Lincoln County Summer Meals, a project of Healthy Lincoln County. The lunch wagon is part of a program to increase children’s access to free, healthy lunches during the summer. Photo Sijie Yuan/MaineCF
Ann Marie Bartoo: Changing the Conversation
Bartoo was born and raised in New York state, earned a B.A. in communications from Antioch College and a master’s in leadership and organizational studies at the University of Maine. She has worked with, and for, dozens of nonprofit organizations across Maine and New England – including the Maine Community Foundation – and now advises nonprofits through her business, Corner Market Consulting, in Phippsburg, where she lives.
Bartoo’s work has shown her firsthand the challenges organizations face during the pandemic. She also recognizes the opportunities these unprecedented times bring: “In many ways, it is a time to rethink and redesign how we do things.” She encourages nonprofit leaders to “change the conversation from ‘We can’t do this’ to ‘What would it look like if we tried this?’”
For Bartoo, diversity and youth will be crucial to prosperity and growth in the southern mid-coast region, as well as a sense of community. “Our ability to experience community both in our homes and out in the world can empower us and, I hope, give us the resources we need to get through to the other side of the pandemic.”
Learn more about MaineCF’s County and Regional Program at www.mainecf.org/initiatives-impact.
Ann Marie Bartoo volunteers at the Phippsburg Elementary School’s Ed Secskas Memorial Garden. “It’s a special place for many school-aged children (and adults, too) as it is dedicated to a well-loved teacher who passed away a few years ago,” Bartoo says. Photo Sijie Yuan
