April 22, 2024
The Maine Community Foundation (MaineCF) distributed $1.9 million to 29 local nonprofit organizations supporting the area’s mass shooting recovery efforts through its Lewiston-Auburn Area Response Fund Broad Recovery & Organizations Fund.
The fund received a total of $1,900,132 in contributions following the Oct. 25, 2023, mass shootings in Lewiston. All funds were distributed evenly and each organization received $65,522. The recipients are:
- AK Collaborative
- Boys and Girls Clubs of Southern Maine
- Central Maine Medical Center
- Community Clinical Services
- Community Concepts
- Empowered Immigrant Women Unite
- Gateway Community Services Maine
- Generational Noor
- Ifka Community Services
- Lewiston-Auburn Area Housing Development Corporation
- Lewiston-Auburn Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce Foundation
- Lewiston-Auburn Youth Network
- Maine Association of the Deaf
- Maine Inside Out
- Maine MILL
- Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition
- New Beginnings
- New Mainers Public Health Initiative
- Safe Voices
- St. Mary's Regional Medical Center
- Somali Bantu Community Association
- Sweetser
- The Root Cellar
- Tree Street Youth
- Tri-County Mental Health Services (Spurwink)
- Trinity Jubilee Center
- United Way of Androscoggin County
- United Youth Empowerment Services
- YWCA Central Maine
Recipients were selected by a volunteer steering committee comprising local community members, including: Joleen Bedard, United Way of Androscoggin County; Kevin Bohlin, Maine Association of the Deaf and Pine Tree Society; Rebecca Swanson Conrad (chair), RSC Consulting; Nathan Davis, Gateway Community Services Maine; Virginia Dearani, Thomas College; Julia Harper, Good Food Council of Lewiston-Auburn; Jake Langlais, Lewiston Public Schools; Muhidin Libah, Somali Bantu Community Association; Leslie Ogilvie, formerly with Tri-County Mental Health Services; and Julia Sleeper, Tree Street Youth.
"These organizations are crucial to long-term community needs following the tragic mass shootings last fall," said Laura Lee, vice president of community impact at MaineCF. "We’re so grateful to all who donated to this fund and to the volunteer steering-committee members who helped determine the best way to distribute these contributions."
Last month, MaineCF distributed $4,752,784 million from its Victims & Families Fund to 162 individual beneficiaries directly impacted by the shootings, including family of murder victims and those injured or present during the shootings.
