Volunteers of America Northern New England and the Disabled Veterans National Foundation (DVNF) are making critical supplies available at no cost to homeless veterans and veterans in need across Maine. The donation includes a full semi-truckload of 874 cases of blankets, new clothes and underwear, hats, shampoo and body wash, bottled water, canvas bags, and more.

Earlier this year, Nancy Markowitz, Director of Volunteers of America’s Community Mediation Services, launched the Happiness Project at two Volunteers of America affordable senior housing communities in Maine and New Hampshire. This innovative pilot program made impressive headway during its first run. “What makes us happy or unhappy?” asks Nancy. “In America today, when seniors leave their traditional family home and move into communal facilities, many of them lose some of their personal control in life and can grow unhappy about their prospects.

Among today’s senior citizens, the fear of outliving one’s resources during retirement and falling into poverty is increasingly common — and justified. Even before the recession of 2008 began, according to the Senior Financial Stability Index, economic insecurity among senior households had been rising steadily from 27 percent of households in 2004 to 36 percent in 2008. Some 50 percent of senior single-woman households and senior households of colors are economically insecure.

Retirement is a real challenge. But so far it seems to be working,” says Jenny Wright, a recent retiree who moved to Maine in 2010 from Roanoke, Virginia. But Jenny is luckier than some. Born in California and raised in Ohio, Jenny attended the University of Richmond in Richmond, Virginia. Over a 36-year period, she taught physical education and health at Roanoke-area high schools, stayed at home for 18 years to raise her three sons and, after earning a master’s degree, taught special education from 1994 till 2007.

At age 90, Iona Osnoe rests comfortably in her chair and looks back over her long life. “It’s true,” she says with a smile. “A lot has happened!” Iona is a resident of Volunteers of America’s Westrum House, an affordable senior community in Topsham, Maine. But she is also a veteran of the U.S. armed forces and has been a volunteer for a variety of programs sponsored by Volunteers of America.

On July 23, the Sanford, Maine, chapter of the Rolling Thunder motorcycle club sponsored “100 Ride for the Home,” a fundraising event in support of the Veterans Career House in nearby Biddeford, Maine. Registration and breakfast were held at the Sanford–Springvale VFW Memorial Post 9935 in Sanford, followed by a bike blessing and the ride staging.

Volunteers of America Northern New England presented its annual Community Service Awards on September 8 during its annual recognition cruise on Casco Bay. More than 150 Volunteers of America volunteers, community partners and supporters enjoyed the cruise while seven individuals and groups were honored with awards.

Twenty-eight high school students from Volunteers of America’s five Action Teams representing 9 schools across Maine enjoyed an extraordinary day as they were recognized at Boston’s Fenway Park this past June 17. The teams help promote volunteerism among high school students while serving neighbors in need.

Sarah Davies has been on the board of directors at Volunteers of America Northern New England since 2005 — yet is still finding fresh ways to reach out and help make good things happen. Sarah is a Maine native, born and raised in Augusta. In her professional life, she is a senior IT recruiter for ProSearch of Portland, Maine, a staffing agency headquartered in the Old Port. She has been a recruiter there and in Connecticut for 15 years. Earlier, she worked for a time as a computer programmer.

In partnership with Volunteers of America’s national organization, the Major League Baseball Players Trust has awarded a grant totaling $19,900 to Volunteers of America Northern New England. The grant will be used to create and equip an exercise room at Volunteers of America’s Arthur B. Huot Housing Community in Saco, the state’s first transitional residence for up to 10 homeless male and female veterans.

The Reverend Bill Inderstrodt of Topsham, Maine — elected to the board of directors of Volunteers of America Northern New England in 2009 — passed away in May 2011. “We were genuinely delighted to have Bill join us,” says June Koegel, Volunteers of America’s president and chief executive officer. “Bill was a man of great heart and experience who knew housing and, above all, knew how to ask the right questions — talents that our organization benefited from. He will be greatly missed.”

As spring spreads across the land, formerly homeless Maine veterans who are residents at Volunteers of America’s Arthur B. Huot Veteran Housing community in Saco, Maine, have taken the lead in creating beautiful new flower and vegetable garden beds on the property. “Two of the men especially led the way,” says Betty Fortuin, director of Volunteers of America’s transitional homes for veterans, “joined by other residents, who worked their way into the woods behind our building, hauled out stones of various sizes — some of them really big! — and created a 30 x 15 foot oval stone wall in the back yard for a vegetable garden.”

Funding for Let's Eat!, a food security program for low-income senior residents at Paul Hazelton House in Saco, Maine, was recently renewed with a $2,400 grant from United Way of York County. “We are truly grateful for the continued support of the United Way and many dedicated individuals, businesses and organizations throughout York County for making this grant possible,” said June Koegel, President and CEO of Volunteers of America Northern New England.

The Midcoast Maine Creating Assets, Savings, and Hope (CA$H) coalition was honored on May 26 with a Community Builder Award during the United Way of Mid Coast Maine Annual Meeting. The award recognizes and celebrates a community nonprofit or coalition that exemplifies the spirit of giving back to their community.

In 2011, its 18th season, Camp POSTCARD (“Police Officers Striving to Create and Reinforce Dreams”) will be launching “Fit, Fed, and Fun for Life,” a new camp initiative to help combat childhood obesity in Maine. The program was created with seed money from the National Recreation Foundation to encourage campers to get outdoors for more active recreation and to eat more healthfully; it will be directed for Volunteers of America by newcomer Sara Tweedy.

Planning a gift to Volunteers of America Northern New England? “If so,” says Pat Murtagh, Vice President of External Relations for the organization. “why not supercharge your giving through tax-advantaged non-cash gifts? Taxwise, gifts of stock, real estate, or other assets that have gone up in value are the hands-down winners.”

The Young@Heart Chorus™ brought their unique take on rock and pop music to the Merrill Auditorium in Portland, Maine, on Sunday, March 27, delighting a sell-out crowd of more than 1,900 people. There were no fewer than four standing ovations and the chorus seemed to gain energy from the crowd during the concert. Thank you to our guests, volunteers, sponsors and everyone else that helped make this event possible.

• Young@Heart Rocks Sold Out Merrill Auditorium in Portland

Dr. Zail Berry stepped into the role of full-time medical director and primary care physician at PACE Vermont on August 16. PACE is a healthcare program that helps older adults stay independent in their own homes and communities. It receives administrative and funding support from Volunteers of America Northern New England and On Lok.

Here in northern New England, Volunteers of America’s “Look Up and Hope” program is one of only five such programs to be piloted by our national organization in affiliates across the U.S. “The goal of Look Up and Hope is deep,” says program director Mary O’Leary. “It’s to identify (and deliver) a holistic range of research-based services needed by the families of people who are incarcerated — especially their children, and the children’s caretakers — in order to help support the children’s long-term success and break the cycle of family poverty and incarceration.”

Senior citizens in the Bangor, Maine, area (and seniors who might wish to live in Bangor) are cordially invited to contact Volunteers of America to learn more about our newest senior housing community opening sometime in early 2011. We are also accepting applications at this time.

Since October 2010, Volunteers of America’s Judy Peavey has been hanging her hat at Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset, Maine. But then, happily, she gets to go home at night. Judy is a case manager for the jail’s Reentry Program, run by Volunteers of America. Working with prisoners (mostly male) from Lincoln, Sagadahoc, and Waldo counties, she helps new arrivals find fresh ways of looking at and thinking about their life issues.

There’s always something new on the horizon. In recent years, Volunteers of America’s national organization, in Virginia, and our local affiliate, here in Brunswick, Maine, have made strides in exploring “planned giving” as a way of helping philanthropic individuals and other donors make larger gifts than they could otherwise make from their income.

(4.66 MB) The Fall 2010 edition of Gazette Magazine is now available online and contains an article about our participation in a panel discussion on May 11 in Portland, Maine. The conversation paralleled a discussion taking place in Washington at the same time, and was broadcast live to the local Portland audience in a new technological endeavor for Volunteers of America.

On Sunday, March 27, at 2:30 p.m., the Young@Heart Chorus™ will rock the house at Portland’s Merrill Auditorium. Internationally acclaimed, Young@Heart™ features former professional and amateur musical and theater performers, all at least 70 years old. The group, founded in 1982 in Northampton, Massachusetts, is known for its unconventional interpretation of famous rock, punk, and other modern pop songs.

“Homeless teen” and “college bound” are two phrases you don’t hear a lot in one sentence. But Gary Canter of Portland, Maine, has been helping make it happen for several homeless teens in Maine. Lyla Ross is a bright spirit. She has been a long-time volunteer for Volunteers of America’s Midcoast Creating Assets Savings and Hope (CA$H) Coalition who greets clients at the front door and helps make their tax day calmer and more rewarding. The Coalition helps low- and moderate-income Maine families and individuals improve their financial stability through free tax preparation and financial asset building.

In September, Volunteers of America’s Director of the Maine Coastal Regional Reentry Center Michael Tausek suddenly found himself all alone, standing in the spotlight in Singapore, on the other side of the world — giving his slide presentation. “So there I was,” he says with a smile, “talking about our community corrections work to a conference room full of top corrections experts from around the planet. But you know what? — it went great!” Michael says he was...