PORTLAND

Grant helps family shelter

Family Crisis Services, a home-like shelter serving Cumberland and Sagadahoc counties, received a $20,000 grant from the Mary Kay Foundation in October in observance of Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

The foundation awarded $20,000 in grants to 150 domestic violence shelters in all 50 states for a total of $3 million.

Housed in a residential neighborhood, Family Crisis Services provides a comfortable atmosphere for battered women and their children. With a 93 percent occupancy rate last year, the organization plans to use the grant to provide essential services such as housing, utilities, food and transportation.

Shelter administrators say the grant could not have come at a more critical time, as Family Crisis Services is struggling to cope after significant funding cuts.

 Club scoops to raise funds

The Gelato Fiasco Old Port recently donated $391.02 to the Catherine McAuley High School Key Club after the club’s successful Scooping for Community Day at the dessert company’s store.

The Key Club supports a variety of nonprofit organizations.

For more details, email max@gelatofiasco.com or call 240-6038.

CUMBERLAND

Cat shelter receives grant

The Homeless Animal Rescue Team of Maine (HART) has received a $7,500 grant from the Maine Community Foundation’s Belvedere Animal Welfare Fund to provide financial assistance to low-income families seeking veterinary care.

Some of those funds also will be used to expand an adult foster care that pairs older shelter cats with elderly citizens interested in fostering a pet companion.

HART provides food, litter and needed medical supplies for the cats fostered through the program.

HART is a private, volunteer-run, nonprofit cat shelter founded in 1997 to provide care for surrendered, abandoned, injured or abused cats and find permanent, loving homes to adopt the animals.

WEST KENNEBUNK

Walk benefits animal shelter

The fourth annual Haunted Walk, headed by Animal Welfare Society volunteers, the Behind the Scenes charity, University of New England students and the Wells High School cheerleading squad, raised $1,600 to benefit the West Kennebunk animal shelter.

For more information, please visit www.animalwelfaresociety.org.

WELLS

Henry scholarship offered

The Maine Diner is accepting students’ applications to be considered for its 2013 Myles Henry Memorial Scholarship.

Honoring the memory of the diner’s late owner, the $1,000 scholarship will be awarded next spring to a graduating Wells High School student athlete who espouses the characteristics of honesty, sportsmanship, integrity, passion and enthusiasm on and off the field.

An essay entry must be submitted for review, and the winner will be chosen by Henry’s wife, Trisha Wilson.

Students interested in applying for the scholarship should contact their guidance counselor at Wells High School.

Donations to keep the fund going are appreciated and may be sent to the Myles Henry Scholarship Fund, P.O. Box 579, Wells, Maine 04090.

For more details, go to www.mainediner.com.

SOUTH PORTLAND

Pride Place beautified

Armed with rakes, hoes, shovels and wheelbarrows, 13 volunteers from the Maine Landscape and Nursery Association (MELNA) converged at Pride Place recently to conduct its annual landscaping project.

The volunteers, from towns as far south as Berwick and up to Kingfield, spent a day removing trees and sod, amending soil and adding plants and shrubbery to transform the landscape of the Westbrook Street property that is home to people living with traumatic brain injuries.

MELNA members annually commit to one major volunteer project each year. Many members contributed. Past projects included landscaping at Camp Sunshine in Casco and the Morrison Developmental Center in Scarborough.

For more information, go to www.melna.org.

BIDDEFORD

Downtown boosters honored

The downtown revitalization organization Heart of Biddeford announced the following winners of its 2011-12 Annual Awards:

• Business of the Year — New Morning Natural Foods, owned by Paul and Sheila Ouellette;

• Property Owner of the Year — businessman Peter Floros;

• Community Member of the Year — Aurelie Wallach;

• Downtown Supporter/Booster of the Year — George “Pete” Lemontagne;

• Volunteer of the Year — Joan Brooks;

• City Partner of the Year — Ray Parent;

• Community Partner of the Year — City Theater;

• Professional Service Business of the Year — GWI and Fletcher Kittredge;

• Downtown Visionary of the Year — Dana Peck.

For more details, call Delilah Poupore at 284-8520 or email director@heartofbiddeford.org.

HARPSWELL

Orr’s Island Library gets funds

Albert Moren of Gun Point, Harpswell, recently presented the Orr’s Island Library with a check for $12,500 to make good on a matching grant challenge he laid down to raise community support for the library by Sept. 30.

The challenge was met, with the library receiving national support and raising $16,000.

Moren’s gift will fund the renovation of the 107-year-old library’s reading room, which when completed, will be dedicated to the memory of his late wife, Sue Fisher Moren.

The building and renovation project is nearly complete.

In addition to stabilizing the original building and adding needed storage and a reading room, a wheelchair lift was installed.

For more information, call John Webster at 833-5430.

FARMINGTON

Farmers market seeks vendors

Farmington Grange has begun a Winter Farmers Market, from 9 a.m. to noon each Saturday. It will be held at the Grange hall, at 124 Bridge St., through May.

Vendors are being sought to sell their produce, meats, cheeses, honey, jams, baked goods, crafts and other products, provided they adhere to state rules and are properly licensed (for processed foods).

Membership is $30, with a $5 market day fee. For more details, call Richard Marble at 778-6968 or Bonnie Clark at 778-6637.