Local restaurant, residents work to spread positive message of love

Tim Tolford, with his dog Bo, stands next to the heart he made for Rivalries. The heart is placed where people pick up food as way to spread positivity. Courtesy photo

FALMOUTH — Rivalries co-owner Amy Meader hopes attaching hearts with positive quotes to takeout meals will cause a ripple effect throughout the local community.

‘Thanking our Local Workers’

YARMOUTH — A group of friends from Yarmouth and Falmouth is raising money for gift cards to show their gratitude to essential employees who continue to work through the pandemic.

Christina and Nick Powell of Yarmouth, along with Valentine Sheldon, a local community activist who lives in Falmouth, are spearheading separate campaigns on GoFundMe, but share a common goal.

“With this whole thing happening, we are still going there, buying food, and felt that Hannaford’s was the last normal thing open in our lives,” Nick Powell said. “The people are still working, smiling, putting in hours so we can keep eating and feeding our family and we wanted to show some appreciation.”

Since the fund started on April 5, the Powells had more than doubled their goal and raised over $2,200 by Tuesday, and beat their initial goal of $1,000 in just about a day. The gift cards to local restaurants will be dispersed to employees by Hannaford, Walgreens, gas stations, and other local businesses starting Thursday.

“We’ve been encouraged to take care of pharmacists, gas station folks, postal service people, UPS; all these people are out there. It sounds dramatic to say they are putting their life on the line, but this is killing people and they really are, so we are going to keep going and expand,” Nick Powell said.

Sheldon had raised over $445 as of Tuesday since starting the fund Sunday and aims to disperse gift cards at similar locations in town.

“The great thing about this is that anyone with an idea to give back can set something like this up. A lot of people, myself included, feel really powerless in this period of time,” Sheldon said.

Neither fundraiser has a specific end date, so both camps will continue raising funds to help more essential workers.

“Times are hard, honestly, this is a difficult time financially, mentally, but if someone can just give a dollar and view it as a people goal, not monetary, to show our support to essential workers who continue to create a semblance of normalcy for us all, it shows a lot,” Sheldon said.

To donate to the Yarmouth fundraiser, visit gofundme.com and search under “Thanking our Local Workers.” For the Falmouth fundraiser, search for “Thank Our Essential Workers – Falmouth.”

As of April 7, there were seven cases of COVID-19 reported at OceanView, a senior living facility in Falmouth, said spokeswoman Linda Verrill, and no other cases reported in town, according to the Emergency Management Team of Falmouth. However, Fire Chief and Emergency Management Director Howard Rice reported an increase of more than 10 ambulance calls the week of March 30; of 36 EMS calls, Rice said, half of them were for suspected or confirmed cases of the virus.

In an effort to combat negativity and anxiety, Meader has teamed up with local artist Donald Verger to spread love. The effort is complementing a move to offer free meals to health care workers and those on the front lines of the response to the pandemic.

Rivalries is a sports-themed eatery with locations in Falmouth and Portland. Like many other restaurants, it is only offering curbside pickup and deliveries, but solely at the Falmouth location at 2 Hat Trick Drive. Rivalries is open 4-8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. See rivalriesmaine.com/falmouth.

“During these hard and unprecedented times you grasp for opportunities to connect, but you are floundering,” Meader said. “You can’t go anywhere. I find that Rivalries is offering a platform to channel some of this energy for people who want to help but don’t know how.”

For every family meal purchased, Rivalries donates soup to a worker on the “front lines” of the pandemic response, Meader said, including local hospital workers, physicians and emergency responders.

In addition to the free soup, Meader has also teamed up with local artist Donald Verger, who has crafted a number of postcards with hearts on them to attach to take out meals.

“Any of us who are taking the time to give back and do something, we never know the ripple effect of that or the significance,” Verger said.

Verger has been donating postcards featuring his photography to hospitals for years now and knows firsthand how much of an impact even a small card can make.

“I remember eight or 10 years ago, someone reached out to me and said when they were in (the hospital), they actually used my photo for prayer; we really don’t know the power of what we put out there,” Verger said.

To go along with the hearts, Meader has also begun to attach inspirational quotes to orders and even had a large wooden heart installed at the curbside spot at the restaurant, crafted and donated by neighbor and retired doctor Tim Tolford.

“With all of this, the hope is that it grows, which is why we are using #love and #powerofcommunity for it, we hope that it inspires others to find ways, give back and help one another out. We can’t take away the pandemic, we can’t take away the hardship, but we can have moments of joy and love,” Meader said.