For those that may have missed it in the hustle and bustle of Memorial Day Weekend, we ran our first of five Community Matters pages in The Times Record last Friday. The page highlights businesses who are re-opening or continuing to be open with their hours, whether they are curbside, if they offer online ordering, etc. We will be running the pages for another four Fridays thanks to our sponsors: Bill Dodge Auto Group, Rusty Lantern Markets, Priority Real Estate Group, The Times Record and the Southern Midcoast Maine Chamber (which I’m the executive director of).
In the pages we will also have some Community Matters stories — stories that matter to the community. Each week we will highlight one main good news story in the pages and perhaps have room for a few other good news blurbs. It’s that last part that’s important today.
For those that don’t know, the idea for the extra stories of good news came from a YouTube channel called SGN: Some Good News. For eight weeks, television celebrity John Krasinski (he played Jim Halpert on The Office and plays Jack Ryan on Jack Ryan on Amazon now) created a 20-minute show of good news stories from around the country. It was a collection of stories and videos people submitted and it was very popular. If you haven’t seen it, I urge you to look it up and find the clips — very fun and all-age appropriate.
As a fan of the SGN web series, I reached out to my chamber members and asked for their good news stories. My idea was, after our main story in the Community Matters page, I could pop one or two good news story blurbs in after it. We received dozens of submissions, and quite by accident, I now have a collection of really incredible stories of businesses helping each other.
With that, I wanted to share a few of these stories this week. We’re all overwhelmed with the very necessary tracking of the virus, its spread, its complications to our community health and our lives, and I feel like we have missed some of the others stories, that are just hopeful. So this week I wanted to highlight a few of those below. BTW, if you have a story of a business helping out the community, their own employees or community members helping non-profits, share them with me. Any good news works, and I’ll continue to try and add those to our regular mix of news through the chamber, because as important as it is to keep our community informed about Covid-19, it’s also important to raise the spirits of each other as well.
BIW Provides Free Lunch to their Employees Keeping A Dozen Local Restaurants Afloat
In a letter that John Brigance wrote that ran in the Portland Press Herald on May 8, BIW has ordered more than 100,000 meals for their workers since Covid-19 began from local restaurants. For them, it helped prevent workers leaving for lunch and coming into contact with numerous people along the way, plus they could also ensure that the meals that came from particular businesses had been prepared with those concerns in mind. They provided the lunches at no cost to the employees. The letter of thanks was said to be submitted on behalf of: Fionas Catering, Maes Café, The Cabin, Beale St. BBQ, Mateos Hacienda, Bruno’s, JR Maxwells, Fire House Subs, Byrnes Irish Pub, Portland Pie Co., Little Dog Coffee Shop, Casco Bay Food and Beverage, Sam’s Italian, Midcoast Pizza and More, Centre Street Bakery, and others in the greater Bath/ Brunswick/Topsham area that contributed.
National Guard Trains for Fit Testing N95 Masks for Healthcare Workers
The Maine National Guard on April 24 & 27 trained with the Maine CDC on how to properly fit test healthcare workers for N95 masks. This is critical for our frontline healthcare workers who may not have an expert on staff with the niche expertise. Since the training the Maine National Guard has been going to several assisted living communities, and long-term care sites to train employees on the proper technique so they can stay safe. In fact they trained the Plant Memorial Home staff just this week.
Firehouse Fitness Program Helping Bowdoinham Food Bank
Rita H. Losee ScD, RN and author of Soaring Seniors: Stories, Steps and Strategies for Living Full-Out after Fifty, Sixty, Seventy… has been leading fitness classes with Jane Pulk in the parking lot behind the Bowdoinham Firehouse, dubbing it Firehouse Fitness. The classes run on Monday and Wednesday morning with a social distancing approved maximum of 10 participants. Participants have been making donations for the classes and that money has been donated directly to the Bowdoinham Food Bank.
Sam’s Italian Sandwich Shop, Union Street Bakery, Big Top Deli Reducing Prices for Essential Worker Lunches
There have been several restaurants I’ve seen on social media being promoted for offering reduced priced lunches for donors who want to buy lunches for essential workers. For example, Sam’s Italian Sandwich Shop was approached by a few businesses who wanted to provide lunch for everyone at Mid Coast Hospital, and so they created a reduced priced bagged lunch and delivered them on-site. Union Street Bakery and Big Top Deli, have done similar reductions to help donors support essential workers and non-profits with free lunch. To the anonymous donors, thank you, and to the restaurants cutting their prices in a tough time to do so, thank you as well.
Plant Memorial Home Bottle Drive a Huge Success Thanks to the Community
The Plant Memorial Home gave two huge thanks this week for their recent bottle drive. As they said, they had a mountain of bottles and cans that were made possible by the community who saved them and donated them. Also they gave a huge shout out to Bath Redemption Center who helped count and collect the bottles and cans. Great work all!
Cory King is the executive director of the Southern Midcoast Maine Chamber.
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