Church raises thousands for heating fuel fund
ELLSWORTH St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church took its annual holiday marketplace online during the pandemic and in the process raised $6,500 to help keep local homes warm.
The market sold everything from placemats, baby clothes and baskets to bakery items such as pies, fudge and breads. Proceeds from the 2020 virtual market exceeded the funds raised from all prior years. The money was donated to the THAW Fund, which is managed by Downeast Community Partners and provides heat and energy assistance based on need, not income.
The church operates under the motto “To love. To pray. To serve.”
Bikers fight hunger
ELLSWORTH Hancock County United Bikers of Maine gathered donations from local businesses to help out 21 families facing food insecurity over Christmas.
Club members put together large baskets containing a roasting pan, large turkey, potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing, gravy, vegetables, homemade pies and a box of candy canes along with a personalized Christmas card with a gift card to Hannaford enclosed.
The group got names of families in need from the Bucksport school system, Bucksport Community Concerns and Downeast Community Partners in Ellsworth.
“We reached out to local grocery stores and businesses for donations, and we were completely blown away with the response from people who were more than willing to pitch in to help out neighbors in need,” said Robby Perkins, Hancock County director for United Bikers of Maine.
$92M awarded to local businesses
ELLSWORTH More than 2,200 Hancock County businesses received a total of $92.24 million as part of the Paycheck Protection Program, a measure intended at staving off economic collapse as businesses around the country scaled or shut down due to the pandemic, according to an analysis by The American of recently released federal data.
The average loan amount to a business based in Hancock County was roughly $42,000. The overwhelming majority of the loans 2,111 of the 2,201, or 96 percent were for $150,000 or less, with all of those payments accounting for a little more than half of the total funding distributed in the county, or close to $50 million. On the other end of the scale, seven companies, five of which are nonprofits with several hundred employees, received 20 percent of the total funds distributed, totaling nearly $19 million.