Houlton Humane Society is community favorite for service

By Elna Seabrooks
Staff Writer
    HOULTON — A check for $1,000 arrived just in time to help the Houlton Humane Society with the escalating vet bills incurred to treat animals suffering through an outbreak of ringworm.
Houlton Pioneer Times Photo/Elna Seabrooks
COMMUNITY’S CHOICE — Heather Miller, Houlton Humane Society executive director, left, accepts a check for $1,000 for the non-profit organization through the Community Matters More campaign. Chris Nickerson, vice president and northern area sales manager for Bangor Savings Bank, is presenting the check on behalf of the bank.
    Chris Nickerson, vice president and northern area sales manager for Bangor Savings Bank, made the presentation saying the Humane Society was one of three winners from the Houlton area.
    Also getting a $1,000-nod for just being on the ballot for the Community Matters More campaign was the Field of Dreams program and Mill Pond’s after-school program. Bank staff nominates community organizations for the ballots.
    When Heather Miller accepted the check, she said it meant “a lot and it will come in handy to pay the vet bill and ongoing costs.” The animal population is down to 31 cats and six dogs at the shelter. But, Miller, Humane Society executive director, added that 24 kittens under 8 weeks old are in foster care due to the quarantine. She added that “the treatment is hard on cats and while some are bouncing back, it’s hard to tell who is going to make it. The number of animals is going down but vet bills are up in the thousands because the vet is working around the clock.”
    Nickerson said for the past three years the Community Matters More campaign “delivers $100,000 to non-profit organizations throughout the state of Maine and the community determines where that money goes” by voting for their choices on the ballot or by writing in the names of organizations.