Dead River Company, United Way of Greater Portland raise $127,600 for heating assistance

    PORTLAND — Dead River Company and United Way of Greater Portland have announced the results of the Share the Warmth fund-raising campaign aimed at helping families and individuals in need of heating assistance in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. With help from more than 100 individuals and several businesses, the campaign raised $127,600 — including the $100,000 Dead River Company commitment. Share the Warmth helped 350 households stay warm across the three states. Although Dead River Company originally planned to match every dollar collected up to $100,000, the company still decided to make the full $100,000 donation. At this time, all funds raised by the campaign have been distributed.
    In Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, approximately one in 10 households are anticipated to need heating assistance. Because of the cold winter and increased demand, federal and state fuel assistance funds rapidly depleted in northern New England. Reports from 2-1-1 Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont indicate that calls for fuel assistance this year increased on average close to 40 percent across the three states.
    “Throughout the course of the fund-raising effort, we saw the need for fuel assistance was so great, we remained committed to giving $100,000 to help families across our service footprint stay warm,” said Bob Moore, president and CEO of Dead River Company. “Fuel assistance is an important part of our corporate giving program and will continue to be so in the coming years. We are grateful to every business that donated to Share the Warmth and to the nearly 100 individuals who made contributions so that more families could stay warm this winter.”
    Since the launch of Share the Warmth, many stories have been reported by 2-1-1 of people calling to request fuel assistance. In Maine, these range from a family of six in Brunswick where both parents worked full time and were not eligible for energy assistance from government-funded programs but had less than one day of fuel remaining and no ability to purchase more for at least two weeks; to a 55-year old woman in Piscataquis County who had been out of fuel for almost a month and was not eligible for general assistance because of her disability income levels and having already accessed the federal fuel assistance program; to an elderly woman in Cumberland County who had used all the resources available to her and was unable to start her furnace.
    “These stories tell us there is tremendous need in Maine and that this fundraising initiative came at a time when it was most needed,” said Suzanne McCormick, president and CEO, United Way of Greater Portland. “We thank Dead River Company for reaching out to us to manage collection and distribution of funds for Share the Warmth and to everyone who made contributions — every bit helped and we were able to regularly distribute funds and meet some of the need in our state more quickly.”