Meet the Candidates for Common Cents 2027

Animal Rescue

PAWS Animal Adoption Center (Past recipient August 2021, February 2024)
At PAWS, the mission is to provide care for homeless dogs and cats until they can be placed in permanent, responsible homes, while promoting humane values in the community through outreach and educational programs. They envision a humane world for every animal and are guided by compassion, advocacy, respect, education and support. These values shape every program they offer, from sheltering and adoption to community-based services like the Pet Food Pantry, Community Cares Clinic, and partnerships with local organizations, to ensure that everything they do centers the wellbeing of both animals and the people who love them.

Peace Ridge Animal Sanctuary (Past recipient April 2018)
Peace Ridge Sanctuary rescues and cares for animals suffering due to neglect, abuse and exploitation. Peace Ridge has three sanctuaries (including Little River Sanctuary in Belfast) that provide permanent, safe homes to over 650 rescued animals, including donkeys, cows, sheep, goats, horses, pigs, turkeys and dogs and cats. Peace Ridge also stewards and protects over 2,000 acres of farm and forest land for wildlife and habitat protection.

Safe Harbor Sanctuary
Safe Harbor Sanctuary is a local non-profit animal rescue. Their mission is to provide a safe place for neglected, abandoned or unwanted animals. They strive to be advocates for animals in need and provide education and resources to address the over-population of cats and dogs.

Art

Belfast Flying Shoes
Belfast Flying Shoes will use this donation to support one of their most important programs – participatory dance and music residencies in public schools. These participatory arts programs offer students, staff, and families a generous dose of the eye contact, safe physical touch, engaging social interaction, cooperation, positive regard, and acceptance that all need to flourish. Since 2005, Flying Shoes has built community and cultivated well-being through the joys of traditional music and dance for people of all backgrounds and identities.

Belfast Maskers/Basil Burwell Community Theater (Past recipient May 2018)
The Belfast Maskers provides hands-on opportunities for people of all ages and abilities. Through the performing arts, they continue their longstanding commitment to the enrichment, entertainment, and education of their community.

CLAP! Creative Learning and Performance (Past recipient, January 2018)
The mission of Creative Learning and Performance, CLAP! and The Playhouse is to support and offer creative educational experiences in theater arts and performance. Their goal is to sustain a multi-age theater education program and produce and promote live theater performances at The Playhouse in Belfast. Through rehearsal and performance, young people gain assurance and competence in one's own abilities — qualities that shape them into strong, positive contributors to their communities.

Northeast Historic Film
Northeast Historic Film collects amateur films - largely home movies - of all the people of Maine and preserves them for the future. Their collections contain over ten million feet of film and more than 8,000 hours of video. They are saving moving images of Maine’s heritage - from its landmarks and touchstones like the Mountain, working waterfronts, Maine ways such as ice fishing and family logging enterprises, and the private and domestic lives of Mainers.

Penobscot Bay Singers
Penobscot Bay Singers is a local singing group that brings quality singing to the local community. They are dedicated to choral excellence and building the musical knowledge of their members and the community.

Penobscot Bay Orchestra
Penobscot Bay Orchestra is a community orchestra founded by a small group of adult musicians during the COVID pandemic, and has grown to 58 players from all walks of life and all skill levels in the Midcoast area. They play music most suitable for intermediate to advanced players, but will accept any interested members of the community and do not require auditions. From its inception, the PBO has performed free concerts each winter, spring, and summer for the community.

Torchlight
Torchlight is a community multimedia studio that provides access to production tools and skills, builds long-term sustainability for local public media outlets, creates education and mentorship opportunities, and improves community connection through storytelling and events. It serves as a community connector across generations through media, storytelling, and education. Torchlight provides workforce and creative youth development, empowers local voices and youth self-expression, and uses their storefront studio as a catalyst for public imagination.

Trans Poetics Archive
Trans Poetics Archive curates occasions for the celebration of trans narratives through collaborative multimedia programs. They publish an annual trans poetry anthology and curate inclusive, interactive public events, including the annual 6-day Transcendence Poetry Festival. They create, record and archive trans poetics and prose to establish representation for present and future trans poets and authors in Maine and beyond.

Community

Belfast Community Radio (Past recipient February 2018, May 2023)
WBFY provides a wide variety of musical entertainment and content to area residents, but most importantly, it gives residents who want to share a passion with the community a microphone and broadcast time to do that. Over 80% of their programming is locally produced by volunteers, with diverse content ranging from swing music from the ‘30’s to youth radio dubstep, from country to rock, blues, showtunes and classical. Their streaming broadcasts have listeners worldwide so family and friends of their hosts can hear them wherever they live.

Belfast Garden Club
The Belfast Garden Club (BGC), formed in 1928, has 120+ members who work together to protect the environment, educate the public about nature and gardening, and become stewards of the air, water, forest, and wildlife. BGC volunteers maintain 13 public gardens adding beauty to Belfast, provide five to six 4-H camp scholarships for 5th grade kids, and work with local school garden programs. The BGC recently completed a comprehensive inventory of Belfast street trees that will serve the community and City for years to come.

Belfast Senior College
Belfast Senior College is a cooperative group of volunteers that provides life-long learning opportunities for senior citizens, regardless of race, gender, religion, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, and physical abilities. These educational activities are planned, promoted, and taught by volunteers with the intention of providing intellectual stimulation, practical knowledge, social interaction, and fun for people aged 50 and older. They practice equity and inclusivity by providing free classes for those who cannot afford the tuition.

Lincolnville Historical Society
The Lincolnville Historical Society strives to promote community participation and interest in people’s shared history, beginning with the First People. Their Schoolhouse Museum showcases the people, occupations, homes, commerce, and fishing and farming traditions that have created this place called home. They offer educational and enrichment programming, research opportunities, and sponsorship of community events for all ages, in person and online.

Maine Celtic Celebration
The Maine Celtic Celebration has been promoting Maine Celtic connections and Celtic culture in the Mid-Coast since 2007. On the third or fourth weekend each July, traditional Celtic tunes and songs fill the air from two stages on the waterfront of Belfast, Maine. Showcasing the very best in Celtic music along with other cultural events - Highland Games, Cheese Rolling competitions, workshops, exhibits, food and beverage, and merchandise vendors - their hope is for everyone to enjoy and learn about the Celtic heritage of Maine as well as provide an opportunity for the community to gather in a place of harmony and friendship.

Maine Cheese Guild
The Maine Cheese Guild reflects the cooperative values of self-help, shared responsibility, equality, equity, and solidarity through the way its members support one another. Dairy farming and cheesemaking are challenging endeavors, yet Maine cheesemakers have a genuine tradition of sharing knowledge, offering mentorship, lending a hand, and helping one another navigate the industry's challenges. The Guild helps ensure that Maine’s dairy farms, cheesemaking businesses, agricultural traditions, and the people behind them can continue to thrive.

Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (Past recipient November 2023)
MOFGA is a membership organization built on educating, advocating, and connecting Maine’s agricultural community. MOFGA equips farmers with technical assistance, mentorship, and financial support to build viable, organic operations and advances equity by working to grow a membership that reflects Maine’s diverse farming communities. MOFGA convenes farmers, policymakers, and neighbors around shared challenges from PFAS contamination to pressures facing an aging farmer population, and builds lasting connections through events like the annual Common Ground Country Fair.

Our Town Belfast
Our Town Belfast, powered by community volunteers, exists to support small town business owners and to make our downtown a draw for locals and visitors. Events like the Ice Festival, Belfast Pride, Sidewalk Sale, and Downtown for the Holidays are open to everyone. They bring people downtown and keep dollars circulating close to home.

Rockweed Center
The Rockweed Center is a community gathering space in downtown Belfast for building a resilient, joyful and connected culture that strives to be a refuge for all. Located downtown, the Center has wifi, a snack and beverage station, a community library, plants, lots of seating options (comfy couch and chairs and a few different desks and tables) and it’s warm and sunny! The Rockweed center is open 5 days a week for free drop in hours for anyone to come by and is a space for community events in the evenings and weekends.

Walker School Redevelopment Project
The Walker School Redevelopment Project is raising community funds to renovate the beloved Walker School building, in Liberty, Maine. Community donations are being used to match grant funds from state, federal, and private sources. This hub will house a community center, economic opportunity zone, and municipal offices that foster the health and well-being of the community through social services (including childcare and elder care), additional local businesses, and dynamic recreational, cultural, and educational programming.

Ecology

Alliance for Sears Island
The Alliance for Sears Island (ASI) is a coalition of organizations and individuals that was formed in 2021 in response to the Governor’s proposal to build an offshore wind port (OSW) in Maine. They support permanent conservation of all of Sears Island, and they support the development of a wind port facility at Mack Point, if any such facility is to be built in Penobscot Bay. Their work consists of educating people about the island through presentations and tabling at community events, providing testimony at the legislature against bills that have rolled back protections on the island, analyzing information provided by the State and sharing that information with the public, and conducting our own investigations to confirm or rebut information provided by the State about impacts to the island.

Campaign to Protect Sears Island/Wahsumkik
The Campaign to Protect Sears Island/Wahsumkik's mission is to reunify, ensure free access, and preserve all of Sears Island/Wahsumkik’s land and waters for people and nature. They  recognize and strive to promote the value of Sears Island / Wahsumkik unto itself, the Penobscot River, Penobscot Bay, and for future climate resilience. Any and all who love the island and want to see it permanently protected can join the Campaign in any one action, or join their Steering Committee to lead the Campaign.

Coyote Center for Carnivore Ecology and Coexistence (Past recipient October 2020)
The Coyote Center's mission is to introduce community members to the immense value carnivores play in ecosystems that we as humans depend on. Their mission is to enhance awareness of the value of carnivore presence on our planet by providing a wide range of creative, educational and research experiences for the people of New England, focusing on carnivores, their habitat, and their relationship to us.

Friends of the Harriet L. Hartley Conservation Area
Friends of the Harriet L Hartley Conservation Area (FHLHCA) was formed in 2019 in order to protect 8 acres of fragile intertidal land at the mouth of the Little River in Belfast from potential development of a large international land-based fish farm and factory. For eight years, the Friends have been engaged in raising public awareness about industrial-scale aquaculture and a legal fight to prevent the development. We seek to secure public access and environmental protection of the conservation area for all living things, now and into the future.

Friends of Sears Island (Past recipient August 2019, August 2023)
Friends of Sears Island offers a year-round program of environmental education, recreation, and wellness programs to people of all ages, led by experts and free of charge or by donation. They are a volunteer-led organization, with a part-time outreach coordinator, who promote personal and community health and wellness, and sustainability in all the work they do. They manage and maintain the 601-acre conservation easement on Sears Island on behalf of the State of Maine.

Penobscot Bay Waterkeeper
Penobscot Bay Waterkeeper is grounded in the belief that clean water is a shared resource and that protecting it requires people and communities working together—from headwaters and rural communities to the Penobscot River and coastal waters of Penobscot Bay. They work to empower communities with the science, information, tools, and organizing capacity needed to identify pollution, advocate for solutions, and hold institutions accountable. They create meaningful opportunities for community members to participate in decisions affecting their water, health, livelihoods, and future.

Waldo County Climate Action Coalition
The Waldo County Climate Action Coalition (WCCAC) is a coalition of organizations whose mission is to collaborate to reduce impacts of climate change and build sustainable communities in Waldo County. Our most successful event, the 2025 Climate Resilience Fair, brought together many organizations to share ideas about reducing dependence on fossil fuels and living responsibly in our community. In 2026 we are focusing on food security and helping our neighbors who need assistance apply, and continuing to educate about the negative health effects of single use plastic in our waste stream.

The Wild Blueberry Collective
The women of the Wild Blueberry Collective are pulling together to save not only land, but a long tradition in Maine of blueberry growing and harvesting. Their goal is to preserve the land and give it back to the community to be used as a valuable resource, for harvesting, hiking, and learning, through classes offered by collective members. Maine has lost over 100,000 acres of wild blueberry land in less than 100 years; the Collective intends to save some of this unique and special glacial-carved landscape.

Food Access

GBAM Food Cupboard (Past recipient April 2020, October 2023)
GBAM (Greater Bay Area Ministerium) is a non-profit ecumenical group of persons, representing a wide range of faith communities, working together to improve the lives of community members. They partner with Good Shepherd Food Bank, the US Department of Agriculture, Waldo County Bounty, the Community Garden in Belfast, as well as local farmers to supply nutritious food to their customers. The mission of the GBAM Food Cupboard is to collect, store and distribute food and promote nutrition for those in need, in an atmosphere of dignity and respect.

Neighbor's Cupboard Inc.
The Winterport Neighbor's Cupboard food pantry serves the rural communities of Winterport and Frankfort. The rural nature of both communities make it uniquely situated within Waldo Country as there are no grocery stores in or near either village, with the closest grocery stores being in Searsport or Hampden. The pantry is funded entirely by monetary & food donations and operated entirely by a dedicated staff of volunteers.

Health

Autism Society of Maine
The Autism Society of Maine strengthens community well‑being by promoting inclusion, access, and mutual support for Autistic individuals of all ages and their families. Their programs reflect self‑help and self‑responsibility by empowering people with information, resources, and advocacy tools that support autonomy and dignity. They advance democracy, equality, and equity by centering lived experience, reducing barriers to participation in community life, and ensuring families across Waldo County can access support regardless of income.

Bright Strides
Bright Strides provides art and equine-assisted unmounted therapeutic services to developmentally challenged adults, seniors and other neurodivergent persons from the Waldo and Knox County communities. Our sessions help individuals achieve greater self-confidence, fine motor skills, relationship and team building. Donations help sponsor program attendees from various group homes (Living Innovations, Coastal Opportunities, and senior living facilities).

Maine AllCare (Past Recipient July 2021)
Maine AllCare promotes the establishment of publicly funded health care coverage for all Maine residents. They work towards a publicly funded, privately provided health care system in Maine which can eliminate poor access, promote efficiency and simplicity, and plan effectively for the needs of a diverse population. Maine AllCare advocates that health care be treated as a public good, since it is fundamental to our well-being as individuals and as a democratic nation.

Tessa Lee Libby Treatment Center
The Tessa Lee Libby Treatment Center is a women-centered addiction recovery program offering a continuum of care for area women struggling with substance abuse disorders. Tessa’s House is a 16-bed residential treatment center in Washington, ME for adult women seeking recovery from addiction. Tessa’s House’s environment is built to support the specific needs of the women in their care, with safety, dignity, and individualized attention at the center of everything they do.

Humanitarian

Foster Grandparents Program
The Foster Grandparent Program (FGP), which began in 1965, provides tutors and mentors to children and youth who are disadvantaged or have disabilities. Working one-on-one or in groups and serving between 15 and 40 hours a week, Foster Grandparents provide support in schools, Head Start centers, child care centers and other public and non-profit locations. Serving at one of thousands of local organizations, Foster Grandparents help children learn to read, review school work, reinforce values, provide one-on-one tutoring and guide children at a critical time in their lives.

Greater Bay Area Ministerium Interfaith Fuel Fund
The Greater Bay Area Ministerium Interfaith Fuel Fund works through the auspices of GBAM, a gathering of local clergy and faith leaders and operated out of the Belfast United Methodist Church. The goal of the Interfaith Fuel Fund is to assist those in Waldo County who struggle to heat their homes during the winter months. As such, they align with the values and ethics of the Belfast Co-op and seek to be instrumental in helping all in the community find independence and security, being in solidarity with all.

H.O.M.E. Inc.
Founded in 1970, H.O.M.E. Inc. has a long history of providing essential services and resources to individuals and families experiencing homelessness. H.O.M.E. aims to meet people where they are - whether in need of diversion services to avoid homelessness, or navigation services once in shelters, the H.O.M.E. team meets each person with dignity and support. All services and programs are organized and equipped through a dedicated corps of volunteers and staff, many who went there first for help.

Homeworthy
Homeworthy is a comprehensive services organization working to end the cycle of homelessness through innovation and collaboration around affordable housing as well as reaching whole families through a family shelter and youth program. Homeworthy believes in the social responsibility of supporting our most vulnerable community members. They maintain the dignity of their neighbors who are experiencing homelessness by using a trauma-informed, client-centered approach to breaking cycles of poverty and ending homelessness.

Volunteers of America Northern New England
Volunteers of America Northern New England serves the people of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont with the promise to reach out and uplift the human condition and provide opportunity for individual and community involvement. VOA supports and empowers Northern New England’s most vulnerable groups, including youth, older adults, men and women in the community justice system, homeless veterans, people with disabilities, and those recovering from addictions. VOA is proud to be the largest provider of affordable housing in the country.

Waldo Community Action Partners (WCAP)
Waldo Community Action Partners (WCAP) believe that a stronger community begins with people caring for one another. Their work in the community reflects the cooperative values of self-help, equity, solidarity, and social responsibility by helping individuals and families overcome challenges, build stability, and create brighter futures. Through their programs and partnerships addressing basic needs, housing stability, energy assistance, food security, transportation, and family well-being, they bring people together to share resources, remove barriers, and create opportunities for their friends, families, and neighbors.

Indigenous Communities

Land Peace Foundation
The Land Peace Foundation is committed to preserving the Indigenous way of life, deepening connection to place, and strengthening Wabanaki kinship and ally networks. They do this through strong Indigenous leadership programs, multi-faceted land-based learning opportunities, comprehensive environmental justice programs, and the convening of community healing gatherings.

Recreation

Belfast Curling Club
The Belfast Curling Club operates as the only dedicated curling facility in the state of Maine. Founded in 1959, it has continually grown and is a vital part of the local community, bringing in curlers from all over the US and Canada to bonspiel for weekends and boosting the local economy in the slow winter months. The Belfast Curling Club is volunteer-run and all members work together to improve the club and further the sport of curling.

Come Boating! (Past recipient July 2019)
Come Boating! is a totally volunteer community organization that provides free rowing and access to Belfast Bay to people with a wide range of abilities and ages from 13 to 90. We offer programs for beginners to advanced skills, visitors, youth, re-entry citizen groups, and teams for those who want to race. Volunteers collaborate to maintain the boats and raise funds through community events such as Harborfest and Belfast Launch Day.

Maine Adaptive Sports and Recreation
Maine Adaptive Sports & Recreation promotes year-round education and training for individuals with disabilities in order to develop skills, enhance independence, and provide enjoyment through active recreation. The core values of self-help, self-responsibility, equality, equity, and solidarity, as well as the values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others align strongly between Maine Adaptive and the Belfast Community Co-op.

Waldo County YMCA (Past recipient August 2018)
It is the mission of the Waldo County YMCA to promote the physical, mental, social, and spiritual development of the communities we serve. Their areas of focus include youth development, healthy living, and social responsibility. The YMCA is guided by its core values: caring, honesty, respect, and responsibility.

Youth

Belfast Marine Institute BAHS
The Belfast Marine Institute at the Belfast Area High School is designed to introduce students to the possibilities of the marine world, to get them out, in, on, around and under the waters of Penobscot Bay and Waldo County through career, commercial and public advocacy opportunities.

Camp Jinka
Camp Jinka is a free summer program for kids and teens whose lives have been impacted by loss. Children attending camp have lost a parent. This unique camp offers creative indoor and outdoor activities while encouraging expression and connection with others having a similar life experience.

Dolly Parton Imagination Library in Waldo County
The Dolly Parton Imagination Library program in Waldo County provides age-appropriate books mailed monthly to children's homes until their fifth birthday at no cost to the family. Home libraries are essential in promoting early literacy. This program serves children in all of Waldo County and is supported by local libraries, schools and community organizations.

Dory Learning Center
The Dory Learning Center is a democratic, self-directed learning center located in downtown Belfast, where youth create individualized schedules based on their passions and interests. Democratic decision making allows youth members to shape every aspect of their learning experience from creating classes to hiring staff. Dory offers a full sliding scale to keep this opportunity accessible to all local youth: all fundraising goes directly to fee reductions for low-income families.

Islesboro High School Senior Trip Abroad
Islesboro Central School offers every senior the opportunity to participate in an educational trip abroad, regardless of their family’s financial circumstances. It is a powerful lesson in inclusion, generosity, and shared responsibility, while giving students the opportunity to experience other cultures, broaden their perspectives, and see the world beyond their own community. Throughout the year, students work together to fundraise so that no student is left behind.

Maine School Garden Network (Past recipient December 2023)
The Maine School Garden Network promotes and supports youth gardening in Maine. They support educators and community members to teach, manage, finance and cook in school gardens. Students learn to work and learn cooperatively in the garden, resulting in future citizens who support their communities and become stewards of the earth.

NorthStar Tanglewood 4-H Youth Mentoring
NorthStar Tanglewood 4-H Youth Mentoring is focused on connecting the students of RSU 71 with positive adult mentors and resiliency skills through three pillars: community engagement, cultural exchange and leadership/adventure education. Their goal is to use intentional programming and relationships to create safe spaces where every child feels seen and heard, and to advocate for a culture within the community that values youth presence.

RSU 71
In RSU 71, they are working in partnership with the Belfast Soup Kitchen and the Good Shepherd Food Bank to help support their students and families with supplemental food support, through a Friday backpack program in their elementary schools. Students at THMS and BAHS are encouraged to make food self-selections through a Kindness Pantry, which is located in each of their buildings. They are also implementing a Kindness produce distribution market on the first and third Tuesday of each month, for members of the community to select fresh produce that will be located behind THMS from 9-11am.

RSU 71 Elementary Garden Program (Past recipient June 2023)
The Elementary Garden Program at RSU71 offers educational gardening experiences to all students from Pre-K through 5th grade. Vibrant, inclusive garden classrooms and orchards at each of the district’s five elementary schools foster deep, personal connections to food and the natural world while bringing academic concepts to life.

Please send any questions to info@belfast.coop

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