September 17, 2020 POLAND, ME-- About 15 to 20 volunteers from Lewiston’s local Walmart, will donate their time and resources to help paint the iconic Dining Hall and fix up the Library at Agassiz Village, a nonprofit camp for underprivileged youth in Poland, ME.
Tammy Churchill, the Human Resources Manager at Walmart’s Lewiston Transportation site, has been organizing volunteer days at Agassiz for the past 3 years, as a way to utilize some of Walmart’s resources and manpower to give back to the surrounding community. In the past, her group has donated, delivered, and assembled beds for Agassiz’s youth cabins, which allowed them to direct more money into their programming which focuses on teaching social, emotional, and leadership skills to the at-risk children they serve. This year, Tammy’s team will be doing some light landscaping of the grounds, painting, and will even do a little roofing!
In addition to contributing their hard work to help beautify the grounds, this local Walmart branch has been recognized as the winner of the Helen R. Walton Facility Award (HWA) for setting the standard as an Office of the Community through their charitable giving, associate involvement, and volunteerism. In return, the Lewiston Walmart has selected Agassiz Village as the recipient of a $10,000 grant through the Walton Family Foundation. “We’re thrilled to be able to provide Agassiz Village with a $10,000 grant. What you do for the children of this Generation is absolutely amazing and life changing. Thank you for ALL you do!” said Churchill as she shared the joyous news with the Agassiz team. Churchill will be formally presenting the check at Agassiz at 10am on Thursday, Sept. 17th.
“We are incredibly grateful for the amazing support from the Lewiston Walmart team over the past several years. What they’ve done for this camp has been life changing for the at-risk youth we serve. And what might be even more exciting is that Agassiz Village’s board just approved a strategic plan that will increase the numbers of kids Agassiz serves from Maine to Massachusetts, so more kids will benefit from these volunteers’ hard work,” said Lisa Carter, Agassiz Village’s Executive Director.
Agassiz Village’s new strategic plan puts a greater emphasis on serving kids in Agassiz’s back yard - youth from low-income families in Lewiston/Auburn, Androscoggin County and Portland, Maine – and Agassiz plans to increase its involvement with the local community and local nonprofits to ensure they are reaching more kids from Maine.
