Courtesy / Maine Seacoast Mission
Maine Seacoast Mission’s master plan includes a new Downeast Engagement Center, seen top left, with a new food pantry, increased storage space and flexible community space.
Updated: January 24, 2023
Maine Seacoast Mission launches $1.8M fundraiser for Cherryfield campus
Courtesy / Maine Seacoast Mission
The Downeast Engagement Center would include a new food pantry, increased storage space and flexible community space.
The Maine Seacoast Mission, headquartered in Northeast Harbor, launched a $1.8 million capital campaign to fund renovations and additions on the mission’s 63-acre campus in Cherryfield.
The nonprofit may be best known for its providing services through the vessel "Sunbeam," working with the islands of Matinicus, Monhegan, Isle au Haut, Frenchboro, Swan’s Island, Great Cranberry and Islesford.
But its Cherryfield campus, in Washington County, also provides critical services, including a much-needed food pantry.
In 2021, the food pantry there supported 2,033 people across 784 households each month, distributing 63,000 pounds of food. An education center there provides over 1,900 hours of educational programming across seven schools and works with over 500 families.
What the capital campaign will fund
The Cherryfield improvements will include the conversion of the administrative building into a welcome center that will feature a food pantry in the style of a rural Maine general store. The plan includes flexible community space for healthy living programs and more storage space. The space now housing the food pantry will be converted into a staging area for programs. The facility will be called the Downeast Engagement Center.
The Cherryfield campus also includes the Ed and Connie Greaves Education Center, known as EdGE, and the Weald Bethel Community Center.
“Everywhere you go in Downeast Maine, you hear Mission stories: food in a time of need, a home repaired, a generation of EdGE students, thousands of scholarships, those signature Christmas presents wrapped in white paper and red string,” said Mission President John Zavodny. “And we believe that our Downeast campus, buildings, and program areas should be just as welcoming, work just as hard and serve just as thoughtfully.”
The campaign would also replace an aging ropes course at the Ed and Connie Greaves Education Center, which is used for leadership and skill-building sessions with students. The new pole-based challenge course is expected to be safer, more visible and easier to maintain. An open pavilion that features gathering space and a playground next to the EdGE center will be added.
Retreat cabins are to be built near the Weald Bethel Community Center as a three-season housing opportunity designed to allow the mission to serve as a day-long and overnight retreat hub for partners, housing rehabilitation volunteers and youth.
Physical updates to the campus would provide a natural flow between program, service and staff work areas, and would lower barriers between formal programs, informal interactions and access to services.
To learn more, click here.
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