FARMINGTON — The Farmington Area Ecumenical Share and Care Food Closet is seeking votes.
For a second year, the Maine Masonic Charitable Foundation of the Grand Lodge of Masons in Maine will provide 24 separate grants to non-profit organizations across the State of Maine.
Three non-profit organizations were nominated by local Freemasons from each of 24 districts in the state, Mark Rustin, grand secretary for the foundation, said.
The local food pantry could receive $2,000 from the grant if they receive enough support.
Voting takes place from Jan. 15 through the 31. Votes may be cast, once a day, at www.MasonicCharitableFoundation.org
Click on the header Building Our Community 2016, scroll down and over to the right to District 15 and click on the dot by Farmington Area Ecumenical Ministry Care and Share Food Closet, Leiza Hiltz Scerbo, director, said.
And, it is one vote once every 24-hours, Rustin said.
Two other local organizations are also in the running for this district’s grant, the United Methodist Ecumenical Ministry Food Pantry in Salem and the Franklin County Children’s Task Force in Farmington. Voters can also write in nominations.
“The Masonic Charitable Foundation is a masonic charity providing support to those inside and outside the Masonry,” according to the website.
For this second year, members of lodges in each district were asked to get together and nominate 501(C)3 tax-exempt organizations who would be worthy recipients of the grant, Rustin said. There are about 18,000 Masons in Maine.
A total of $48,000 will be given out through 24 grants to organizations in Maine in February.
Through profitable investments, the Masonic Charitable Foundation can use the annual income from those investments to provide grants, give direct assistance and put funds back in to communities, he said.
One popular matching grant is the Bikes for Books program, he said. Local lodges can raise funds and receive funding from the foundation to purchase bicycles for school children who read the most books. The Foundation provides helmets for free to go with them.
In communities where the Bikes for Books program has taken place for a few years, reading proficiency has risen among participating students, he said.
Lodges can also participate in community betterment programs where they raise funding to help an organization or town and the Foundation matches the amount up to $500. The same is done for a youth betterment projects such as working on a little league baseball field or supporting a high school project graduation, he said.
All together, the Foundation’s charitable programs total nearly $400,000 a year in Maine. Across the country, Freemasons give about $3 million a day, every day, to benefit society, he said.
Masons provide for the Shriners burn units and orthopedic hospitals, host dyslexic learning centers like those in Portland and Bangor, conduct heart, cancer, eye and schizophrenic research and award scholarships to name a few of their efforts.
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