Welcome To Housing Bi-Weekly Blog

Friday February 6, 2026

Greetings Everyone!

I have a feeling that today, February 2, 2026, I have learned of an audience that’s smaller than the regular readership for this, the WTH BWB! One word: Melania. I don’t want to wax political but the East Wing of the White House is gone, so is the rose garden that was started back in 1913. The Kennedy Center, known for historical command performances of all kinds, is not only renamed but I heard today it is being closed for two full years for renovations.

I miss the spirit that used to be prevalent and not so divisive and filled with vitriol. How do I deal with it being somewhat of a news junkie? I discovered some great, simple TV shows from years gone by. Namely, the great series from the 1960s called “Leave It To Beaver.” Being limited after a fall just over three weeks ago, I finally started walking upright again, at least with my rollator/walker. I also am living the instructions from Weird Al Yankovic in his song, “Dare To Be Stupid.” It had this line: “You can be a coffee achiever… you can sit around the house and watch Leave It To Beaver. The future’s up to you, so what you gonna do? Dare to be stupid.”

The next wave of volunteers from the University of Maine is due to come to the warehouse on Saturday the 7th from the fraternity that helped just about the same time last year, from Sigma Phi Epsilon or as they refer to themselves as SigEp.

February 6, 2026

SigEp as I mentioned is due tomorrow morning, the second time in two years, and the nice addition for 2026 is the fact that a reporter named Cali Warren called and will be doing a story tomorrow. She works at WVII/WFVX, the ABC and FOX affiliate in Bangor. We hit it off quickly as when she told me her name, I spelled it aloud as “C-A-L-I?” She was delighted as people generally spell it differently. “You got it right on the first time!”

I figured it might be spelled that way as people for the last few years have referred to California as “Cali.” It never ceases to amaze me how supportive and positive the local media is in the Bangor market. Between the radio stations which are many in this area and cover a number of genres and demographics. TV stations do a lot for us as well and despite the fairly small size of the Bangor market, we have affiliates to NBC, CBS/CW, ABC/FOX.

I worked in radio for over a dozen years and the cooperation and interest in promoting community events and programs is outstanding.

Today we had a great meeting of the Fundraising Committee headed up by Craig Saunders who works for Machias Savings Bank. We received a nice check from MSB recently as his team at the bank had a holiday party, instead of giving gifts to each other, they voted on charities and WTH was one of two that received a cash donation. Monday I will be reaching out to a contact at the bank to show me how to deposit money electronically.

I have been homebound and inside now for a month as of tomorrow/Saturday the 7th. My good friend who also does handyman work for me and my wife as well as for WTH was kind enough to stop by the UPS Store and grab the mail.

Included in the mail was a check from a local church’s women’s group. On Monday I will be as I say figuring out how to electronically make the deposit.

One of the new volunteers, Lisa Maxcy from Community Health and Counseling, has been very active and is very interested in networking on our behalf.

In fact, a networking workshop recently held at Rangeley Hall on Sylvan Road (part of Eastern Maine Community College) was not only attended by Lisa, but also by Craig Saunders.

 A few months from now we hope to have some to host an informational reception, and Rangeley Hall would probably be a great choice. It has a lot of parking, it’s all on one level and they have a built-in advantage of a culinary program that’s part of EMCC.

February 7, 2026

A day late, yes. But NOT a dollar short.

The fraternity visit had 15 able bodied young men come out and sort and remove a lot of what is best termed “Cultch.” The majority of items were likely broken and things that weren’t given with thought. Our version of the Golden Rule is something we call the Dignity Factor. It simply asks people to think when they donate something, “If I was in need, would I want to receive what I’m donating?”

We sometimes get broken or soiled items, usually tucked in with nice, unbroken, clean things. The issue is that people who donate worn out, dirty of broken items don’t stop to think we’re an ALL-volunteer nonprofit with a tight budget AND we have to pay to remove it.

We have 3 solar powered security cameras; I got new mini-SD cards for them as the original ones were misplaced by a former volunteer. We still don’t have Wi-Fi access as it’s something we haven’t been able to get at a discounted rate, let alone for free.

THIS JUST IN!

I like to write ‘Honor Roll’ Thank You letters and asked the SigEp leader to send me the list of members who were there to help:

Here is the list of guys from Sigma Phi Epsilon that helped out at Welcome To Housing today: 

Ben Nathan

Nick Johnston

Hayden Leone 

Will Riddle

Eli Corridon-Crum

Logan Spratt

Caleb Canders 

Hayna Francis

Kingston Kibler

Aaron Williams 

Malachi Lowery

Rowan Tate

Luke Davidson

Mason Hartery

Jacob Bentley 

Our next Board of Trustees meeting is on the 25th of this month and we’re going to focus on strategic planning and polishing up our Case Statement so that we will have something brief and meaningful to share with people. It consists of something like a mission statement and a real-world example of how we’ve helped someone.

The idea is for all of our volunteers to have a consistent message when talking to the public, whether it’s one on one or to a group.

Well, today, marks a full month I have been indoors after my fall. My ankle is still in pain but it’s getting better slowly. I think I mentioned before that a great late volunteer who was in his 80s once came in to where I was working looking comically upset. I asked him what was up and he said, “DON’T GET OLD!” He was the one that told me as a kid, he was called out of the classroom with his schoolmates to see something… The Hindenburg. You know? The big airship that blew up in Lakehurst, New Jersey.

Too bad it didn’t just use Hot Air instead of unstable gas. Good advice from me, a major source of “hot air.”

Have a great couple of weeks everyone.  

Yours Truly,

Christopher Olsen
Founder and Board President
welcometohousing@gmail.com
(207) 745-1287