WTH BWB December 12, 2025

Greetings All,

Just a matter of shopping days before Christmas.

Ever since my Mom passed at the age of 95, holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas have just been my beloved and our 6 felines, a.k.a. Maine Coon cats. On Thursday of this week, we’re having a get-together at Joe and Althea Lawlor’s for dinner and an informal, annual meeting along with Dennis Wint, our volunteer mentor from SCORE (Service Corps Of Retired Executives). I’m looking forward to meeting him in person, as I believe the other trustees are as well. The other news for this edition is the fact that I’m retiring from real estate after 21 years in the field. I got into the field for one reason, the same reason I started Welcome To Housing… to HELP people…period end of story. The field has changed a lot, and I would have stayed one more year as my 21 hours of continuing education that’s required for every 2 years of licensure were already completed. I ended up in the field in 2004 after I got done with my last paid nonprofit position. Originally when offered an all-commission position at a TV station years ago, I didn’t go for it as living on commission scared the daylights out of me. There’s something nice about a steady paycheck. Real Estate is all commission, and you can do well if you’re good at “prospecting.” That, to me, is another way of saying, “pestering” anyone and EVERYONE you know for business. That’s just NOT me. I did okay but I could have done much better. It was my mobility issues though that really made up my mind. When I have a hard time walking, let alone going up and down stairs, I can’t really do what I need to do to provide good service for clients, whether they’re buyers looking over houses or sellers who need me to photograph their home for the listing.

December 10, 2025

The roads are icy and there’s a certain comfort knowing I don’t have to drive anywhere. Craig Saunders is giving me a ride to the dinner meeting tomorrow night. It will be nice as there’s not a lot of space to park by Joe Lawlor’s house. We’re going to make sure there’s a link to join virtually for those who can’t make it to the meeting. I still can’t get my head wrapped around how far WTH has become in the last 14+ years. Looking forward to getting a Christmas tree in the living room. We haven’t had a fake tree since we moved here in 1999. Moved here, meaning the house, instead of the apartment where we lived for 13 years. We have a new volunteer now who’s interested in working on fundraising. Her name is Lisa Maxcy and she works for Community Health and Counseling. There’s so much potential for us to raise awareness and private funds through different resources.

Saturday, December 13, 2025

We picked up our Christmas Tree at Sprague’s Nursery in Bangor today and Pat LaMarche picked up 4 quilts for her Memorial Blanket project which will be in Denver, Colorado this year and New York City next year. Robin made 3 and one was a partially completed, the top was done but had no backing, etc. Robin finished that one. The quilt top was one that we received from a family whose member who was a quilter, but had passed away. We currently have 3 banker boxes full of fabric from the same family that we will give out to people willing to make quilts and blankets for the project. After they are displayed, they are redistributed to organizations that give them out to homeless and recently housed people. The Annual Meeting went well, despite only 3 board members and our SCORE mentor Dennis Wint being the only people in person with the rest online. Melony Stockley, Janet “Jan” Doucette, SammiJo Thibeault, and Aaron Gilbert were online and Joe Lawlor hosted with Craig Saunders ordering and picking up a couple of really delicious pizzas as we met in Joe’s dining room in Hampden. We managed to pass the updated bylaws and after many years of having a board, we voted to “approve” the slate of volunteers to serve on the Board of Trustees and the slate of officers. I’m the President, Janet “Jan” Doucette agreed to be Vice President, Melony Stockley as Secretary and my beloved, Robin Pinkham will continue as Treasurer. We also approved the 2026 budget, talked about goals for 2026 not just for the overall Board but also the committees which include Governance, Finance and Fiscal Performance, Outreach and Public Engagement, Volunteer Development, Fundraising Advisory Committee, Integrated Marketing and Communications. The seventh we spoke of is the Executive Committee which I believe is made up of the 4 officers. The long-term planning was another major focus, and Dennis was complimentary of what we’ve accomplished, especially considering the fact we have no paid staff or as we like to say, we’re 100-percent volunteer driven. We also reviewed our Case Statement; including the one I drafted and we will revisit and polish. The idea is to have a consistent message that we can all share with others, whether they’re members of the media, potential donors, potential volunteers or anyone else who wants to learn more about us. Post-Tree Up righting…

I’m BACK! The toughest part of putting up a real tree is physically getting on the floor and then after turning the four eyebolts as far as they’ll go to secure the trunk of the Christmas Tree and then getting myself back OFF the floor into a standing position. Granted it’s NOT the huge tree you see in Rockefeller Center in New York City, but it probably smells better as our living room is not subject to hundreds (or thousands) of passing taxi cabs. I’m looking forward to getting used to NOT being a real estate broker. My wife has been supportive of my work with WTH as being my “job.” One of the newer volunteers, Lisa Maxcy, who works for Community Health and Counseling, is interested in helping with fundraising. One of the things that she’s taking the lead on, is the Clynk program which is the returnable (bottles and cans) program through Hannaford Supermarkets. Using bags made specifically for the program, you affix a barcode sticker to a spot marked on the bag so the deposit amount from the bag gets electronically designated to the cause. In the past we’ve also had numerous redemption centers interested in letting us work with them, meaning people could turn in their bottles and cans and designate them for us. The issue has been, as with most things we do, a lack of available volunteers to set-up and follow-up with them. As I have mentioned in past editions of this bi-weekly blog that we hope to have a volunteer recruitment reception. There is so much potential out there, not only for volunteers, but for monetary donations. Marketing, headed up by Joe Lawlor, will be a tremendous help as so many people still don’t understand what we do, how simple it truly is, and how important it is to so many people. I share the analogy often but again, what we do is the SAME concept as a food pantry or food bank, but with furniture, home décor and adaptive equipment instead of food. Of the many jobs I had from when I was a kid, working with food is my least favorite, especially with restaurants. Not only the stress of the work, but food, like when I worked for a florist, it’s perishable and you have to deal with deadlines.

In terms of fundraising, there are so many untapped resources, especially through businesses, especially with the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce. We also discussed getting more involvement from the more than 75 agencies whose clients we serve. Every time I think I’ve heard of all of them a new one approaches us. One of the more recent ones, True Connections Maine, is based in Lincoln. Also, it’s my hope to see more businesses, agencies and organizations hold events to raise awareness and funds. We eventually hope to be able to raise $25,000 to $35,000 annually if not more, without having to rely on grants. Grants, as I always say, are great but you really can’t depend on them for year-to-year funding.

Well, I am going to call it a “BWB” for this edition. I hope EVERYONE has a happy, safe and peaceful Holiday Season, whether it’s Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa and New Year. I also get a kick out of the fictional holiday Festivus from the situation comedy, Seinfeld. It includes the Festivus Pole, the Feats of Strength, the Airing of Grievances and the motto, “Festivus, for the Rest of Us!”

Peace and love.

Christopher Olsen

Founder and Board President

welcometohousing@gmail.com