WTH BWB November 14, 2025
(Translation Welcome To Housings Bi-Weekly Blog)
11/5/2025
The Wellspring Men’s House to the rescue again. Yesterday I was able to ‘borrow’ two of the
gentlemen from the sober living program and take them to help SammiJo our warehouse manager,
load and then unload a lot of furniture. We really need to start requiring people who donate furniture
to ensure what they’re donating is on the GROUND level. That would have helped yesterday, as they
had to go up to a third story of an older house, not only the third story but also the stairs had a very
shallow tread. Thankfully they managed to get everything without any issues.
11/6/2025
Looking forward to a meeting in a matter of minutes on Zoom. The folks with Aroostook County Action
Program (that County’s version of Penquis which is Penobscot and Piscataquis counties) are hosting
a three-day meeting in Millinocket with leaders from similar programs from Hancock and Washington
counties which as of October 1 st , are now under the wing of ACAP. Today, the second day of the event
has a Zoom meeting which is focused on collaboration between agencies in those three counties,
plus organizations like ours that aren’t located in those counties but serve those counties.
The focus of the meeting is so important, and I am thrilled to be a part of it as those three counties
are some of the areas, I did a lot of work with for the March of Dimes from 1988 to 1995.
November 12, 2025
I’ve been sick with a cold now for several days. I am hoping to feel better by Friday when Craig
Saunders and I go to Portland Pie Company on Friday at 2:00. I have a framed thank you certificate
for the restaurant and I also, unbeknownst to Craig, have one for him as well. The event raised just
shy of $50 but more importantly, it gave WTH a nice big splash in the media. In fact the story ran prior
to the event, just a few moments after 6:00pm, which as far as I know, is a very heavily watched time
slot before local news feeds over to the national news. Mark Rediker, who has been with WABI-TV 5,
has been with them for many years and did an incredible job not only with the interviews with Jeremy
Russell from Portland Pie, Co. and yours truly, as well as establishing footage of the location.
I have been meaning to give Craig Saunders a thank you certificate for quite some time now and I
thought it might be a pleasant surprise. After meeting him only once at a Bangor Region Chamber of
Commerce Business After Hours, he came onto the Board of Trustees and soon thereafter took on
the role of chair of the fundraising committee. What was the spark for Craig getting enthused and
involved? It was the understanding that we are an ALL-volunteer driven program.
As the Board of Trustees continues to become more defined by developing a more proactive
approach, we need to figure out what “sparks” people to step up and become involved. As with Craig,
it was the fact of being all volunteer driven. There are other things that make people get involved. I
think mine is empathy, trying to wrap my mind around what some people are going through. As I have
shared before, many times over, I was bullied and “messed with” growing up but I never, ever had to
worry about “want.” I never worried about having a meal, having a roof over my head or a warm bed
to sleep in.
It's like the epiphany I mentioned in the past, that I had playing Frisbee with a classmate at Hebron
Academy. Making conversation while as a South African classmate from Mime School would describe
it, as a couple of guys “hurling a piece of plastic” at each other.
The topic of family came up, and I was the product of my mother who had previously been married
and had 4 kids, one girl and three boys. My father had also been married but had no kids until I came
along. Steve, the kid I was playing Frisbee with, and mind you, we were both about 15 years old,
Steve told me that he had lived with something like five (5) families over his short tenure on Earth. I
was stunned. I couldn’t even begin to imagine losing one family let alone several.
We have two grant opportunities coming our way. We’re going to apply for a grant through the Agnes
M. Lindsay Trust. Quite a few months ago we wrote the required letter of intent to see if we would be
invited to apply and it was approved. We’re going to apply soon for $5,000. Grant requests can be for
up to $7,500 but looking at the grant recipients and their missions and the amounts awarded, I
believe $5,000 would be a good amount to request.
We’re planning on applying for support money, specifically for funds to use for our adaptive
equipment program. We’re able to get many things for that part of our program donated but on
occasion there are things we can’t seem to locate and need to purchase. Things like a knee scooter
or a special piece of equipment that’s not as common as a walker or rollator. A nebulizer is a good
example of something we have purchased in the past as it’s within a reasonable price range and
sometimes is not covered by insurance.
Social media DOES help us locate items that are needed but, in some cases, we have to make a
purchase, and wouldn’t it be great to have funds specifically for items like that? We think so, and I
hope the people with the Lindsay Trust feel the same way. I’m not even sure how many other furniture
banks in Maine, let alone across the country, help with adaptive equipment.
We also have a great contact with the founder of Tindon Health and Wealth that works with people
who have had a claim denied by their insurance carrier. It reminds me of the story I have shared
before. We heard of a person that lost a leg to amputation and was told they could have either a
prosthetic leg OR a wheelchair but NOT both. Imagine being faced with that after losing a limb?
Prosthetic legs are great, but a person can’t just get up and go dancing on it, there needs to be a lot
of physical therapy and having a new artificial leg you would STILL need a wheelchair.
According to Brianna Henward who founded Tindon Health and Wealth, very few people ever appeal
an insurance company’s decision, something like 1-percent. However, the majority of that 1-percent
that challenge an insurance company end up prevailing and have the decision reversed to get what
they need.
The other grant source we’re looking to apply for comes from Opioid Settlement Funds from
Penobscot County, specifically through the County Commission.
The reason I mention it as I believe I did in a prior blog is that we’ve never tracked the number of
people affected by the Opioid Epidemic.
To me it’s NOT just those who were addicted, or who were revived from overdoses by the use of
Narcan, it goes much further. It’s like an accident caused by a drunk driver. As a news reporter and
anchor in radio for many years in Augusta as well as Brewer, quite often the offender walked away
from the wreck with minor injuries while their passengers or those in the other vehicle or innocent
bystanders were more seriously hurt or even killed.
People affected by opioid addiction include the spouses who lost their partners to overdoses, or who
have lost their homes, jobs, etc. due to the actions of those who were addicted.
Thankfully, even though we have not kept records of those we serve who were affected, we recently
came across the website put together by the Margaret Chase Smith Center for Public Policy thanks to
a meeting with a member of the Black Bear Mutual Aid Fund.
A research associate I met with virtually shared that with me and made the dark cloud of complication
that had been hovering over my head dissipate quickly. It felt great as it was unexpected. Having that
source we can look at the numbers of people affected by area and broken down by more detailed
demographics and cross reference it with the estimated number of homeless people in the area that
we serve as they move into permanent housing from shelter programs.
November 13, 2025
It was interesting today at the Penobscot County Cares meeting as I mentioned to the group that
WTH was going to apply for funds from the Opioid Settlement through Penobscot County but not the
City of Bangor. I was surprised when one of the people in the group encouraged me to apply to
BOTH.
Tonight I worked on the application for Penobscot County and as a Hail Mary, I emailed contacts with
Penobscot County Health Care, Wellspring, Fresh Start, Inc. and The Bangor Area Recovery
Network. The questions on the application are a bit challenging as we’re not asking for money for a
project but for an ongoing program. People starting over, especially those in recovery, have limited
resources and by helping them with their new living situation, we save them resources they need for
food and shelter.
Just when I think I know all the agencies and programs out there, I learn about others. One in
Scarborough called The Morrison Center who is helping a family in Corinth, and we were able to
order a waterproof twin mattress for a child dealing with incontinence.
Yet another one is based in Ellsworth called True Connections Behavioral Health Services. Like other
agencies, I have been offering to set up a virtual meeting to help bring case workers and others up-to-
speed with what we do and how we can help their clients.
Well, we’re “Going For It.” The grant application for opioid settlement funds for Penobscot County is
due tomorrow, and it looks like we’ll make it.
Great volunteer support from Craig Saunders who is delivering the Thank You letter and certificate
today to Portland Pie Company and will also be getting the same for his service. Also, thanks to our
scheduler, Debbie L’Heureux who went over to 333 Main this morning to let Nichol’s Plumbing in to
replace the hot water heater for the regular bathroom and the utility sink. I had completely forgotten
about them coming this morning when suddenly my phone made a noise and I saw the notice that
they were due to visit this morning.
So TTFN, or Tah Tah for now. See you in a couple of weeks and thank you for your support and for
reading these ramblings.
Sincerely yours,
Christopher Olsen
Founder and Board of Trustees President
