LEWISTON – Nearly two and a half years after Joleen Bedard took over as director of the local chapter of the American Red Cross, she is stepping down to become the head of another agency.

Bedard has been named the new director of the United Way of Androscoggin County.

She is scheduled to begin March 31, replacing Charles Johnson who is retiring after a decade with the United Way.

This will be Bedard’s second position with the Lewiston-based organization.

Before becoming the director of the Red Cross in October 2001, she spent five years as United Way’s director of resource development and marketing.

During that time, she spent every summer calling and meeting with the presidents of local companies to ask them for more money.

Before every call, she prepared a list of the most pressing needs in the community: homelessness, substance abuse, child care and disaster.

She took time to explain how the previous year’s donations were used, and how additional money would help everyone from fire victims to elderly people who needed a hot meal delivered every day.

In Bedard’s five years with the agency, the local chapter went from raising $1.2 million to $1.7 million.

The local United Way raises money for 32 local organizations, serving more than 31,000 people.

Bedard will take over the head post just as the United Way begins a new initiative to show donors exactly how their money improves people’s lives.

A 36-year-old mother of two, Bedard started working for local nonprofit agencies shortly after she graduated from St. Joseph’s College in Standish.

Fresh out of college with a degree in business, Bedard started searching the classifieds. She answered a help-wanted ad for the emergency director of the Brunswick-Bath chapter of the American Red Cross.

It wasn’t until she was forced out of bed at 2 a.m. for the first time to help an out-of-state serviceman get home for his grandmother’s funeral that she knew she had made the right choice.

The Board of the Directors for the United Way chose Bedard from a pool of strong applicants, said President Pat Finnigan.

“Joleen will continue the tradition of excellence and quality leadership that donors and the community have come to expect from our United Way,” Finnigan said.

Bedard lives in Turner with her husband and two children.

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