LEWISTON – Gary Curtis, MeadWestvaco vice president of operations, recently made a formal check presentation of the corporation’s $100,000 gift to the Hospice House capital campaign of Androscoggin Home Care and Hospice. Joining him from Androscoggin Home Care and Hospice were Rebecca Conrad, board chairwoman, and David McDaniel, president/CEO.

The MeadWestvaco gift was one of the three benefactor level gifts that successfully launched the agency’s campaign last year to build Maine’s first hospice house serving residents of central and western Maine.

The agency held a public celebration in June marking the campaign’s success in raising $1.2 million of the $1.5 million campaign goal and plans for fall construction start. It expects to open the 14-patient suite hospice house on Stetson Road in Auburn in the summer of 2005. The facility is designed to meet the end-of-life care needs of hospice patients and their families in a home-like setting.

“MeadWestvaco has a long tradition of providing support to vitally needed projects within our communities,” said Curtis. “This gift to Androscoggin Home Care and Hospice allows us to positively impact our community by supporting the end-of-life care needs of the families living here.”

MeadWestvaco, headquartered in Stamford, Conn., is a global producer of packaging, coated and specialty papers, consumer and office products and specialty chemicals. For more information, visit www.meadwestvaco.com.

Androscoggin Home Care and Hospice is a nonprofit Medicare-certified agency that provides hospice care to more that 500 residents of central and western Maine through its offices in Lewiston, Bridgton, Dixfield, Oxford and Wilton.

For more information, visit www.ahch.org.