Winter is coming and many Mainers will be struggling to keep warm when the temperatures go down and the snow starts to fly. Are you interested in helping those who are unable to winterize their homes this winter? The Keep ME Warm Program will provide winterization materials to community volunteers to help winterize homes of eligible residents. Plan to attend the Oxford county training to be held Monday, December 7 at the Extension Office in South Paris. Pre-registration is required. Contact Margaret at Habitat for Humanity/7 Rivers Maine at 207-386-5081 or via e-mail at Margaret@habitat7rivers.org to preregister.

The KMW ’09 program is different from last year’s and is intended to move the program toward a sustainable model and provide a broader energy savings impact for Maine homes long-term. One important example of this is direct volunteer team access to a list of weatherization items through a contracted vendor and customized window inserts designed by Charlie Wing, nationally renowned author and energy expert, produced through a collaborative effort with the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, the Maine Department of Corrections, Habitat for Humanity/7 Rivers Maine and Maine State Housing Authority.

To launch the KMW ’09 effort, we are offering ten training sessions featuring Charlie Wing as instructor in November and December across Maine for volunteers and teams to prepare for this winter’s projects. Training is a prerequisite for accessing KMW ’09 funded weatherization materials. At least one person on each three to four person team planning to install weatherization items in residents’ homes must have completed the training.

KMW ’09 program resources (windows and weatherization materials) are free to teams but are extremely limited (enough to serve roughly 2,400 of the more than 70,000 eligible Maine residents), and will be allocated based on 2008 percentages of Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program eligible residents per county. At the county level, these limited resources will be allocated based on a first come, first served basis of eligible residents and available teams to provide assessment and installation.

If you want to form or join a local volunteer team in order to help install basic weatherization materials in homes in your region, please contact Margaret at Habitat for Humanity/7 Rivers Maine at 207-386-5081 or via e-mail at Margaret@habitat7rivers.org. Or visit www.VolunteerMaine.org to search for volunteer opportunities available with existing local teams or organizations. No prior experience is needed to take the training and you may attend any of the ten training sessions offered throughout the state. Training sessions last approximately 4 hours.