STRONG — Two Franklin County residents have dedicated hundreds of hours to ensure that children and young adults have clothing that most take for granted.
Strong residents David and Susan Catino didn’t realize that many parents can’t afford to buy new underwear for their children. They read about a national nonprofit volunteer-led organization based in Denver, Colorado, called Underwearness, which works to solve the problem through local community efforts.
“We were so surprised that this problem existed,” Susan Catino said, “so we just started adding extra underwear when we did our own shopping, and we donated them.”
The Catinos decided to start their Western Maine Underwearness Project to bring attention to the issue that affected young people in Franklin County. The “One Pair at a Time” motto conveys their uncomplicated dedication to provide as many school-age children as possible with this basic clothing need.
August is a particularly critical month for young people, David Catino said, because school starts in September. Glossy television advertisements don’t hint that many children need underwear as much as pens and notebooks.
“We know kids go back to school in September, so we’re making a big effort to get as many donations as possible during the summer,” David Catino said.
They have added more donation boxes, where shoppers can drop their packages of underwear suitable for school-age boys, girls, young men and young women. They started with a box at Tranten’s Market in Kingfield, and since then, they have been busy adding sites around the county.
“Now we have a donation box at Reny’s in Farmington and Madison, Dovey’s Kitchen in Industry, Phillips Public Library and the White Elephant store in Strong,” he said. “We also have had the generous support of a couple of area businesses.”
Franklin Savings Bank and Katherine Heer organized their own in-house campaigns in Farmington, and that support helped the Western Maine Underwearness Project meet the Catinos’ goal of donating 1,000 packages of new underwear. They also have gotten local support from churches.
“We’ve had the Trinity Methodist Church in Farmington and the Phillips Community Church do collections for us,” he said.
Still, without more volunteers, they can’t expand the effort, he said.
“There are just two of us, and we take care of everything,” he said. “We’re taking care of all the details, including constructing the drop boxes, delivering them, and then collecting and delivering the underwear donations.”
They take the new underwear packages to the Western Maine Homeless Outreach and local school districts. Other distribution sites include the Care and Share Food Closet in Farmington and the Economic Ministry in Salem Township. To get additional donations before children start school, the Catinos made a decision to expand their networking methods. Their new Amazon.com wish list link, http://a.co/bNkCyOD, allows donors to buy and mail the packages to the Catinos.
“This is for those with little spare time or without the means to shop,” David Catino said. “Donors just have to choose the Maine Underwearness Project’s address at checkout.”
They can’t add more drop boxes and distribution sites without help, he said. Although they hadn’t planned to be the face of the campaign, as well as the workers behind the scene, they still are searching for well-traveled and secure locations for donation boxes.
“The boxes can be in a church or a town office or a store, but people need to be willing to be responsible for them,” Susan Catino said.
Those interested in “adopting” a drop box site or becoming involved in other ways can contact the Catinos at 207-684-5777 or visit the Western Maine Underwearness Project’s Facebook page. Donations also can be made directly to the Denver, Colorado-based national nonprofit at www.underwearness.org.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
