CAMDEN — United Mid-Coast Charities distributed $325,150 to area nonprofits in its annual ceremony held Oct. 9 at the First Congregational Church in Camden.

The largest recipients included Broadreach Family & Community Services ($30,000), Penobscot Bay YMCA ($30,000), Waldo County YMCA ($25,000), and Knox County Homeless Coalition: Hospitality House ($15,000). Other recipients included Area Interfaith Outreach, Belfast Area Children's Services, Knox County Health Clinic, New Hope for Women and Belfast Soup Kitchen.

Founded in 1942, UMCC collects funds for grants supporting more than 50 agencies serving children and families in Knox and Waldo counties. Contributions are divided amongst the agencies with the greatest need. The funds get divided approximately this way: 47 percent to children's services; 24 percent to community service, 17 percent to medical service, 12 percent to educational service.

UMCC participates in payroll deduction programs at Fisher Engineering, in Rockland; the University of Maine; Down East Enterprise; Waldo County General Hospital and Pen Bay Healthcare; Camden National Bank; Waldo County YMCA, and more.

All the money for UMMC is raised in Knox and Waldo counties, and last year, was distributed to the 52 local organizations. 

The process begins with organizations submitting applications to UMCC, which are screened. Then, each of the 45 directors interviews the organization or agency, and analyzes financial statements.

Most of the time, the directors return to board meetings and approve the request for UMCC funding.

After that, it is the UMCC Allocation Committee that will decide how much money will get distributed to which organization. At the annual meeting in August, the entire Board of Directors votes on the final allocations.

In 2012, UMCC raised and distributed approximately $350,000. That year, UMCC gave varying amounts to different agencies, such as, Broadreach Area Child Care Services $35,000; Area Interfaith Outreach, $13,000; Camden District Nursing and Rockland District Nursing, each $5,000; the Community School, $10,000; Kn-Wal-Lin, $8,500; Literacy Volunteers, $6,000; New Hope for Women, $13,000; Tanglewood 4-H, $10,000; Penobscot Bay YMCA, $32,000, and Waldo County YMCA, $25,000; Restorative Justice, $5,900; and a number of others, including $58,266 in individual contributions to organizations with sum less than $5,000. 

UMCC's mission has not changed dramatically from its initial intent in 1942 to collectively raise the standard of living, provide help for those in need, and provide the chance of education, particularly for young mothers. That year, the fledgling organization, then known as United Camden Charities, raised $5,569 and distributed it to Camden District Nursing Association, Camden Community Hospital, the Boy Scouts, Camden Red Cross Workroom, the YMCA and the Barrett's Cove, on Megunticook Lake.

Economic strains then were not that different from today, a time when the Midcoast was just beginning to feel its way past the Great Depression, and World War II was calling young men to serve. In 1942, the population of Knox County was 27,191; Waldo County, 21,159. Today, the population of Knox is 39,708 and Waldo, 38,745. And though the education level and standard of living has since climbed, chronic poverty, drug and alcohol use, abuse and suicide remain a constant.

The founders also set three tenets that first year: All funds contributed were to be distributed; the organization was to remain all-volunteer, with no paid employees; and an endowment pay all the expenses would be established. The next year, those individuals — J. Hugh Montgomery, Edward Cornelis, Charles Seaverns, Francis Gilbert, Bertha Clason, Emma Alden, Clayton McCobb, C.W. Babb, Jr., Helen Hubbard Dodge, Percy Keller, Gilbert Laite, Milford Payson, Zlatko Balokovic — created a $1,000 endowment to pay for organizational expenses.

Seventy years later, the foundation holds, albeit a few name changes. In 1949, the United Camden Charities became the United Camden-Rockport Charities, and then in 1995, it was changed again to United Mid-Coast Charities. That year, the mission also evolved to specify support for charities that provide social services and care to the “most deserving, including medical, physical, social, psychiatric or community educational services.

Its endowment, however, has grown to a robust $1.5 million, thanks to a $500,000 bequest by Delpha Wellborn, who lived on Megunticook Lake. She would donate every year to UMCC, approximately $1,000 to $1,500. Before she died, she mentioned to her niece that her reason to leave a large sum to UMCC was predicated in large part because of those handwritten notes, the correspondence.

Today that $1.5 million endowment is able to generate $40,000 to $50,000 in dividends, which go toward paying the annual organizational operating costs of UMCC. That endowment portfolio sits with Vigilante Capital, in Portland.

UMCC’s 42-member Board of Directors this year includes:

Officers
Stephen V. Crane, President
Dr. Carol B. Robbins, 1st Vice President
John P. Williams, 2nd Vice President
Carole L. Martin, Secretary
Eric G. Belléy, Treasurer

Morton D. Alling, III
Mark A. Biscone
Dan Bookham
Erin Flanagan
Lucile O. Hanscom
Tim Healy
Peter Horch

Elinor W. Klivans
David V. Laite
Jill Lang
Heidi S. Matteo
Esther Sexton
David C. Tassoni
Lee Woodward, Jr.

Skip Bates
Victoria C. Dibner
Virginia Hilyard
Elizabeth Killoran
Todd W. Mackey
Carole L. Martin

Dr. Carol B. Robbins
Catherine Robbins
Dr. T. Richard Snyder
J. B. Turner
Eric Waters
Wendy G. Weiler

Eric G. Belléy
Mary Alice Bird
Nancy M. Boyington
Stephen V. Crane
Daniel Dibner
Robert A. Fernald
Sonya Frederick
Allison Lee Maguire
Martha P. Martens

Jennifer Lloyd Mirabile
Allen D. Mitchell
Peter A. Palermo
James C. Patterson
Joan Phaup
Betsy Saltonstall
John Viehman
John P. Williams