HOULTON, Maine — Houlton Elementary School received a pleasant surprise just before Christmas when Susan Dow and Carol Grant, employees of Houlton’s Dunkin’ Donuts, arrived with several pairs of mittens, some hats and socks for students in need.
The local coffee shop is a popular place where many area residents purchase their first cup of coffee on their way to work. The employees there initiated a campaign to collect mittens, hats and socks for local schoolchildren this Christmas.
Dow said, “We set up a receptacle with a poster in our store to let our customers know what we were doing. Some of them said they didn’t knit, but would like to donate a monetary gift to purchase what was needed or yarn for others to use to knit the items.
“One of our regular customers, Lori Tash, told us that her mother-in-law who lives in Chester enjoyed knitting,” said Dow. “So one day she arrived with more than a dozen beautiful handmade items.”
During the campaign, Dow said that Michael Ouimet, the owner of the Houlton store and several others in the state and throughout the East Coast, learned what the Houlton store was doing and initiated it other Dunkin’ Donuts shops.
