HOULTON, Maine — The Houlton Rotary Club conducted its third virtual Rotary meeting Monday, April 13, with 42 Rotarians attending the meeting online. Everyone was very happy to see long-time Rotarian Darrell Malone attending the meeting, as well as former Rotarian Walter Thompson, returning as a guest.
Tammy Goetsch of Adopt-A-Block of Aroostook was the guest speaker of Rotarian Devon Cote. Goetsch is the director of this organization as well as being in charge of programming, volunteers, and grant-writing. She sits on many other boards as well, including the RSU 29 school board.
Goetsch explained that Adopt-A-Block of Aroostook has been in operation since 2008, supplying food, clothing, and furniture to those in need in our community. This organization provides the supplemental gaps that other services are not able to provide, and they work closely with those other services.
Everything is donated to Adopt-A-Block, which enables them to give everything that they receive away to the recipients at no charge. They provide for many local families in our community. Adopt-A-Block also runs a Boy’s Camp for boys ages 7-12 years old which is currently on hold due to social distancing health mandates at this time, and will resume this service as soon as the mandates are lifted.
Members of Adopt-A-Block of Aroostook have seen a dramatic increase in the need for food in the community since the covid-19 outbreak and closing of all nonessential businesses. Tammy reports that families that were already food insecure are “seriously food insecure” now, and many families who are out of work and in need of assistance do not qualify for SNAP benefits.
Thankfully, Goetsch and her energetic team have been able to meet these needs in the community. She and her crew were very inspired by the Los Angeles Dream Team who were on Day 28 of providing food for thousands and thousands of citizens in their community.
Goetsch states that they are partnering with Dixie Shaw of Catholic Charities as well as the Good Shepherd Food Bank. With the help of these generous organizations, they have been able to provide five tons of food in one month to our community. Goetsch said that they have about 20 volunteer drivers including Francis Fitzpatrick and Haven Rhoda, who help to coordinate deliveries.
Goetsch announced that Adopt-A-Block recently received a grant for seniors over 60-years-old to receive home-cooked meals, masks, hand-sanitizer, as well as puzzles and games to be delivered to their homes. Sharon Jackett and her daughter have been cooking and preparing these delicious meals which the organization is able to purchase and deliver, and they are delivering meals to seniors from Oakfield to Amity.
Goetsch was concerned that the group had not been able to obtain enough face masks and hand sanitizer for the seniors, so the Rotary club connected her to the Island Falls Face Mask group on Facebook.
She has been heartened by the joy both her volunteers as well as the recipients have been experiencing by these extensive food donations. She shared a story of an elderly gentleman living very remotely and off the grid who was not able to walk, and the volunteers had to deliver his food by snowmobile. The volunteers were very touched by how grateful the man was for the donation of wholesome, home-cooked food. Adopt-A-Block has been delivering approximately 125 bags of food per week to families, each about 25-30 lbs with local produce included in the bags.
