Kennebunk Savings serves as a steward for the Huntington Common Charitable Fund (HCCF), charged with the mission of supporting nonprofit organizations that improve the lives of older adults in York County, Maine. The fund recently awarded a significant donation – a $100,000 grant to the Southern Maine Agency on Aging (SMAA), in support of their new community hub in Springvale.
“It’s easy to want to help a partner like SMAA – an organization that for 50 years has been truly dedicated to advocating for, and improving the well-being of older adults,” said Lex Meagher, Bank President. Meagher and other members of the Bank attended a grand opening event for the new center on October 10th. “It is thanks to the Huntington Common Charitable Fund that we were able to get this whole location off the ground,” said Megan Walton, CEO of SMAA.
The 1965 Older Americans Act was passed to address a lack of community social services for older adults—including nutrition services, caregiver support, and prevention of abuse and neglect. Organizations like SMAA were founded in the wake of these “Great Society” initiatives passed in the 1960s and 70s.
Recently, advocates at SMAA have found that many older adults in western York County are unable to make the trip to access the services provided at their Cohen Center in Biddeford. After reviewing census data, Sanford/Springvale was identified as the most impactful and accessible location to meet local demands. The newly open and operational hub targets clients living in Acton, Alfred, Lebanon, the Berwicks, Sanford, Shapleigh, and Springvale, as well as coastal communities further south such as Kittery, Wells, and York. “There are wonderful partners who are here already,” Walton observed. “We want to build on what they are doing.”
Programs offered at this new location will include: Nutrition programming (“Community Café” dining events and Meals on Wheels), health information and financial planning resources, benefits options counseling, an Adult Day group activities program, family caregiver support and education, housing and legal assistance, Medicare and insurance counseling, money management assistance, and evidence-based falls prevention programs.
Since the inception of the HCCF in 2006, Kennebunk Savings has donated over half a million dollars to SMAA and more broadly contributed $2.5 million to older adult related initiatives across the county.
