OUR HISTORY

THE OGUNQUIT SPIRIT OF GIVING

In 2005, a group of citizens in the Ogunquit area went to their families and friends and asked them to “adopt”/sponsor children from the Adoptive & Foster Families of Maine program. AFFM is a small non-profit association that provides support services, training and referral service to all the foster, adoptive and kinship families in the state. We then included children associated with the Frannie Peabody Center.

Holiday gifts were a luxury for many in this population and in order to provide gifts for the children, the care providers would need to use money that would otherwise be used to heat their homes or pay for food, utilities, medicines or other essentials. All of the gifts donated go to children in kinship placements and associated with Frannie Peabody Center. These families are particularly deserving of these gifts because the families tend to be ones for whom there is little financial reimbursement. Most are grandparents that have fixed or minimal incomes.

In the first year of the event the community supported 80 children in the kinship program. The following year, the community supported 203 children. In 2022, with the support of the surrounding community, The Ogunquit Spirit of Giving brighten the holidays of over 630 children! The group also provided gift certificates for groceries to several families.

HOW IT WORKS