Lewiston-Auburn groups receive $8,500 in grants from Harward Center’s Carignan Fund
Alisa Amador ’18 of Cambridge, Mass., helps a budding author design a chapter book at the Lewiston Public Library. Amador volunteers with the Art Van, a mobile art program for children that received a $1,300 grant from the Harward Center’s Carignan Fund. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)
Honoring a prominent and deeply respected Bates couple, grants of $8,500 from the Harward Center for Community Partnerships will help six community organizations create, expand, or advance public-service programs that improve the lives of local residents.
The grants are funded through the center’s James W. Carignan ’61 and Sally Larson Carignan ’62 Fund for Community Programs, established through gifts from more than 150 Bates alumni and friends to honor the Carignans’ many contributions to both campus and community life.
Here are the grants awarded for 2016-17:
- Museum L-A: $2,000 to assist with the research and preservation of vintage silkscreens that were used to manufacture linens in local mills.
- College for ME-Androscoggin: $1,823 to support the creation of a new county-wide “Decision Day” event that will help local students plan their education beyond high school.
- Raise-Op Housing Cooperative: $1,823 to support the creation of materials and programs that will help tenants better understand the goals, expectations and responsibilities of living in a housing cooperative.
- Lewiston Public Library: $1,300 to help fund the library’s “ArtVan” mobile art program which provides creative projects and art opportunities for children.
- YWCA of Central Maine: $1,110 to support the organization’s annual “Stand Against Racism” event, which fosters multi-cultural understanding by bringing together local activists, community leaders, students and researchers.
- Lewiston Housing Authority: $533 to purchase office furniture for “How Everything Works,” an after-school science, engineering and technology program.
In addition to the grants, each organization will be able to tap resources at the college, such as faculty and staff expertise, student workers and student researchers. Bates students made up the bulk of the committee that selected the grant winners.
In 2003, Jim Carignan ’61 stands next to an oak planted on campus honor his retirement as dean of the college. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)
“These grants will support programs and organizations that work hard every day to improve the lives of local residents, students and children,” said Darby Ray, the director of the Harward Center.
“We are amazed by the work that these groups do, and we are proud to be partners in their efforts.”
“We are amazed by the work that these groups do, and we are proud to be partners in their efforts.”
The late Jim Carignan, dean emeritus of the college, was an educator, innovator, and civic leader who chaired the Maine Board of Education, served on the Lewiston City Council, and contributed his service to more than 25 other local and state boards. He helped establish the Harward Center (then known as the Center for Service Learning) and served as its first director. He passed away in 2011.
His wife, Sally Larson Carignan ’62, is a former teacher at the Lewiston Adult Learning Center and an active advocate for affordable housing.
“The Carignans exemplify what it means to be engaged citizens and community members, and these grants celebrate and carry on their commitment to respectful, beneficial community partnerships that improve the lives of our neighbors,” Ray said.
