Community unites to help friend in need

It's a Christmas story. It's about a friend giving help to a friend. It's about a community coming together to support to someone in need.

Co-workers Susan Francis and Barbara Rice have worked together since 2003 as dispatchers for the Pleasant Point Police Department (PPPD). Rice trained Francis for the position, and Francis knew from the start that Rice was a "special lady with an incredible heart of gold, a great sense of humor, and a strength and faith that are indescribable."

Rice not only dispatched for the PPPD but also substituted for Eastport schools part-time. When not working, according to her friend, "she would give countless hours for her family, including taking her daughter to all the Rainbow Girl functions, making her daughter gowns for these occasions, and also being involved with the Eastern Star." Francis really admired her friend.

In October of this year, Rice told Francis she had breast cancer. Francis wondered what she could do to help. "I knew there would soon be medical bills, the cost of transportation back and forth to the doctors, hospitals and possibly for treatments. The only thing I could come up with was the idea of a Chinese raffle and a supper." Francis sought some advice from her mother about how to go about it; she was unsure how or where to begin. She also asked her friend Shonna Lewey for help. Now with a plan, Francis decided that she would need to solicit gifts that "would attract people of all ages and gender for this raffle."

With only two weeks to put the event together and with Christmas coming, it wouldn't be easy to get people to donate. After five days of online investigating, soliciting prizes, making phone calls and talking to people, she had over 100 prizes. Francis and Lewey got really excited as more and more businesses responded to their requests.

"By the twelfth day, I had 160 prizes and more were coming in – great things like overnight hotel stays, Penobscot high stakes bingo certificates, skiing packages from Sugarloaf and more," Francis says. Gas cards, fuel certificates, resort golf packages, toys, jewelry and smudging fans were donated. The list went on including gifts from local businesses from Calais to Eastport, statewide businesses and even tickets to Storyland in New Hampshire. Francis says, "I was so overwhelmed with emotion to think that two children were going to spend a day there [Storyland] with unlimited rides and memories of a lifetime to go with it." Many businesses came forward to donate gift certificates and prizes from Bangor, Ellsworth, Bar Harbor, Belfast, Portland, Rumford, Bridgton, New Hampshire and Canada.

Francis points out that "individuals who opened their hearts and wallets and hard-working hands," including Passamaquoddy basket-makers, cook Nancy McKim, workers in the kitchen during the raffle, and Brenda Mitchell, were instrumental in making the event successful. The benefit raffle raised $4,914, and Francis thought that a few more expected donations would top the total at over $5,000. "For me," Francis says, "the true happiness was presenting Barbara with the total proceeds and seeing the looks of excitement on the people's faces that won the items. I really can't say this was a Chinese raffle. I would have to call this the communities of love raffle."

Francis was also overwhelmed by community support, saying, "I don't want to take credit because, in a time when our economy has been the worst ever with the rising cost of fuel, gas, groceries and with Christmas soon coming and the spirit of giving, everyone generously opened their hearts as well as their wallets. That's what it is all about – people coming together to help each other out when needed. That is the true spirit."

Francis shared some advice at the end of the day: "If there was one other thing I could say it would be for all men and women – because men are affected by breast cancer as well – please get your yearly mammograms because early detection is the best prevention."