2005 Common Good Grant Recipients Selected

Story posted April 11, 2005

The Bowdoin College student Common Good Grant Committee has awarded seven Common Good Grants, totaling $12,700, to local non-profit organizations.

More than 35 applications were received and reviewed by the committee of 14 Bowdoin students, led by co-directors Libby Nells '05 and Hope Stockton '07 and advised by the staff of Bowdoin's Community Service Resource Center.

A restricted gift from an anonymous donor funds $10,000 of the Common Good Grant, a program created to teach Bowdoin students about grants and philanthropy while building a relationship with non-profit organizations in the greater-Brunswick community. The Common Good Grant program is now in its fourth year.

This year a second group of six students, led by co-directors Chris McCabe '05 and Brandon Bouchard '07, raised the additional $2,700 to expand the impact of the original grant while developing a program to provide students with the opportunity to learn the important steps of fundraising.

"We are delighted with the additional funding this year and grateful to those community members who not only met with our student fundraisers, but so generously responded to their case," said Susan Dorn, the director of the Community Service Resource Center. "There were an increased number of grant proposals requiring the maximum funding of $2,500 for project implementation. The extra funding allowed the student committee to support an additional program they otherwise would not have been able to."

The following is a list of the 2005 grant recipients and a description of the projects to be funded:

  • ArtWorks: $2,500 to support an eight-week summer "ArtVan" providing arts outreach for children aged 2 to 16 in the Hyde Park, Maritime Apartments, and Lambert Park neighborhoods in Bath.

  • Bath Youth Meetinghouse and Skate Park: $2,300 to fund music-recording capabilities within "The Cave Music Center," for the education and promotion of youth musicians.

  • Big Brothers Big Sisters: $900 to expand services to children on mentor waiting lists.


  • Family Crisis Services: $2,500 to make transitional housing security deposits available for women seeking safe housing away from situations of domestic violence.


  • Merrymeeting AIDS Support Services: $1,000 to develop a Web-based program of HIV/AIDS prevention education, information and outreach for the Spanish speaking population living in Maine.

  • Pine Tree Society for Handicapped Children and Adults, Inc.: $2,500 to help initiate Camp Communicate, a retreat weekend of education for parents, friends, and children learning how to use Augmentative Communication (AC) devices.

  • Sexual Assault Support Services of Midcoast Maine (SASSMM): $1,000 to complete funding for a school-based education program designed to prevent sexual violence through personal safety.

Awards will be presented to representatives of these organizations at Bowdoin's Common Good Grant Awards Ceremony on April 21.

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