Jamie Caouette (left), director of The Store Next Door, and Joel Morse sort through donated clothing at the Longley School at 145 Birch Street in Lewiston in November 2022. On Tuesday, the nonprofit received a $5,700 donation from the philanthropic group 100+ Women Who Care Androscoggin to provide students with school supplies. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal File Photo

LEWISTON – Store Next Door director Jamie Caouette accepted a $5,700 donation Tuesday from 100+ Women Who Care Androscoggin, a recently formed philanthropic group.

It was a welcome gift after a contentious school budget season.

With a stack of checks from nearly all 120 women, donations totaled $5,700. The handover took place at Longley School on Birch Street, where the Store Next Door is also located.

As the new school year begins, underprivileged students need school supplies and other items to support their education. The money will be used for back-to-school supplies, food to replenish the Store Next Door’s food pantry and other items, Caouette said.

Student needs have only grown as the number of homeless students rose last school year to the highest level Caouette has seen since she began working for Lewiston Public Schools 16 years ago, she said.

The Store Next Door will not turn away any Lewiston Public School student who needs personal hygiene items, clothing, food, school supplies or other items it has in stock, she said.

“We don’t want the children to miss out on anything or not go to school because they don’t have clothes or anything like that,” she said.

It was that spirit of service that motivated Razell Ward, a member of 100+ Women Who Care and assistant director of adult education in Lewiston, to nominate the Store Next Door at the last meeting, she said. “It’s always been close to my heart,” she said.

The group meets quarterly and pledges to donate $50 each to a selected nonprofit or community organization, she said.

At each meeting, members write down the name of a nonprofit or community organization they think should receive that quarter’s donation, and the names go into a hat, she said. Three names are drawn and the members who nominated those organizations have 10 minutes to explain why that organization deserves the money.

The winning organization will be determined by majority vote.

Ward’s presentation highlighted the good Store Next Door has done for students and families and included testimonials from people who have benefited from its services. It touched the hearts of group members, said Marty McIntyre, founder of 100+ Women Who Care.

McIntyre founded the group in October 2023 after the pandemic delayed her plans, she said.

There are more than 100 Women Who Care groups nationwide. McIntyre learned about the group through a friend who joined a group in southern Maine. “And I thought, we can do this here, too,” she said.

Store Next Door’s donation is the group’s third. The first two donations went to Calvary United Methodist Church’s City Mission and YWCA Central Maine’s summer camp program, she said. Members can nominate nonprofit or community organizations from across Androscoggin County.

For Caouette, the donation represents a renewed sense of community support after two school budget votes failed last spring, she said. The school budget finally passed this summer after school leaders made cuts.

As a mother, she understands people’s financial hardship, she said, but students are the future and the community must invest in their future.

Caouette wants homeless students and students living in difficult home situations to feel comfortable in school and feel like they are not so different from their peers, she said. The donation will help provide these students with the necessary items to achieve that goal.

“We will always fight for our children,” she said. “We really care about all of our children, our community and our youth, so we will always find a way to make this happen.”

For more information about 100+ Women Who Care, email McIntyre at [email protected]. To reach Caouette at the Store Next Door, email [email protected].

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