Letter to the editor: AIO thankful for Pies on Parade

Sat, 02/07/2015 - 3:30pm

Area Interfaith Outreach (AIO) — the board, volunteers, and the clients we serve — are immensely grateful to Historic Inns of Rockland and the restaurants and other businesses in downtown Rockland for another successful Pies on Parade. For eleven years, this event has benefited the AIO food pantry and emergency assistance, which serves all of Knox County.

The day was sold out, so we also thank the 650 good sports who came out in January weather. The throngs all over Rockland were merry and testified to being over-fed.

We have learned that the GRAND TOTAL from this year's Pies day is $25,695. Magnificent. That includes tickets, the silent auction, and the collection taken for AIO's fuel assistance program, matched by Maritime Farm's $2,000.

It was a huge undertaking by so many people, the Rockland innkeepers first of all, but also AIO's co-chairs, Linda Pieper and Pinny Beebe-Center, as well as Bob and Ann Cleveland who rallied AIO board members to distribute posters. Many volunteers also passed out pie.
We are aware of and grateful for the financial burden all the participating businesses willingly incurred. They baked all that pie and paid for the ingredients.

Pies on Parade is about fun, about over-indulging in delicious concoctions. But it's also about community, about stepping up to help a good cause that is doing necessary work on the community's behalf.

· In Maine, from 2010 to 2013, the number of people working full-time but living in poverty grew by 11 percent.

· In those years, wages for the worst-paid workers declined by 8 percent.

· In a 2013 study, 18 percent of Knox County children live in poverty.

It's sobering. Thank you to everyone who is paying attention and making a difference.

Sherry Cobb

President

Area Interfaith Outreach