CAMDEN and BLUE HILL —  One hundred and 20 businesses across Midcoast Maine and the Blue Hill Peninsula raised $57,000 for the grassroots nonprofit Finding Our Voices through its July Into the Light! Yellow Festival. 

For the third year in a row in the Midcoast and the first year on the Peninsula, local eateries and shops highlighted creative yellow menu and retail items through the month of July and donated part or all of the proceeds to Finding Our Voices. According to the nonprofit, all of the money raised in this event pays for critical items for local women to escape domestic abuse, get on their feet, and bring stability to the lives of their children. 

$33,000 came in from 69 businesses across 16 towns in Midcoast Maine, and $25,000 from 52 businesses across nine towns in the Blue Hill Peninsula, according to Finding Our Voices. 

Yellow is the color of the survivor-powered nonprofit, because "we managed to cross over to the bright side of safety and freedom and are shining a light for our sisters who are still in the dark," said Finding Our Voices CEO and founder Patrisha McLean. 

McLean personally bridges the two participating communities, living in Camden and having had a home in Castine for the 29 years of her marriage that ended with her husband's 2016 arrest for domestic violence.  

Proceeds include $2,500 from the Midcoast Maine event's lead sponsor, First National Bank, and $10,000.00 from Camden National Bank which was the lead sponsor of the Blue Hill Peninsula event. 

The Ralston Gallery donated $7,200 from 100 percent of July sales of Peter Ralston's handmade photo prints of a sunrise called "The Beginning". The Michael Good Gallery and Windsor Chairmakers contributed a total of $3,200 from the proceeds of raffles for, respectively, handcrafted 18K gold earrings and a Sackback armchair with tiger maple seat.

Into the Light!'s 2025 yellow offerings included Sun-daes at the Dark Harbor Shop on Islesboro; a "Sunflower Pizza" at Fin and Fern; golden beet and tarragon cocktail at Aragosta; Golden Milk lattes at the Brooklin General Store and 44 North and Rock City Coffee's "notes of lemon" custom blend; and books with yellow covers at Barnswallow, Anodyne, Blue Hill Books and the Tiny Bookshop.  For the full list of participants including sponsors visit: https://findingourvoices.net/past-events.

“Every penny of the $57,000.00 raised from Into the Light! went into our Get Out Stay Out Fund and is providing microgrants to local, financially-strapped women domestic abuse survivors to get themselves and their children safe and begin to rebuild their lives," said McLean. "This includes critical payments for shelter, car, legal expenses,  home security devices, and gift cards for gas, clothing, and food.” 

Elizabeth True of Sedgwick, Finding Our Voices board member and VP of Student Affairs at Eastern Maine Community College, headed up a committee of Peninsula leading lights to spread the fundraising festival to that region. She said that the awareness aspect, about domestic abuse and Finding Our Voices as a resource for women domestic abuse survivors, is an important feature of the event: “What a message it sends to survivors in the various communities participating in Into the Light! to know that so many joined in the cause to support them.” 

Reach-outs to FOV's home office in Camden from referral partners and survivors are spiking, according to McLean.

“As we enter the darkest month of the year, money raised for us in the brightest month will carry us through," said McLean. "I am profoundly grateful to the generous and creative business owners and managers of two of the most beautiful regions in Maine for so wholeheartedly supporting us, and I am excited that so many are letting us know they are already thinking about what yellow to provide in 2026!” 

Finding Our Voices is the grassroots, statewide nonprofit ending silence, stigma, and shame for domestic abuse survivors in Maine, as well as providing such sister-support as access to free dental care, Get Out Stay Out funding, online support groups, and healing retreats. The CEO+Founder Patrisha McLean also runs an online Book Club and Podcast. For more information visit https://findingourvoices.net