Dick Cadwgan, of Rockport, recently announced his retirement from the Board of Directors of WindowDressers, Inc., a nonprofit corporation that he co-founded in 2010.  Dick served as the first President of the organization and worked tirelessly on its behalf.

For those who have not heard of WindowDressers, it is a community volunteer-based charitable organization that constructs insulating window inserts for residences and businesses. The aim is to lessen the consumption of heating fuels, reduce heating costs and to make progress towards  reducing CO2 in the atmosphere.

Since its beginning, WindowDressers and its community volunteers have produced over 34,000 inserts and mobilized over four thousand volunteers to construct inserts in 35 Maine towns. 

Approximately 25% of inserts constructed by Window Dressers are given away to people who cannot afford their cost. 

This year, the organization is aiming to give away more than 30% of their inserts to low-income Mainers.

“Dick always talked about keeping Maine dollars in Maine and not shipping them off to the Middle East” said Karl Kehler, treasurer of the organization.

 All of this had its origin in Rockland where Dick’s wife, Louise, and WindowDressers’ co-founder, Frank Mundo, served as officers of the First Universalist Church of Rockland. 

The design and use of insulating inserts was first launched as an effort to reduce heating costs at the church, and quickly morphed into an effort to serve the wider community. 

From the outset, Dick Cadwgan was the principal driving force in the growth of this effort.  What was and remains unique about WindowDressers is that the organization represents a merging of his engineering skills with the inherent qualities of Mainers; i.e., resourcefulness, perseverance and a ‘get it done’ attitude.

Dick was raised in Rhode Island, was educated as an engineer and geologist and led an active life before retirement.  For those who experienced his energy and drive in organizing WindowDressers and designing its product, the mystery is how he could have worked any harder at his business career before his “retirement” to Maine.  

“Cadwgan  was always very quick to distribute credit to others and there wasn’t a corner of the organization he didn’t touch,”  said Mundo.

Since 2010, WD Inserts have helped make thousands of aging Maine homes tighter and more comfortable while preventing more than a million gallons of heating oil being needlessly wasted.  They have kept $3.4 million dollars from leaving the state.  

 Thank you, Dick Cadwgan, for your contribution in launching and helping build the organization that has come to mean so much to Mainers.

The organization continues to grow with strong leadership.