Freeport Community Services celebrates its 40th year of Connecting Neighbors, Enriching Lives, in 2014. As the organization leads up to its signature White Nights celebration on Jan. 25, 2014, the FCS will offer stories each week about what makes the organization so special and all of the people who have helped to make it one of the largest success stories in the state of Maine.

For years, Freeport Community Services (FCS) operated out of homes, attics and garages – providing information and referral services, while also collecting and distributing the goods and services needed to keep families warm and well-fed all year-round.

In 1989 a group of leaders, including Joe and Genie Field, decided it was time to secure a permanent location for FCS. When an ideal property came on the market – reasonably priced, close to downtown, but not in the center of it – they naturally wanted to seize the opportunity. Joe suggested partnering with Bath Savings Bank for the mortgage for 55 Depot St. (today, the middle building of the Community Center). When Sherry Trumble of Bath Savings’ Brunswick branch agreed to finance the purchase, it began a close relationship that fueled the growth of both organizations.

Two years later, Bath Savings opened the Freeport branch on Lower Main Street and put a young Freeport resident, Tom Whalen, at the helm.

“The FCS relationship gave us a great start to our branch here in Freeport. It is one of the first really important accounts we ever had,” according to Whalen.

And like any good relationship, the benefits flow both ways. Bath Savings has been instrumental at each stage of Freeport Community Services’ growth, providing not just capital, but also leadership. Over the years, the bank has supported the organization in many ways – via the Neighbors to Neighbors program (where $25 is donated each time a new account is opened), by sponsoring the White Nights event, by helping with Thanksgiving and by providing volunteers for the Holiday Help Line.

Just a few years after the new branch began, Whalen was recruited to the FCS board and eventually became its chair during the mid-‘90s.

“FCS is where I learned how to give back to the community,” Whalen said. “Being involved with this organization has been a wonderful gift to me personally. It is like anything in life, you always seem to get more than you give.”

Whalen says that there has been a big shift in the way FCS is perceived over the past 20 years. During the mid-‘90s, the organization achieved a level of stability that allowed it to begin to think bigger.

“There were so many great organizations doing great work in Freeport” that the board wondered what would happen “if they could connect and allow the synergies to unfold,” he said.

Thanks to the incredible energy and accomplishments of two generations of civic leaders, FCS has been able to expand from being primarily a place of charity to being known as a place for everyone.

“Now, when someone walks in the front door of the Community Center, it could be for one of a hundred reasons – to volunteer, to hear a poetry reading or attend a Kinder concert, to meet other new moms, or to get medical supplies and of course, free food.” Whalen said. “Now the Community Center provides space for Freeport’s elders and teens, along with the food pantry, kitchen, thrift shop and office space for other organizations in town.”

Whalen sums up his thoughts about Freeport Community Services by saying, “It all comes back to the people. Even when it wasn’t easy, incredible people and organizations in this town have taken risks, mentored the generation that is coming up and truly created a place for everyone.”