SCARBOROUGH – Kevin Fitzpatrick, of Scarborough, spent five nights on the roof of Jimmy the Greek’s South Portland restaurant last week raising money for STRIVE, a nonprofit that serves young adults with various developmental disabilities.

Fitzpatrick met his goal of raising at least $15,000 for the organization, which is based in South Portland and is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year.

Fitzpatrick is a safety and compliance officer for UPS, overseeing all nine offices in Maine. He and his wife, Shanna, who have two “very beautiful, smart and talented daughters,” have been married for 19 years. Their household also includes two pug dogs.

STRIVE, which stands for socialization, transition, reflection, innovation, vocation and education, helps disabled people, ages 11-24, with everything from improving academic skills to developing leadership potential to enhancing work skills to improving their social skills. The organization also provides peer support for the parents and siblings of their clients.

According to its website, STRIVE specifically focuses on enabling clients to become a part of their community, while providing a wide array of resources, including academic support, career training, social opportunities and “valuable life skills.”

Among its program offerings is STRIVE U, which provides post-secondary education and training “with the goal of enabling its graduates to live and work with maximum independence and productivity.”

This week, Fitzpatrick spoke with the Current about STRIVE and why he was willing to spend five nights on a restaurant roof.

Q: What is your connection to STRIVE?

A: My involvement with STRIVE began about four years ago. The UPS office (on Foden Road) in South Portland is a next-door neighbor to STRIVE and because of that I knew about the organization and was even aware of a UPS family that relied on STRIVE programs.

In the past our local office often spoke of ways to get involved to help STRIVE, and then one day my daughter came home and asked to participate in STRIVE’s all-night fundraising dance marathon. I volunteered to be a chaperone for the dance and that was a game changer.

During the dance marathon I had the pleasure of meeting the STRIVE staff, and STRIVE program members. Shortly thereafter we at UPS approached STRIVE with the concept of sponsoring a 5K to raise funds and awareness, with the intention of involving many other area businesses, as well.

Fast-forward to now and UPS is proudly anticipating our third annual STRIVE for 5 run/walk and block party. In addition to UPS, the other sponsors are Hannaford, WEX, Jimmy the Greek’s, the Portland Sea Dogs, Kaplan, the Medically Oriented Gym, the Visiting Nurses Association, Texas Instruments, Fairchild Semiconductor, Cabela’s, Intermed, Lamey Wellehan, Teamsters Local 340, Agren Appliance, the Red Claws, Buffalo Wild Wings, Royal River Massage, Bank of America, Uno’s, Yelp, the Portland Kiwanis Club, Orange Leaf and Fox23.

Q: Why camp out on the roof to raise money?

A: Nonprofits such as STRIVE simply can’t make ends meet without constant fundraising and community support. The goals behind this rooftop event were basically threefold:

One: raising awareness about STRIVE and the programs it offers so families that need the support know where to go;

Two: raising awareness for and participation in our STRIVE for 5, event, which will be held on Saturday, Sept. 6, starting at 8 a.m. (See www.helpkevinhelpstrive.org to register); and

Three: raising funds to enable STRIVE to continue doing what they do to support young adults with disabilities

Q: How many nights did you spend on the roof?

A: I spent five nights up there. The journey started on Aug. 22 at noon and I descended on Aug. 27 at 11 a.m. after the tremendous generosity of countless people, who enabled me to exceed the goal of $15,000. Words cannot express my appreciation for the support of the community in this endeavor.

Most of us probably know someone with a developmental disability such as Down syndrome, Asperger’s, or autism to name a few. We need to put ourselves in their shoes and that of their families and realize that their needs, wants and aspirations are no different than our own.

It’s really our collective responsibility to support STRIVE as it continues to make our community stronger. But we can’t stop there. We also must use our voices to ensure that governmental entities, too, understand the needs of those with developmental disabilities.

We are very fortunate to have STRIVE in our own back yard. A little known fact is that the programs STRIVE offers actually saves tax dollars in the long run. Due to budget cuts last year, STRIVE found it necessary to reduce its staff, along with other program adjustments. It’s up to us, as a community, to step in and fill the gap.

Q: What did you have for comfort items and to keep busy while spending five nights and nearly six days on the roof?

A: Our partners at Cabela’s outfitted the campsite with an awesome new tent, cot and sleeping bag. I used my own sleeping bag, though, since the Cabela’s camping gear was just one of several prizes that were raffled off. The other prizes included $500 and $100 Cabela’s gift cards and field box seats at Fenway Park in Boston.

Not much else was involved to raise the comfort level other than lots of water and sunscreen. I also resorted to carrying an umbrella at times to help control the sun. Staying busy was never a problem as I was grateful to have regular opportunities to lower the bucket to accept donations.

I was also very lucky to have many friends, family and co-workers visit and help out from the ground level. The media attention was awesome from all angles – TV, radio, and print – and kept us very busy, as well.

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A CLOSER LOOK

See www.pslstrive.org or call 774-6278 for more information about STRIVE, a nonprofit based in South Portland that assists young adults with disabilities to become productive members of society.

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Kevin Fitzpatrick of Scarborough spent several days last week on the roof of Jimmy the Greek’s in South Portland raising money for STRIVE.