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“Mainers
helping Mainers” Once again Teamsters Local 340, through its Women’s Committee, headed up a State wide food drive to benefit the Catholic Charities Maine “Feed the County” program in Caribou, which supplies food to 24 food pantries in Aroostook County and maintains their own food bank. The Teamsters Joint Council 10 tractor trailer began traveling through the State of Maine on Friday, July 16th. This year the truck had 14 designated locations along Interstate 95 to load non-perishable food donations collected by the members of Teamsters Local 340. Each stop was well planned to enable convenience for donations to get on the truck and keep it moving. The road crew, driver Paul Flynn, Teamsters Local 340 office staffer Sheena-Jo Randall, business agent Sylvia Hebert, Elmet Technologies Gerry Jean and Mary Hall, business agent Dan Walsh and University of Maine’s Betty Hilton with family Gene and their son, Adam LaPointe. The truck headed north starting at Exit 2,
Kittery Town Hall at 7:00 am. Thank you to Meredith Clark,
Dave Leary, and Chuck Denault from Kittery for giving a helping
hand at our first stop. We also thank the Town of Kittery for
the resting stop for the Joint Council 10 tractor trailer the
night before. Thank you to Jim Dube from the Town of York for
their donations. Our next stop was Exit 32, Biddeford. Thank you to Mike Jones from the City of Biddeford; Jodie Prime from the Town of Wells and Darrell Lilly with UPS Cartage Services. On to Teamsters Local 340, a short distance from Exit 45 South Portland. There we are met by member Betty Hilton and her family to join us on the road crew. We had donations dropped off from our own Teamster Local Union Retirees Association, IBC-P Street, New Penn, ABF, UPS Wells, UPS Waterville, UPS Auburn, University of Maine-Portland/Gorham, Portland Water District and Teamsters Local 340 employees. On our way to Auburn we made a stop at Keebler where manager Scott Lowe and member Rick Cleaves did a great job loading their generous donation. We all appreciated Scott actually being in the truck stacking the load while we watched. Off to Exit 75, Auburn where we are met by Elmet Technology members Mary and Roy Hall. Thank you UPS local sorter Le-Ann Kropa and the many UPS Auburn employees who loaded up her pick-up truck. Mary Hall leaves Roy behind and continues on the trip with us. The truck makes a stop at Associated Grocers in Gardiner, thank you Tim Boynton for arranging for Dick Beauparlant, Inventory Control Supervisor and member Richard Campbell to meet and greet us with yet another generous donation. Thank you to the City of Gardiner Public Works employees. Next to exit 112A, here we have a break and get met by members of the general public who encourage us to keep unionizing. The show must go on, so off we go to Exit 133 in Fairfield…so we thought. Off the exit the truck gets a call from our road crew that we should be at exit 132. The truck finds a safe place to turn around and heads back to the Interstate, in approach to enter 133 southbound we suddenly feel like something has blown up forcing the driver and rider up and out of the seats…thank you for seat belt laws. Realizing that we have been rear-ended by a dump truck loaded up with asphalt the food drive comes to a halt…but not for long. Our road crew is called, arriving with them is business agent Ken Eaton and UPS member Cameron Noyes. Thank you to our members from the Fairfield police and fire for their prompt response and actions to get us back to our challenge of maintaining the food drive schedule. The truck has received an awful blow to it tail end but it will be able to continue after a careful inspection of the damage. Thank you to Rob Mercier from the City of Waterville and his wife Stacy. A decision is made to have a road crew check Exit 157 Newport for donations so that the truck can head north to make up for time lost in our accident. Off to Exit 180, Dysart’s Truck Stop in Herman. We all meet up here to regroup. A few take time to meet and have some lunch with David Hasey from IBC-Medway. The truck is met by Vianney Soucy from UPS Bangor who had his truck loaded with donations from UPS Bangor and Rockland. Thank you to Larry Roberts from UPS feeders in Rockland for taking the time to deliver the donations to the UPS Bangor center. We are now at about the half way mark managing to regain control of the schedule after our accidental interruption. Now we are on our way to the long and lonely road to Exit 244, Medway. Met by John Rush, from the Town of Millinocket, with his wife Lynn; thank you. Then off to Exit 302 in Houlton and yes, you can get there from here. Thank you again Roger Brewer from UPS. It’s now about 6:30 pm and we are going to head to the home of business agent Traci Place in Easton to park and spend the evening until the parade on Saturday. The road crew heads into town for the night and we all are to meet at Traci’s the next morning for our big parade day. Traci graciously has supper ready. After a good night’s sleep we load up the next morning with drop offs and pick- ups from the Teamsters Local 340 Presque Isle office. Thank you to Aroostook County Corrections, Baileyville public works, Calais School, Calais UPS, Caribou police and fire, Fort Kent School, Fort Kent public works and sewer, Lane Construction in Presque Isle, Millinocket police and public works, Presque Isles own police, fire, public works, and city hall, Presque Isle UPS, and TAMC. Saturday has turned out to be a beautiful day, unlike the storm last year. The road crew meets us as planned; we get the truck ready for the parade, and set up for the cookout. A hugh extra special thank you to Traci’s husband Tom for managing all the set up and preparations for a cookout that will follow the parade sponsored by the Teamsters Local Union Woman’s Committee. A special thank you to the Amish neighbors for supplying us with the rope to secure down the canopy so it is not carried off by the great breeze flowing through the county. The truck heads for town where it meets up with several more members from the County. Traci has created a CD with some great work/labor songs from all types of music old and new for us to play during the parade. We are number 63 in the line-up for the 63rd Annual Maine Potato Blossom Parade on July 17th which ends a weeklong festival that has been around since 1937, the same year the Teamsters of Maine were founded. Member Shawn Newell with the Fort Fairfield police department arrives to the line up with an SUV full of food and more cash. He personally challenged the Fort Fairfield fire department, who are not members, to the fund raising. They did a wonderful thing; their challenge put us over last year’s donations. The Fort Fairfield fire department got a personal visit from the Teamsters while they were in the lineup thanking them for their generosity. At the line up station we are met by business agent Alan Churchill and our president, James Carson. Along the parade route we collected more food from the community as well as several hundreds more dollars in the donations buckets that had been made for the walkers. Paul and Sheena are awed at the turn out for this parade as they travel the route in the truck. The banner is carried by member Gerry Jean, Vicki Keaton with Aroostook County Federal Savings and Loan and Dixie Shaw, Catholic Charities Maine Director. Walking to collect food were business agent Traci Place with her son, Chris; UPS member Kim Archer and wife Debbie; Mike Morneault also from UPS and his two children Micah and Michaela; members Mary Hall, Betty Hilton with her family Gene and Adam LaPointe; business agents Alan Churchill, Sylvia Hebert, and Dan Walsh; along with president James Carson. We are also met by UPS retiree Sonny Mercier who joins in on the walk while he is in the County vacationing with his wife. It was a great day; the weather could not have been more perfect…for those in air conditioning. We would like to send a special Thank You out to Hostess Brands, Keebler Foods, Associated Grocers, Star City Sanitation, North East Packaging, MPG Ace Hardware, and Country Farms Market for the generosity shown to this food drive. It certainly is quite rewarding to know that we all can and do work together when the call for need is there. Thank you to all the members and their communities who donated in a monetary fashion. This year Teamsters collected 30,000 lbs in food and $1294 in monetary donations, exceeding last year’s donations. With the generous help of members, families, and friends the donations were delivered and unloaded to the Catholic Charities “Feed the County” program in Caribou following the parade. Thank you to the staff of Catholic Charities for your help at the warehouse receiving end for all the help in the unload process. We have not said Thank You enough. Statistics show that last year Catholic Charities Maine served 40,262 and with today’s economy many families will benefit from the work of many of us who realize that a helping hand can reach a long way. I am very proud of how the membership responded to the call for need. On behalf of the membership of Teamsters Local Union 340…Thank You.
Fraternally, James E. Carson Dennis
Sisti Carl
Guignard Kenneth Eaton Alan
R. Churchill Tim
Boynton & Steve Malia Sylvia Hebert Traci
Place Daniel
Walsh Peggy Timmons Stacy
Nunley Sheena-Jo
Randall
“Mainers
helping Mainers” MORE pictures from the Food Drive here! Teamsters Local 340, through its Women’s Committee, headed up a state wide food drive to benefit the Catholic Charities Maine “Feed the County” program in Caribou which supplies food to 24 food pantries in Aroostook County and maintains their own food bank. The Teamsters Joint Council 10 tractor trailer began traveling the State of Maine on Friday, July 17th. The truck stopped at 13 designated locations along Interstate 95 to load non-perishable food donations collected by the members of Teamsters Local 340. Each stop was well planned to enable convenience for donations to get on the truck and keep it moving. The road crew, driver Paul Flynn, retiree Terry Hanlon, UPS Freight Lorne Smith, business agent Sylvia Hebert, Elmet Technologies Geri Jean, business agent Dan Walsh, UPS preloader Jen Batchelor, Trustee and Business Agent Alan Churchill and Native American political consultant Ben Collings. The truck headed north starting at Exit 2, Kittery Town Hall at 7:00 am. Thank you to Meredith Clark, John Brosnihan, Brett Howard and Ed Laing for giving a helping hand at our first stop. We also thank the Town of Kittery for the resting stop for the Joint Council 10 tractor trailer the night before. Our next stop was Exit 32, Biddeford. Thank you to Ed Dalton Jr. and Sr., Ray Nadeau, all from the City of Biddeford; Sue Seaman from York County Jail and Dick Lambert with the City of Saco. Just up the road we made a stop to Interstate Brands, thank you Ed Noyes, Nelson Lavoie, Paul Burgess and Steve Hilton for all your help. On to Teamsters Local 340, a short distance from Exit 45 South Portland. We had donations dropped off from New Penn, ABF, UPS Wells, University of Maine-Portland/Gorham, Portland Water District, UPS Freight, Keebler Foods, Interstate Brands, Town of Wells, City of Saco, Town of Ogunquit, Local 340 employees and the Teamsters Local 340 Women’s Committee. Thank you to Hannaford Brothers for your generous donation. Then to Exit 75, Auburn. Thank you UPS retiree Sonny Mercier, UPS local sorter Le-Ann Kropa and Tim Coleman from Pionite for your help. The truck makes a stop at Associated Grocers in Gardiner, thank you Tim Boynton, Richard Crocker, Willie Ellsworth and Jeff Bellfleur. Thank you to the City of Gardiner Public Works employees. Next to exit 112B, met by Karen Tangeman from Greater Augusta Utlities. It is here where we find out that the Potato Blossom Parade is being postponed to Sunday for inclement weather headed our way. The show must go on so off we go to Exit 132 Fairfield, thank you to Rob Mercier from the City of Waterville and his wife Stacy, Tim Lawler, Lee Amalfitano, and Cameron Noyes all with UPS. Marlene Angers with the Town of Fairfield and Lynn Woodard from Kennebec Sanitary. Off to Exit 157 Newport, finally a rest. Next to Exit 180, Dysarts Truck Stop in Herman. There we met up with Shannon Smith from the University of Maine-Orono, Shawn Ireland, Vianney Soucy, Tim Kenney, Jim Dunn, and Beth Anderson all from UPS and Bob Goodwin from Garelick Farms. We are now at about the half way mark. Now we are on our way to the long and lonely road to Exit 244, Medway. Thank you John Rush from the Town of Millinocket and David Hasey from Interstate Brands. Then off to Exit 302 in Houlton and yes, you can get there from here. Thank you Roger and Karla Brewer from UPS and Peter Duff from the Aroostook County Jail. It’s now about 6:30 pm and we are going to head to the home of business agent Traci Place in Easton to park until the parade on Sunday. Along the way the tractor trailer meets up with an Amish Buggy on the road, one member states it’s like two worlds colliding. On such short notice of the postponement of the parade we thank business agent Traci Place for putting her home up for some tired Teamsters. She managed to pull together a tent in the rain and a great cook out. She tells me at one point she went to unload her car from pickups she made from the University of Maine in Presque Isle and Fort Kent, City of Presque Isle, Towns of Baileyville and Calais, Lane Construction, TAMC and UPS. She turns to see others unloading their vehicles into the truck. She was quite emotionally overwhelmed by the whole thing. Saturday turned out to be a rainy day but everyone managed to have a good time and get some rest. On Sunday we ended the run by participating in the Maine Potato Blossom Parade on July 19th which ends a weeklong festival that has been around since 1937, the same year the Teamsters of Maine were founded. Along the parade route we collected more food from the community, Paul had Traci’s son Chris for some company in the cab, in the back of the truck were retirees Mickey Maynard and Terry Hanlon with Houston Putnam. Walking to collect food were Collen & Karen Putnam, Robert Lavoie, Amy Hartley and her son Damien, all from Lane Construction, Business Agent Traci Place, Catholic Charities Maine Dixie Shaw, JoAnna Leavitt from WAGMTV, Gloria Towle with UPS, Mike Morneault also from UPS and his three children Micah, Michaela, and Marshall. From TAMC, Cuppy Johndro with her daughter Ashley. Business Agent Alan Churchill with son Alexander and friend Ben Collings. It was a great day; the weather could not have been more perfect after it “rained in our cheerios” the day before. I would like to send a special Thank You out to Interstate Brands, Keebler Foods, Associated Grocers, and Garelick Farms for the generosity shown to this food drive. It certainly is quite rewarding to know that we all can and do work together when the call for need is there. Thank you to all the members and their communities who donated in a monetary fashion. The Teamsters collected 25,000 lbs in food and $850 in monetary donations. With the generous help of members, families, and friends the donations were delivered and unloaded to the Catholic Charities “Feed the County” program in Caribou following the parade. A special mention to Chris Johndro, Chris Hansen, Ben Stroud and Aaron Rogers who worked hard helping us get the truck unloaded. Thank you to the staff of Catholic Charities for your help at the warehouse receiving end. I have not said Thank You enough. Many families will benefit from the work of many of us who realize that a helping hand can reach a long way. I am very proud of how the membership responded to the call for need. On behalf of the membership of Teamsters Local Union 340…Thank You. Fraternally, James E. Carson Sylvia
Hebert Dennis Sisti Traci
Place Carl Guignard Daniel
Walsh Kenneth Eaton Stacy
Nunley Alan R. Churchill Peggy
Timmons Steve Malia Sheena-Jo
Randall
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| Recent News Articles: |
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| From Seacoastonline.com | Teamsters' food drive collects 25,000 pounds |
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