January 2021

On January 13, 2021, our members got together virtually to discuss worthy causes in the town of Colchester. Every member got a chance to submit one cause, and those who couldn't make the meeting submitted their cause via email and we shared it with the group during the call.

Since our group has grown in size, we updated our process and this time put all submissions in a hat and picked 5 at random. Then after the meeting we sent out a survey which described the 5 causes and gave every member a chance to complete the survey to vote on their top three choices.

We weighted the votes, so a member's first choice got 3 points, second choice got 2 points and third choice got 1 point. We tallied up all the points to get 3 winning causes. The cause with the most points got 50% of our group's donations and the second and third picks each got 25% of our donations.

Here were our winners and donation amounts:

Received $900 donation: Freezin' for a Reason - An annual event on the town green to raise funds for the Colchester Fuel Bank. The actual fundraising event is 2/12 through 2/14, and all funds collected go directly to the Fuel Bank. The Fuel Bank is run by Youth and Social Services and Fuel Bank funds are used solely for heating expenses for families in town.

Received $450 donation: Community Plow - An initiative started by Eric Cummings, owner of local business Brakes and More LLC. He is raising money to purchase and maintain a plow that will offer free snow removal for those in town who need it during the winter. Eric and his team at Brakes and More will operate the plow.

Received $450 donation: Colchester Food Bank - Youth and Social Services runs the Food Bank in town. All money donated to the Food Bank is used for food and any food bank related needs to support those in Colchester.