Littleton receives $10,000 for museum, Ramblers

  LITTLETON, Maine — Two non-profit groups in the town will be able to work on renovation projects thanks to the generous donation of a South Portland man.
According to Littleton Town Manager Courtney Toby, the town has received a $10,000 gift from Marshall “Jack” Gibson, president and CEO of Gibson Realty. Gibson ran a private road paving business from 1945 until 2004 and his company paved many roads in Littleton over the years.
    Toby said it was Gibson who first approached the town, sending a letter, which encouraged her to submit an application. In his letter, Gibson wrote, “I have recently developed a charitable program specifically designed to benefit municipalities such as yours.”
Gibson stated a one-time, $10,000 grant would be awarded each month and applications would be considered as they are received.
The Southern Aroostook Agricultural Museum and the Meduxnekeag Ramblers Snowmobile Club were selected as the two groups to receive funds. Each group will receive $5,000 to go toward renovations at the two buildings.
Raymond Wotton, a former town selectman for Littleton, was instrumental in helping the town receive the grant. He drafted a letter to Gibson detailing how the two clubs would benefit from the funds.
“Jack tarred roads for us for a lot of years,” Wotton said. “He would come up here and park his camper at the town garage while he worked on tarring roads. He was real good to our town. We sure do appreciate it (the grant) because it will come in handy this year.”
In his letter to Gibson, Wotton wrote, “The snowsled club serves the town supported entirely by volunteer workers. While we do receive some from income from rentals, we offer the building free of charge for benefit dinners for those in the area suffering from serious illness and our members help with these benefit dinners.
“The museum is located in the old elementary school and was purchased by a group of local farmers to house a collection of antique farm equipment and supplies collected by a retired farmer in town.”
Jay Clark, a representative of the museum, said the $5,000 his group received will go toward its roof repair project. The roof project has been ongoing for a number of years, Clark said. The estimated cost is $48,000.
“We were sure surprised when we heard we received this money,” Clark said. “It couldn’t have come at a better time.”
Bill Greaves, representing the Meduxnekeag Ramblers, said the funds would be used to perform upgrades to their clubhouse in order to bring the building up to code.
“We needed to upgrade our kitchen with an exhaust hood, put in a new entrance door and replace our flooring,” Greaves said. “This grant is a big boost for us as we are solely a volunteer organization. We have to pick and choose which projects we can do, so this will help quite a bit.”
The entrance door is a safety code issue, Greaves said, while the flooring is maintenance issue. The exhaust hood for the kitchen is one of the more important projects, he said, because volunteers cook breakfast every Saturday morning and the fumes are not properly vented.
“This money will help us work on all these projects and just make things better for everyone,” Greaves said. “Now, all we need is some snow.”