Dear Eastern Area Agency on Aging Supporters,

We’ve all heard the phrase, the Dog Days of Summer, and as we pressed on in August, Eastern Area Agency on Aging asked for support of a critical program at our organization, Furry Friends Food Bank.

We were blown away by the response, the Furry Friends Food Bank received 92 donations totaling over $7,600. We are only $2400 away from our $10,000 goal. Let's keep it going! If you have not already donated, can you help us reach this goal by the end of the month?

Our Furry Friends Food Bank is one of the best-kept secrets at Eastern Area Agency on Aging, however, it makes one of the biggest impacts on our community members. For those that may not be aware, our Furry Friends program is dedicated to preserving the special bond between low-income older adults and their pets by providing pre-packaged standardized bags of pet food and basic pet care supplies on a monthly basis.

In the last year, our program has served over 610 community members within our four counties and distributed 142,295 pounds of food. To highlight the importance and impact of the program, we have included stories from three of the community members:

Meet Our Recipients

Meet Pauline Rossignol from Penobscot County:

“I’ve been a widow since 1993, that’s a long time, but I have my cat Pretty Girl, and she means the world to me. She knows when I’m down and out. I live alone and she knows when to cuddle, when I’m sick, and she reads me. You don’t need more love than that. I think everyone involved with Furry Friends appreciates it deeply. The program is important if you want to keep your animal. I save money on cat litter and cat food and with today’s inflation, everything counts”

Meet Parker Clough from

Washington County:

“I've been part of the Furry Friends program for four or five years now. I learned about it through the Friends in Action group in Ellsworth. My cat Boss was my granddaughter's cat at first and I inherited him when she moved back home. He is an indoor cat only and they had outdoor cats. My favorite part about having Boss is having a companion. He helps make the days go by and gives me something to care for. If I didn't have the Furry Friends program I'd probably have to go on a diet so my cat could eat. It may sound funny, but it’s really not. He comes first in this house so if I wasn’t able to get this food, I would go without before Boss didn’t eat.”

Meet Anne Varney from

Piscataquis County:

“My name is Anne, and I live in Milo, Maine. I found out about the Furry Friends Program through Eastern Area Agency on Aging. It’s been a program that I’ve really benefited from because I'm retired now, and my pet needs a lot of me. So to be able to keep her is very important. Your pets help when you're kind of feeling lonely. They're entertaining, you know, they lift your spirits, just playing with them and seeing them get excited when I come home. It's really nice. It creates quite a bond. Everything is more expensive these days, including pet food. It would be horrible if it got to the point where I couldn't buy pet food. And so that's why this program is such a blessing to me and to my family.”

Furry Friends By The Numbers

Donate

Eastern Area Agency on Aging is proud of the work we do to take care of our community members. Unlike many of our other programs, the Furry Friends Food Bank does not receive any federal or state funding. We have had great success in securing grants to support the program, but donations from our supporters are the glue that holds it all together. We could not make the impact shared through these statistics and stories without dedicated donors like you, thank you for your support!

We need your help again to reach our goal of $10,000 for the Paws for a Cause Campaign!

How do you give to our campaign? Visit www.EAAA.org/PawsForACause and fill out the online payment form (EAAA.org/PawsForACause) OR send in a check to Furry Friends Program. It's that easy, and you get the satisfaction of knowing that consumers like Pauline, Anne, and Parker are able to take care of their most beloved pets!

Christopher Hill

Communications and Development Director