WINDHAM – A few years ago, the Maine State Society for the Protection of Animals on River Road in Windham was struggling, and it showed.

The barns and farmhouse were chipping paint. The letters of the large marquee sign on the small barn were peeling and cracked. That physical decay of the rescue facility, which receives no state support and takes in animals from owners who are in litigation for animal abuse, was reflected in the coffers, with donations down to a paltry $8,000 in 2006.

But with the help of free labor and a renewed focus on fundraising, the organization with a mission to rescue abused large farm animals from throughout the state is on the mend, with donations in 2012 up significantly and the buildings looking better than ever.

Yard work

The farm’s longtime manager, Marilyn Goodreau, and her lieutenant, Meris Bickford, who directs fundraising and community outreach, are proud of the recent improvements, most of which have been performed this summer by hard-working volunteers.

Robert Cyr, a Boy Scout from Limington, and inmates from the Maine Correctional Center in Windham and Cumberland County Jail, are most responsible for the improvements to two barns on the property, as well as the farmhouse.

Cyr, who worked at the farm as part of his Eagle Scout project, was in charge of recruiting materials and workers to help rehabilitate the first building ever built on the farm, an outbuilding known as the Red Shed, said Goodreau, who has run the farm since it moved operations from Portland to Windham in 1974.

“It’s a cute little building, I love this building. It’s the first structure we had equine in,” Goodreau said. “We had two ponies in that in the early 1970s when we acquired the land. That actually was our first barn. The very first animals we ever had were two Shetland ponies and they were in that barn.”

Bickford said the barn “was in terrible condition” before Cyr set to work.

“They reshingled it, they rebuilt the windows and doors. They put a new roof on,” she said. “The entire outside was redone.”

The shed is used as “all the time. It’s a utility shed and we don’t have a lot of storage space here, so that does get heavy use. And it definitely needed a makeover,” Bickford added.

Cyr oversaw acquiring the materials as well as labor, most of which came from the Cumberland County Jail, through its Community Corrections program. One of the program’s two directors, Mary Sorrells, drove to the farm last winter to see if the nonprofit group could use some free labor, provided by the inmates. Goodreau and Bickford drew up a list of needs and Sorrells and fellow director Rachel Welch enlisted several inmates for the jobs. Sorrells said the first job was a nasty one.

“We started out with a small project in early spring cleaning out the hayloft. All the spiders, cobwebs and bugs needed to be taken out of the rafters in this barn so they could move fresh hay up into it,” Sorrells said. “So we spent almost a week and a half up there cleaning out their barn and that saved their staff from having to do it themselves.”

After the barn cleaning was complete, inmates started on some painting projects as the weather warmed. After Bickford secured some lead abatement at a reduced cost from Westbrook-based BioSafe Environmental Services, inmates painted the main house. They then worked on the front of the barn facing River Road.

To top off the project, Bickford bought new lettering to replace the black “Maine State Society for the Protection of Animals” marquee sign that had been up since 1973. The new letters are plastic and should last “for a long, long time we hope,” Bickford said.

The jail inmates also worked on painting the rear of the barn, a project still in the works, since some of the boards are rotted and need replacing. A new overhead door was also installed at the rear of the barn.

Jail inmates, a crew that averaged between seven and 11 people, also worked in the fields during the summer hauling hay into the River Road barns, as well as another field the animal group owns on Gambo Road in Windham.

Sorrells said the inmates, who are part of the pre-release program at the jail and are close to being released back into society, love the farm work.

“We always look forward to going up. The residents love going up there,” Sorrells said of the inmates. “It’s a beautiful place and the animals are beautiful. It’s very tranquil for the residents.”

Some inmates, especially those who have had a difficult upbringing, identify with the horses, each of which have been rescued from a difficult living conditions caused by abusive owners.

“You actually see a softer side of people when they go up and do stuff like this,” Sorrells said. “I had one of my guys tell me that it actually was a really good feeling to go up there because his childhood was very poor and he didn’t have a lot of support at home and there was a lot of neglect so he could relate to how these animals felt.

“And it was almost like a passion for him to go up there and work the stalls and interact with the animals because he knew right where these animals’ hearts were because he went through it as a child.”

Sheriff Kevin Joyce sees the Community Corrections program, which helps provide free labor to nonprofits and municipalities throughout the county, as a way for the inmates to give back to the community. Projects range from shoveling out driveways and sidewalks for senior citizens in downtown Portland to helping perform cleanup or setup duties at major events such as the Beach to Beacon road race in Cape Elizabeth, Windham Summerfest and the Sebago Lake Rotary Ice Fishing Derby. In 2012, Joyce said the program performed the equivalent of $500,000 worth of work.

“It’s people that have served two-thirds of their sentence and are close to being released, so this is a way for them to be reintegrated into the public” Joyce said. “It allows them to gain some skills. It teaches them responsibility.”

County jail inmates are a relatively new addition to the society’s work crew and work mostly on designated projects. However, located across River Road from the Maine Correctional Center in Windham, prison inmates have provided free daily labor for the farm going back decades. In recent years the relationship had faded, but in September Goodreau and Bickford renewed the relationship and now have three inmates providing daily barn cleanup and housekeeping duties.

“Every day the prisoners are here,” Bickford said. “Because this is a farm, the work never stops. The animals have to be cared for every day. And we greatly appreciate the work they do.”

Three prison inmates, also in the pre-release program, work from 8:30 a.m. to noon seven days a week, said Luke Monahan, coordinator of the prison’s pre-release program, which partners with many employers throughout the area.

“It’s beneficial for the both of us,” Monahan said. “It gives them labor at no cost and it gives us a chance to offer the inmates a job on the outside and get used to going outside the fence and getting used to having a work schedule to build up their work ethic before they go back into the community. So it’s a good partnership.”

Like Sorrells, Monahan sees a change in the three-man crew as they go about their daily duties taking care of the horses.

“They love it,” Monahan said. “The ones that we pick have that drive to work. We don’t have any job that I can think of that goes out seven days a week so it gives them something to wake up for every morning, and by the time they come back they’re pretty tired so they hang around the dorm for a while and go to bed early.”

And the staff at the society appreciate all the inmates’ work.

“They’re extremely helpful, very kind, courteous, respectful of everybody,” said barn manager Troy DeRoche, who oversees the inmates while they are at the farm. “They love to be here, it’s quite an experience. A lot of them aren’t there for long periods, but just the little time they’re away from the cell and away from all those people they’re around all the time, it really makes a huge difference on their well-being.”

And without their help, Bickford said, the upgrades to the buildings probably wouldn’t happen due to the cost factor.

“To keep all of this spotless we couldn’t afford to pay people to do all of it. We just couldn’t,” she said. “So, we’re very appreciative of our volunteers.”

A real turn-around

Bickford’s presence at the society has been a boost, said Goodreau. Bickford was hired to drum up community interest in the farm, which this month had 65 horses in residence, as well as a handful of other farm animals. She operates the organization’s website, and she has introduced catchy fundraising ideas such as the buy-a-bale and adopt-a-horse programs. She’s also promoted the annual Christmas Open House, which this year drew about 1,500 people to the farm.

Bickford oversees the annual calendar, which is the society’s annual appeal. The calendar goes to each of the nearly 600 donors and shows before-and-after pictures of the animals that have been rescued.

“We’re definitely moving in the right direction,” Goodreau said. “Meris is very important. I think somebody said that the society at one point was the best-kept secret in the state of Maine because we didn’t have a mechanism to get what we do or who we are out there, until Meris was hired as vice president of external affairs. She was out there beating down the bushes telling people who we were.”

Since incorporating the new fundraising efforts, donations have risen to about $500,000 from $8,000 in 2006.

“We’ve had a pretty successful couple of years building our donor base,” Bickford said.

It’s a real turn-around, Bickford said, from only a few years ago.

“In 2006, not much was happening,” she said. “Income was passive, meaning we weren’t out there asking or promoting ourselves, and the total income was about $8,000 on a budget of $1.4 million. That was really bad and made the IRS really unhappy because to them that’s an indication that you’re not really broad-based and not getting the kind of support that should make you tax-exempt.

“This year, we’re knocking on the door of $500,000. And I think we’ll raise it. So that’s in six years.”

But there’s still a long way to go to raise the $1.4 million they need to meet budget without dipping into the endowment and relying too heavily on private foundation grants.

“So there’s still more to be done,” Bickford added.

Marilyn Goodreau, president of the board of directors for the Maine State Society for the Protection of Animals and the longtime manager of the group’s farm, takes a moment with one of the animals at the rescue. Following a tough financial period for the group, it is now prospering, with annual donations up significantly.  
Each day volunteers clean out the stalls at the Maine State Society for the Protection of Animals farm on River Road in Windham.   
Things are definitely looking up at the Maine State Society for the Protection of Animals, where Meris Bickford, left, is vice president and CEO and Marilyn Goodreau is president of the board of directors.

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