2011年11月8日にバンゴア・デイリー・ニュースが伝えるところによると、スティーヴン・キングとタビサ・キングは、FMラジオを通じ70,000ドルの寄付を募り、それに70,000ドルを加え、メイン州の低所得者・高齢者・障害者の冬季の暖房燃料支援に乗り出した模様。
具体的には、連邦法により、低所得者・高齢者・障害者向けの、Low Income Home Energy Assistance
Program(LIHEAP/低所得家庭エネルギー支援プログラム)が縮小されたため、スティーヴン・キングは自らが所有するFM局を通じ、70,000ドルの寄付を集め、それにスティーヴン・キングとタビサ・キングが70,000ドルを加え、140,000ドルの支援を行うもの。
この支援策は、2011年11月8日にアナウンスされ、11月9日にスティーヴン・キングとタビサ・キングはFMラジオに出演し、寄付を募った模様。
Stephen King offers $70,000 for heating fuel aid
By Renee Ordway, Special to the BDN
BANGOR, Maine — With poor, elderly and disabled
Mainers facing deep cuts to the federal Low Income Home Energy
Assistance Program which helps keep them warm in the winter, Bangor’s
most famous resident, author Stephen King, is stepping forward to help
out.
King — who owns Bangor radio stations WZON 620 AM, WKIT 100.3 FM and
The Pulse 103.1 FM — said Tuesday that the Stephen and Tabitha King
Foundation would work with the radio stations to try to raise as much as
$140,000 to be used for fuel assistance for low-income Mainers in the
stations’ broadcast area.
“We’ll match up to $70,000 of the amount raised,” King said in a
telephone interview. “This economy is terrible and Tabitha and I both
worry so much about Bangor because it truly is a working-class town and
we are always looking for ways to help, and right now this is a great
need.”
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services notified MaineHousing late last month that it should expect to receive $23 million in LIHEAP funds this winter, down from $55.6 million last year. Gov. Paul LePage said last week he would ask the Legislature for funds to bridge the gap.
King said that as the need of the people increases, the help from the government decreases.
“And on top of it the price of fuel continues to rise. The cost goes
up, the need goes up and the assistance goes down. That’s the bottom
line. That’s what is happening,” he said.
Though he and his wife spend much of the winter at their home in Florida, King said their devotion to Bangor never wavers.
“We still come back. Our children grew up on West Broadway and that
is still where they want to be during the holidays,” he said. “We don’t
forget how cold it is in Maine in the winter.”
As part of the stations’ “Help Keep ME Warm This Winter,” Pat
LaMarche, host of The Pulse “Morning Show,” will live in the cold for
several days later this month, said station manager Bobby Russell.
LaMarche will move into a small wooden shed provided by Wooden
Wonders of Unity and will broadcast from there beginning at 6 a.m.
Monday, Nov. 21.
She will stay in the shed through Thanksgiving and Black Friday in an
effort to remind listeners of the importance of remembering and giving
to the less fortunate during the most festive time of the year.
King, however, said that he was aware of the difficulty right now of
asking people who already are financially strapped to give more.
“We are chipping in, but we know that it is increasingly difficult
for some people to chip in. Can we raise the whole amount? I don’t know,
but we’ll do what we can,” he said.
With threats of federal cuts of more than $30 million for heating
assistance and rising costs of oil, Shawn Yardley, director of Bangor
Health and Community Services, said the situation for many is dire.
In the past two weeks, Yardley said Tuesday, he has received more
calls from people desperate to find help to fill their oil tanks than he
has in the past three years.
He said the callers are frightened and for most there is no help available.
“I give them contacts and numbers, but I tell them, and I know, that those resources have no help to give,” he said.
Yardley is setting his sights on instructing those Mainers on how to stay safe in a cold house.
“Pockets are getting shallow,” he said, “even among those who are
very charitable. Are we grateful for what Stephen and Tabitha are doing?
You bet. But none of us can make up for these deep cuts to this
program. I know what I need to do now in my position. I need to start
reminding people to stay safe — to not put their homes at risk of fire,
to not run the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning and to encourage them
to perhaps move in with friends and family members for the winter … in
order to survive this time.”
余談だが、キングの「アンダー・ザ・ドーム」によると、メイン州では冬季の雪害のため、比較的簡単に送電線が分断されてしまうため、多くの家庭では、プロパンガスによる自家発電装置が備えられているらしい。
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