Employees help Brewer manufacturing plant pick charity for holiday donation

BREWER, Maine (WABI) - What better way to celebrate the holiday season than by giving back? At one automotive manufacturing company in Brewer, employees are getting in on the generosity.

This week, Somic America, Inc. is asking its workers to choose where its annual donation will go.

During each of three staff holiday parties, the Christine B. Foundation and Northern Light Cancer Care’s Patient Transportation Assistance Fund are giving presentations.

Then, everyone is getting tickets to distribute between the two non-profits.

Based on the results of the company-wide vote, Somic will be splitting up $10,000 proportionally between the two programs.

“Everybody knows somebody who has been affected by cancer. And so we chose these two organizations that do fantastic work in our community to try to help make it easy for them to make a difference,” said Jeff Farley, Brewer plant manager, Somic America, Inc.

“It meant a whole lot. I mean, our community cares so much about our patients facing cancer in this region. And so it just meant a whole lot that they chose these two cancer organizations to support this year for their holiday party,” said Kimberly Boucher with Northern Light Foundation.

“This is a really exciting day, knowing that businesses like Somic, specifically, want to help our neighbors facing cancer and address the leading cause of death in our state, which is cancer, is really exciting. And what Somic is also doing is acknowledging that cancer affects the entire family and it goes beyond the treatment. So knowing that the Christine B. Foundation, being a service provider, offering medically-tailored grocery packages to patients across Eastern Maine, and Somic seeing that and the team wanting to help make a difference in that service is really exciting,” said Matt Dexter, Christine B. Foundation executive director.

There’s one more staff luncheon Friday morning before the contest is over.

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