Portsmouth, New Hampshire (December 13, 2018) – The Roger R. and Theresa S. Thompson Endowment Fund announces the awarding of $117,000 in grants to six non-profit organizations in New Hampshire and Maine.

Among the beneficiaries, the Trustees of the Trust, Charles Doleac, Kenneth Barrett and Holly Ayes Malloy have approved a grant to the Pine Tree Society of Scarborough ME to transform the educational experience of children who are deaf and hard-of-hearing by providing funds for program research and development to  launch pilot Teacher of the Deaf services in southern Maine.

The Thompson Fund has awarded grants to the Pine Tree Society since 2000, to support the creation and sustainability of such initiatives as the Pine Tree Camp accessible playground, mental health care capabilities and an autism transition program.

The Thompsons established the endowment fund to benefit specific local charitable organizations in order to perpetuate the memories of Roger R. and Theresa S. Thompson who deemed these organizations’ work to be “in the best interest of the local community.”

In making the announcement, Managing Trustee Charles Doleac commented, “The Roger R. and Theresa S. Thompson Endowment Fund trustees are pleased to recognize the work of the six beneficiaries of this year’s grants. Theresa and Roger Thompson believed that their best legacy, as individuals and together, was to assist organizations whose work they admired and that fit their definition of what was good for the community in any given year. We are also very pleased to see the increase in collaboration among the beneficiaries. While joint initiatives are often independent of the specific grant bequests in a given year, the synergy that is resulting in the name of the Thompsons is inspiring. The Thompson Endowment Fund is a great model for people who might be thinking about setting up their own charitable entities.”

President Noel Sullivan commented, “Last year, thanks to the generous support of Roger R. and Theresa Thompson Endowment Fund, Pine Tree Society launched a pilot program designed to support employment for individuals who are Deaf. Through our research and work to launch that pilot, we have discovered that the very foundation of employment for people who are Deaf lies in the individual’s education from Kindergarten to the senior year of high school. Children who are Deaf or hard-of-hearing have a dramatically different educational experience than their hearing counterparts. Learning how best to implement a program to provide Teacher of the Deaf services in southern Maine allows the Pine Tree Society to move this initiative to the next level.”

The distributions are not guaranteed and the non-profits named in the Trust must apply each year to be considered for the beneficiary awards that are paid from the income of the Roger R. and Theresa S. Thompson estate trust fund.  To learn more about Thompson Fund beneficiaries and prior grant-funded initiatives, please visit ThompsonFund.org and follow the Thompson Fund on Facebook.