York Town News
Stonewall Kitchen donates $8,000 to help make this summer a memorable one for local children in need
By Jennifer L. Saunders
For Jim Stott and Jonathan King, seen here in their new York Parks and Recreation Camp shirts, making a difference in the community is simply the right thing to do. The co-owners and founders of Stonewall Kitchen took some time to chat outside the company headquarters in York with Mike Sullivan and Sarah Francke of York Parks and Recreation after presenting $8,000 to the department to help fund summer camp scholarships for local children in need.
Photo by Jennifer L. Saunders
YORK - Jonathan King remembers being one of six siblings who spent their summers at the Cape Neddick campground with their parents.
Although the family did not have much money, he explained, there was not enough money in the world to buy the experience of living on the land in Cape Neddick and experiencing the beauty of York summer after summer.
"I had my roots here," he said.
That is why, last week, King and fellow Stonewall Kitchen owner and co-founder Jim Stott donated $8,000 to York Parks and Recreation to fund camp scholarships for this summer.
Stonewall Kitchen is known for its contributions to a wealth of worthy charitable causes, including AIDS Response Seacoast, but this donation marks an opportunity to give to a cause that will bring joy to children's lives, Stott explained.
With the company's support of AIDS Response Seacoast and organizations that provide support for children with cancer or survivors of child abuse, Stott said, the causes are very important, but the stories associated with those causes are often very sad. In this case, he said, he and King know they are contributing to something that will just bring happiness to children's lives.
"It is just great to give to something so fun and healthy," King added, describing his own childhood and how, in a family with six children, summer camps were not something his parents could easily afford.
Both Stott and King echoed York Parks and Recreation Director Mike Sullivan's point that there are children, right here in York, who would love the opportunities provided by York Parks and Recreation but cannot afford them without assistance. They hope this donation will open the door to those opportunities for these deserving young people.
Sullivan said that is exactly what this donation will do.
"This will benefit underprivileged kids who want to be able to participate," Sullivan said.
Each year, he said, York Parks and Recreation has made it a policy not to turn away children on the basis of financial need, but funding limitations have, in turn, limited how many opportunities the department can provide for those children.
"This will go a long way to helping kids in York," Sullivan said of the donation.
Both Sullivan and his colleague, Sarah Francke of York Parks and Recreation, said people would be surprised how many children right here in York cannot afford the fees for summer recreation camps or activities.
"There's a perception that everyone has money in York," King agreed, adding he and Stott want to be able to help those children who could not otherwise afford it take part in the healthy and positive activities offered by York Parks and Recreation.
As residents of the York community, with their business based primarily here in town, Stott said he and King remember beginning their company from the kitchen of a tiny Seacoast area cape, with the stonewall that gave their business its name in plain view, and selling their first products at the Farmer's Market in Portsmouth, N.H.
Now, more than 16 years later, their specialty food store is thriving, with locations across the nation, and Stott said they are happy to give back to worthy organizations like York Parks and Recreation.
"These are memories that will stay with them - times when they didn't have a care in the world," he said of the children who will take part in this summer's programs and activities.
For more about Stonewall Kitchen, visit http://www.stonewallkitchen.com/. For more about this summers offerings at York Parks and Recreation, visit parksandrec.yorkmaine.org.
