“We have to give back,” Jane Good explains as she talks about the Community Center’s newest service project. “We ask a lot, but we need to give back, too.”

Good’s vision of the center being a place where ‘community’ means giving as well as receiving has resulted in a new project for July. Beginning July 5, the Community Center will start collecting items for use at the Lincoln County Animal Shelter.

The Animal Shelter needs items that would be welcomed to help contain the costs of caring for its guests. These items form a long list and include: laundry soap, dish soap, wet and dry types of cat and dog food, litter, treats and toys for cats and dogs, peanut butter and flea and tick medications. To see a complete list, please visit: http://lcasmaine.org/wish-list-ongoing-needs/

In addition to collecting the wish list items, Community Center volunteers have found another way to contribute. The center’s sewing group, “Just Sew” has been making small padded mats for kittens and puppies and are contributing these to the shelter as well. Group members Angel Ames, Bobbi Reed, Confetti Winslow and Grace Morgan, along with junior member Sophie Gudros, have been working on the mats for the past six weeks.

Good was unaware that the Just Sew group was lending their hands to the effort until they surprised her with the mats. According to Ames, the group wants to focus its efforts on helping organizations in the area.

When the group’s members learned that the center was collecting items for the shelter, they decided to take on a project to help out. “My late grandmother (Barbara Tibbetts) loved animals and I had lots of her fabric with animals on it.” Bobbi Reed had batting, so the group decided to combine their resources and talents and produce the mats.

Jane Siviski, marketing manager for the Lincoln County Animal Shelter and the Coastal Humane Society, was touched by the group’s work. “It’s an extraordinary act to make something for an animal in need,” she said.

The Community Center will continue to accept items for the shelter until July 18.