 I'm Tom Handel here with another CTN member highlight and this time we're featuring Independence Association. They're doing a fundraiser called A Run for Independence coming up soon and I have here with me Dennis St. Pierre, the director of marketing and community relations, right? Right. Before we get into talking about the Run for Independence, could you tell us a little bit about what Independence Association is? Independence Association basically is a servicing agency for people with disabilities. They could be developmental, mental, intellectual, so forth. But we're directly engaged in trying to create efforts towards inclusivity for all members so that they truly are part of society as a whole and part of their community. So our organization works with different organizations. We've created new organizations under our umbrella, all with the intent of creating inclusivity for our members. And how far do you reach and how many clients do you serve? Well, we reach throughout the whole mid-coast area and the Brunswick area, mostly. Brunswick, Topsom, we're into Durham, we're in Bath, and a few other locations, Freeport. And we have, we probably service, I would say, anywhere between 200 to 400 people. It may be even more than that. I'm new in this, so I'm still learning. What is it makes sure of residential services and day versus employment services? We have day programs, residential, we do all kinds of different community efforts. We have Spindleworks, which most people know about. That is one of our agencies. And we've just tied off into another one in the gardener called Spinoff. So that's a arts type of group where our individuals can come in and do art and work with artists, professional artists of all different levels and different types. That's great. And it's a really essential kind of a service that people need in these areas. Now, you get funding from the state, but I understand there's often problems with being fully funded for all the things that you do. Right. And especially now with the federal budget cuts and everything else, we're looking at what is going to be happening in the future. And we know that we're going to have to start raising funds and awareness of what we do and the services that we offer to our community. Because it's not just to our members that we're servicing. We're servicing our community as well. And we want to make sure that they know we're there. So if they know we're there, then we can actually ask them to help support us financially. And we know that's coming, that we're going to need to do that more. So fundraising is really important for you. And you've got this run for independence coming up now. It's not the first time you've done this, right? No, last year it was called the Sea Dog Dash. And that was our first annual run. We had 485 people run in the race for first race. It was fantastic. It's a 10K, a 5K in a one mile. And this year we're adding a kids run as well. So it starts, it's on May 18th. It starts at 9am in Brunswick at the Brunswick Junior High School. And this year we're expecting anywhere between 500 to 700 runners. Wow. That's what we're hoping. And the effort's going pretty well. So now people you're looking for people to run in the race. You're looking for sponsors. Right. What's involved in doing all of that if somebody wants to be a sponsor or run in the race? If they want to be a sponsor, all they need to do is contact me through the Independence Association. Dennis, well, it's actually D Saint Pierre, one word at iaofmain.org. And you can contact me through that for sponsorship. And if you want to register to actually race, you can go into the website called run in a race.com. And you can register right there online. And how do people, how do you actually raise money when people run? And what's the for people who aren't familiar with that kind of fundraiser? Well, we basically raise the money through fees and through sponsorships. That's how we do the fundraiser. The fee to race and the race is very reasonable. If you sign up before May 1st, it's a discounted rate. And as we get close to the race, it goes up. But it's extremely reasonable in price for people to register to race. And you can see that on the registration form, the prices are listed there. And if people want to make donations, they can do that as well. And we've also got a great opportunity with Andrew Scogging Bank, who is offered to be one of our sponsors. And they're doing a promo with us. Anybody who wants to sign up for their mobile app, and, and says that Independence Association, the run for independence referred them. Andrew Scogging Bank will make an extra donation of $25 to the run. And that's for anybody who uses says run for independence or Independence Association in relation to signing up for that mobile app. And the mobile app is free for any person who has an Andrew Scogging Bank savings account or checking account or anything. They we would get that. No, is there a deadline for sponsors to sign up or runners to sign up? We're really under really tight schedule. As you can see, May 18th is only three weeks away. If certain sponsorships, we are already at the deadline today. If you want to have your logo on things and so forth like that and the promotional materials. But we're accepting sponsorships right up until the 18th of May. So if people want to sponsor and donate, we would love that. And we will make sure that the name gets put on the website, and the website will stay up until next year. So whoever sponsored those names will be up there in perpetuity until we start working on next year's race. Great. Well, just real real quick. Once again, where do people go if they want more information about how to become a sponsor or run in the race? For Run for Independence, you can go to run for independence.org. We have our own website and there's more information there in links to our our actual nonprofit Independence Association and to run in a race.com. Great. Great. Well, thanks for joining us. Thank you very much, Tom.