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The Waterville Legacy of Mr. Harold Alfond A Legacy Like No Other:
The Waterville Legacy of Mr. Harold Alfond
Written by Kimberly Nadeau Lindlof, president & CEO, Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce and executive director, Central Maine Growth Council
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THE TRUTH IS THAT I DO NOT KNOW
exactly when it began. I assume that it was sometime before 1943 that Harold Alfond fell in love with and married Dorothy “Bibby” Levine. I believe that he fell in love with Waterville at the same time. Thank goodness for us, he did. Not long after that, their four children came along. In 1950 at age 36, Mr. Alfond started a foundation, the first private foundation in the state of Maine: www.haroldalfond foundation.org. Waterville area organizations were not the only beneficiaries of the Foundation’s generosity, but as the hometown of Bibby Levine Alfond, whose family owned Levine’s Clothing Store, it has been blessed by the Harold Alfond Foundation as well as the Bill and Joan Alfond Foundation. (Bill is the third child of Harold and Bibby Alfond, and Joan is his accomplished wife.)
Harold Alfond Foundation’s areas of focus are around health care, education, and youth and community development. “And community development” is a relatively new piece of its philanthropy. I imagine that the community development piece began when Harold’s good
The Waterville Legacy of Mr. Harold Alfond
friend and former trustee, Bob Marden, drew a “jock strap” around the Waterville Opera House’s proscenium drawn on a cocktail napkin during a conversation that the two men were having about a matching grant opportunity for the Opera House’s capital campaign. Seems that Bob completely understood and was able to expand Mr. Alfond’s propensity for sponsoring college athletics and was hoping to get him to include the arts in addition to his sports endeavors.
Harold’s and the Foundation’s love for college athletics is certainly true in ABOVE & OPPOSITE: Greg Powell of the Alfond Foundation and Mid-Maine Chamber directors join city officials and Waterville parks & recreation employees to celebrate the official opening of the new Alfond Municipal Pool on North Street in Waterville. LEFT: Dedication plaque that hangs at the Harold Alfond Athletics and Recreation Center at Colby College Colby College.
The beautiful faces of children at Educare Central Maine. our region. Thomas College and Colby College have been and continue to be beneficiaries of the Foundation’s generosity as evidenced by Colby College’s new Athletic Center. Alfond Youth and Community Center (AYCC) honored Harold Alfond in 2007, building the only licensed replica mini–Fenway Park in Oakland, at the Camp Tracy location where Iron Man of Baseball Cal Ripken was on hand for the dedication. Good Will-Hinckley’s campus has been a recipient of Mr. Alfond’s generosity (that is where I first met him) as well as Kennebec Valley Community College’s (KVCC) former Averill Annex, the Harold and Bibby Alfond building. KVCC’s gym is also the Harold Alfond Recreation Center.
“The Harold Alfond Foundation has been a sustaining partner to Maine’s institutions for decades, all with an eye toward bettering the lives of the people who call Maine home. From Harold Alfond’s first gift to build Colby’s hockey rink in the 1950s to the remarkable ingenuity and vision the Foundation has shown in supporting Waterville’s revitalization, central Maine is thriving because of the generosity and foresight of the Alfond family and Greg Powell, the Foundation’s chairman. We couldn’t be more fortunate to have such caring and inspired partners, who keep the spirit of Harold and Bibby Alfond so present and vital in our lives,” offers Colby College President David Greene. (FYI – Greg Powell is a Waterville native as well.)
The Foundation has supported the birth of several nonprofits in the region. Educare Central Maine was the first of its kind in New England and would not have happened without Alfond support and advocacy by Joan and Bill in particular. “Educare Central Maine is a comprehensive early learning and development center in Waterville, Maine. It provides childcare and preschool options to families with children from six weeks to age five that are facing barriers to accessing high-quality early learning,” according to Educare Central Maine’s website.
Classroom size is small by design, giving master-educated level teachers the opportunity to work one-on-one with their students. The facility is co-located next to the George Mitchell School, Waterville’s K-3 grade school. As you can see, the educational journey from six weeks through college, is a priority for the Harold Alfond Foundation.
I have been in more than one meeting with Bill, as well as his son Justin when he was in the legislature, and listened to them speak fondly of their childhood experiences growing up and traveling to Waterville to visit their family, especially their cousins. The fondness that they show to Waterville area associations is palpable. It would be hard to live in this area and not be touched by their generosity bestowed. My average routine for example: for years on Monday at noon, I would attend Rotary meetings in the Alfond Library housed within the Alfond Youth and Community Center, adjacent to the Alfond Municipal Pool on North Street, which the Foundation has paid for not once, but twice.
Colby College is located just up the hill and promotes its Colby Cares About Kids program at AYCC, which engages students civically by mentoring area youth. AYCC is the first and only combined Boys & Girls Club and YMCA under one roof.
“Thanks to the generosity of the Harold Alfond Foundation tens of thousands of children and their families have been served in central Maine. The Alfond Youth and Community Center reaches
out to over a hundred towns and their citizens providing essential childcare, addressing food insecurity and mental health concerns, while opening the doors for recreational activities for the entire family. The Peter Alfond Foundation has granted opportunities to the AYCC in conjunction with MaineGeneral Health with cutting edge wellness programs. These programs will be critical for making a strong impact for years to come,” according to Ken Walsh, chief executive officer of AYCC.
It is because of the Harold Alfond Foundation that the Kennebec Valley region has a state-of-the-art cancer center and high-quality health care at MaineGeneral Health.
As board chair of the Waterville Opera House during the final two years of fundraising and construction of its $4.9 million capital campaign, I was able to both witness and participate in the process of soliciting and receiving the Foundation’s contributions. Waterville, home to Maine’s first international film festival, is largely centered at the Waterville Opera House. Waterville Creates, the umbrella organization for the arts in Waterville, at the urging of the Harold Alfond Foundation, consolidated the back office functions and administrative oversight of the Waterville Opera House, and the Maine Film Center that produces the Maine International Film Festival and operates Railroad Square Cinemas.
Currently, in partnership with Colby College, Waterville Creates is constructing an $18 million Paul Schupf Arts Center that will include a box office, café, rehearsal space, Railroad Square Cinemas (relocated), administrative offices, a modern art gallery, and Ticonic Art Gallery including artists’ makerspace — a collaborative workspace for making, learning, exploring, and sharing, which uses common resources to create art. The Paul Schupf Arts Center is located in the heart of downtown at 93 Main Street, where the former Stern’s Department Store once stood. Completion is slated for the fall of 2022.
Shannon Haines, president and CEO of Waterville Creates states, “The Harold Alfond Foundation’s investment in Waterville Creates has enabled us to strengthen the long-standing, beloved arts organiza-
Little Known Fact
Harold Alfond is credited for inventing the factory outlet store. He opened his first factory damaged (mistakes made during manufacturing) store in Skowhegan. It was not long before demand was outlasting supply, and Mr. Alfond introduced stale inventory into the mix. Stale inventory is defined as those shoes that are first grade but for whatever reason were not selling well in the wholesale market.
ABOVE: Bill and Joan Alfond cutting the ribbon for The Bill & Joan Alfond Main Street Commons, a living and learning community that offers apartmentstyle residences in the heart of downtown Waterville. RIGHT: Michelle Michaud of Sen. Collins’ office presents a letter to Jordan Rowan, general manager of The Lockwood Hotel and Front & Main (restaurant) at the ribbon cutting. These are located where the former Levine’s Department Store was situated.
tions that have been a core part of Waterville’s identity for decades by developing a new model for collaboration. Through its support of the Paul J. Schupf Art Center, the Harold Alfond Foundation is furthering its investment in Waterville’s unique arts assets with the understanding that this new facility will not only be a premier destination for outstanding arts programming for generations to come, but also a major economic driver for the city.”
It is evident by looking at the Foundation board that philanthropy was clearly molded by Harold Alfond. Currently his children and two grandchildren serve on its board. (Peter Alfond, Harold and Bibby’s youngest son, passed away several years ago.) Bill and Joan have been stalwart supporters of education and community development in mid-Maine as well. They have partnered with Colby College to fund three phases of downtown façade grants. The Bill and Joan Alfond Main Street Commons, Colby’s downtown residence hall that houses 200 students and faculty was dedicated two years ago in their names. Bill and Joan Alfond Foundation has also funded arts efforts through Waterville Creates. Bill’s cousins, Peter and Paula Lunder, have launched the renovation and rehabilitation of the Arts Collaborative at 16 Main Street, directly across from Colby’s new Lockwood Hotel and Front & Main restaurant. (Peter and Paula Lunder are also huge benefactors to Colby and its arts museum and have made transformative donations in both money and collections of art to set the Colby College Museum of Art apart as the largest art museum in the state of Maine.)
To say that the love and passion that Harold Alfond found in Waterville has been spread throughout the family and shared among the generations would be an understatement. No one in this region has gone untouched. It has permeated everyone’s experience in one way or another. In large part because of the family’s generosity, the Waterville area is growing and prospering. It is truly a living legacy.
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