PORTLAND, Maine — A Portland couple expecting a baby boy in March got a surprise delivery Monday from two organizations supporting the man in his recovery from substance abuse.
Anthony Poulos is an employee of MaineWorks, a company that helps people in recovery from substance abuse and helps them stay sober by helping them get a job, typically in the construction industry.
Poulos, a 30-year-old from Portland, said he began getting addicted to drugs while working for a moving company.
"There's plenty of people that don't make healthy decisions and I was tainted by those people. I went in there healthy and came out a mess," Poulos said.
He said an upper-body injury that kept him from work allowed him to detox. After being laid off during the pandemic, he found employment through MaineWorks.
"When you show up to work and you're working for us, you know you're going to be around other sober people who are trying to move the needle in a positive direction, and Anthony is no different," Ben Klebe, director of operations for MaineWorks and a longtime friend of Poulos, said.
Poulos is now in the pre-apprenticeship program through the National Association of Women in Construction, which also helps men. As the organization does each year, NAWIC reached out to MaineWorks looking for a family to sponsor by giving them Christmas presents, and Klebe said Poulos was the obvious choice.
"We have all seen this throughout the country, throughout Maine. These folks really made an effort to better their lives, to change their addiction, and they're working very hard to recover from a bad situation that started at a young age," Robin Wood, director of human resources for Reed and Reed Construction and a board member of the NAWIC apprenticeship program, said.
Poulos and his partner, Antonia Tarsetti, knew they were nominated to be a "Christmas family," but did not know what they had won.
On Monday, they arrived at MaineWorks and they found a pile of presents: all items first-time parents need.
"I'm just so overwhelmed. It's so nice having help. When you have support like this, they always say it takes a village to raise a child, and you guys really, really helped in this. It's just a really great start to our year and to our child's life, and we couldn't have asked for anything more than this. Thank you so much," Tarsetti said.