PORTLAND, Maine — Founders of the Pink Feather Foundation, which is a nonprofit organization that provides a free online shopping program that allows students who attend schools in MSAD 17 and RSU 16 to pick out gently used clothes, is at risk of having to put the work that they do on pause.
Jen Kyllonen, the foundation's co-founder, said she found out that the nonprofit would lose the warehouse they operate from in July.
Kyllonen explained that the owner of the warehouse sold the building, and the new owner won't be able to allow the nonprofit to continue to use the space.
She said the work she does always leaves a smile on her face, but she has been anxious since finding out the nonprofit would need to find a new location.
Kyllonen said she has to move out of the warehouse by Dec. 31.
Kyllonen and her advisory board have been constantly searching for a new space that is close to the school districts they serve. She said they would need to find a building that is between 3,000 and 5,000 square feet to fit the 15,000 items they store.
The nonprofit packs orders in the building, so the space they find will need to be functional for all of their processes.
Kyllonen's luck hasn't been on her side as they continue to shop for a new space. As they get closer to the deadline, she said she fears that the organization may have to pause the program that serves so many young students.
"When they look around the classroom, they feel comfortable," she said. "And it's not because they've just been given something because they needed it, but it's because they've been given something that is a choice of theirs."
Students who are in need are able to shop for new clothing items with a school social worker or with an administrator online. The whole process is confidential, helping eliminate stigmas that often stand in the way of students feeling comfortable asking for the help they need.
"We hold so much in, in general, and being able to feel like you can ask for some support and not have your name out there or be singled out... like a student knows that they can ask a teacher," Poland Regional High School social worker Mariah Matson said. "They can ask staff, and it's not going to be broadcasted, that they can get that extra support."
Sean Vincent is the principal of just one of the schools Pink Feather Foundation serves.
"For our kids, for our parents to lose that resource... it's going to set us back," Vincent said.
One thing Vincent knows about his students at Bruce M. Whittier Middle School is that they just want to fit in—and he said the Pink Feather Foundation plays an integral role in helping them do that.
"I'm sad. I'm sad for Pink Feather," he said. "The work that they've been doing over the last several years has just been phenomenal."
Unsure about what's next to come, Kyllonen said she's been considering moving into a storage space or finding a smaller operating building while praying someone who has a space that fits the need will step in.
"It's an option... I'm not going to give up," Kyllonen said.
Kyllonen is asking that anyone who owns a space that meets the description reach out if they're able to help.