POLAND, Maine — Poland Spring announced Tuesday that it donated $150,000 to help purchase 140 bulletproof vests for first responders in Androscoggin County after the shootings in Lewiston on Oct. 25.
The effort is to protect the firefighters and emergency medical services professionals who respond to mass casualty events, like the mass shooting that killed 18 people and injured 13 others while police spent almost three full days searching for the shooter. A Poland Spring employee, Ben Dyer, was one of the 13 wounded.
Dyer was at Schemengees Bar and Grille playing cornhole when a gunman walked in the night of Oct. 25. Dyer spent 19 days in the hospital after being shot 4-5 times, he said.
The Lewiston Fire Department will receive some of the vests.
Poland Spring also donated $500,000 to the Lewiston-Auburn Metro Chamber of Commerce in 2023 to help small businesses struggling to recover from the shooting.
Blue Triton Brands, Inc., a water company which owns Poland Spring, sent a statement with a quote from CEO Joey Bergstein.
"At Poland Spring we prioritize the safety of our associates, and the same should be true for the safety of area first responders. That is why BlueTriton Brands and its Poland Spring team donated $150,000 to the City of Lewiston to provide ballistic vests to area Fire/EMS departments," Bergstein said in the statement. "We will continue to support our home state of Maine in meaningful ways, and we remain grateful to area first responders and their ongoing efforts to keep Mainers safe."