If you would like to make a donation to Broad Bay's A Place for All Capital Campaign, you have multiple options.
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Thank you for your support!
We have raised over $778,000.
Will you join us and make a one time gift or three year pledge?
About Our Campaign
Just outside the doors of Broad Bay Church, on the corner of Pleasant and Main Streets in Waldoboro, sits a bench, a picnic table, and a cabinet labeled “Help Yourself Shelf.” Over the course of a day, children sit on the bench while waiting for the school bus, friends greet each other at the picnic table before one of the many community-based meetings held inside, and others exchange books, food, and household items at the Help Yourself Shelf. It’s a microcosm of welcoming, neighborly activity.
Beneath its white steeple and behind its tall double doors, Broad Bay Church’s building is showing its age.
Inside the church building, that spirit is no less evident—manifested all the days of the week, not just on Sunday—as a setting for benefit concerts, lectures, classes, weddings, funerals, and gatherings for groups such as Restorative Justice, Alcoholics Anonymous, Women Infants & Children, the Garden Club, and the Waldoborough Historical Society, among others. Broad Bay’s congregation, small yet vibrant, welcomes everyone with open arms, no matter where they are on life’s journey. Yet there are involuntary limits to their embrace.
A set of thorough assessments conducted in 2014-15 revealed a series of concerns with the building, from major structural items to a lengthy laundry list of necessary repairs and other maintenance issues. These aspects—coupled with the building’s general lack of safe egress, accessibility, and flexibility for its variety of functions—led the congregation to form a building committee and seek the help of professionals. In 2017, the church hired Barba + Wheelock Architects to identify a list of priorities for a comprehensive renovation, to illustrate those options with drawings, and to provide cost estimates for each. And in spring of 2018, the congregation voted to embark on a capital campaign and hired Maine-based Full Harvest Fundraising, LLC, to help address funding for the many needs of the building.
Of special note, in the middle of all of its planning, the church was delighted (and somewhat surprised) to catch the attention of the National Fund for Sacred Places (fundforsacredplaces.org), a program managed by Partners for Sacred Places in collaboration with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Broad Bay was chosen as one of 14 congregations from across the country because of the historical value of the church building and its demonstrated commitment to strengthening community partnerships. In addition to receiving a planning grant, capital campaign training, and specialized consulting services,
Broad Bay will receive a 2:1 matching grant on pledges up to a maximum grant of $250,000. So, in order to meet the $750,000 Phase 1 goal, $500,000 would need to be raised.
Broad Bay Church invites YOU to help transform its 19th Century building to suit its 21st Century ministry and truly make it A Place for All!
In summary, the work on the building will equip the church to welcome people who struggle with stairs, strengthen partnerships with other community organizations, and provide a safe and welcoming environment to all who enter. Sunday worship, concerts, and memorial services will continue to bring people of all faiths and no faith together in a quiet and sacred place. The fellowship hall will continue to welcome a variety of community groups.
In order to make the dream a reality, the church needs help from its congregation, its funding partners, and the surrounding community. Someday, Broad Bay’s building will be as welcoming and useful on the inside as its bench, picnic table, and Help Yourself Shelf are on the outside—where people come and go in peace and ease, share fellowship, and serve and support God and the community.
What People Are Saying About Broad Bay Church
“Broad Bay Church is truly an open, affirming, and welcoming place with an incredibly caring and generous congregation. Our clients have been supported as members of the church, as well as strangers, as has our agency and staff. I cannot think go a worthier recipient of funding than Broad Bay Church, to help them create a facility that matches their drive to support and grow the lovely little town of Waldoboro.” —Susanna Norwood-Burns, New Hope for Women
“Broad Bay really has been the spiritual home of restorative justice practices in the greater Waldoboro area in so many ways, and we truly couldn't have made these processes available without having this welcoming spot to work from!” —Restorative Justice
“The Broad Bay Church has been as welcoming as they could be to our group. We feel very lucky to have this home for our meetings and fellowship.” —Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)
“Broad Bay Church provides me with the opportunity to participate by sharing my love and help in a wide range of local, state, and national endeavors.” —Alethe Donaldson, member, co-chair of Capital Campaign Visiting Team
“Broad Bay Church makes clients’ appointments easy and convenient, and its space is very child friendly. Many clients remember coming here for Sunday School.” —Women, Infants, & Children (WIC)
“Broad Bay Church exists because we want to serve God in our small corner of the world. It is wonderful to share the search and the celebrations, to be among folks with whom to share the passages of life.” —Jonathan Clowes, member, co-chair of Building Team
