Kindness came early to Holden this year as the police department started its 25 Days of Kindness program in October. The program, implemented by the late Chief Chris Greeley, traditionally ran from Dec. 1 to Christmas Day.
“We’ve gotten so many donations from the community that it has turned into a year-round program,” Holden Police Chief Eduardo “Eddie” Benjamin said.
Benjamin, who was Greeley’s lieutenant, was named chief after Greeley died March 9. The new chief vowed to carry on the Kindness program in his mentor’s memory. Earlier this year, the town added to its “Welcome” signs: “Home of Chris Greeley’s 25 Days of Kindness.”
The department formed a non-profit this year to keep the money separate from the police budget and to ensure transparency, Benjamin said.
The program has gone from raising a few hundred dollars its first year to having $20,000 raised so far this year. Donations come in from all over Maine and even from out of state, according to Benjamin.
Acts of kindness range from large to small in expense and effort, the chief said. In October the program spent about $5,000 on fuel oil and propane for residents of a Holden trailer park.
This summer, an officer stopped a single mother for a burnt-out headlight on her way home to New York from a vacation with her children at Acadia National Park. When she told him she did not know how to replace a headlight and had no one in her life who could, the officer went to an auto parts store, paid for the headlight from the Kindness fund, and installed it for her.
People rarely ask for help for themselves, but school officials, church pastors, managers in mobile home parks and subsidized housing complexes as well as police officers tell the department about people they know who are in need.
“People just walk in and say this family needs help,” Benjamin said. “They have no money to buy Christmas gifts.”
The program began in 2015 after Greeley was named chief.
“I thought it would be a fun incentive for officers to do good deeds during the month of December that weren’t in their job descriptions,” he told the Bangor Daily News in 2021. “It was a way to think outside the box a little.”
He urged officers to help a person shovel snow off steps or to carry in groceries if they saw a Holden resident having difficulty with that task. Greeley held a contest that first year and gave prizes to officers who performed the most acts of kindness. Benjamin was the winner.
“It made me so happy to help people,” Benjamin said recently.
Soon people were calling the police station asking how they could donate to the program. It grew each year as Holden businesses and residents continued to donate money, food, clothing, toys, and handmade quilts to the department.
Last year, Greeley told the BDN that it “exploded” with $26,000 received in monetary donations, a dramatic increase from the $7,000 raised in 2021.
Over the years, the Kindness program has become a part of the department’s culture.
“That’s 100 percent Chief Greeley’s legacy – caring for the community,” Benjamin said.
