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Taxpayer Funded Freeport Non-Profit Canceled a Parental Rights Event Just Two Days Before it was Scheduled


The taxpayer-funded Freeport Community Services (FCS) nonprofit canceled its rental agreement with Parents’ Rights in Education two days before the group was set to rent space for an event featuring former Rep. Heidi Sampson (R-Alfred).

“After thoughtful consideration, the Board decided to cancel the event, exercising our rights under the rental agreement. We understand there are varying perspectives in our community about both hosting and canceling the event, and we hope all concerned will respect this decision,” said FCS on November 13, just one day before the event was scheduled to be held.

The FCS did not explain why they canceled the event with such late notice, but their press release implies that the event was controversial enough that their Board of Directors met specifically to decide whether to allow it to continue.

They also suggest that their desire to “keep our space neutral and in alignment with our overall mission,” informed the decision to cancel the scheduled event.

The event, “The State of Education in Maine – RSU5,” promised to include expert analysis, parents from the local school district, and promised to empower parents, using the tagline “stop messing with our kids.”

According to Form 990 tax filings, FCS brought in $16,000 in taxpayer funded government grants between 2022 and 2023.

The most recent tax filings for Parents Rights in Education show that the non-profit took in $70,488 in 2022, from private grants and contributions.

Despite the taxpayer-funded FCS’ ostensible desire to remain neutral, they have previously partnered with far-left organizations.

In June, the group’s thrift shop announced that the FCS was partnering with the radical proponent of gender ideology for children, Out Maine, another group that has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer grants.

FCS actively worked to fundraise for the organization.

[RELATED: Out Maine, Controversial Group Pushing Gender Theory in Schools, Saw Taxpayer Funding Increase Under Mills…]

Out Maine works to support gender transitions for minors, and, according to tax filings took in $312,742 in taxpayer funding between 2022 and 2023.

In 2022, the “neutral” FCS worked to fund Equality Maine, a far left organization that lobbied in the State House last legislative session for late-term abortion and sex changes for minors.

The non-profit hosts an LGBT youth summer camp that teaches children about “LGBT history.”

The Maine Wire reached out to the FCS, asking why they decided to cancel the parental rights event, why they initially decided to let the group use their space before canceling, and whether they have canceled other events for similar reasons.

FCS Executive Director Sarah Lundin, who lists her pronouns in her email signature, responded but simply parroted the publicly available FCS press release and refused to answer any of The Maine Wire’s questions.

The Maine Wire also reached out to Parents Rights in Education, who stated that the FCS informed them that it disagreed with their organization’s purpose.

Despite the inconvenience caused by the last-minute cancellation, they said that attendance of their event increased.

The Maine Wire also spoke with the Director of Maine’s branch of Parents Rights in Education, Allen Sarvinas.

He believes that the decision to cancel the event was politically motivated and was the result of the FCS board of directors succumbing to a “Reddit pressure campaign.”

“The activists in Freeport who we know work with Portland DSA created a pop-up pressure campaign using Reddit; then a digital X community picked it up because the Reddit commenters were insinuating civil disobedience tactics, and then the Reddit author updated their thread, claiming some counterprotest by our supporters was being organized, which I believe gave FCS an excuse to violate their contract with us. None of it occured or proved true,” said Sarvinas in a follow-up email.

He told The Maine Wire that they were able to convince FCS to refund the money spent on the rental, along with the money spent on insurance for the event.





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