Members of the Windham Town Council have approved more than $6,600 in funding from the Substance Prevention Grant Program aimed at preventing students from using drugs or other dangerous substances and help them make positive choices.
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| Members of the Windham Town Council have approved awarding three grants totaling $6,600 and aimed at preventing student substance abuse from the town's Substance Prevention Grant Program. PHOTO BY ED PIERCE |
Councilors awarded Windham Middle School’s Smokescreen Program a grant of $2,500. The activity is an evidence-based game to educate students about the dangers of vaping. It promotes vaping prevention, education, and assists students in making positive choices in reducing youth substance use.
Tier 1 of the program will be used for all sixth-grade students and provides a universal prevention program focusing on vaping risks and developing peer resistance skills. The Tier 2 component of the program would be available as a targeted intervention for students involved in vaping or a substance violation at school.
Windham Middle School’s Band and Orchestra was awarded a grant of $2,600 by the council from the Substance Prevention Grant Program Fund to help pay for the group’s participation in the Trills and Thrills Music Festival, a recreational event that promotes prevention, education, and positive choices in reducing youth substance use.
The Trills and Thrills Music Festival will be held June 5 and June 6 at Canobie State Park in Salem, New Hampshire. It is a competition staged by former music educators familiar with the abilities of school-aged musicians and helps to build esteem and confidence in student musicians.
Council members also awarded a grant of $1,500 to the Windham High School Student Council for Raising Student Voice and Participation training and bringing a trainer from the National Association of Student Councils to Windham to conduct leadership training for 100 WHS students. The intent of the program is to provide more opportunities for all students to be active members of the school community by learning that they can share their voices, and that real change is possible through this process.
All three of these grants that were awarded by the Windham Town Council were approved and recommended by Windham’s Substance Prevention Grant Program.
In other actions also during the meeting, Windham Town Councilors approved an annual contract with the Animal Refuge League running from July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026 for services provided.
The rate for the contract’s renewal is based upon 2020 U.S. Census figures for the town, which recorded 18,434 residents living in Windham. The per capita rate charged by the Animal Refuge League is $1.47 per resident under the contract’s terms. The total amount of the contract is $27,098.
Maine law requires municipalities to provide shelter at a state licensed animal control shelter for strayed and lost dogs, cats, and domesticated animals that are a problem in the community and undomesticated animals that pose a threat to public health or safety, and requires that the municipality also must provide services relating to the humane disposition of said animals in the event they are not claimed by their owners. Funding obtained by the communities served by the Animal Refuge League and its shelter in Westbrook allows the organization to offer veterinary care for strays and provide adoption services for as many pets as possible into responsible and caring homes. It is an open-admission shelter, giving every pet hope for a new life.
Windham has contracted with the Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland for stray care services since 1990. Animal control services in Windham are administered by the Windham Police Department through an annual budget of $77,046 and that includes the annual salary for the town’s animal control officer, animal control uniforms, equipment and supplies, and the services provided by the shelter. <
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