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For Immediate Release
October 9, 2017

Contact:
Jason Wolfe, Wolfe PR
(520) 399-5097
E-mail: jason@wolfenews.com

Matt Hoidal, Esq., Founder, World of Change
(207) 400-0274
E-mail: mhoidal@worldofchange.world

Got change? World Record Sought at Maine Nonprofit World of Change’s First-ever ChangeFest at L.L.Bean in Freeport Oct. 28

Attendees encouraged to collect their loose change and donate at public event benefitting children and families in need

FREEPORT, Maine (October 9, 2017) – Got change? Maine’s first-ever ChangeFest will chase a world record for coins collected for charity at a public event Oct. 28 outside L.L.Bean in Freeport.

World of Change's first-ever Maine ChangeFest set for Oct. 28 at L.L.Bean to benefit nonprofits serving families and children.

Organizers are asking families to start gathering spare change now to bring to the festival later this month.

Created by World of Change™, a new Maine-based nonprofit that converts spare change into social change for children and families, ChangeFest™ will feature six collection barrels for attendees to donate loose change to the cause of their choice.

In addition, tens of thousands of dollars in change already collected by World of Change at Maine schools, camps and community events since its launch in March will be displayed and counted.

Hosted by L.L.Bean, ChangeFest is set for noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 28. A satellite event also will be held at L.L.Bean in Bangor from 11-2 p.m., with the change collected transported to Freeport in an L.L.Bean Bootmobile.

The Freeport event will feature live music, children’s activities, performances by Circus Maine and food vendors. Admission is free, but a donation of change is appreciated.

For more information on ChangeFest, visit https://www.worldofchange.world/changefest-2017/.

World of Change's first-ever Maine ChangeFest set for Oct. 28 at L.L.Bean to benefit nonprofits serving families and children.

Volunteer auditors with Baker Newman Noyes, a Portland, Maine-based New England accounting firm, will be on hand to count and record change totals. The world record for the most money raised for charity in coins is $180,000, set in Lisbon, Portugal in 1998.

“The spirit of ChangeFest is to show that good things can happen when people come together with a common purpose to make change, literally,” said Matt Hoidal of Falmouth, the founder and director of World of Change. “World of Change is off to a good start, but we’re just getting started. Change sits idly all around us and we’re committed to put it to good use.”

The six, 55-gallon collection drums at ChangeFest will be labeled for World of Change’s six different areas of support: housing, food security, education, financial literacy, health and wellness, and children’s play. All change collected – 100 percent – will be distributed to organizations partnering with World of Change, Hoidal said.

World of Change's first-ever Maine ChangeFest set for Oct. 28 at L.L.Bean to benefit nonprofits serving families and children.

World of Change’s nonprofit partners are: Central Asia Institute, Y of Southern Maine, Maine College Circle, Junior Achievement of Maine, Good Shepherd Food Bank, Maine Locker Project, Students Against Destructive Decisions, Jen's Friends Cancer Foundation, Maine Children's Cancer Program, Bet Elazraki Children's Home, Furniture Friends, Comfort Cases, Circus Maine and Boys and Girls Clubs of Maine.

Many of those organizations will be represented at ChangeFest, where they will promote their good work and offer onsite volunteer projects for attendees. For example, Westbrook-based Furniture Friends will offer the opportunity for festival goers to help assemble and paint bookcases for those in need.

World of Change's first-ever Maine ChangeFest set for Oct. 28 at L.L.Bean to benefit nonprofits serving families and children.

“Attendees not only will be bringing change to ChangeFest, but also making change that day,” Hoidal said.

Since March, World of Change has brought its change-maker message and collection jars and containers to schools, summer camps, major sports venues and businesses in Maine and New Hampshire. All change collected so far by World of Change will be on display at ChangeFest.

Students of all ages throughout the region have been involved in collecting change for the event this past spring and summer and into the fall. Using Classroom Change Kits distributed to classrooms, children choose which of six Mason jars to drop their change, with each jar representing one area of support.

At Falmouth Elementary School, change has been collected in each of its 45 classrooms since the beginning of the school year and will be delivered to Freeport. Chebeague Island School, too, will be making a delivery of change. A senior at Waynflete School in Portland also has spearheaded an effort to enlist classmates in collecting change to donate at ChangeFest, Hoidal said.

Another important aspect of World of Change's efforts is making the act of doing good more convenient and accessible. In addition to ChangeFest, the organization will be offering other opportunities for people to make change, meeting them where they are. One such opportunity – a Change Truck – will soon be making its way out on the streets to facilitate giving. The classic 1948 Willys-Overland truck was generously sponsored by Hancock Lumber, also a presenting sponsor of ChangeFest along with Maine’s Coast 93.1 and WCSH6.

World of Change's first-ever Maine ChangeFest set for Oct. 28 at L.L.Bean to benefit nonprofits serving families and children.

ChangeFest is being organized similar to the Pumpkin Festivals in Freeport and Boston that were created by Camp Sunshine during Hoidal’s tenure as executive director. Those efforts raised well over a million dollars through the years for the Casco, Maine-based national retreat for children with life threatening illnesses and their families. In 2006 in Boston, for example, partnering with Life is Good, Camp Sunshine raised $280,000 while setting a Guinness World Record with 30,128 carved and lit pumpkins covering the Boston Commons.

Find more information at www.worldofchange.world or on Facebook, and contact World of Change at info@worldofchange.world or (207) 400-0274. Individual World of Change donations are welcome, while many opportunities exist for individuals or corporations to make a World of Change matching challenge.

# # #

Event Listing
WHAT:        Inaugural Maine ChangeFest festival
WHEN:       Saturday, Oct. 28, noon-6 p.m. (satellite event at L.L.Bean in Bangor 11-2 p.m.)
WHERE:     L.L.Bean store in downtown Freeport, Maine
WHO:          World of Change
WHY:
          To collect spare change to benefit nonprofit organizations in Maine and elsewhere serving children and families in need
EVENT:        Attendees donate their spare change to tens of thousands of dollars of previously collected change on display, featuring kid’s activities, entertainment, food vendors, music, onsite volunteer project
WEBSITE:  https://www.worldofchange.world



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