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V O L . X X I N O. V I M A R C H 2 3 , 2 0 1 5 26 time to live. She devoted her time to volunteering as an independent consultant on disabilities and special education at schools in Cape Elizabeth and South Portland, her hometown. In 1998 she realized she had to shore up both her special education and business knowledge, and returned to school to get her master's degree in special education, a certifi cate of advanced study in educational leadership and an MBA with a concentration in entrepreneurship. As she tells the teenagers at MPTC, their cur- rent situation doesn't have to defi ne their future, and they can change their life course through education. She even told Cassie of her own job, "you could be sitting in this chair someday." " ink about it — at one point in all of our lives, we will become a person with a disability. Either we are born with it, we acquire it, or by vir- tue of growing older, we all will be a person with a disability," she says. "Today, at MPTC, I get to play a role in transforming young lives. And, in some instances, saving those lives. We are conducting serious business at MPTC with ramifi cations that will last a lifetime." Changing lives James Tranchemontagne, owner of e Frog and Turtle restaurant in Westbrook and a former board member of MPTC who still opens his restaurant for MPTC fundraising events about four times a year, says one of Dwyer's biggest impacts was changing the teen center's name soon after she arrived. Dwyer was insistent on changing the name to My Place Teen Center from the former Mission Possible Teen Center because the latter made the organiza- tion sound too religious, which hurt funding chances for grants, he says. Treanchemontagne credits Dwyer with rebranding the MPTC so that it is now hitting six-fi gure grants and forming new relationships with schools to catch at-risk kids earlier. "She has a great way of marketing the needs of MPTC and getting companies to invest in it," he says. Despite the improvements, Dwyer is kept awake at night by the continued need for building repairs and the MPTC's meager two months of cash reserves. She's looking at Goodwill as a model as she studies and develops a business plan to assess the feasibility of purchasing an off -site health and wellness facility that could provide enhanced aca- demic achievement, character-based education, civic engagement, job and life skills, fi tness, nutrition and employment opportunities for MPTC kids and other at-risk teens in southern Maine. " is facility would provide a reliable revenue stream for MPTC and a vetted forum for impact investors. We already have an existing location targeted and have begun preliminary discussions," she says. e challenge, she says, is that 75% of funders con- tribute one time only. "We need to get creative about funding streams, and we're working on creating an endowment now. We are a safe haven, but not having an endowment, it isn't safe. We're still growing." L o r i Va l i g r a , M a i n e b i z s e n i o r w r i t e r , c a n b e r e a c h e d a t l v a l i g r a @ m a i n e b i z . b i z 1-800-564-0111 | eatonpeabody.com Augusta | Bangor | Brunswick | Ellsworth | Portland Estate Planning & Wealth Management Protecting Your Family's Future. Providing You With Peace Of Mind. » C O N T I N U E D F RO M P R E V I O U S PA G E Donna Dwyer, executive director of My Place Teen Center, visits with teens while doing crafts at the center in Westbrook. P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY

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