As the coronavirus pandemic forced an immediate shift to remote learning, schools in western Maine faced a challenge in how to deliver educational services to students with no home internet access. In response, the Center and its partners in the Maine West coalition provided mobile hotspots to help students in Oxford Hills, Bethel, Rumford and the River Valley connect to online learning services.

Within three weeks of the school shut-downs in the spring of 2020, the Center helped raise more than $10,000 and built a partnership with the Maine-based National Digital Equity Center to provide area schools with mobile hotspot devices that turn cellular phone signals into home wireless internet connections.

With project funding provided by the Betterment Fund, the River Fund Maine, and private donors, 200 mobile hotspot devices were distributed to schools in the Oxford Hills (SAD 17), Bethel area (SAD 44), and the Rumford and River Valley areas (RSU 10 and 56) – helping students and adult learners make the vital connection to the internet and online school services.