Our mission is to support Maine residents experiencing hunger, homelessness, or lack of opportunity by coordinating family-oriented fundraising activities that raise awareness for others to get involved and contribute to support those in need.

Ben was born on January 6, 1985 and he was the first born child to his parents, Stephanie and Rene. He grew up going through school in
Topsham, Maine and was always an avid learner. Ben was constantly reading, his whole life, first with books and later with everything he
could find of interest on the internet. From the time Ben was a child, he had a strong sense of right, wrong, and fairness. Ben encouraged his
family to support people in need, in ways such as; matching funds for computer purchases, supporting Heifer International, and donating
time and/or money to community organizations providing food or housing for homeless persons. Ben was always ready to jump in to help
a friend or a stranger in any way he could.

In 2016 Ben began having severe seizures that were eventually traced to a growth in his brain. He was told that it was necessary to remove
this growth so that there would not be additional damage to his brain. Ben underwent brain surgery in June of 2018 in Boston with his family
and partner, Tina, by his side. This was a difficult recovery because the surgery caused many side effects such as word retrieval difficulties,
short term memory challenges, chronic headaches, and sensory overloads. Over the next year, Ben gave himself time to recover. In the
spring of 2019 Ben was doing so well. He had not had any seizures since the surgery and was driving again. He was beginning to get his spark back and was contemplating a new career path.

On October 6, 2019 Ben woke up in the late morning and moments later, Ben’s heart stopped and he collapsed. The EMT’s tried for 20 minutes to revive Ben but this was not possible, and that is the day that we lost our son, brother, uncle, life partner, cousin, nephew, friend, and confidante to so many. We will never know for sure why Ben’s heart stopped that day, but the world lost a very special person thatday and he was only 34 years old.

What is The Ben Bernier Memorial Foundation?
The Ben Bernier Memorial Foundation has been established by Ben’s family and close friends. Although it has been a couple of years since
Ben died, we all still struggle with missing his physical presence. We miss his passion for the things that he believed in. We miss his
dedication to his belief that people should help one another through caring and engagement and not just depend on agencies that are so far
removed.
So, creating this foundation gives us a way to honor Ben by helping those in our community, and to continue to promote Ben’s philosophy,
that we must connect and help one another, and that each single act can help to achieve a far-reaching goal.
Thus, the mission of the Ben Bernier Memorial Foundation is “to support Maine residents experiencing hunger, homelessness, or lack of
opportunity by coordinating family-oriented fundraising activities that raise awareness for others to get involved and contribute to support
those in need.”

Our hope is that through the generosity of contributors to his fund, we can carry on Ben’s vision and philosophy of helping one another.

Donations made to the Ben Bernier Memorial Foundation are tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law. The Ben Bernier Memorial Foundation is an IRC Section 501 ( c)(3) corporation.