When an anonymous donor heard about Edgecomb resident and library trustee Tom Boudin's failed efforts to get the town to fully fund the library's request this year, he sent a $7,000 check. It will cover the gap between the $2,000 Edgecomb voters agreed in May to give the library, and the nearly $9,000 the library requested.

Boudin got the check in the mail July 20. “I think this is a gift from heaven,” Boudin wrote in a July 22 email to the Wiscasset Newspaper.

For the past year, Edgecomb residents have had to pay a prorated fee to check out books, because the town’s 2011 contribution fell short of the library’s request. This year, after voters again gave less than the library asked, Boudin asked the Edgecomb Selectmen to tap the Maro F. Hammond Memorial Trust to match 2-1 any individual donations received.  However, on June 25, selectmen determined library funding does not meet the trust’s criteria. Income the trust generates is supposed to either help beautify Edgecomb or help preserve the town’s heritage, according to a trust document.

When told of the $7,000 donation, Edgecomb Board of Selectmen Chairwoman Jessica Chubbuck said she was “very excited. It’s fantastic that somebody would do this,” she said.

Chubbuck praised Boudin’s hard work on the library funding matter, and the generosity of the donor. “It shows the true spirit of Mainers,” she said.

Library Treasurer Donald Blagden is not aware of the library ever having received an anonymous donation as large as this one. “We are excited and overwhelmed by this act of extraordinary generosity," he wrote in an email. "It emphasizes the importance of public libraries as a resource that is available to everyone."

Boudin hopes Edgecomb will decide to fully fund the library in years to come. “By not paying their share Edgecomb is hurting the other towns who fund the library,” he wrote.

The donor to the Wiscasset library read about the issue in the Boothbay Register, and “feels strongly that free library service in this country is just as important as the free school systems,” Boudin wrote.