126 businesses join Finding Our Voices’ July fundraiser

A lemon-print tea towel, a pineapple-and-coconut cake and a sunflower pizza with yellow beets may not look like a coordinated campaign. They are among the yellow-themed foods and products being offered this July by 126 businesses across the Midcoast and Blue Hill Peninsula as part of Finding Our Voices’ fourth annual “Into the Light! Yellow Festival.”

The statewide grassroots nonprofit is using the monthlong fundraiser to support women who have experienced domestic abuse and their children. Participating businesses will donate all or part of the proceeds from featured July menu items or retail products to the organization’s Get Out/Stay Out Fund, which provides assistance with shelter, transportation and legal fees.

Yellow appears throughout the region’s food offerings. The Pentagoet Inn in Castine is serving a pineapple sponge cake with coconut meringue, while Aster & Rose in Lincolnville has a Maine wild blueberry cake with lemon curd and ice cream. The Causeway at the Craignair Inn in Spruce Head is bringing back roasted cauliflower with curry aioli.

Other restaurants are featuring pineapple or yellow vegetables. Camden House of Pizza, Owen’s General Store in Lincolnville and Alexia’s in Belfast are offering Hawaiian pizza, while Fin & Fern in Stonington has a sunflower pizza topped with yellow beets. Strong’s Public House in Sedgwick is highlighting a dessert with lemon curd and blueberries. Food co-ops in Damariscotta, Rockland, Camden and Blue Hill, along with eight farmers market vendors, are also participating.

The retail selections range from a hand-drawn lemon print tea towel at Hearth and Harrow in Camden to a lemon-themed kerchief at SeaLoft in Blue Hill. Independent bookstores in Rockland, Rockport, Camden, Searsport, Bucksport, Castine and Blue Hill are promoting yellow-covered books, yellow linen journals, an enamel pin and a memoir by Virginia Giuffre. At THE Salon & Spa in Blue Hill, a portion of the proceeds from every July hair color or highlight will go to Finding Our Voices.

Several businesses are also holding raffles. Michael Good Gallery in Windsor is offering handcrafted signature hoop earrings, Windsor Chairmakers has a yellow milk-painted stool, and Camden Curated is selling baskets filled with coordinated yellow items.

Finding Our Voices CEO and founder Patrisha McLean said the variety of participants and products reflects the region’s support.

“It shows the extraordinary creativity and generosity of our local business owners,” McLean said.

The organization chose yellow as its color because it is led by survivors who have reached safety and freedom, McLean said. The color is meant to “shine a light for our sisters who are still in the dark.”

This year’s festival is the nonprofit’s largest fundraiser of the year, according to McLean.

“Not only is this the biggest fundraiser of the year for our grassroots nonprofit, but the wholehearted support of so many businesses signals to every domestic abuse survivor resident or visitor that they are not alone and that our communities care about them,” she said.

Camden National Bank is the lead sponsor of the Blue Hill Peninsula portion of the event, while First National Bank is again the lead sponsor of the Midcoast event. Participating businesses and their offerings are listed at findingourvoices.net/into-the-light-2026.

The festival will conclude with an Aug. 1 music fundraiser from 5 to 9 p.m. at Glendarragh Lavender Farm in Appleton. Siblings Jackie and Wyatt McLean will perform together publicly for the first time, followed by The Sugar Snaps and The Right Track. Proceeds will benefit Finding Our Voices.