LEWISTON — The United Way of Androscoggin County held its annual campaign celebration on Nov. 9 at the Hilton Garden Inn – Riverwatch in Auburn. More than 100 community members were in attendance to celebrate this year’s fundraising accomplishment of reaching $1,715,000 to date.

Campaign Co-Chairs, Maureen Aube of the Androscoggin Chamber of Commerce and Dick Albert of Champoux Insurance, passed the torch for next year’s campaign to Jen Hogan of Community Credit Union, chair and Becky Cote of Mountain Machine Works, vice chair.

Highlights of the night included the announcement of this year’s Spirit of the Androscoggin Award, which went to employees of the City of Lewiston. Led by Joyce Ruby and Norm Beauparlant, United Way employee campaign managers, city employees contributed $28, 872 and achieved 43 percent participation this year.

In all, 42 companies received awards in recognition of their work to benefit the community through United Way. Of these, three were honored with a new Superhero Award. The Superhero Award is given to those whose leadership is an inspiration. Recipients of the Superhero Award include: Mark and Deb Anthoine, Ray and Rhonda Martel, and Procter and Gamble/Tambrands.

Outstanding Campaign Awards went to Anthoine Financial Group, Central Distributors, Emerson Toyota, Evergreen Subaru, Formed Fiber Technologies, Futureguard Building Products, Geiger, Hannaford Super Market – Auburn, L.L. Bean, Mechanics Savings Bank, Oxford Networks, Patrons Oxford Insurance Company, Spiller’s, Sun Journal.

Honorable Mentions went to Advocates for Children, Agren Appliance, Androscoggin Chamber of Commerce, Auburn School System, Austin and Associates, Safe Voices, Boys and Girls Club, Common Ties Mental Health Coalition, Community Dental, Downeast Energy, General Electric Co., Isaacson and Raymond, Lewiston MAINEiacs, Marden’s Store, Marden’s Warehouse, Mike Morin’s Auto, Montello Manor, Mountain Machine Works, Nason Mechanical, Rainbow Credit Union, Rural Community Action Ministry, St. Mary’s, UPS, White Rock Distilleries.

Employee Campaign Manager Awards went to Vanessa Bonnevie of Hannaford Supermarket – Lewiston, Sara Daigle of Androscoggin Bank, Dan Deletetsky of Clariant, Lisa Elichaa or Refurb Supplies, Robin Nadeau of the Maine Bucket Company, Robin Plourde of Ouellette and Associates, Lorraine Turcotte of Lisbon Community FCU, Rita St. Amand of Federal Distributors.

For more information, contact United Way of Androscoggin County at 795-4000 or visit www.unitedwayandro.org.