Stephen King Hopes to Donate More Than $100,000 to Help Needy Maine Residents Buy Heating Oil

Author Stephen King may be best known for scary stories like ‘Carrie’ and ‘The Shining,’ but he has a much softer side too — he’s using his celebrity to help low-income people in his home state of Maine buy heating oil.

Budgetary concerns have hit Maine’s federal heating oil assistance program hard, with the state receiving only $23 million in funds this year, down from $55.6 million last winter. The Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation is working with three radio stations he owns in the Bangor area and asking listeners to donate $70,000, which he will double. All the money will go toward helping poor, elderly and disabled residents buy the heating oil they’ll need to stay warm this winter.

“This economy is terrible and [my wife] Tabitha and I both worry so much about Bangor because it truly is a working-class town,” King told the Bangor Daily News. “We are always looking for ways to help, and right now this is a great need.”

[Associated Press]