This week’s edition!
Archive for June 2017
Rotary Breakfast Club surpasses $500,000 in charitable donations
Breakfast Club President Donald Fournier and President-Elect Jeffrey “Pete” Preble
The Auburn Lewiston Rotary Breakfast Club recently surpassed a major milestone by exceeding the $500,000 mark in donations to various local charities. The club, which has enjoyed an average membership of forty members, was formed in 1991 and has organized numerous fundraising campaigns since then to support local organizations providing services to youth and the elderly.
Donations have been provided to over 164 different organizations and charities, including the Boys and Girls Club, SEARCH, the High Street Food Pantry, Auburn Suburban Little League, and Advocates for Children. The club meets at 7 a.m. on Wednesday mornings at the United Methodist Church on Park Avenue in Auburn. New members are always welcome. For more information, see www.auburn-lewistonrotary.org.
Norlands to host Civil War reenactment June 17-18
The 6th Maine Battery will be on hand to fire their Parrott Rifle-cannon and a full-scale battle scenario will be staged each day.
The Washburn-Norlands Living History Center in Livermore will host its sixth Civil War reenactment weekend on Saturday and Sunday, June 17 and 18. The largest Civil War reenactment in Maine, Rally for Norlands features a wide variety of living history demonstrations, exhibits, and engaging activities recalling daily life in the Civil War. This family-friendly event is organized by the 3rd Maine Company A and 15th Alabama Company G to benefit Norlands, Maine’s oldest living history farm and museum.
Pinning ceremonies at CMCC
Julie Davis, graduate and president of the Medical Assisting Club, helps her daughters, Ocean and Ryver, get her pin ready. Looking on are fellow graduates Erin Conary and Denise Castonguay.
Family members, friends, and faculty gathered in Central Maine Community College’s Kirk Hall recently to attend annual pinning ceremonies to honor the graduates of the college’s nursing and medical assisting programs. Twenty-two students completed the associate degree in nursing and twelve completed the associate degree in medical assisting.
The nursing program at CMCC, offered since 1968, prepares students for careers in medical-surgical, obstetrical, pediatric, geriatric, or psychiatric nursing. The medical assisting program prepares graduates for entry-level employment in settings in which medical secretarial and/or basic clinical and laboratory training are required.
Erica Brown and the Bluegrass Connection coming to Sawyer Memorial
Brown’s talent for combining the precision of classical music with the spontaneity of country and bluegrass makes for a fun-filled performance every time she plays.
Erica Brown and the Bluegrass Connection will perform at the Sawyer Memorial in Greene on Friday, June 16 at 2 and 7 p.m. Both shows are free and open to the public. Brown brings a special energy and style to the Maine music scene. Her talent for combining the precision of classical music with the spontaneity of country and bluegrass fiddle makes for a fun-filled performance every time she plays.
Governor’s Address: Turnpike Tolls are Not the Answer to Better Roads and Bridges
Our administration has done a good job bringing accountability to the Maine Turnpike Authority. Mainers are still counting on us to ensure that turnpike revenue is spent as efficiently as possible.
Dear Maine Taxpayer,
As a state, we must plan long-term and streamline the management of the state’s transportation infrastructure. If the Department of Transportation and the Maine Turnpike Authority merged, there would likely be a number of efficiencies found. This would lower costs for toll payers, while at the same time continue to maintain good roads and bridges.
Only Steps Forward: Remembering those who served their country, then their community
By Jonathan P. LaBonte
Mayor of Auburn
One hour. Just one hour.
That was how the Mayor of the City of Lewiston, Bob Macdonald, opened his remarks to the hundreds gathered at Veterans Park, overlooking the Androscoggin River, in Lewiston.
A man of few words when I’ve joined him speaking in the community, Mayor Macdonald wasn’t offering an announcement of how long he planned to speak on this Memorial Day. Instead, he was pointing out how such a short period appeared to still be too much for the many residents who could not make time out of their day to take part in the Memorial Day ceremony.
Mayor Macdonald, a Marine who served our country in Vietnam, spoke forcefully about how Memorial Day is not the official start to the summer season. It is a day of remembrance for those who served our country and who were lost in that service.
Enough is Enough: As predicted, Ranked Choice Voting is found to be unconstitutional
By Robert E. Macdonald
Mayor of Lewiston
Have you heard it? That crying sound that is blowing down from Augusta. It is the Democratic Party crying for what they felt was a surefire way to electoral victory—Ranked Choice Voting.
This would rid voters of that pesky plurality provision (prescribed by the Maine State Constitution), replacing it with a ballot containing the names of those running for each office in which the voter would pick their favorite candidate and then rank the others in the order of best to least.
If their choice did not receive a majority of the votes, the ranked-choice formula would kick in until someone obtained a majority. Those pushing this claim they would like to see a centrist candidate, also known as a fence sitter, elected.
Those supporting the bill had been advised from day one that this bill probably would be illegal under the Maine State Constitution. That did not matter. They pushed the ballot question forward anyway.
“Just Us” Entertainers to present final benefit concert at Franco Center
The performance will feature the group’s 13 current members, led by Nel Meservier.
The “Just Us” Entertainers will present their final benefit concert for the Dolard and Priscilla Gendron Franco Center on Sunday, June 4 at 2 p.m. They were the first group to perform at the center in August of 2000 to raise funds for the then Festival de Joie. Since then, the group has performed at the center 38 times, including 16 annual benefit concerts to raise funds to support the Franco Center.
Bates Dance Festival names new director
Maine native Shoshona Currier comes to Bates from her current position as Director of Performing Arts for the City of Chicago. (Photo by Mark Hackman)
Shoshona Currier, Director of Performing Arts for the City of Chicago, has been appointed as the next director of the Bates Dance Festival, an internationally renowned teaching and performance series held every summer at Bates College.
A Maine native with more than 15 years of experience in arts curation, education, and administration, Currier will start in her new position in August. She succeeds Laura Faure, who will retire on November 30 after three decades as the festival’s director.
St. Dom’s graduates 46
Pictured here (l. to. r., from front) are St. Dom’s Class of 2017 top 11 students Ella Brown, Antoinette Carman, Emily Dionne, Sydney Sirois, Allie Veinote, Camden Jalbert, Justin Keaney, Elliot Hachey, Matthew Boulet, Kyle Welsh, and Megan D’Alessandro.
Saint Dominic Academy of Auburn recently graduated 46 students from its Class of 2017, with 100% college acceptance for those who applied. One student is entering the military. The top eleven students in the class (two students tied for tenth place), in order by class rank, are Megan D’Alessandro (Wellesley College), Emily Dionne (Wheaton College), Elliot Hachey (College of the Holy Cross), Sydney Sirois (University of Southern Maine), Antoinette Carman (Seton Hall University), Matthew Boulet (Saint Anselm College), Kyle Welsh (Saint Anselm College), Allie Veinote (Seton Hall University), Ella Brown (Wheaton College), Camden Jalbert (Saint Michael’s College), and Justin Keaney (Ohio State University).
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