This week’s edition!
Archive for July 2017
St. Dom’s graduate offers community challenge
Donald Dion, Jr., has pledged to match every dollar donated to the Dion Student Scholarship Fund, up to $75,000, before August 4, 2017.
Donald Dion, Jr., a 1972 graduate of Saint Dominic Academy (formerly Saint Dominic Regional High School) is challenging the community to help raise $150,000 in scholarships for local families. Dion has pledged to match every dollar donated to the Dion Student Scholarship Fund, up to $75,000, before August 4, 2017.
Dion attributes much of his success in his career in finance to the education he received at St. Dom’s. “I was fortunate to attend St. Dom’s,” he says. “Along with the rigorous academics, I also learned to work hard, reach for my goals, and the value of service to others. I would like to ensure more students are afforded the opportunity to attend a faith-based college preparatory school.”
Good Food Bus adds stops for 2017
The Good Food Bus has been transformed for 2017 into a spacious truck and trailer with two large concession windows.
The Good Food Bus, a colorful mobile market that offers fresh fruits, vegetables, and other nutritious foods for sale at multiple stops in three counties, will hit the road for its second full season starting Tuesday, July 18.
The goal of the project, which is operated by St. Mary’s Nutrition Center and Cultivating Community, with grant support from the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation and other funders, is to make fresh, healthy foods more accessible to households that may experience food insecurity while helping Maine farmers and distributors reach new customers. All are welcome to shop at the Bus’s new roster of weekly stops in Lewiston, Auburn, Bath, Gorham, and Westbrook.
Lawyer-turned-educator named Adult Ed Teacher of the Year
Jessica Trimmer teaches Intermediate English at Lewiston Adult Education.
The Maine Adult Education Association presented Jessica Trimmer of Lewiston Adult Education with its Teacher of the Year award recently during its annual conference at the University of Southern Maine’s Portland campus. Trimmer joined Lewiston Adult Education in 2006 after working as a lawyer for four years. Tutoring international students while a student at the University of Maine School of Law got her interested in teaching. She has taught classes in Adult Basic Education, English for Speakers of Other Languages, and citizenship, and has assisted inmates at the Androscoggin County Jail get their high school equivalency. She credits her fellow teachers at the Adult Learning Center with helping her when she first started and for their continued support.
LTE: Will merger result in more power in Augusta?
To the Editor:
If I were a legislator from either Lewiston or Auburn, I’d feel more than a little insulted by the pro-merger crowd, claiming that one of the benefits of merging would be to generate more power and influence in Augusta.
Currently, our legislators dress up in their finery and head to Augusta with all of the best intentions to bring home the bacon, our “fair share.” How is a merger going to make their jobs any easier? How are they going to be more effective?
It seems as though the pro-merger types are reaching too deep for reasons to merge. Whatever the separate cities of Lewiston and Auburn have for reps and senators won’t change after the merger.
One of our legislators actually stated at a recent meeting that if we merge, we will not have any more voting power than we have now. The “more power and influence” benefit is as fake as the promised cost savings we are continually subjected to at every press event. Do people actually believe this baloney?
Research the facts. The answers are there. Ask questions to the people who can actually answer them. Don’t let anyone lead you to believe something without finding out if it is true! Talk to Bruce Bickford, Eric Brakey, Nate Libby and your other state representatives.
Leroy G. Walker, Sr.
Auburn
Enough is Enough: Appalling conduct; parade of flags; and 60-plus years of service
By Bob Macdonald
Mayor of Lewiston
We don’t need no stinkin’ education, we need reinforcement of polite cultural etiquette.
Last week at a Joint Workshop of the Lewiston City Council and the Planning Board, a discussion was held as to how the city would address the appalling conduct of Bates College students who rent apartments in the area of White and Davis Streets during the college year.
Every fall, Bates seniors descend on Lewiston’s White Street/Davis Street neighborhood like Huns out of the Middle Ages, disrupting the neighborhoods’ tranquility. Neighbors are forced to endure weekends of loud parties that go on well into the night, criminal mischief and public urination on neighbor’s properties and the occasional lower division three football player ready to assault party goers and neighbors alike after being fortified by 3.2 beer.
Maine-ly Jewish Storytelling Festival
The third annual Maine-ly Jewish Storytelling Festival will take place on Thursday, July 13 at 7 p.m. at Auburn Public Library. This year’s storytellers will be Dr. Ellen Frankel, Antonio Rocha, Jen Wren, Rebbetzin Lisa Mayer, and other writers, poets and bloggers. A dessert reception will follow. The suggested donation is $5. (Photo by Phyllis Graber Jensen)
DanceNOW showcase to kick off 2017 Bates Dance Festival
Christal Brown’s company INSPIRIT will perform “The Opulence of Integrity,” a forceful multimedia work that adapts the story of Muhammad Ali to explore the struggle for identity of men of color in the U.S. (Photo by Robert Adam Mayer)
A showcase of dynamic new works by New England dance artists will open the Bates Dance Festival’s 2017 performance series and 35th season. Titled DanceNOW, the performances will take place Friday and Saturday, July 7 and 8, at 7:30 p.m. in Bates College’s air-conditioned Schaeffer Theatre at 329 College Street in Lewiston.
Free Family Concert at APL
Children’s musician Rob Duquette will present a Family Concert for all ages at Auburn Public Library on Tuesday, July 11 at 11 a.m. Dancing and laughing will be encouraged at this lively, fun-filled event, which is free and open to the public. For more information about the program, call the library at 333-6640, ext. 3. For more about Rob Duquette, see www.robduquette.com.
East Auburn Baptist breaks ground for new addition
More than 75 people dug in with shovels recently for a ceremonial groundbreaking at East Auburn Baptist Church. (Photo by Sarah Gove)
East Auburn Baptist Church recently held a ceremonial groundbreaking for a $4.1 million building expansion project. Church staff, members and friends were among the nearly 400 people who gathered to kick-off the project, which will be the largest in the Auburn church’s 210-year history. The church opened its doors at its current location on Park Avenue in 2007. Prior to that, it was located on Turner Street in Auburn.
Enough is Enough: Progressives believe big, expensive buildings improve education
By Robert E. Macdonald
Mayor of Lewiston
What could possibly be the reason that Maine legislators voted down legislation, put forth by Governor Paul R. LePage, that would assure that every teacher in Maine, from Caribou to Kittery, would receive the same salary and benefits? Oh, I know, it was another “awful” idea put forth by the Governor.
This legislation would have helped cities and towns, like Lewiston, to retain seasoned teachers—teachers who often leave for other cities and towns in order to make more money. It would have also helped reduce the financial burden of local property taxpayers by relieving them of the cost of teachers’ salaries and benefits placed on them by their local school system.
But the Maine Education Association (these union bosses are not to be confused with teachers) decided it was unacceptable, thus making it dead on arrival. Yes, it was dead on arrival because of progressive state legislators who depend on the unions for campaign cash and support at election time.
