5th annual Heroes with
Hearts awards presented

PORTLAND — The Community Counseling Center of Portland recently held its fifth annual Heroes with Heart awards dinner and silent auction to benefit the Trauma Intervention Program of Portland.

The 2010 Heart of Gold Award was presented to Major General John W. Libby, Adjutant General, Maine Army National Guard, for his dedication to the well-being of those in the Maine Army National Guard and their families.

Individuals presented with a Heroes with Heart Award includes Jo Freedman, mental health liaison with the Portland Police Department; Lieutenant Steve Fox of the South Portland Fire Department; David Barrett, firefighter/paramedic with the South Portland Fire Department; Officers Christine LaBranche, Jeffrey Parks and Jeffrey Stackpole, with the Westbrook Police Department; Amy Strum of Maine Medical Center; and Officer Peter MacVane of the South Portland Police Department.

Topsham photography
show closes May 15

TOPSHAM — The winners in the first annual Joy of the Lens Photography show held by the Topsham Public Library were recently announced in the following categories: people, places or things – “Weeping Widow” by Judith Long; landscapes/cityscapes – “Mount Rainier” by George Paton;  seascapes – “Reflection” by Susanne Vachon; enhanced – “Hatching,” by Craig P. Snapp; and nature/wildlife – “Blue,” by Arlene P. McConnell.

Two local artists anonymously judged the show and prizes were presented for all the categories at an artist reception held in April.

The People’s Choice award will be announced and the Friends Photo Lottery will be held on May 15, the final day of the photography exhibit. 

The event begins with an 11 a.m. photographers talk, followed by the raffle of a photo by the library’s official photographer, Keith Spiro, entitled “The Last Parade.”

The Joy of the Lens exhibit can be viewed through May 15 during regular library hours in the Crooker Gallery of the Topsham Public Library, located at 25 Foreside Road in Topsham.

For more information, please call the library at 725-1727 or visit topshamlibrary.org.

Scarborough Terrace
earns national award

SCARBOROUGH — The Scarborough Terrace assisted living community and its six sister locations recently won the Assisted Living Federation of America’s 2010 Best of the Best award.

The Terrace Communities received the award in recognition of the operations and technology program known as Terrace Communities Online.

The online program connects all seven of the assisted living facilities for centralized communication and social networking for residents, family members, and staff. There are discussion boards, calendars, daily updates, informative articles, e-mail notifications and blogs all available through the program.

Local nonprofits earn
community building grants
 
ELLSWORTH  — The Maine Community Foundation’s Community Building Grant Program recently awarded $18,422 in grants to nine Cumberland County nonprofits.

Grants were awarded to the following organizations: The Phoenix Foundation, for developing a cross-cultural competency training program for students and teachers at Portland Public Schools’ Multilingual & Multicultural Center; Center for African Heritage in Portland, in support of a job training program for low-income African immigrant and refugee families, veterans, and displaced workers; Community Financial Literacy in Portland, for program support; Cultivating Community in Portland, for increased food security in the Kennedy Park neighborhood; Ecology Education Foundation, Saco, for expansion of its “Science and Ecology: Live & Unplugged” program; Friends of the Presumpscot River in South Windham, for developing a strategy to restore fish passage on the river; Terra Moto in Portland, for Art at Work, a program designed to reduce racial tension between immigrant youth and Portland police officers; United Somali Women of Maine in Lewiston, to provide technical assistance to five Portland and Lewiston-Auburn based organizations; United Way of Greater Portland, to support the Language Access for New Americans program.
 
A volunteer committee reviews grants and makes recommendations for funding twice a year.

The next deadline is May 15 for applying for a Community Building Grant. An application and guidelines can be found at mainecf.org.

Awards

Gregg Frame, a partner with the Portland-based law firm of Taylor, McCormack and Frame, LLC, was recently nominated and confirmed as a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.  

At the 32nd annual meeting of Coastal Enterprises, Inc., awards were presented to to three individuals and one organization for their positive impact on the mission of the community development nonprofit. Lutheran Social Services of New England received the Partnership Award; Tim Acord, a broker with Coldwell Banker Realty in Brunswick, received the Sustaining Community Award; Chet Randall, a staff attorney at Pine Tree Legal Assistance, received the Founder’s Award; and Geoff Gattis, executive vice president of commercial lending at Bath Savings Institution, was recognized for 15 years of service on CEI’s board of directors.

Ellen Mahoney of Peaks Island received an Island Voices award from The Island Institute. The $500 award will be used by Mahoney to attend the Institute for Civic Leadership in Portland.

Parkview Adventist Medical Center was one of six hospitals in Maine to be recognized for promoting tobacco-free living and received the Gold Star award from the 2010 Maine Tobacco-Free Hospital Network Gold Star Standards of Excellence Recognition Program.

Broadturn Farm, operated by Stacy Brenner and John Bliss in Scarborough, was selected as the  Cumberland County Soil and Water Conservation District 2010 Outstanding Conservation Farm of the Year. 

The Portland Water District was recently presented with the Government Finance Officers Association’s Distinguished Budget Presentation Award.

The 2010 Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Newscast was recently awarded to News 8 WMTW-TV by the Radio and Television News Director Association. This is the fourth Murrow award that News 8 has received in the last three years.

The Portland Symphony Orchestra recently received the 2010 Maine Association of Nonprofits Governor’s Award for Nonprofit Excellence in the mid-sized organization category. The PSO is the first arts organization to earn first place in any of the MANP categories for the Governor’s Award for Nonprofit Excellence.

AAA Northern New England recently awarded Moody’s Collision Center with the 2009 Maine Auto Body Facility of the Year Award. The award is given to an auto body shop with the highest customer satisfaction rating taken from AAA’s service evaluation cards. Moody’s Collision Center received a 99.5 percent customer satisfaction rating in 2009.  The shop is located at 495 Presumpscot St., in Portland. AAA representative Tom Giasson, center, white shirt, presented the award to Moody’s Collision Center staff, from left, Paul McDonough, Zach Spicer, Bob Frank, Ryan Labbe, Patti Damon, Lee Goodine, George Sakash, Rooks Crosby, Nick Boucouvalas, Anton Sveinsson and Josh Belanger.

Libby

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