Grants

The Portland Performing Arts Festival recently received a $4,000 grant from the Rines/Thompson Fund of the Maine Community Foundation in support of the expansion of the festival’s activities in 2013.

The Portland Symphony Orchestra recently received a first-year Getty Education and Community Investment Grant. The grant was awarded to develop the orchestra’s music and wellness program and is in recognition of its innovation and dedication to increasing its relevance to the community.

Time Warner Cable recently announced that the Boys and Girls Clubs of Southern Maine was selected for a $2,000 robotics grant as part of a national pilot program in partnership with FIRST Robotics and Boys and Girls Clubs of America. With the grant, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Southern Maine hosted a team of seven club members with the hope of introducing younger members to science, technology, engineering and math. Team members built a LEGO project for the 2012 Maine FIRST Lego League “Senior Solutions” Championship, held on Dec. 8.

People’s United Community Foundation recently announced that it has awarded a $2,500 grant to Maine Boys to Men. The mission of Maine Boys to Men is to reduce interpersonal violence through programs that support healthy development of adolescent boys. The organization also provides assistance and educational resources to parents, teachers and student peers.

Good Deeds

PowerPay hosted its second annual Start Something Big Event in support of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern Maine. The event, which took place at the PowerPay offices, raised over $4,000 for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern Maine.

New Members

The Rotary Club of Breakwater Daybreak, South Portland-Cape Elizabeth, inducted the following new members: Adam Rothbarth, Russell Strout, Abbey Forcier and David McKenna.

New Hires

Tilson, a Portland-based information technology and telecom services company, recently hired Vicky Park as its new director. Park will work in Tilson’s telecom group as the director of wireless carrier programs. Prior to joining Tilson, she was a program manager for the U.S. Air Force at Hanscom Air Force Base in Lincoln, Mass.

Avesta Housing recently made several new hires. Emily Kosnow and Abbie McEwen were both hired as administrative support specialists. Darlene Stuart has been hired as a property manager and Kayla Breese was hired as a resident service coordinator. Juana Morcillo Leganes was hired as an accounting specialist.

Leo Maheu was recently hired as an environmental educator for ecomaine, a nonprofit municipality-owned recycling and waste-to-engergy organization. He previously worked for Portland Trails, the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge and the Merryspring Nature Center.

Penny Wheeler-Abbott and Gregory Im have been hired at Drummond Woodsum. Wheeler-Abbott will work as a nonlawyer policy and human resources consultant. For more than 17 years she worked as a teacher and school administrator and has developed extensive experience in dealing with employee, student and education issues of all kinds. In addition to providing staff and student training for the firm’s school clients, she will be working with private and public sector clients on policy and human resources issues. Im joins the firm’s public sector group, practicing in the area of public finance. He will work with the finance attorneys on school borrowing and budget issues as well as school recognition matters. Prior to joining the firm, Im worked as an assistant attorney general for Maine, advising and representing various state agencies in the area of contract, finance, leasing and real estate.

Michael E. Niles recently joined Albin, Randall & Bennett as a director. Niles is primarily a tax accountant and serves the automotive, manufacturing and construction industries by providing creative tax planning strategies. He advises in areas such as mergers and acquisitions, tax controversies, accounting method changes and legislative awareness activities.

Recognition

Kathleen Pierce was recently recognized by Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage real estate office in Cape Elizabeth for her outstanding achievements and named Broker of the Month in November for superior sales.

Ellyn Touchette, a Portland poet, won the 2012 Port Veritas Women of the World Poetry Slam competition held on Nov. 27. The win comes on the heels of her first published book “Dead was the Machine God.”

The Cynthia A. Rydholm Cancer Treatment Center was recently awarded a three-year term of accreditation in radiation oncology following a review by the American College of Radiology.

Promotions

Sue McCarthy was recently promoted to commercial services officer at Maine Financial Group. McCarthy joined the company in 1993 as an administrative assistant and was later promoted to office manager and then commercial services specialist.

Stephen Thompson was recently promoted to senior customer service associate at the Falmouth branch of People’s United Bank. With the promotion Thompson is responsible for providing quality customer service to everyone who visits the branch. He joined the bank in 2011.

Durward J. Ferland Jr. and Eric D. Nadeau were each recently promoted to client service director at Macpage LLC, a certified public accounting firm with offices in South Portland and Augusta.

A significant upgrade to mechanical equipment at the Freeport Sewer District treatment plant recently won the “Largest Mechanical Project” award from Efficiency Maine. The project, engineered by Woodard & Curran, reduced the district’s energy consumption by more than 50 percent by replacing aging, oversized pumps and blowers at the facility.

Appointments

Preti Flaherty attorney Ann R. Robinson was recently appointed to represent Maine as a member of the Uniform Laws Commission. The commission works to generate and promote nonpartisan legislation, with a goal of improving the consistency of laws across state lines.

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