PORTLAND

VOLUNTEERS, including employees from Portland Hannaford stores, Cumberland and York County master gardeners and many other YardScaping partners, worked on the Sustainable Landscaping Demonstration Gardens at Back Cove last week.

Additional Photos

Taking part in a Heart Safe ceremony are, from left, Tony Attardo, deputy chief of the Scarborough Fire Department; Jim Merry; Gov. John Baldacci, and B. Michael Thurlow, chief of the Scarborough Fire Department. Courtesy photo

The goal of the gardens is to show the range of plants available to Mainers that can be used to create attractive, low-maintenance landscapes that help reduce the need for pesticides, fertilizers and water. The two-and-a-half-acre site was provided by the city. Partially funded by grants from the EPA Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program and the Davis Conservation Foundation, the cost of the project is estimated at $130,000.

To volunteer or for more information on the Back Cove project and YardScaping, go to www.yardscaping.org.

TEAMS OF STUDENTS and teachers from Longfellow Elementary School and Lincoln Middle School, as well as Falmouth Middle School, will take the Amtrak Downeaster to Durham, N.H., to attend a Green Schools Student Summit as a way to reduce their carbon footprint.

Traveling by train is more environmentally friendly than taking a bus, something the students discovered after researching transportation options. Once in Durham, they will join hundreds of other students from more than 30 schools across Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont at the University of New Hampshire. For more information, visit www.kidsconsortium.org.

CAPE ELIZABETH

ORGANIZERS of this year’s TD Bank Beach to Beacon 10K Road Race are looking for volunteers to help at watering stations, the medical tent and other areas along the route. The race is scheduled for Aug. 7.

Those who wish to volunteer can visit www.beach2beacon.org. Those interested should register before June 15 for best job selection; return volunteers hoping to work in the same area as previous years should also register by this date.

For more information, call 272-3545 or e-mail bestn92@gmail.com.

SOUTH PORTLAND

SPRING POINT LEDGE Light Trust has expanded the hours that it is open to the public this summer to include Sundays in July.

For the past five years, the lighthouse has been open every Saturday in July and August. Trust chairman Bill Berman said opening on Sundays is something the group has wanted to offer for some time, but it has been limited due to the number of docents available. For more information, call 699-2676 and leave a message, or e-mail wbeman@sccme.edu.

SCARBOROUGH

ACADIA PARTNERS, working with the University of Maine and the Maine Department of Education, has assisted Emily Sherman’s environmental science class at Scarborough High School this year in collecting mercury data from Scarborough rivers and streams. Students presented their findings to the public last week.

The Northeast receives significant amounts of air pollution due prevailing wind. Mixed with the particulates, sulfur and other contaminants is mercury. Acadia Partners has been at the forefront of research into how this mercury moves into the plants and animals in the Acadia National Park ecosystem.

THE SCARBOROUGH FIRE DEPARTMENT has helped the town be named a Heart Safe Community. This designation recognizes the early access to emergency care, early CPR response, defibrillation and advanced care.

Jim Merry was the guest speaker at the designation event in Augusta. He suffered a cardiac arrest in March shortly after calling the Scarborough Fire Department in response to a fire in his garage.

GORHAM

THE DANCE STUDIO of Maine has announced two new movement groups for toddlers and teenagers. The groups have been designed by aspiring dance therapist Elizabeth Damon.

Damon, a Gorham native, danced at the studio and is pursuing her master’s degree in dance therapy and counseling at Antioch University in New Hampshire. The groups will have eight to 10 participants with varied music to suit the group. For more information or to sign up, call 839-6161 or e-mail info@dancestudioofmaine.com.

WINDHAM

HIGH SCHOOL HONORS STUDENTS in Jeff Riddle’s earth science class teamed up with Sarah Plummer, education coordinator at the Cumberland County Soil & Water Conservation District, and sixth-grade science teachers at Windham Middle School for a two-day event where Riddle’s students taught the sixth-grade class about earth science.

The high school students planned most of the day, naming the event “Ecocentricity” and designing a logo and T-shirts. Activities about the environment, including water, ecology, geology, soils and atmosphere, focused on teaching the younger students how to protect and appreciate their local environment.

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