Awards

PROPEL, a young professionals networking and business organizational group in Portland, presented its fourth annual entreverge awards celebration on recently at Restaurant Grace. The winners include: Bite Into Maine, a “mainecentric” mobile food truck at Fort Williams Park in Cape Elizabeth; Brook There, an organic lingerie and loungewear which offers pieces designed, cut and sewn within a few miles of Portland; Might & Main, a small branding and design agency in Portland which focuses on brands and all of the experiences around them; Portland Flea-For-All, an indoor weekend flea market that offers vendors the opportunity to sell art, vintage , jewelry and more; and Rogue Wallet Co., a company offering wallets with a patented curved edge, designed to fit into front pockets.

The Portland Water District recently announced it received the American Water Works Association’s 2012 Exemplary Source Water Protection Award for large systems. The award recognizes PWD’s comprehensive efforts to protect Sebago Lake which is the source of water for Greater Portland.

Molly Bouchard, 21, of Caribou, was crowned Miss Maine 2012.  Bouchard will represent the state throughout the next year and earns a spot in the 2013 Miss America Pageant. Bouchard is a graduate of Caribou High School and a graduate of the Boston Conservatory of Music in Boston majoring in vocal performance.

LPA Marine, of Peaks Island, was recently awarded a new CAT CT660 Vocational Truck as the winner of the 2011 Caterpillar “Win a CAT Truck” contest.

New England Rehabilitation Hospital of Portland recently presented several awards at their annual Employee Appreciation Day celebration. Daren Pesut received The Buzz Fitzgerald Award, Kathleen Morey was selected as Clinician of the Year, Bethany Eling was chosen as Employee of the Year, Steve Moulton received the Leadership Award, Eddie Hammonds received the Rehabilitation Services Award, and Kristina Myrbeck was awarded the Sandra Marriner Certified Rehabilitation Nurse of the Year Award. The recipients are all from Portland.

Ann Perrino, owner of Ann Veronica in Cape Elizabeth, was recently recognized by Trollbeads International for her store’s sales achievements at the Troll Academy Awards ceremony and dinner.

Good Deeds

Key Bank of Freeport employees recently participated in the annual Neighbors Make a Difference Day. Ruth Starke, Autumn Hawkes, Jody James and April Woodcock volunteered with the Coastal Humane Society.

New Hires

Bardwell Chiropractic recently hired Sammy Neang, Robert Phipps and Emily Crawford. Neang, an intern from the University of Southern Maine with a BS in Exercise Physiology, plans to obtain his doctorate in Chiropractic. Phipps joins the business with five years experience as a licensed massage therapist. Crawford has 11 years of experience as a licensed massage therapist and is a certified BodyTalk practitioner.

Martin’s Point Health Care recently announced the arrival of Jeff Benson at their West Falmouth Health Care Center. He has been seeing patients part-time since November and will be joining the organization full-time on July 2.

The Portland Public Schools has named Thomas Bachner as the district’s technology services director. For the past four years, Bachner served as senior project engineer for education professional service at Apple, Inc., supporting the Maine Learning Technology Initiative. He previously worked for seven years as the technology director of the Falmouth Public Schools.

Wright-Pierce recently announced that Connie Taggart has joined the firm as the director of human resources, replacing Deny Anderson, who recently retired after 26 years at the firm. Taggart brings more than 20 years of experience in human resources, employee relations, and benefits management. Prior to joining Wright-Pierce, Taggart was the Director of Human Resources for Baker Newman Noyes, an accounting firm based in Portland, Maine.

Broadreach Public Relations, a growing firm headquartered in Portland, has hired Alex Noyes as its 2012 summer Intern. Graduated with a degree in psychology, this will be Noyes’s introduction to the world of public relations. She will be involved in many areas of the public relations process, learning the various disciplines of PR such as media relations, client management, crisis communications, online communications and event planning.

Retirements

Sherrie Bergman, having been the Bowdoin College librarian for the past 20 years, recently retired. She has simultaneously served as scholar and mentor, administrator, and champion of print, visual and audio resources, and their digital equivalents. She was awarded the 2012 Alumni Service Award for Faculty and Staff.

Collaborations

Mid Coast Hospital has been selected again as a training site for two Tufts medical students that are interested in gaining hands-on clinical training in Maine. Through a program created in 2009, as a joint venture between Maine Medical Center and Tufts University School of Medicine, Amy Case and Andrew Kelner, students of the 2014 class, will learn their third year core competencies. During a nine-month Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship, the students will be under the supervision of fifteen Mid Coast Hospital and Martin’s Point providers.

The Portland Symphony Orchestra will partner with seven Maine libraries this summer to take their KinderKonzert performance, “The Story of Abbie Burgess,” on the road. The summer concerts, which are free of charge to the public, will be funded in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Setting Records

As part of L.L. Bean‘s ongoing 100th anniversary celebration, 100 employees paddled a uniquely built kayak that measured 407.7 feet long. This could be a world-record for the longest modular kayak ever, and L.L.Bean will be submitting an application to the Guinness World Records for consideration.