Mechanics Savings appoints Hinkley

Mechanics Savings Bank has announced the appointment of Donald Hinkley as Commercial Loan Officer. In his new role, Hinkley is responsible for furthering Mechanics Savings Bank’s commercial lending activity in the Lakes Region as well as Gray-New Gloucester and Androscoggin County.

Employed by the bank since 2007, Hinkley most recently held the position of Portfolio Loan Officer.

“Donny’s promotion will serve the bank and its customers well. He has a well-rounded background in commercial credit and servicing, and he’s eager to work with customers and help them in their success,” said JoAnne Campbell, vice president and commercial lending manager for the bank.

Hinkley is a graduate of University of Southern Maine, where he earned a bachelor’s of science degree in finance. He is currently enrolled in USM’s master’s of business administration program and serves as a board member of Pathways Inc. and Trinity Jubilee. He is a 2004 graduate of Leavitt Area High School in Turner. He resides in Turner with his wife, Danielle.

NESN program to spotlight Lakes Region

New England Boating TV, a television program which airs on New England Sports Network featuring co-hosts Tom Richardson and Parker Kelley, made a visit to the Lakes Region for the show airing Sunday, Dec. 7, at 12:30 p.m.

Originally broadcast Dec. 1, the show samples the boater’s paradise of Sebago Lake, Brandy Pond, and the Songo River. Will Monson, sales manager of Moose Landing Marina in Naples, acted as the hosts’ guide.

Also featured on the show are dock-and-dine segments at Ricks’ Cafe? on the Naples Causeway, and the Frye’s Leap Cafe? & General Store on Frye Island. The hosts also check out Point Sebago Resort and enjoy an impromptu seaplane ride with local pilot Matt McFadden.

LELT announces education grants

Schools and libraries in the towns of Bridgton, Casco, Denmark, Harrison, Naples, Sebago and Raymond have the opportunity to receive small grants from Loon Echo Land Trust for environmental education programs. Applications are to be downloaded from Loon Echo’s website at www.LELT.org (under the Programs tab) and returned by the deadline on Jan.15.

Funds for the educational grants are made available through Loon Echo’s Educational Endowment and since 1998, hundreds of children have benefited from programs that teach about the natural world. The endowment was developed as a memorial to two teachers, Helen Allen and Polly Bartlett. Allen granted Loon Echo a conservation easement to forever protect her beautiful hilltop farm on Quaker Ridge in Casco. After her death at the age of 94, Allen’s bequest to Loon Echo allowed the trust to create a fund to support yearly programs in local schools and libraries.

Bartlett was one of the original board members of Loon Echo. Each year she treated her third grade students at Sebago Elementary School to a winter walk with Maine Audubon. When she died in 2000 at the age of 48, the trust created a fund in her memory to ensure that third-graders at Sebago Elementary would always take their winter walk.

Loon Echo Land Trust protects land in the northern Sebago Lake region of Maine to conserve its natural resources and character for future generations. Nearly 6,000 acres of land are protected and seven land preserves are available for public use. For more information, contact Loon Echo at 647-4352 or info@lelt.org.

Q-Team Tree Service of Naples responded to several emergencies resulting from the heavy and wet Thanksgiving Eve snowstorm. Employees Darren Cole and Ian Fitzcharles are shown wrangling with a fallen tree at a house in South Casco. Brenda Davis, right, and the Maine Credit Unions’ Ending Hunger Walking Tour were recently welcomed to Evergreen Credit Union’s office in Windham by Evergreen employee Patti Francoeur. Davis walked throughout the state from Oct. 24-Dec. 3 to raise awareness about the issue. The stop in Windham was one of two communities the tour visited in the Lakes Region. A food pantry in each community the tour visited also received a contribution during the visit. Bon Baiguy, owner of Bob the Screenprinter and a member of the Lakes Region Rotary Club, dressed as a turkey to entertain residents Nov. 25 at Unity Gardens in North Windham for a pre-Thanksgiving celebration. The club served about 40 residents a traditional turkey dinner. Baiguy also conducted a Thanksgiving trivia contest.