MACHIAS

Digital Equity Center earns AmeriCorps training grant

Axiom Education & Training Center’s National Digital Equity Center has received a $699,503 AmeriCorps grant from the Maine Commission for Community Service to support 16 AmeriCorps members who will provide digital literacy training for the next three years.

The grant will support AmeriCorps members in eight counties across the state. AmeriCorps members will tackle the critical challenges of closing the digital divide, allowing the National Digital Equity Center program to expand its impact. NDEC digital literacy staff will serve the remaining eight counties.

In addition to the grant funding, the Corporation for National & Community Service will make available $284,160 in Segal AmeriCorps Education Awards for the AmeriCorps members funded by these grants. After completing a full term of service, AmeriCorps members receive an award of $5,920 that they can use to pay for college or student loans.

KENNEBUNK

Museum gets federal grant to maintain Kimball House

The Brick Store Museum has received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant of $29,240 to improve environmental conditions in the museum’s 1850s-era Kimball House on Dane Street, which houses a collection of textiles and historic objects related to shipbuilding and tourism in Maine.

The grant, from the Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections Program, will support planning to improve environmental and climate control conditions in the Kimball House, which is used as a collections storage facility and an educational program center. In 2012, the museum installed climate control in its four other gallery buildings along Main Street.

SOUTH PORTLAND

Girl Scouts of Maine lauded for community service effort

Girl Scouts of Maine presented Silver Awards to 19 Girl Scouts in sixth through eighth grade for projects they completed this year that demonstrated courage, confidence and character. Those accomplishments were recognized recently at Girl Scouts of Maine’s G.I.R.L. Celebration at the Waterville Opera House.

Silver Award recipients included:

• Adeline Dolley of Brunswick, who organized a team of volunteers to create 15 “busy blankets” for Avita, an organization that helps older adults with memory loss. Busy blankets, also known as fidget quilts, are designed to help reduce agitation.

• Rayna Schinhofen of Brunswick, who designed a composting system to help Curtis Memorial Library reduce waste fees and dispose of biodegradable items in a more environmentally friendly way.

• Riley Flannery of Scarborough, who organized a more efficient recycling and composting system at her church, such as doing away with the use of plasticware at church suppers.

• Charlena LaVallee of Gray and Abigail Ladd of New Gloucester oversaw an initiative to create more accessible parking spots for veterans around town.

• Kelly Brun of Buxton created a project benefiting the Animal Refuge League of Westbrook, building an awareness campaign on adopting animals other than cats and dogs.

• MacKenna Homa of Gorham created a “Seed Lending Library” at her local library where gardeners can donate their unused seeds to people who can’t afford to start their own garden.

SACO

Police seek public input on equipment purchase

The Saco Police Department is seeking community input on its plans to spend more than $12,672 in federal funding to purchase equipment.

The department will receive money through the Edward Byrne Justice Assistance Grant program, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The funds received will be used to purchase items such as a new radar recorder kit, conducted energy devices and combination spotlight replacements.

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