Firefighting Cheverus student wins scholarship

Logan Granger, a senior at Cheverus and a volunteer with the Scarborough Fire Department, has been awarded a Lila Grace Sullivan Amirault Scholarship. Contributed / Portland Diocese

A Scarborough resident who attends Cheverus High School in Portland was one of two students named winners of the 2021 Lila Grace Sullivan Amirault Scholarship.

Logan Granger, a senior at Cheverus, and Lauren Theriault, a senior at Saint Dominic Academy in Auburn, will each receive $5,000 to put towards their college tuition.

Granger said it was his experience as a volunteer firefighter in Scarborough, along with a Zoom call with a surgeon from Maine Medical Center in Portland, that led to his desire to become a cardiac surgeon. He plans to major in biology in college and then attend medical school.

“I really learned how much I love working with people and being there for people when they’re at their worst,” he said.

The scholarship was established by Patrick Amirault through the Catholic Foundation of Maine in 2013, in memory of his wife, Lila, and also in gratitude for the Catholic school education he received in Massachusetts.

 Upcycle Challenge finalists announced

Ecomaine last week announced the six finalists for its school-based Upcycle Challenge, which will award $500 to a participating student’s school.

Aurora Milton of Cape Elizabeth High School is a finalist in ecomaine’s upcycle challenge for the bomber jacket she fashioned from old shirts and an bridesmaid dress. Contributed / ecomaine

The Upcycle Challenge asks students in ecomaine’s communities to use items that ordinarily would have been disposed of to make all-new, functional ones. From 27 designs, ecomaine’s Outreach & Recycling Committee selected the finalists based on the incorporation of post-consumer materials, the ingenuity and functionality of the new creation, inclusion of students in the process, as well as the approval from a teacher or advisor.

The finalists are:

• Aurora Milton, Cape Elizabeth High School, for an Upcycled Bomber Jacket made from old shirts and an old bridesmaid dress.
• Fiddlehead Center for the Arts, Scarborough, for a working chandelier from single-use plastic bottles, bottle caps, felt, foam and other materials.
• Laurel Wight, Freeport Middle School, a two-piece outfit made from plastic bags and an old pillowcase.
• The Bath-based Morse High School Green Club, a bike rack fashioned from donated bicycles and a cross-country ski.
• Alexzandra Jewett, Saco Middle School, end table crafted from parts from a 1989 Ford Mustang.
• Lindsay Turcotte, Saco Middle School, door hanger created from an old rake head.

Laurel Wight, who attends Freeport Middle School, was named a finalist in ecomaine’s upcycle challenge for this two-piece outfit made from plastic bags and an old pillowcase. Contributed / ecomaine

“We were floored by the creativity and resourcefulness of these students and their designs,” said Matt Grondin, ecomaine’s communications manager. “Narrowing them down was not an easy task.”

Ecomaine is a Portland-based nonprofit, recycling and waste-to-energy operation that serves a third of the state’s population in 71 member communities. Readers can vote online through Earth Day, April 22, at bit.ly/3gnIO6e.