Cabot recently opened Cabot Farmers’ Annex Shop located at 163 Commercial St. in Portland. Cabot products, New England specialty foods, and select Maine crafts stock the store. There are almost 100 farm families that own Cabot, a cooperative, and live in Maine.

Freeport Seafood Co. Restaurant and Pub recently celebrated its grand opening. The nautical-themed eatery is located at 175 Lower Main St., Freeport. The menu emphasizes classic and creative Maine seafood dishes prepared by Chef Emmy Anderson.

 

The members of the Maine Commission for Community Service held their annual meeting recently and elected new leadership. The commission is a 25-member board of governor-appointed citizens who represent nearly every facet of Maine’s volunteer and community service sector. Brunswick resident John Portela was elected as vice-chairman of the commission. Portela is a sandblaster at Bath Iron Works and was appointed to the seat designated for a labor representative in 2009.

 

At the recent annual meeting of the Maine Bankers Association, the member banks elected Christopher W. Emmons, president and CEO of Gorham Savings Bank, as association chairman for the next year. Richard J. Vail, president of Mechanics Savings Bank, was elected vice chairman of the association.

 

Scarborough Land Trust recently named new officers on its board of directors: president, Paul Austin, owner of Whole Home Resource; vice president, Jack Anderson, retired securities lawyer; treasurer, Patrick O’Reilly, accountant at Macdonald Page & Co.; clerk, Rick Shinay, attorney at Drummond Woodsum. Other directors elected at the annual meeting are Mark Follansbee, toxicologist at SRC, lawyer Elizabeth Peoples, Alexander Timpson, senior vice president at Wachovia Securities, and Jeremy Wintersteen, owner of Conservation Outcomes.

 

The University of Southern Maine recently announced that it is a Grand Challenges Explorations winner, an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Associate Professor of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Monroe Duboise, will pursue a global health and development research project to develop a stable, readily reproduced anti-malaria vaccine, titled “Optimizing Immunization Systems by Development of Extremophile Bacteriophage-based Vaccine Platforms.” Duboise’s research will focus on determining methods for developing vaccines that are inexpensive, stable and easy to produce in a wide range of locations. The project is based on previous work performed by researchers at USM and the University of Nairobi in Kenya to isolate and complete the genomic DNA sequencing of bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria.

 

Lee Gilman, of Brunswick, was recently the recipient of the 2012 Staff Excellence Award awarded by the American Lung Association. The national award celebrates Lung Association staff members who exemplify the nationwide commitment to saving lives by improving lung health and preventing lung disease. Gilman is the Senior Director of Health Promotion and Public Policy for the American Lung Association of the Northeast.

 

Gilman has been involved in the Lung Association’s Asthma Educator Institute (AEI) in New England and nationwide.  She has implemented 10 Asthma Educator Institutes in Maine since 2003, reaching approximately 350 clinicians and asthma educators. She also organized the program in New Hampshire in partnership with the Saint Anselm College Nursing Education Department and the Southern New Hampshire Area Health Education Center.

 

Designations

Mercy Hospital was recently designated an “A” Hospital Safety Score SM by The Leapfrog Group, an independent national nonprofit run by employers and other large purchasers of health benefits. The Hospital Safety Score SM was calculated under the guidance of The Leapfrog Group’s Blue Ribbon Expert Panel using publicly available data on patient injuries, medical and medication errors, and infections.

 

U.S. hospitals were assigned an A, B, C, D, or F for their safety. Calculated under the guidance of The Leapfrog Group’s nine-member Blue Ribbon Expert Panel, the Hospital Safety Score uses 26 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to produce a single score representing a hospital’s overall capacity to keep patients safe from infections, injuries, and medical and medication errors.  

 

Bev Uhlenhake of Epstein Commercial Real Estate has been elected to the board of directors of the Maine Real Estate & Development Association, known as MEREDA, a statewide organization of commercial real estate owners, developers and related service providers. Uhlenhake works in all sectors of the commercial market and has brokered a range of sales, leases, and build to suits for local and national clients. She earned her CCIM in 2008 and currently sits on several boards, including the Brewer Planning Board. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from The Ohio State University and a Masters of Science in higher education administration from Iowa State University.

 

Good Deeds

Greg Dugal, Maine Innkeepers Association Executive Director, presented Nicole Bosarge of Greater Portland Habitat for Humanity with a $17,000 check, representing the proceeds from this year’s fundraiser, Hospitality for Habitat, to be divided among the Maine chapters of the organization, to help build homes for deserving Maine families. Hospitality for Habitat is a spring program which allows guests to stay at participating Maine Innkeepers’ properties for 50% off the regular room rate in exchange for a $35 dollar donation check written out to Habitat for Humanity. The Maine Innkeepers Association has collected close to $100,000 in donation checks over the program’s nine year history, to help build homes all over the state.