PORTLAND

Local student attends space academy

Zachary Travers of Portland recently attended Advanced Space Academy at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, home of Space Camp, Space Camp Robotics, Aviation Challenge, U.S. Cyber Camp and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center’s Official Visitor Center.

The weeklong educational program promotes science, technology, engineering and math, while training students and with hands-on activities and missions based on teamwork, leadership and problem solving.

This program is specifically designed for trainees who have a passion for space exploration. Travers spent the week training with a team that flew a simulated space mission to the International Space Station, the moon or Mars. The crew participated in experiments and successfully completed an extra-vehicular activity, or spacewalk. Travers and crew returned to Earth in time to graduate with honors.

Space Camp operates year-round and uses astronaut training techniques to engage trainees in real-world applications of STEM subjects. Students sleep in quarters designed to resemble the International Space Station and train in simulators like those used by NASA.

More than 850,000 trainees have graduated from a Space Camp program since its inception in 1982, including Christina Koch, who is serving onboard the International Space Station. Children and teachers from all 50 states and nearly 150 international locations have attended.

NBT Bank donates $10,000 to Avesta Housing

NBT Bank has donated $10,000 to nonprofit Avesta Housing to support both the Avesta NeighborWorks HomeOwnership Center and Avesta initiatives to increase and improve affordable housing for individuals and families.

The NeighborWorks HomeOwnership Center provides classes for first-time homebuyers to make more informed purchase decisions, while the HomeOwnership Center provides free counseling for homeowners at risk of foreclosure and Avesta residents wanting to develop financial literacy and improve personal financial management.

STATEWIDE

Maine twirlers going to championships

The Main-E-Acts Baton Twirling Team will travel to the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, to compete in America’s Youth of Parade, the National Baton Twirling Association’s Grand National Baton Twirling Championships on July 23-27.

The event brings together the best baton twirlers, teams and corps in the world for a series of contests. This weeklong athletic event features over 4,500 competitors executing dance, gymnastic and strutting skills under the flight of one, two, three and even four batons. This year’s championships will also select the USA Team to compete at the World Baton Twirling Championships to be held in April 2020 in the Netherlands.

The Main-E-Acts Baton Twirling Team, created in 2004, is the travel component of the Central Maine Twirling Corps, a larger baton twirling program supported and offered by the Augusta and Bangor parks and recreation departments. Team members were selected by the director of the Central Maine Twirling Corps for their outstanding twirling and dancing abilities, as well as their enthusiasm, dedication, and passion for the sport of baton twirling. Team members ages 10-18 representing Maine in the competition include Ryleigh Baldwin, Thea Kanaris, Kate Morin and Autumn Trafton, all of Augusta; Paige Blackwell, Helen Rebar and Lila Tucker, all of Bangor; Jessica Hymas and Makenzie Sayers, both of Brewer; Jolie Canwell of Chelsea; Cassidy Fish, Ingrid Plant, Alanna Thomas and Embree Thomas, all of Hampden; Grace Thompson of Kenduskeag; Morgan Mayhew and Megan McCormick, both of South Paris; and Mollie Berglund and Amanda Cameron, both of West Gardiner.

For more information visit www.centralmainetwirling.com or on Facebook @centralmainetwirling.

For more information on the National Baton Twirling Association and/or AYOP, visit www.batontwirling.com.