Grand opening

BANGOR – The new residential care unit designed to provide care for those in the early stages of Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia will have a ceremonial grand opening at 1 p.m. Sunday, June 1, at the Maine Veterans Home, 44 Hogan Road.

Gov. John E. Baldacci and U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud will be honored guests. Tours will be given, and refreshments served after the ribbon-cutting ceremony. For information, call (888) 684-4665.

Nurse of the Year

BANGOR – Nancy Daniels, a registered nurse, received the Acadia Hospital Nurse of the Year Award on May 15. The presentation was part of a Nurses Day celebration. Daniels is a nurse in the narcotic treatment program, which serves more than 200 individuals struggling with opiate addiction.

Acadia Hospital’s Chief Executive Officer Dottie Hill presented the award.

“I was overwhelmed when Dottie Hill told me I had won the award,” Daniels said.

“I wanted to feature our newest program and I chose Nancy because she has found her niche in our organization and has thrived,” Hill said.

Daniels has worked at Acadia since 1993, when she worked the night shift on the adult units. Her career took an unexpected turn in July 2001 when she was asked to cover for another nurse in the

narcotic treatment program.

“I started in the NTP not knowing what to expect,” Daniels said. “I thought I’d stay a short time, but by the second day I was asking to stay. The positive change I witnessed in the individuals receiving methadone treatment was astounding.”

Since that day, Daniels had given presentations about narcotic treatment to Acadia night-shift staff and to nursing students at Eastern Maine Technical College.

Osteoporosis Day

BANGOR – St. Joseph Healthcare held its annual Osteoporosis Day, an educational update for health care providers, May 19 at St. Joseph Healthcare Park.

An overall update on the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis was presented. Dr. Clifford Rosen, medical director of the Maine Center for Osteoporosis Research and Education, was the moderator. Other presenters were endocrinologist Dr. Kathryn Rensenbrink of Ellsworth Internal Medicine and Dr. Daniel Spratt of Maine Medical Center in Portland.

WalkAmerica

BREWER – The Bangor-Brewer March of Dimes leadership committee has announced that this year’s WalkAmerica raised more than $45,000 – the most money ever raised by WalkAmerica in this area.

Leadership committee members who worked on this year’s event who deserve special thanks are Bridget Lindsay of Sam’s Club, Gloria Faulkner representing Eddington, Irv Masters from Bangor Letter Shop, Jill Ashe from Unicel, Joe Sekera from John Bapst Memorial High School, LuAnn Williams from Bangor Hydro-Electric, Paula Peirce from Hannaford Brothers, Rebecca Loveland from Mid-Maine Communications and Wanda Adams from KeyBank.

Paula Peirce was the top individual walker, raising more than $2,000 in pledges. The top team was Hannaford Brothers with more than $5,000. Other teams raising more than $1,000 were Bangor Letter Shop, Unicel, Merrill Bank, Coach House Restaurant, Sam’s Club, and Berry, Dunn, McNeil and Parker.

Help Whip Cancer

HERMON – Until May 31, the Pampered Chef will donate to the American Cancer Society’s breast cancer early detection and education programs $1 from the purchase of special Help Whip Cancer products.

Pampered Chef customers also can make a donation to the American Cancer Society by rounding off a product order to the nearest dollar or more at any Kitchen Show or in-home cooking demonstration held in May. Money raised at Help Whip Cancer Kitchen Show fund-raisers will be donated directly to the American Cancer Society. For information, call Cheryl Murphy at 848-7396.

Tree-planting ceremony

BANGOR – St. Joseph Healthcare celebrated Hospital Week, May 12-16, in support of this year’s “Bringing the Power of Care to the Community.”

A tree-planting ceremony was held May 14 in honor of physicians affiliated with St. Joseph Healthcare. Nearly 300 physicians are on staff at the hospital. The tree planting took place near the Broadway entrance of the hospital. Refreshments were served after the tree planting.

Dental care

BANGOR – Bangor Savings Bank has made a $2,500 contribution to the Penobscot Community Health Care Center toward the expansion of its dental services clinic.

Penobscot County Community Health will bring dental care by its own dentists to low-income children and teens in remote rural areas of Somerset, Penobscot, Washington, Aroostook and Piscataquis counties where virtually no dental care is available for children on Medicaid.

The health center’s capital campaign proposal calls for the hiring of additional dentists and the purchase of a mobile dental unit. In addition to dentists rotating one week a month providing services on the dental mobile unit, the unit also will provide dental care at the clinics for homeless teens and adults in the Bangor area.