Promoting literacy

BANGOR – Literacy Volunteers of Bangor has received a $1,000 grant from the Best Buy Children’s Foundation.

An employee at the Best Buy in Bangor is also a volunteer with Literacy Volunteers of Bangor. He applied for the Tag Team Award grant, awarded in honor of Best Buy employees who strengthen their communities by fundraising or donating time, talent and energy to a local fundraising event.

The Best Buy Children’s Foundation, operated by the Minneapolis-based company, was founded in 1994 to enhance the quality of life for school-age children in communities where Best Buy has a presence.

The foundation supports the development and delivery of innovative and technology-based educational curriculum and content, and makes education accessible to graduating high school seniors using technology to make learning fun. The te@ch program awards $2,500 Best Buy gift cards to schools in recognition of programs featuring projects that creatively integrate interactive technology into the curriculum.

Best Buy is a specialty retailer of consumer electronics, personal computers, entertainment software and appliances.

New recording studio

WINTERPORT – My Thrill Studio, a new recording facility at 46 Blueberry Hill Road, will hold an open house 1-6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 9.

Owners Mark and Stephanie Francis invite those interested in audio recording to stop by the studio, which features 32-track digital recording. Equipped with Pro Tools 7.2 recording technology, My Thrill Studio was built to meet today’s digital audio demands.

Mark Francis is experienced in audio recording. As keyboardist in the classic rock band HourGlass for more than 20 years, he has had the opportunity to view recording sessions from a musician’s perspective.

The band’s visit to Track 17 Recording Studio in Mt. Kisco, N.Y., made Francis want a professional recording studio of his own. With that goal in mind, he set out to make his recording studio a reality. He has an associate degree in computer information systems, and also obtained a bachelor’s degree in jazz and contemporary music, with a concentration in audio technology, from the University of Maine at Augusta.

My Thrill Studio is involved in a project for GLEAM, a nonprofit ministry that was started in Deland, Fla., by Edna Welbourn. GLEAM – Giving Love Encouragement Affirmation Ministry – provides CDs of familiar church hymns and biblical narration to nursing home residents with dementia and other disabling disorders.

For additional information regarding My Thrill Studio and the open house, call Mark and Stephanie Francis at 223-5082. For information about GLEAM, call Edna Welbourn, (386) 822-9099 or (386) 734-6401, or write: 600 South Florida Ave., No. 55, Deland, FL 32720.

Foreign language interpreters

BREWER – Integrated Interpreters – “Where Everyone Has the Right to Know” – a foreign spoken language agency based in Brewer, opened recently for business.

Elena Arriaga, president and CEO, says that control of the agency lies with its independent contractors.

The agency focuses on extensive interpreting training, in-house and out-of-state, and offers businesses free workshops on what to expect of an interpreter.

Services are designed for businesses, using professionally qualified interpreters and translators seven days a week nationwide.

All independent contractors are signed up with the goal of establishing extensive training and involvement with affiliated interpreter memberships in a variety of associations.

Languages offered include Spanish, French, Thai, Japanese, and Chinese Mandarin-Cantonese. The interpreters are available for all medical, legal, community and business needs.

For information, call 989-7203.

Computer technologies

BANGOR – Logical IT Solutions announced that Microsoft has awarded the company Gold Partner status. Gold Certified Partners represent the highest level of competence and expertise with Microsoft technologies, and have the closest working relationship with Microsoft.

The company specializes in data flow automation through custom integrations, eliminating the need for spreadsheets, re-keying, and so on. Its staff is knowledgeable in both software and accounting for building reports, integrations, upgrading accounting data, and training. Staff members are Microsoft software certified professionals, certified trainers and certified SQL database specialists.

For information, call 221-2613 or e-mail info@logical

solutionsllc.com.

Potato systems planning

ORONO – U.S. Sen. Olympia J. Snowe congratulated Dr. Wayne Honeycutt and Dr. John Halloran, the recipients of a Federal Laboratory Consortium Mid-Atlantic Region Award, for their development of the Potato Systems Planner program.

Honeycutt and Halloran, of the USDA Agricultural Research Service, New England Plant, Soil and Water Laboratory in Orono, created the program to aid growers in selecting crop rotations and making management decisions based on first-hand research information.

The Potato Systems Planner program provides general and detailed information on the impact of 15 crop rotations on diseases, economics, yields, soil microorganisms, and nitrogen cycling. The program is contained in a CD-ROM format and has been distributed to more than 1,000 growers and scientists from 22 states and more than a dozen countries.

The Federal Laboratory Consortium Mid-Atlantic Region Award is granted to a federal laboratory in recognition of extraordinary efforts which exceed legislated requirements in the furtherance of national and regional technology transfer activities.