ORONO – The Orono Public Library Foundation recently received a $15,000 gift from University Credit Union toward the capital campaign for a new library. The gift came in response to a request for a major gift for the group’s fundraising effort to build a new public library at the corner of Pine and Birch Streets in Orono.

“Orono is proud to be the home of University Credit Union, and we are extremely grateful for UCU’s generous support for our new public library,” said George Jacobson, professor of biological sciences at the University of Maine and an Orono resident serving on the Orono Public Library Foundation steering committee. “The project is an exciting development for our community, and we appreciate the wonderful support from our private and corporate citizens alike.”

To date, the campaign for a new Orono library has garnered more than $800,000 in gifts and pledges. A schedule for preliminary site work is under development, with the goal of breaking ground on the new library in the spring or summer of 2007.

“University Credit Union has supported the university and the Orono community since 1967,” said Matt Walsh, president and CEO of the credit union. “We are eager and willing to fund a much-needed library, and we are equally excited about the benefits to the Orono community.”

University Credit Union serves the students, alumni and employees of the University of Maine system. The organization has offices in Orono, Bangor and Portland and will open a second location in Portland in 2007.

“The UCU also has one town written into its charter as part of our mission and service, and that one town is Orono,” said Walsh. “We are part of the Orono community, and we are pleased to be able to give back in support of a new public library.”