PRESQUE ISLE – Northern Maine Community College will be $100,000 richer when it ushers in 2008.

During a press conference Friday afternoon, Larry Wold, president of TD Banknorth in Maine, announced that the TD Banknorth Charitable Foundation would make a donation to the college’s first-ever major gifts campaign.

The donation made through the giving arm of TD Banknorth Inc. to NMCC’s Campaign for the County’s College will be used to expand the college’s allied health offerings, the first being the associate degree program in nursing. The gift is part of a $200,000 TD Banknorth contribution that was announced last week to support rural initiatives being undertaken by the Maine Community College System.

The major gifts campaign, which was launched by the college and the NMCC Foundation 10 months ago, is geared toward raising $2 million through February 2008 to support student scholarships and instructional technology and to assist NMCC in efforts to respond quickly to community needs throughout Aroostook County.

The foundation benefits the campus community by raising and managing student scholarship funds and other special initiatives that help students receive postsecondary degrees at NMCC.

The TD Banknorth donation is among the three single largest received by the campaign since its inception.

Officials from NMCC and the NMCC Foundation, representatives from TD Banknorth, local legislators and residents were on hand for the announcement.

Earlier this month, the Maine Community College System unveiled a $6.2 million program designed to expand its reach into rural Maine.

The new program will allow the state’s seven community colleges to provide increased access to college courses for high school students, create scholarships, assist college students with child care, and expand distance learning opportunities and work force training assistance to small businesses in the rural regions.

TD Banknorth was among the first organizations to support the MCCS rural initiative by providing the $200,000 donation to launch the Bring College to Me program.

The expansion of the allied health education program offerings in The Valley by NMCC is the first project to be funded through the bank’s donation.

Wold told the group that making the donation to the NMCC campaign was “the right thing to do.”

“If NMCC is improved, and if the Maine Community College System is improved, the whole Maine educational system is better off,” he said, adding that the gift would help NMCC with its efforts to provide access to both health care and health education opportunities for people in the region.

Tim Crowley, the president of NMCC, praised TD Banknorth for its contribution, saying that the demand for health care workers continues to grow both in The Valley and across the nation.

“This gift will allow us to expand delivery of the nursing program in the St. John Valley,” he explained. “We believe this is the beginning of the expansion of a program that is desperately needed in Aroostook County.”

Crowley added that growing the nursing program would help train more health care workers so they can fill open jobs in The County and stay in the area.

The Presque Isle college has been exploring the possibility of enlarging its associate degree nursing program to The Valley for some time, and a well-attended informational session about the matter was held in Frenchville in November.

Participants in the St. John Valley program will take classes through a combination of distance education technology and local course and clinical offerings. The college also will partner with local health care facilities in the area to deliver the program.

The funding will bring courses that will be a part of NMCC’s nursing program to The Valley by the start of the new semester on Jan. 14, according to college officials.