New business? Expansion? Promotions? E-mail information to weekly@bangordailynews.net, or mail it to The Weekly, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor, ME 04402; or drop it off at the front desk of the Buck Street entrance of the Bangor Daily News, 491 Main St., Bangor.

Bangor

Kittens commercial

The kittens, Whalen and Willie, made their debut in 1982, when Barbara Harris loaned them to Bangor Savings Bank for three days to film the holiday commercial that still airs 22 years later.

Joyce Clark Sarnacki, marketing director at Bangor Savings Bank, wonders if the bank holds some sort of record for the longest playing television commercial.

“While we only air the Christmas kittens commercial during the holiday season, we have a sense that there is no other commercials out there that has played this many years in a row,” she said. “And even though the background music is a song written for us when we used the trade name, The Source, which has long since been retired, we continue to buy media time each year simply because of popular demand. It’s become part of our brand.”

Each year, Bangor Savings Bank receives dozens of phone calls, e-mail and letters inquiring about or thanking the bank for continuing to show the commercial. “It’s part of our family’s holiday tradition,” one person wrote. “No matter where we are in the house, if the commercial comes on, whoever sees it yells to the rest of us to come watch. It wouldn’t seem like Christmas without it.”

“It’s a phenomenon we can’t quite define,” Sarnacki said, “but it’s there and our employees love it just as much as our customers do.”

Visit www.bangor.com to obtain more information about what television stations show the commercial.

Personnel

David Mele has joined WBRC Architects-Engineers’ Business and Institution Studio. He began his career in construction living deep in the heart of Maine’s woods and building his own log cabin in 1975. In 1978 he began a four-year apprenticeship with the Bangor-Brewer Carpenter and Millwrights Union. He achieved journeyman status in 1982 and continued to work on commercial and industrial projects throughout the state for the next nine years.

In 1991 Mele started his own design-build construction company that served the western Washington County region. His company did light commercial and residential projects. As his interest in design intensified, he made the decision to attend the Architectural Studies program at the University of Maine at Augusta and graduated with an associate of arts in architecture degree in 2000. In the fall of 2000 he went on to the Rhode Island School of Design where he graduated in 2003 with a degree in architecture.

Toby Richards also recently joined WBRC Architects-Engineers’ Civil Engineering Group. He joins WBRC’s Site- Civil Group as a civil CAD technician and will work closely with WBRC’s civil engineers and landscape architects to provide planning and site engineering support for the firm’s varied clientele.

Richards attended Penquis Valley High School and graduated in 2000. While studying there he completed CAD1 and CAD2 under the direction of Bob Hayes, laying a foundation in CAD and providing a trade right out of high school with the Sewall Company. He is continuing his studies in computer aided drafting at Eastern Maine Community College and plans to continue his pursuit of a degree in civil engineering.

John Kenney has joined WBRC Architects-Engineers’ civil engineering group. Kenney joins WBRC’s site-civil group as a civil engineer intern and will work closely with the firm’s civil engineers to provide planning, site engineering, and environmental permitting support for the firm’s clientele. His prior experience at Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife provides added depth to WBRC’s clientele, who may require environmental permitting assistance.

Kenney graduated from Falmouth High School in 1981 and earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering at the University of Maine in 1988. In 2005, he will complete a master’s degree at the University of Minnesota in the conservation biology program, where he studied tiger population viability in Nepal.

From 1995 to 2004, he was employed by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife as a wildlife biologist-oil spill response planner. Within his first year, he received a “crash” course in oil spill response, oiled wildlife rehabilitation, and natural resource damage assessment and habitat restoration, when the Julie N oil tanker hit a bridge in Portland Harbor and spilled 200,000 gallons of oil.

Gent’s Night

Day’s Jewelers and Bangor Motor Sports will hold a Gent’s Night 5-10 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 9, to aid men with holiday shopping. A percentage of sales will be donated to The Children’s Miracle Network of Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems.

A Honda XR50 children’s dirt bike will be awarded. Tickets for the drawing are $10. Proceeds will be donated to The Children’s Miracle Network. Call 990-0351 to obtain more information.