Narragansett open house
Celebrating its 25th anniversary, Narragansett School, 300 Main St., is hosting an open house 4-7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 26.
All present and former students, staff members, teachers and residents are welcome to attend.
Children’s author Landry to speak
Local children’s author Deb Landry will speak when the Gorham Business & Civic Exchange meets at 7:30 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 9, at the Portland Faith Center, 8 Elkins Drive, off New Portland Road.
Landry will speak about bullying in the work force.
Six years ago, after 22 years as a health-care administrator, Landry founded Crossroads, a nonprofit mentoring organization in Saco that empowers youth through the performing arts.
Now, as its executive director, this mother of four and grandmother of three dedicates herself to the children’s organization.
As an author, she writes interactive children’s mentoring plays on social awareness issues. Her first book, “Sticks, Stones & Stumped,” uses animals to tell the story about the hurtfulness of bullying.
Landry has received several awards and recognition for her work in community service. She was also asked to address the Gorham Middle School eighth grade class before their last trip to Washington D.C.
Her newest publication recently arrived at schools in Maine, “The Best Practice Guide on Bullying and Harassment.” Baldacci.
For more information about this free event, which is open to the community, call Dana Redmond, executive director of the exchange, at 892-5515.
Skate park committee to meet
Fundraising will be the focus when a skate park committee meets at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 8, in Baxter Memorial Library, 71 South St.
A recent committee meeting drew several high school and middle school students along with concerned parents, business owners and citizens. Abou20 youths are writing to newspaper editors and to local businesses expressing their hopes and dreams of having a skate park in Gorham. “We need their help for us to earn money,” said Bailey Laughlin. “If we have acted in any way disrespectful to business owners, we’re sorry. It gets so frustrating not having a place to skate.”
Four Gorham High School students, Ryan Tardiff, Zack Conway, Alex Ingalls and Curran Candridge, volunteered to take a leadership role in communicating information to the other kids.
Adult volunteers will be collecting signatures supporting their petition to build a skate park in Gorham at the voting polls.
Westbrook, Windham, and Scarborough have skate parks, according to the committee.
“In Windham, building a skate park reduced local crimes by 40 percent,” according to Windham Community Services Officer Matthew Cyr, who was instrumental in the process. Once the skate park opened, juvenile foot traffic in North Windham has been virtually non-existent, Cyr’s report said. “I believe by opening the skate park we showed the kids that the town cares about them and we gave them something fun and exciting to do,” Cyr said.
The skate park committee meets at 6:30 p.m. on the second Wednesday of every month at Baxter Memorial Library and welcomes everyone.
LaPierre excels at Bowdoin
Courtney Rae LaPierre was honored for scholastic excellence on Oct. 6 at Bowdoin College in Brunswick during the annual Sarah and James Bowdoin Day.
LaPierre, who finished last year in the top 20 percent of the class of 2009 in grade point average, was designated a Sarah and James Bowdoin Scholar.
U.S. taxpayer debt
The Bureau of Public Debt reported on Oct. 19 that the U.S. public debt was $8,548,071,412,038.76.
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