Maine’s First Lady to Celebrate UMaine Child Center Expansion Jan. 19
Contact: Marie Hayes, (207) 581-2039, Kevin Duplissie, (207) 581-3080, George Manlove, (207) 581-3756
ORONO — Maine’s First Lady Karen Baldacci will help the teachers, staff and psychology students — and dozens of preschool children — celebrate the grand opening of a new sunroom porch at the UMaine Child Study Center Jan. 19.
The 12-by-36-foot carpeted, glassed-in room adds substantial new indoor space for the center’s preschool program and brings in more sunlight and fresh air, according to UMaine psychology professor Marie Hayes, who oversees the center as developmental coordinator, and Kevin Duplissie, the head teacher.
“It’s such a magnificent improvement,” Hayes says. “It dwarfs the existing center in terms of its enhancement. It also was a real-parent-driven push to do it now.”
Karen Baldacci, a long time children’s reading advocate and certified school teacher before moving from Bangor into the Blaine House in Augusta with her husband Gov. John Baldacci, will join in a grand opening celebration Jan. 19 and will read to the children from 9-10 a.m. Baldacci’s niece currently attends the preschool.
The center’s new room was built with exceptional efficiency because of volunteered labor from many of the parents, staff and faculty in the UMaine psychology and other departments. They worked evenings, weekends and holidays, donating expertise ranging from professional engineering skills to painting and carpentry, which resulted in significant cost savings, Hayes and Duplissie say.
Psychology department Chair Jeff Hecker committed department funds and other resources to enable the project to proceed and the Advanced Engineered Wood Composite Center carried out the structural design and committed funds and personnel to build the roof system using new composite technology developed at UMaine. Marden’s and Home Depot also donated some of the materials for the sun porch.
Duplissie says children were exuberant to return after the semester break to find their play space so airy and bright. There now is room for the indoor climber, the small trampoline and balance beam, he says.
With large windows on three sides of the porch, “we see the squirrels running around; we can see the birds fly through,” Duplissie says. “The children just enjoy seeing what’s going on around them. That’s how they learn.”
Thirty-seven families send children between the ages of 2