Author: USM

ANNE HOBBY STAFF WRITER Who said you need to go to Florida to swim with the dolphins? The water in Maine might be too cold for the tourists but not for the indigenous white-sided dolphin. They are one of hundreds of marine species the Gulf of Maine Area Program, a field project of the International Census of Marine Life, is studying.

FOR 35 STUDENTS ON THE GORHAMCAMPUS, LABOR DAY LIVED UP TO ITSNAME. – From USM, 35 students worked all day on Labor Day doing five community service projects in Gorham. Overseen by Kate Rotroff of the Gorham Center for Volunteers and Community Education, the students painted the Gorham town gazebo, the “snack shack” at the little league baseball field, the deck at the Gorham Recreation Department and ten soccer goals at the Little Falls Recreation area.

compiled by the USM Police Department – Sept. 8The fountain in the Gorham Student Center was soaped during the night causing damage to the coolant system. – There were reports of possible bias at WMPG due to the defacement of a member ID card between August 15 and August 19.

Student groups and individuals

on both campuses have joined

in organizing relief efforts for

Hurricane Katrina victims.

“It’s been an incredible

response. People want to respond

and they want to help in any way

possible,” said Cass Newell, a

senior majoring in human biology.

“There are certainly a lot of goodhearted

folks out there that are

willing to step up to the plate.

They’ve been really incredible and

I’m looking forward to working

with everyone.”

Newell is in charge of

organizing the various relief efforts

of students on campus. To that

end she is organizing a series of

fundraising events centered around

Homecoming, which includes

bottle drives, a 50/50 raffle, coin

collection cans in high profile

campus locations, and a car wash.

Newell is also trying to get a

car donated to be raffled off and

is making arrangements with the

Comedy Connection in Portland to

have a comedy night on the Portland

campus.

“Honestly, I considered a leave

of absence this semester to go down

south,” said Newell, but instead

she “called the Red Cross and

asked if I could help.” Newell had

fundraising experience from having

participated in the American AIDS

Ride for three years.

Newell chose to focus most

of her fundraising efforts around

Homecoming because of its

visibility on campus as well as

Homecoming week being at about

the same time as Newell hoped to

have completed her fund raising

efforts. “Because it’s such an

immediate need I’m pretty focused

on keeping people focused on this

event and the immediate nature of

it.”

Newell said she would like to

see the donation to the Red Cross

total about $10,000, a number

she thinks is entirely possible,

especially if she can get a car

donated. She emphasized that the

work is being done by many more

people than herself.

Separate from Newell’s

efforts, WMPG hosted their own

miniature Mardi Gras event on

Tuesday in order to raise money for

WWOZ, a community radio station

in New Orleans. According to John

Dennison, development director for

WMPG, the station chose to support

another radio station because the

two stations are kindred spirits.

“We felt the best way WMPG

could exert hurricane relief was to

go with what we know,” Dennison

said. “That would be a great trend

for all businesses.” For WMPG this

means businesses in the same trade

should help each other through hard

times like WWOZ is going through

after Hurricane Katrina damaged