Walter Whitney's hobby gardens

http://www.bangordailynews.com/story/bdn/Hampden-gardener-shows-off-flair-for-the-whimsical-beautiful,150102

Hampden gardener shows off flair for the whimsical, beautiful

7/30/10 05:48 pm Updated: 7/30/10 06:06 pm
By Sara Breau
Special to the NEWS

Walter Whitney’s Hampden backyard looks like a collection of clips from a gardening magazine, unique homemade creations interspersed with the bright splashes of color from the 22 “garden spots” scattered throughout the property.

At age 73, Whitney spends 20-30 hours each week working in his gardens planting, weeding, mulching and watering his treasures. His trim, white house sits at the front of a yard that is home to hundreds of impatiens, dahlias, begonias, lilies, petunias and many more flower varieties he has acquired throughout the past five years.

“This is supposedly a labor of love, but I think it’s more labor than it is love, as I’ve been seeing it so far,” Whitney said.

The majority of his flowers are perennials that, once planted, continue to come back on their own each spring. Lilies, peonies, bleeding hearts and roses are just a few of the hardy plants that Whitney expects to see blossom year after year.

“With your perennials, you’ll always get your money back,” he said.

Whitney is perhaps most proud of his trumpet flowers that grow over a white trellis leading into the backyard.

“They’re so lovely I didn’t even want to leave them to go to work this morning,” he said.

He also has a “California garden,” where he grows a variety of vegetables each summer. Across from that is a hedge of sunflowers, bright yellow heads nodding lazily from behind a short, rock wall.

“A sunflower is normally an ugly plant, but that isn’t ugly! It’s so pretty and just one plant can have as many as nine to 12 blossoms,” Whitney said.

The gardens are watered with an inexpensive irrigation system of tanks that collect rainwater coming from the gutters on the house. The water then passes through hoses that run underground and is dispersed through spigots to each of the different garden spots.

Some flowers, such as Whitney’s pink-and-white wave petunias, require more extensive care.

“You have to feed them, you have to water them and say good night to them. They’re a pain in the butt,” he said.

Whitney has gathered rocks from Hughes Brothers Inc. in Hampden to build borders and walls around his gardens. One such “pretty mess,” as he describes it, is filled with vibrant clusters of dahlias and geraniums, along with several peony and iris plants that already have reached their peak for the season and have begun to lose their luster.

“That’s such a sad part about this,” he said. “First of all, there’s no guarantees as to what the heck you’re going to get or not going to get, and then you have a beautiful flower and bingo — two weeks later, there it is, gone.”

Throughout the shrubs, flowers and vines are eye-catching fixtures such as a wishing well, a lighthouse and a birdhouse that is a miniature replica of Whitney’s own house. There also is a small white outbuilding next to the back door — complete with hurricane shingles on the roof and curtains made by Whitney’s wife, Patricia — that houses the couple’s barbecue grill.

Much of the material used to create his backyard points of interest have been salvaged from towns throughout Maine, including Castine, Searsport, Newburgh and Hampden.

“The operable word here to describe me, other than being nuts, is I’m not a landscaper, I’m a land-scraper because I don’t pay anything for the rocks I get, the boards, the plants, anything,” Whitney said.

One example of his recycled handiwork is a small building constructed from old barn boards from Castine, Winterport and Hampden, and a door that is held on with three rusty, mismatched hinges.

“This is not an outhouse, it’s an outdoor facility, because it’s very sophisticated,” Whitney said.

The “facility” has two holes — his and hers — with a 1908-edition Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalog on the seat in between.

“That’s what they used for toilet paper, and there’s some tremendous buys in that thing,” Whitney said. “There are some ladies’ shoes for $2.50 and handguns were about $15. There are some awful good buys in this thing.”

He emphasized that the facility is more for decoration than use since there is no excavation system installed.

Along the far edge of the yard is a Civil War fence replica, held together entirely with rope, which Whitney made. Not far from that is a rustic “rum wagon” he has filled with brightly colored petunias and impatiens.

“Right after the Prohibition, they used to deliver rum to hotels, restaurants and stuff with that, and now I’ve made it into a hearse. That’s an original Amish wagon, it’s a treasure,” Whitney said.

Near the middle of the yard is a small rock garden filled with red-and-white dahlias, coordinating with the American flag that flies from a pole set in the center of the flowerbed. The most recent addition to Whitney’s scenic collection is a gift his children recently presented him with on his birthday: a flag screenprinted with an image of one of his lilies. “Welcome to the Garden” is printed along the top. He said it was a nice addition made all the more impressive because it displays a flower from one of his gardens.

In front of the house are clusters of cheerful yellow begonias and red geraniums flourishing in old whiskey barrels.

“Every year, one flower will do better than you expect, and some flowers will do worse. It goes right back to no guarantees; there are absolutely no guarantees at all with this,” Whitney said.

Underneath the shade trees along the far side of the property, Whitney has replaced marigolds with impatiens, which are easier to maintain and are able to thrive off just the light provided from the morning sun that reaches them in their otherwise shady area.

“These are just things that you get to know and no matter who you talk to, they don’t know it all either,” Whitney said. “But I have help from Sprague’s, Wiswell's, Calkins — anyone who will listen to me. These are nurseries that have been in it for hundreds of years and I get good information from them.” A number of his plants are grown from seeds from Calkins Farm Stand in Hampden, a process he usually starts sometime in March.

“The one flower that I have a lot of, and I’m named after it, is called impatiens,” Whitney joked. “I’m named after this flower because you have to have such great patience, and I don’t. I would like to be able to plant a seed in the morning and have a bouquet two days later, but it just does not happen.”

Whitney’s efforts have not gone unnoticed in the community. This was his first year participating in the Hampden Garden Club summer tour that took place July 20, at the invitation of club president Anne Bennett.

“He has a beautiful garden, it’s just spectacular. Everyone really loved it,” Bennett said.

Whitney had neither attended nor participated in garden shows before this. While gardening has earned him some recognition within the community, he emphasized its importance to him simply as a hobby he has grown passionate about through the years.

“I never draw attention to myself,” Whitney said. “That’s just how I live.”

He shares the wealth from his gardens by giving vegetables and flowers to his neighbors. As the owner and operator of Hampden Window Co. for nearly 40 years, Whitney often has customers visit the workshop at his home and comment on the beauty his hard work has yielded.

“My customers come in and they always park right there and they’ll say to me, ‘Well who did that, your wife?’ And I say ‘No, I did that’ and I give them flowers and vegetables and they think I’m a hell of a guy,” Whitney said.

He isn’t sure how he got involved in gardening, or even how his hobby has evolved to the point it’s at today, but one thing he does know is that he’s not about to give it up anytime soon.

“Once you get into this, when do you stop? You don’t,” he said.

Say Yes to the Dress!

My first article published since I started an internship at the Bangor Daily News:

http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/149350.html

Acton native to be on ‘Say Yes to the Dress’
7/22/10 07:00 pm Updated: 7/22/10 10:30 pm
By Sara Breau
Special to the NEWS
PHOTO COURTESY OF TLC
MILFORD, Maine — Julie-Ann Scott had the perfect, fairy-tale wedding that many girls dream of from a young age. Complete with more than 200 guests, a large bridal party and a beautiful venue, Julie-Ann’s special day was planned perfectly down to the last detail. The one thing that was slightly different from how she may have dreamed it? The all-important wedding dress.

“One thing we decided not to do was to get a designer dress. There were 15 bridesmaids in the wedding, so we decided to just stay local when it came to getting all the dresses,” she said.

An Acton native, Julie-Ann was a small-town girl with no great need for designer apparel.

But, she fell in love with designer gowns during the wedding planning process and was particularly struck with gowns featured on TLC’s “Say Yes to the Dress,” which features brides with unique personal stories who win them the opportunity to visit the Kleinfeld bridal salon in New York City and select the perfect dress for their big day. The show is not strictly limited to future brides, however, and producers readily welcomed Julie-Ann to Kleinfeld and helped her choose the perfect dress to wear at the vow renewal ceremony she and her husband were planning to celebrate their first year of marriage.

“It began as a joke when I had mentioned to my husband that it would be nice to be in one of those big bridal salons trying on beautiful, designer dresses,” Julie-Ann said.

Her husband, Evan, took heed, and unbeknownst to Julie-Ann, wrote to the producers of the show asking that they give his bride the experience of visiting the high-end salon to pick a dress for their vow renewal ceremony. It wasn’t until they were in New York that he told his wife that, along with attending a performance of “Wicked,” the Broadway show she had wanted to see, they would also be visiting the Kleinfeld salon to pick out her dream designer dress.

Their experience at Kleinfeld was all that Julie-Ann could have imagined.

“We walked in and the store was just beautiful and the dresses were gorgeous. It was amazing to see those designers’ creations in person,” she said. “It was so wonderful, so serene. The consultants were very professional and you could tell they knew everything about every single one of those dresses.”

The salon’s knowledgeable consultants helped her find the perfect dress to represent her carefree personality and the laid-back, romantic vibe the couple wanted at their intimate renewal ceremony.

“The process took under an hour. I was looking for something fairly simple and not too constricting; I didn’t want a fancy ball gown or anything like that,” she said. After trying a few dresses, a consultant brought out a dress made by one of Julie-Ann’s favorite designers, Claire Pettibone.

“She brought out the dress and it was just perfect; we knew it was the one,” Julie-Ann said.

The floor-length dress is made of organic cotton and is simply feminine with a soft, cream color complemented by fresh, peach accents. With silk flower appliques and a lace bodice, it’s a romantic piece with a bohemian vibe that made it practical for the couple’s June 20 outdoor vow renewal ceremony at Coquina Beach in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

“We got some pictures taken in the sunset and the color was perfect with it,” Julie-Ann said.

One of the most important requirements throughout the process was that the dress Julie-Ann chose would represent the carefree spirit she has developed since being with Evan. In the past, she often felt restricted by cerebral palsy but credits her husband with helping her overcome her limitations.

“I’ve always been an active person but a lot of that took place in the gym because I was worried about my balance and stability,” she said, citing two of the abilities cerebral palsy often compromises.

“When [Evan and I] first started dating, he said, ‘Look how strong you are, look at your endurance.’ Being with Evan has made me realize that even though I have CP, there’s no reason I can’t do what everyone else can do,” Julie-Ann said.

The couple now enjoy many activities that allow them to share their love of the outdoors. They have a tandem road bike that they’ll take out for 40- to 50-mile rides, they have hiked Mount Katahdin and have gone exploring in Bar Harbor. They even took a day during their honeymoon to go white-water rafting.

“Having that carefree, cotton dress is something that might not have represented me before, but being with Evan has helped change that,” Julie-Ann said.

Not only was the dress a perfect fit for Julie-Ann and Evan in the way it represented their unique bond with each other and their shared love for the outdoors, they also are thrilled about the memories they now associate with the dress itself.

“We’re very excited about it. I have an amazing husband who made that happen for me; it’s not something I ever would have dreamed of doing on my own.”

Julie-Ann recently relocated to Wilmington, N.C., where she will begin her job as an assistant professor of communications studies at the University of North Carolina this fall. Her national television debut documenting the search for the perfect dress will air at 9 p.m. Friday, July 23.

Mr. Fraternity 2010

News |
Mr. Fraternity noms raise funds, temperature
By Sara Breau
Posted on Monday, April 12th, 2010, 1:32 am

An expectant crowd filled Room 100 in Donald P. Corbett Business Building Wednesday for the eighth annual Mr. Fraternity competition, hosted by the sisters of Alpha Omicron Pi. Lively chatter filled the lecture hall as the audience waited for the competition to begin, with trendy beats from Ke$ha, Rihanna and Black Eyed Peas emanating from the sound system.

Mr. Fraternity is an event hosted by AOII to raise donations for its national philanthropy, Juvenile Arthritis Research, and is a competition among members of University of Maine fraternities who nominate a member of their chapter to participate.

“Most of the chapters tend to give it to the older brothers, so it’s kind of seniority,” said Caitlin Conroy, external operations chair for AOII and an organizer of the event.

The contestants were judged on performance in four different categories, similar to the structure of the Miss America pageant. This year’s theme was “The Hangover,” from the popular comedy about a 20-something groom and his three friends, who, through the various disasters they encounter, just can’t handle Vegas.

“We chose ‘The Hangover’ because we try to pick a new, fun, popular movie or theme each year. In 2008 for the sixth annual, we did ‘Superbad,’ and last year in 2009 we chose ‘Batman’ (Fratman),” Conroy said.

Judges this year included Greek Life advisor Kevin Taschereau, panel president Tanya Ubeda and representatives from seven sororities. The judges rated each contestant’s performance on a scale of one to five.

Fifteen brothers from 11 fraternities competed in categories with themes based on “The Hangover” — Casinowear, Poolside Attire, Tyson’s Talent and Little White Chapel.

The lecture hall was transformed into a Vegas-style getaway, with black casino signs adorning the walls next to oversized playing cards that helped set the scene for the night’s festivities. Red and black streamers were draped over the railings leading down to the stage, and brightly-colored balloons festooned the tables near the entrance. Each balloon could be purchased for $1 each, containing a slip of paper with either a prize listed on it or simply a message thanking the recipient for donating to the sorority’s philanthropy.

“We’ve tried to get creative on this, and the balloons were also a good way to decorate the room,” said Emily Bellmore, internal philanthropy chair for AOII.

When the competition began, the brothers dressed according to the theme for each round.

For the first round, brothers were told to incorporate their fraternities’ Greek letters into whatever they interpreted casinowear to be. This resulted in everything from dress suits with letters on the back to one contestant from Theta Chi wearing his fraternity’s colors in a toga-style ensemble as he marched proudly across the stage.

“Casinowear in the past has been called letterswear, but we tried to tie the round names into the theme this year, so we renamed it casinowear for ‘The Hangover’ theme,” Conroy said.

Poolside attire consisted of a parade of brothers wearing everything from traditional Hawaiian-patterned swim trunks to risqué speedos and snazzy sunglasses. There was also a prop box on stage that contestants were asked to incorporate into their act. In the box were items such as pool toys, angel wings and a small baby doll.

“The prop box was new this year — we were just trying it out to add something new to the show,” Conroy said. “We just had a box of random items that the boys only saw right before the show. When they got on stage for the swimwear portion, they were supposed to choose an item and improv with it, which turned out to be quite interesting.”

Several brothers chose to do guitar performances for the Tyson’s Talent segment of the competition, while others showed their soft sides through poems professing affection toward the sorority sisters and particularly the judges. Some stuck with the theme, such as Robert Collins from Sigma Epsilon who played keyboard and sang, “What do Tigers Dream Of,” in reference to a scene in ‘The Hangover’ in which the four friends discovered a tiger shut in their hotel bathroom after a long night of drinking and gallivanting around Las Vegas.

Others addressed common stereotypes regarding fraternities, as Jayson Neault did in his poem aimed at dissolving the stereotypes associated with Pi Kappa Alpha brothers.

“I’m kind of talentless, so I wrote a poem about the PIKE stereotype,” Neault said.

He went on to say that the only true stereotype was that PIKE brothers love sorority girls.

Another rising star sang of his own life experiences in a remake of singer Kid Cudi’s popular hit “Soundtrack to My Life.”

“I got 99 problems and they all sisters,” sang Nate Rutter of Phi Kappa Sigma.

The brothers also competed in a Little White Chapel segment of the competition — a question and answer challenge made up of questions outlining scenarios similar to those in “The Hangover.” The contestants were asked how they would react and were asked to dress in formal clothing for this session.

“Little White Chapel attire has been formal wear in the past, so it was Vegas wedding-themed clothing,” Conroy said.

Contestants had to think quickly and decide how they would get themselves out of various sticky situations.

One brother was asked to decide how he would get a tiger to fall asleep if he didn’t have tranquilizers on hand.

“I’d do what anyone would do and sing it a lullaby,” said SigEp brother Daniel Fournier.

Kevin Parsons from Kappa Sigma said he wanted Sisqo’s “The Thong Song” turned into a slow song and played at his wedding reception.

Others took logical approaches to solving dilemmas they may one day find themselves in. When asked for his strategy to beat a child in a staredown, Matt Sevey from Beta promptly responded that he would “give it candy and tell it to blink.”

Each contestant had a personal coach — an AOII sister who carried a bucket up and down the rows of seats during the performances collecting donations for her assigned brother. The amount of donations each brother had in his bucket was factored into the decision of who would claim the title of Mr. Fraternity 2010 at the end of the show.

“Whichever brother has the most donations is the most likely to win,” Conroy said.

“It’s good because we’re getting to know other Greeks and all of the guys have a meeting with us beforehand, so we’re kind of getting to know each other. It’s huge Greek involvement,” she added.

The audience was generous in their initial donations at the door and in their support of the brothers and the debauchery that ensued over the course of the evening.

Emily Bellmore, internal philanthropy chair for AOII, said the final count on donations was $1,752. All proceeds from the event will be donated to the sorority’s national philanthropy for Juvenile Arthritis Research.

“It’s become our main philanthropy event. It’s our main thing every year,” Conroy said.

After all rounds were completed, anticipation was thick in the room as the audience jammed to tunes such as “Can’t Touch This” and Rihanna’s “Rude Boy.”

Once the other contestant was awarded a sash, hosts Rachael Rogers and Maryann Muscente announced the winner — Daniel Fournier from Sigma Phi Epsilon. Fournier’s fans erupted in applause and support as he accepted the trophy and crown.

What was it that won him the title of Mr. Fraternity? It could have been his provocative dance performance, the plan to steal one of Angelina Jolie’s babies to add to his wolf pack, or perhaps the judges’ approval of his nurturing care of a young baby doll, Carlos, that he kept strapped to his chest throughout the competition.

Bangor Area Homeless Shelter's Hike for the Homeless

News |
Locals help homelessness take a hike
By Sara Breau
Posted on Thursday, April 8th, 2010, 1:28 am

The outdoors is more than just a place to get fresh air. It is also a retreat from the busy routines of careers and classes. Tessa Prest-Berg is using this love for nature as a gateway to introduce her beliefs and passion for service to others.

Prest-Berg, a University of Maine graduate, will be participating in the Bangor Area Homeless Shelter’s 15th annual Hike for the Homeless April 10. The hike is organized to help raise money through donations and pledges and to boost awareness about the increasing percentage of homeless people living in Bangor and the surrounding community.

The hike is an annual fundraiser sponsored this year by local sponsors Bangor Daily News, WLBZ-2, Bangor Savings Bank, Eastern Maine Community College, Sutherland-Weston Marketing Communications and Trans Tech Industries Inc. of Brewer.

“I think just bringing awareness to the issue is so important, because before I looked into it after hearing about the hike, I had no idea what an issue it is here,” Prest-Berg said. “You wouldn’t expect it in a small town like Bangor.”

The Bangor Area Homeless Shelter has provided overnight shelter to approximately 449 people in the past year, according to executive director Dennis Marble. He said that added up to “about 11,800 cumulative nights” in the past year.

An additional estimated 1,500 local low-income people have visited the shelter for basic services including daytime shelter, referrals, crisis containment or simply a hot meal.

This is Prest-Berg’s first year participating in the hike, but she is by no means a novice to the concept. She has been giving back to the community through service for years, volunteering at Manna Ministries Inc. and working with Meals on Wheels affiliate, Meals for ME.

Prest-Berg is a full-time employee at Lifelines Ministry on campus, an organization focused on its beliefs of ministering the community by helping wherever there is a need. Lifelines uses outdoor activities such as rafting, hiking, sledding and rock climbing as common ground to connect with others and to help them grow as individuals and leaders.

“Basically the Lifelines mission statement is to use the outdoors to grow people and their relationship with God and each other, and to grow in leadership and character,” Prest-Berg said. “It’s about using the outdoors and relationships with God to talk to people about spiritual stuff.”

An outdoors enthusiast, Prest-Berg spoke of love of nature as a bond that allows her to connect with people and use the opportunity to discuss religious beliefs and encourage others to explore their minds on a spiritual level. She spent a recent Saturday morning fishing, and is also a fan of hiking and any activity that allows her to spend time with others getting active in the outdoors.

Prest-Berg learned of the hike when she saw an informational poster at the campus climbing gym, and immediately knew it was a perfect fit for her.

“Lifelines is like an outdoor Christian ministry, so when I saw the word ‘hike’ I was excited and knew I wanted to do it,” Prest-Berg said. “When I saw that it said Hike for the Homeless, I was hoping that it would be like a hike up a mountain, then I heard that it starts in Veazie, which is still cool.”

Mountain hiking or not, the opportunity to do an outdoor activity that would benefit other members of the community was too good for Tessa to pass up.

According to the Hike for the Homeless Web site, participants can begin at one of four locations in Bangor, Brewer, Veazie or Hampden. The hike will end at the Bangor Waterfront with a cookout, raffle prizes and information sessions about further volunteering opportunities with the Bangor Area Homeless Shelter. The minimum donation for those participating in the hike is $5, but the homeless shelter is encouraging volunteers to raise as much as they can by advertising the hike within the community.

“I think if I were just to go and hike it wouldn’t make that much of a difference. That’s why I’m trying to get all of the pledges,” Prest-Berg said.

There are currently 17 employees at the shelter, according to its Web site.

“I’m just thinking that they rely a lot on volunteers and I feel like an organization like that would help so much by any little amount that I can give. I feel like there’s a lot of bang for people’s bucks when they donate,” said Prest-Berg.

She attributes much of her motivation to help others from her desire to live what she sees as an active Christian life.

“When I was growing up, there were the Christians who just went to church every weekend and I was like okay. Then when I got deeper into it and read the Bible a little more I was like, hey, it’s way more than just going to church,” Prest-Berg said.

Since feeling out her personal beliefs regarding Christianity, Prest-Berg has become a member of the Lifelines Ministry and taken a more active role in reaching out and spreading the word within her community.

“The whole thing about Lifelines is that we want to be outdoors and help people,” Prest-Berg said.

She added that with the hike, she can “basically do what Jesus did, and help the homeless.”

Prest-Berg spent her day tabling outside Starbucks in Memorial Union on April 7. People could stop by for information about the hike or make a donation.

Because the shelter also offers support services, they see more than just people looking for a bed. In the past year, more than 2,000 people have stayed at or visited the Bangor Area Homeless Shelter for support, Marble said.

Prest-Berg is hopeful raising awareness about the issue will lead to a decline in the number of homeless in the greater Bangor area.

“When I looked into it, it surprised me, just the fact that there’s so many homeless in Bangor and I don’t ever see them,” Prest-Berg said. “I didn’t even know about it, I think I just walk by them a lot of times and have my blinders on. This is an opportunity to take the blinders off.”

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UM Dining now accepts credit

This is an article about the new payment option available to students for dining purchases at the University of Maine in Orono.

http://mainecampus.com/2010/01/14/um-dining-now-accepts-credit/

UM Dining now accepts credit

By Sara Breau
Posted on Thursday, January 14th, 2010, 12:41 am

Credit and debit cards are now accepted at each of the dining locations on the University of Maine campus. The option became available Jan. 8 after several previous attempts to get the service up and running, according to Kathy Kittridge, director of dining operations at UMaine.

Dining officials hope the option of paying with plastic will add convenience for customers and shorten lines at the cash registers.

“Basically, we’ve been wanting to take credit and debit cards for quite some time now,” Kittridge said. “The thing that was slowing us down is being in compliance with security issues having to do with the transactions. We’ve updated the software on our cash registers now, so we’re all set with that.”

Credit and debit cards are accepted at each of the dining locations on campus, including the kiosk in Donald P. Corbett Hall and at concessions stands. Visa or Mastercard are accepted. There are no plans to bring in new cards either way.

“Those are the two most popular, and it basically just cut down on paperwork to stick with them two for now,” Kittridge said.

“We had a lot of students ask for this, and we really did it for the customers, for customer convenience,” Kittridge said.

While credit cards can be used on a purchase of any amount, members of dining services are hopeful that the use of debit and credit cards will generate increased revenue to cover the fee credit companies charge for each transaction.

“We’re hoping that it will actually bring in additional revenue because there is a cost associated with this, and we’re hoping that it will bring in enough so we won’t have to do any price changes or increase prices. We don’t have any minimum purchase at this point,” Kittridge said.

Currently, there is no fee for customers associated with using credit or debit cards on campus. Shirley McClure-Harris, a dining employee at the Memorial Union, said that using debit or credit cards will be more convenient than cash.

“I think people are going to like this a lot better,” she said. “It’s basically just like swiping the MaineCards. You hit ‘credit card,’ swipe, confirm it and we’re done.”

“I think it’s a lot more convenient because you don’t have to go downstairs to withdraw money, which can be a pain,” said Dinny Loring, a third-year zoology major.

Al McAvoy, assistant dining services manager in the Union, stated in an e-mail Tuesday that Markeplace cashiers have reported “customers are thrilled” with the convenience the new service offers.

With dining funds and Black Bear Bucks on their MaineCards, students can easily check their balance at the cash register. This feature is unavailable to the plastic-wielding credit and debit customers, a fact that leaves some students concerned.

Rosie Tanabe, a second-year English and music performance student, worries about the effect it may have on students’ bank accounts now that they have the responsibility of keeping track of how much money they spend with their credit and debit cards on campus.

“If people aren’t careful, they could end up spending more,” she said.

The payment method has been popular so far, with 153 credit card transactions completed between Friday and Monday. Dining services is hopeful the added payment option will help eliminate the theft problem UMaine has faced in the dining commons and Marketplace.

“I believe this will also give the students another option of payment when they are out of money on their MaineCard or are without cash. This will deter them from taking the food without payment,” said Melissa Lewis, dining service manager at the Maine Marketplace.

“This also helps with our speed of service here at the Marketplace since the credit and debit card purchases are faster than cash. This is always a good thing for the long lunch lines,” Lewis said.