By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE — A significant in-kind donation from Dead River Co. given to The Foundation for Maine’s Community Colleges will enhance the hands-on learning opportunities at three of the state’s community colleges.
Staff photo/Scott Mitchell Johnson
Officials with Northern Maine Community College, The Foundation for Maine’s Community Colleges and Dead River Co. take a moment to pose by one of the trucks donated by Dead River to NMCC following a press conference held last Friday in the Diesel Hydraulics Technology Lab at the college. Joining in the announcement were, from left: Timothy Crowley, NMCC president; Elizabeth Shorr, president of The Foundation for Maine’s Community Colleges; Robert Rice, NMCC diesel hydraulics instructor; and Robert Moore, president of Dead River Co.
Last Friday, officials with Dead River Co. joined representatives from Northern Maine Community College, the NMCC Foundation and The Foundation for Maine’s Community Colleges to receive the first three of 11 trucks to be given to the community colleges in Presque Isle, Bangor and Calais. Robert Moore, president of Dead River Co., announced the gift in the diesel hydraulics technology lab at NMCC before members of the freshman class enrolled in the associate degree program.
“Throughout our 103-year history, Dead River Co. has always kept our customers, neighbors and communities top of mind,” said Moore. “We proudly support Maine’s high-quality educational opportunities in the community college system. Given our experience in working with graduates of these programs, as well as the budget challenges faced by community colleges, we are confident that our donation of these trucks will enhance the hands-on training for students here at NMCC, Eastern Maine Community College and Washington County Community College.
“Dead River Co. employs over 1,000 people in Maine and northern New England, and we rely to a great extent on the talented and capable graduates from NMCC and the other community colleges in the state,” Moore said. “We have made a promise, and we renew our promise every year, to be involved and to contribute to the communities in which we do business, which our employees and their families live, and I hope that this will be at least a beginning down payment on our effort to stay involved with helping thousands of people in Maine communities.”
The three diesel trucks, all Navistar International 9200 series models, represent the initial gift from Dead River Co. Altogether the value of the 11 trucks will total approximately $100,000.
“The gift announcement by Dead River Co. to The Foundation for Maine’s Community Colleges, and in turn to our campus, is significant because it underscores the high level of support and appreciation for the work of our college and that of our sister colleges across the state,” said NMCC President Timothy Crowley. “We are most grateful to Dead River Co. for recognizing what we do and acknowledging the importance of our efforts toward the betterment of the economy of our region and state.
“If we were to rely on the dollars that we get from the state, we could run a community college. We could do that; we could be an ordinary community college,” he said. “But to be extraordinary, we really need to have the support of the business community and I feel that we have that. We’re blessed to be able to have this opportunity to work with Dead River Co. to help our students, our institution and our county get stronger.”
The trucks will be put to immediate use at all three community colleges. NMCC diesel hydraulics instructor Robert Rice said the gift will help students gain real-world experience on technology they will experience at work sites across Maine.
“Instead of working on a demonstration model set on a bench, students will actually get the experience of working on a diesel truck like ones they will see in the workplace after graduation as a result of this generous gift,” said Rice. “They will better understand how you work to remove differentials and transmission components from the truck chassis, which industry professionals consistently cite as an important skill for new technicians to learn. The trucks will also serve as a trainer in the preventative maintenance for inspection, and in the brakes module for diagnostics in anti-lock brake systems.
“This donation is greatly appreciated and is going to be very beneficial to our students. This vehicle is going to be a very critical, hands-on component of the competency skills that the students will need to learn,” he said. “After the students get through listening to me in the morning, they’ll be able to go into the lab in the afternoon and have something very real to work on. A rolling chassis is a lot better than a training unit you have sitting on a bench. The real world is here on the tires.”
Senior diesel hydraulics student Philip Willey of Caribou said the gift will help him learn skills that will directly translate to his career.
“Right now I do lawn care with my brother out of Caribou. We work anywhere from Ashland to Fort Kent, and I took this diesel program to hopefully expand our company and maybe some day expand into the construction side of things,” he said. “By having this truck that Dead River donated, I’ll be able to become proficient on the various systems in the vehicle so that one day when I get a vehicle of my own — or we get a vehicle as a company — we can fix it ourselves and save the cost of going to a shop and having it done that way.”
In addition to the diesel hydraulics technology program at NMCC, the Dead River Co. donation will benefit the commercial driving academy delivered through the Presque Isle college’s continuing education division. The state licensed program has trained hundreds of men and women to become professional drivers. The course runs eight weeks and is in such demand that NMCC offers it several times each year.
The Dead River Co. gift announcement is one of the latest made to the Campaign for Maine’s Community Colleges, which was launched in 2010 to raise a minimum of $10 million to support the continued growth of the state’s seven community colleges.
Joining in the announcement were Elizabeth Shorr, president of The Foundation for Maine’s Community Colleges; Brian Hamel, chair of the NMCC Foundation board of directors; and Devon Watson, diesel hydraulics student of Clinton.
