PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — The new Pine Street Elementary School library will be considerably fuller thanks to the owners of a local restaurant and an outpouring of customers who visited their recent grand opening.
Heidi and Daryl Abbotoni, owners of five McDonald’s locations, including the new Presque Isle site, honored their commitment to rebuilding the Pine Street library on Sept. 27 during a visit to the school.
The Abbotonis had committed to giving 10 percent of the sales from the two-day grand opening of the newly constructed Presque Isle restaurant to the school library. They were sure their donation would be between $1,000 and $1,500; however, over 9,000 customers later, the donation came to about three times what they had anticipated.
Since the restaurant took in slightly over $41,000 during its first two days back in business, the total to be given to the new library came to $4,100.
The Abbotonis and members of their staff stopped by the school Sept. 27 to present the funds.
Loretta Clark, Pine Street principal, expressed happiness on behalf of the entire school for the gift, which will help the library obtain new books and shelves, along with other resources.
The students and teachers were happy with the prospect of having a fully functioning library in the school, which has been missed for some time. The Abbotonis and the McDonald’s team were equally as happy that customers made this donation possible.
