Steve Boulet and the rest of the management team at WahlcoMetroflex were so bowled over by the response to the employee gas gift cards they gave over the Fourth, that they did it again for this holiday weekend.

Boulet and his team handed out $100 gas gift cards to about 150 employees Thursday. The company makes industrial pollution control devices.

“We’re calling it our last hurrah of summer,” Boulet said. “We’re very fortunate to have so much work, and this is a big thank-you to our employees who’ve worked so hard.”

The company did the same thing in early July after gas prices climbed to $4 a gallon and people began canceling vacation plans left and right. Boulet said the gift cards made the difference to several employees, who resumed travel plans with the bonus.

What surprised him, though, was the response by the public to WahlcoMetroflex’s gesture.

“It was unbelievable,” Boulet said, noting that Fox News radio and other media picked up the story that appeared in the Sun Journal. Calls started coming in from businesses across the country inquiring about the program. One WahlcoMetroflex manager was having his car serviced at VIP and overhead people talking about it in the waiting room. Then he went to Shaw’s, where people were discussing the gas cards in line and later at a local bank.

Since then, Boulet has noticed several other employee appreciation programs centered on gas cards.

“You know, it just makes me wonder if what we did helped that take off,” he said.

Much like his vacation-bound employees.

– Carol Coultas
‘Cool-to-be-back-in-school’

MECHANIC FALLS – Ten years ago, 11-year-old Ryan Crane wasn’t excited about going back to school.

So his mom threw a “It’s-so-cool-to-be-back-in-school” party. Ryan got to invite his friends, and went off to school a bit more eager.

Ten years later, the neighborhood first-day-of-school celebrations are still going on in Laurie Crane-Turton’s home. Before 7 a.m. her daughter, Emma, and more than a dozen friends and neighborhood kids are at the home enjoying light breakfast foods, getting their pictures taken, and socializing (“Oh, I like your outfit!”) before the bell rings. The big moment comes with the arrival of the bus.

Whether someone’s going into kindergarten or the eighth grade, “it’s a very nervous day,” Crane-Turton said. The party “is a positive send-off.”

For the 10th anniversary of the cool-to-be-back-in school party, Ryan wasn’t there. He’s in the Army, stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas. But Ryan’s neighborhood friend, B.J. Grondin, a sophomore at the University of Maine in Orono, was there along with the younger students.

Grondin is one of the original party-goers, Crane-Turton said. “As hokey as it sounds, you’re never too old for this.”

– Bonnie Washuk
Pet plate

As of Friday, animal welfare advocates had presold approximately 1,500 of the 2,000 pet-adoption license plates they need if the plates have a chance of becoming official next year.

Sales have skyrocketed in recent weeks, with 60 to 80 orders coming in a day. If advocates don’t presell the required 2,000 by the Sept. 1 deadline, they plan to ask the Bureau of Motor Vehicles for an extension.

The plate features colorful silhouettes of a horse, dog, cat, rabbit and bird, with the words “respect, love, adopt” imprinted in a gold-colored strip along the bottom. If advocates can get 2,000 people to buy the plates, the Legislature will consider making them available in Maine next fall. Specialty plates cost more than regular plates, and the extra money would be sent to the state’s Animal Welfare Program to help fund animal abuse investigations and to help pay for Help Fix ME, a low-cost spay/neuter program.

For more information or to preorder the specialty license plate, visit www.planetdog.com/plate or call 761-1515.

– Lindsay Tice