December 2017

Once again, UMPI held its “Deck the Halls” door decorating contest with 15 offices doing an entry. This is a fun event and there is a lot of creativity involved in the decorating! The winners were: individual – College of Education Classroom; group winner – Student Financial Services; and overall winner (for the 2^nd year in a row!) was the Registrar’s Office. Congratulations, everyone!

Congratulations to November student of the month Joshua Williams, a senior majoring in Business Administration, Management and Leadership concentration, and a minor in Accounting, from Presque Isle. Williams is a member of Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society, Student Government, Business Club, and treasurer of the College Republicans. He is also a tutor and a DJ for WUPI. He was instrumental in raising donations for Texas flood victims and he collects food for local pantries. He works for Facilities and is a very proud father to his daughter, all while maintaining a high GPA! Congratulations again, Josh!

On Friday, Nov. 10, the Houlton Higher Education Center held a World War I Remembrance event in honor of the war’s centennial recognition. Community members, students, and staff turned out to hear presentations by both Command Historian, 1LT Jonathan Bratten, U.S. Army Maine National Guard, and UMPI graduate, Michael Dobbs, U.S. Army Retired.

This was followed by a viewing of the Smithsonian Channel’s documentary, Americans Underground: Secret Cities of WWI, presented in partnership with AARP and the Smithsonian.

The Maine Military & Community Network – Aroostook and the Vet Center also supported the event.

The St. Apollonia Dental Clinic held its annual Festival of Trees at NMCC during the first weekend in December and, once again, it was a very successful event! Over 140,000 tickets were sold for this event, taking in around $70,000. The winner of UMPI’s tree this year was UMPI alumnus Ashley Brewer. In a note to the UMPI Festival of Trees team, Brewer said, “I just wanted to say thank you for the generous donation of the tree and gifts that I won at the tree festival this year. It was such a wonderful surprise and was really an amazing gift with all of the goodies that you provided. It’s so nice to have generous donors like you that make this event Awesome! I am so glad I won the tree as I am an alumni!”

Congratulations, Ashley, and may you wear your new Owl gear proudly!

UMPI’s Annual Employee Holiday Luncheon was held on Dec. 7. As they have for many years, employees placed gifts for foster children under the Giving Tree. Following a buffet lunch provided by Sodexo, a variety of donated items went up for auction, with a number of hotly contested items, like the rolling pins that Al Levesque made and, interestingly enough, some chocolates, lottery tickets and a tiny crown that went for over $200. The proceeds from this annual auction support the Wards of the State, and the Maine Department of Health and Human Services uses the funds raised to buy gifts for the children. This year’s auction and donations raised $2,014.00.

Once again, UMPI held its Ugly Sweater Contest during the Annual Employee Holiday Luncheon and, although there was very stiff competition from President Rice in his awesome suit, the winners this year were Barb Blackstone and Mary Kate Barbosa in their Naughty and Nice sweater. Congratulations, ladies!

The Nan Amodeo Staff Award was presented at the Annual Employee Holiday Luncheon on Dec. 7. Established by Professor Emerita of English Nan Amodeo, who taught at UMPI from 1967 to 1998, the annual award recognizes an UMPI staff member for his or her outstanding service to the University. In particular, the award recognizes hourly employees, whom Amodeo felt were too often “unpraised members” of the UMPI community. She felt that their dedication deserved appropriate recognition. Nominees must have 5 or more years of service to the institution and be nominated by a peer or other member of the UMPI community. There were 13 nominees and this year’s award was presented to Donna White who works in Facilities. Congratulations, Donna!

University Credit Union has a new UMPI Campus Branch Manager. Members of the UMPI campus are invited to please welcome Jenn Deschene, who started her new role this month. Deschene has deep roots in the credit union movement, and was most recently employed at The County Federal Credit Union. She is originally from Caribou, and currently resides right here in Presque Isle with her husband Clint and their two children, Reagen and Duke. While many on campus may already know Deschene, if you haven’t met her yet, feel free to stop by her office in the Campus Center to say hello!

A group from UMPI hosted a Game Night at the Veterans Home in Caribou in November. According to Luke Cameron, UMPI’s AmeriCorps VISTA Volunteer, Bingo, Checkers, and Go-Fish were played, and a good time was had by all. Volunteers included Brianna Meng, Emily Legeyt, Jasmine Pelletier, Evan Zarkadas, Chris Cote, Scott Clevinger, Jon-Paul Rodriguez, Margarat Yeager, Charlie Yeager, and Max Bushman.