Events

The staff at the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s health and wellness facility are celebrating a Week of Wellness between Sept. 10 and 15, providing campus and community members of all ages with fun and free activities focused on healthy living. Gentile Hall is hosting its Week of Wellness in conjunction with UMPI’s Homecoming 2012 Weekend. The event is sponsored in part by Cary Medical Center.

A University of Maine at Presque Isle program that serves local residents over 50 and believes in “learning for life” will host its fall kick-off event at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 14 in the Campus Center.

Seniors Achieving Greater Education [SAGE] celebrates 15 years of bringing short courses in arts, sciences, and specialty areas to the region’s senior community. SAGE is one of 19 senior colleges in the Maine Senior College Network, and one of two senior colleges north of Bangor.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Reed Fine Art Gallery will present Bardo: An Exhibition of Recent Paintings by Adriano Farinella from Aug. 27 through Oct. 6, 2012. The exhibition debuts Farinella’s recent body of work to the Maine art community. The public is invited to view the exhibition throughout the show’s run and join the artist for a closing reception on Oct. 5 from 5-7 p.m. The reception is being held in conjunction with the Presque Isle First Friday Art Walk.

UMPI is proud to announce its support for the second feature film by award-winning filmmakers, Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly (The Way We Get By). Gaudet and Pullapilly will kick off their casting calls for Blue Potato in Aroostook County at the following locations:

The American Red Cross and the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Residence Life Office are teaming up to pull off the University’s fifth “Super Blood Drive” this summer, the time of year when the need for blood increases.

The Super Blood Drive will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Monday, June 25 in the Gentile Hall Gymnasium. The event is being sponsored by the University, UMPI’s Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society and Pizza Hut, and cosponsored by Pat’s Pizza, Big Cheese Pizza, Country Farm’s Market, and Wal-Mart.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle will host a Thunderstorm Safety/Spotter Workshop with WAGM Meteorologist Ted Shapiro on Friday, June 22 from 7:30 to 8:45 p.m. in the Campus Center. Campus and community members of all ages are invited to attend this free event.

“The workshop will serve as an excellent primer for campus and community members as we continue through the thunderstorm season,” Shapiro said. “I’ll be sharing some important weather-watching skills everyone should know to help them identify impending thunderstorms so they can properly prepare for them. I’ll also teach folks about clues they can look for in the morning, hours before thunderstorms may even occur!”

Riverside Park in Downtown Presque Isle will once again be filled with music on Sunday afternoons this summer as the City of Presque Isle and the University of Maine at Presque Isle host the Fifth Annual “Music in the Park” Summer Concert Series.

This year’s music series will feature one show per month throughout the summer, kicking off on Sunday, June 10, and continuing with concerts on July 8, and Aug. 12, 2012.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle S.E.A.M. [Student Education Association of Maine] members provided the afterschool program in Washburn with a special treat this spring – they hosted a Read Across America event that had children “traveling” all over the United States.

With the help of UMPI’s S.E.A.M. members and their imaginations, children were able to tour a bat cave in New Mexico, explore seashells in Florida, dig up fossils in Montana, and lay on a beach in Hawaii and learn a little about the Hawaiian language. Children were broken into groups and each was given a suitcase and a destination.

Two hundred and thirty-eight students graduated from the University of Maine at Presque Isle on Saturday, May 12, during the 2012 Commencement Exercises – the University’s 103rd Commencement ceremony. President Donald Zillman conferred degrees for the 2011-2012 academic year upon 161 students who participated in the ceremony held in Wieden Gymnasium.

President Don Zillman has announced that Laurie Lachance, President and CEO of the Maine Development Foundation, will deliver the commencement address during the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s 103rd Commencement Ceremony, to be held on Saturday, May 12. During the event, an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree will be presented to Lachance.