Hard to believe another year has passed. I hope it was a wonderful one for all.
It was so great to receive some historical news from Alison J. Buck about the first years of the Women’s Ski Club, which was established in 1971 with the help of Brud Folger ’79G, the mens ski team coach. With a tiny budget, the women went on to win the state meet each year, 1971 through 1974. In ’74 they also finished second at the Division II New England championships. The club was finally recognized as a team in 1974.
History is being saved due to the work of Steven Bull and Megan MacGregor, who worked to find and archive history of the 1973 founding of the Wilde Stein Club, Maine’s first major LGBTQ+ organization. An effort is ongoing to find and preserve queer history. A few activists, including Steven and librarians at the Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity’s LGBTQ+ archives at USM, are collecting memorabilia, photos, and newspaper clippings linked to the Wilde Stein Club. A 50th anniversary Maine Gay Symposium was organized in Orono and Portland last fall. For more information on this work, please consult the July 17, 2023, article in the Bangor Daily News.
After farming potatoes for 17 years in Hodgdon, ME, Veronica and Richard Sloat have been making wine and opened Hidden Springs Winery in 2014. They now create and market 20 different varieties using local berries, grapes, and dandelions. They have been awarded five medals for their wines and a Best Maine Wine at the Eastern States Exposition. Hidden Springs Winery has a restaurant open on weekends where they also do all the cooking. An event center that will hold 150 was recently completed. Wines can be purchased by mail, in local shops, and at the winery.
After retiring from White Rock Distilleries, Paul Coulombe advocated to preserve the Cuckolds Lighthouse and the Boothbay Harbor Country Club Golf Course. His goal was to help make the Boothbay area more economically viable and create more employment opportunities. This past March, he was awarded the 2023 Governor’s Award for Tourism Excellence from the Maine Office of Tourism for his achievements.
Please send any news you would like to see included to the Alumni Association or to me directly.