Black Bear Encounters

March 2025

Each year in March, I have the opportunity to travel to Florida for several alumni events over the course of a week there as part of our annual Black Bear Road Trip. Did you know that over 4,200 UMaine alums live in Florida? There are Black Bears everywhere in the Sunshine State! We made stops at The Villages for a polo match, in Fort Myers for a Red Sox spring training game and pregame barbecue (over 250 Black Bears in attendance there!), and in Palm Coast for an informal meet-up at a restaurant. Our annual Red Sox spring training event represents our largest annual off-campus event anywhere in the world! It’s such an honor and joy to bring Maine alumni back together to reconnect and update them on the many great things happening with their alma mater today. I’m already looking forward to next year! In the photo, I reconnected with Larry Schiner ’61, ‘62G and his wife Barbara ‘61H at our Palm Coast, FL event. Larry and Barbara drove down from their home in South Carolina to attend! I look forward to seeing them again in a few weeks at the annual UMaine Alumni of the Lowcountry “Lobster Maine-ia” cookout in Summerville, SC on April 5.

 

Again this year, the UMaine Alumni Association was pleased to help sponsor the annual Scholar-Athlete Recognition Ceremony held at Wells Conference Center on March 3. This ceremony recognizes student-athletes who maintained a GPA of 3.0 or higher over the prior two semesters. At this ceremony, 392 current UMaine student-athletes were recognized for achieving this level of academic success, which represents 84% of all student-athletes on campus! The Alumni Association congratulates all student-athletes on this recognition! The photo shows two student-athletes who were recognized at this event with the M Club Dean Smith Award, presented annually to the top male and female student-athletes. The 2025 recipients are field hockey player Poppy Lambert and men’s ice hockey player David Breazeale.

 

 

In recent weeks, it has been my pleasure to conduct a number of video interviews in preparation for our annual Alumni Achievement Awards dinner scheduled for May 2 at Wells Conference Center. While I knew that we have an impressive set of honorees again this year, hearing their impact firsthand is truly remarkable. I hope you can make plans to join us in Orono to honor this amazing group of alumni, faculty, and friends of UMaine. Registration info can be found online here.

 

We love hearing about your Black Bear Encounters as well, so please keep us posted!  

 

Go Blue!

    

Tom Peaco ’88

President & CEO