{"id":6158,"date":"2019-12-11T09:51:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-11T14:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/?p=6158"},"modified":"2025-08-13T19:39:02","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T23:39:02","slug":"holiday-celebrations-and-thanks-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/2019\/12\/11\/holiday-celebrations-and-thanks-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Holiday Celebrations and Thanks"},"content":{"rendered":"

My strongest memories of the holiday season are ones of family and traditions.\u00a0 My brother and I looked forward to Christmas Eve service, held in a gigantic Cathedral-like Congregationalist church built of brick and stone with a steeple more like a Gothic tower than a New England spire, as much for the fact that it signaled presents would soon be opened as it was the one time a year we could hold a lit candle and not get in trouble.\u00a0 Years later, when I attended that same service, this time as an adult with my own family, it was almost as if I were returned to childhood, to our son Zachary\u2019s age, only with a forward-looking memory leap-frogging through time, past high school and college and my first teaching jobs and marriage and a family of my own in which I now became my own parent, nervously allowing Zach to hold and light a candle against the darkness of that great, vaulted ceiling.<\/p>\n

Holidays, whether they be defined by Christmas or Ramadan or Chanukah or the Solstice, are shaped by traditions of thankfulness for bounty received as well as the hope for renewal and future comfort and safekeeping.\u00a0 They are touchstones for who we are while also providing visions of who we might be.<\/p>\n

And looking back over the past year, we have much to be thankful for as a university.\u00a0 New faculty and staff, all of whom are contributing to great academic and co-curricular opportunities.\u00a0 New programs such as Cybersecurity, to be followed next year by Computer Science and Healthcare Administration.\u00a0 The amazing generosity of donors and supporters, who made possible the construction and opening of the Zillman Family Greenhouse, which is already seeing the fruits of student research after only a few short months in operation.\u00a0 \u00a0And, more than anything, UMPI\u2019s students, new and returning, from around the state of Maine, as well as around the country and around the world, who give this institution its purpose and inspiration.<\/p>\n

One of my favorite of all UMPI traditions is our participation in the Light Parade\u2014even when it\u2019s colder here than at the North Pole (!).\u00a0 We\u2019ve had creative and inspirational floats over the years, from elaborate winged owls, to Grinches and sleighs drawn by long-suffering Maxes, but one of my absolute favorites was last night\u2019s (Dec. 7) with Hootie\u2019s Music Box and a group of remarkable students and faculty and staff\u2014and distinguished retired UMPI registrars!\u2014even including youthful Owlettes on the float among all the lights and presents (Zooey and Naomi!).\u00a0 My great thanks, once again, to the UMPI Art Club, Studio 923, members who provided the vision and dedication to make the Music Box a reality (and Al Levesque, without whose carpentry skills it wouldn\u2019t be possible)!\u00a0 The Softball, Baseball and Ski teams showed up en masse and synchronized-danced along the entire parade route to everything from the Macarena, to All I Want for Christmas Is You, YMCA, and Rockin\u2019 Around the Christmas Tree.\u00a0 From Presque Isle to California, from Madawaska to Arizona and from Florida to Shawano, Wis., I can think of no more iconic representation of what all of you mean to UMPI and what UMPI means to our greater community.\u00a0 You can find a video of the UMPI float and all of our students and participants being introduced on Main Street by Shawn Cunningham of WAGM on Facebook at the \u201cUMPI Softball\u201d page.\u00a0 But here is a photograph, just prior to the start of the parade, of the team, including a towering Hootie!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Light Parade, 2019.<\/p><\/div>\n

I hope this holiday season affords you some time to reflect upon and rejoice with your families, friends and your traditions, both new and old.\u00a0 \u00a0Thank you, everyone<\/strong>, for your commitment to the University of Maine at Presque Isle\u2014for this truly is your<\/strong> university. I look forward to seeing you all again in the new year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My strongest memories of the holiday season are ones of family and traditions.\u00a0 My brother and I looked forward to Christmas Eve service, held in a gigantic Cathedral-like Congregationalist church built of brick and stone with a steeple more like a Gothic tower than a New England spire, as much for the fact that it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":218,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7381],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/218"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6158"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8388,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6158\/revisions\/8388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}