{"id":6712,"date":"2021-05-04T09:48:18","date_gmt":"2021-05-04T13:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/?p=6712"},"modified":"2025-07-09T13:34:02","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T17:34:02","slug":"celebrating-mothers-in-the-umpi-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/2021\/05\/04\/celebrating-mothers-in-the-umpi-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Mothers in the UMPI Community"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As Mother\u2019s Day quickly approaches, it is a great time to appreciate the mothers and special women in our lives. At the University of Maine at Presque Isle, there are many brilliant and loving mothers and mother-figures involved with the institution. There are lots of students, staff and faculty members on campus who are mothers and who deserve some recognition this year. Mother\u2019s Day is on May 9 and it is a perfect opportunity to show every mother-figure in your life that you love and appreciate them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0With many states starting to ease COVID-19 restrictions, families are starting to plan some Mother\u2019s Day festivities. While people look forward to this year\u2019s Mother\u2019s Day, they are still reflecting on 2020 and everything that the year took away from them. Many families spent Mother\u2019s Day away from one another. Some families could not see their mothers in person during 2020, so this year\u2019s holiday is something to be very appreciative of.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Rachel Rice is the director of UMPI\u2019s marketing and communications department.\u00a0 She is also the wife of UMPI President Ray Rice. Mother\u2019s Day is a very special holiday for her family, especially her daughter, Naomi, and son, Zach. The Rice family usually spends Mother\u2019s Day relaxing and enjoying quality time together. They eat breakfast together and if the weather is nice, they will spend some of the day outside.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_6713\" style=\"width: 850px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/2021\/05\/04\/celebrating-mothers-in-the-umpi-community\/ray-and-rachel-rice-with-their-children-zach-and-naomi\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-6713\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6713\" class=\"size-large wp-image-6713\" src=\"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2021\/05\/Ray-and-Rachel-Rice-with-their-children-Zach-and-Naomi.--1024x769.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"840\" height=\"631\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2021\/05\/Ray-and-Rachel-Rice-with-their-children-Zach-and-Naomi.--1024x769.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2021\/05\/Ray-and-Rachel-Rice-with-their-children-Zach-and-Naomi.--300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2021\/05\/Ray-and-Rachel-Rice-with-their-children-Zach-and-Naomi.--768x577.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2021\/05\/Ray-and-Rachel-Rice-with-their-children-Zach-and-Naomi.--1536x1154.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2021\/05\/Ray-and-Rachel-Rice-with-their-children-Zach-and-Naomi.--2048x1539.jpeg 2048w, https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2021\/05\/Ray-and-Rachel-Rice-with-their-children-Zach-and-Naomi.--1200x902.jpeg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 840px) 100vw, 840px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-6713\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ray and Rachel Rice with their children, Zach and Naomi.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cNaomi and Zach are 12 years apart, so we\u2019ve always joked that we\u2019re the parents of two only children. While they are two very different kids, my favorite part of parenting with both of them are those moments that catch you off guard,\u201d Rachel said. \u201cWhen you realize how funny or smart or kind this little human being is becoming.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The first person you see when you walk into the UMPI Admissions Office is Nancy Nichols, who works at the front desk. Although she is not a biological mother, many people in the UMPI community look up to her as a kind, motherly figure. Nancy brings energy, enthusiasm and kindness every day when she comes to work. Despite not being a biological mother, she is and has been a mother to many on UMPI\u2019s campus.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve always been someone who would \u2018take care\u2019 of others.\u00a0That\u2019s who I am and I am doing the same working in the admissions office.\u00a0I \u2018take care\u2019 of visitors who come on campus. I want their visit to be memorable and fun,\u201d Nancy said. \u201cThere is satisfaction in knowing that their visit on campus was an enjoyable experience.\u00a0I want them to walk away with a positive experience.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Michelle Mishaan is an art professor at UMPI who has a young son. She usually spends the holiday with her family, but this year she will be driving to Ohio to spend it with her mother and two brothers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cI usually spend Mother\u2019s Day with my husband and my son. I do not have any immediate family in Maine. My favorite part of being a mother is watching my son grow and learn each day. I get to experience his joy of learning new things,\u201d Michelle said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Rachel, Nancy and Michelle are just a few more reminders of the amazing people working for UMPI. Take the time this Mother\u2019s Day to send some love to every mother-figure in your life. If you are a part of the UMPI community, then you have many wonderful women to choose from. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As Mother\u2019s Day quickly approaches, it is a great time to appreciate the mothers and special women in our lives. At the University of Maine at Presque Isle, there are many brilliant and loving mothers and mother-figures involved with the institution. There are lots of students, staff and faculty members on campus who are mothers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"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-6712","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\/6712","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\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6712"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8249,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6712\/revisions\/8249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}