Supporters of UNE celebrated at annual President's Gala

On May 14, 2015, over 200 alumni, trustees, friends, faculty and staff who made leadership or legacy gifts to the University of New England were celebrated and honored at the annual President’s Gala on the Biddeford Campus. 

The menu for the evening was designed with an intentional focus on sustainably harvested and grown seafood, along with other products from Maine and New England, including smoked steelhead trout that was raised in UNE’s Marine Science Center by students and faculty as part of a sustainable aquaculture research project. Barton Seaver, the director of the Healthy and Sustainable Food Program at the Harvard School of Public Health, author, and award winning chef and restauranteur, both designed the menu and also served as guest executive chef. 

Prior to dinner, Bill Chance, vice president of Institutional Advancement, introduced a video produced by UNE's Office of Communications, which shared the stories of three gifts and their impact on UNE and the UNE Moving Forward Campaign. Trustee Sandi Goolden’s gift to support UNE’s first Entrepreneurship Contest, Art and Fran Girard’s donation of Ram Island in the Saco River, and the gift of an endowed scholarship from Eleanor ’49 and Dick Morrell HA’96 all highlighted the Innovation, Place, and Opportunity initiatives of the Campaign.

President Danielle Ripich thanked the guests for their generous support of UNE and the Campaign and described several highlights and markers of excellence the University had earned during the past year, including UNE ranking first among Maine schools in the Brookings Institute’s report of colleges and universities that increase students’ career earnings. President Ripich also remembered several members of the UNE family who had passed away during the year and dedicated the event to Wilma Parker Redman ’41, HON’92, ’02.

In introducing guest speaker David Shaw, founder of IDEXX Laboratories and founding chair of the Sargasso Sea Alliance, President Ripich described the advances of the Marine Science programs. Shaw described the importance of conserving the habitats of the deep sea waters and praised UNE’s expanding marine science, research and entrepreneurship programs.

President Ripich closed the evening by introducing the several undergraduate and graduate students in attendance, “After all, we are all here for the students,” she remarked.