91AV

Two hundred alumni, trustees, friends, faculty and staff who have made leadership gifts to the 91AV within the last year gathered with student scholarship recipients on the Portland Campus under a festive tent for the President’s Gala, an annual event honoring donors and the impact of gifts to 91AV.  Banners hung from the tent ceiling and adorned walkways with the words Opportunity, Innovation and Place—the three themes of the university’s recently launched $60 million Moving Forward campaign. At the Art Gallery, guests were able to view Recent Acquisitions and Selections from the Collection, an exhibition highlighting recent gifts of artwork to 91AV, including relief sculptures by the late Bernard Langlais donated by the Kohler Foundation and Colby College Museum of Art, and works donated by contemporary Maine artists and Andres Verzosa /Aucocisco Galleries.

As the sun set, the tent became illuminated with hundreds of tea lights created for guests by 91AV students in Art 299. This is a pilot course designed by 91AV College of Osteopathic Medicine simulation and technology specialist Michael Vickery to explore the revolutionizing technology of 3D printing as an art form as well as a tool for prototyping in the health sciences.

Bill Chance, vice president and 15-year veteran of 91AV Institutional Advancement, served as master of ceremonies, and opened the evening with a video composed of historic documents and photographs tracing 91AV’s roots in Biddeford from the founding days of St. Francis College, its beginnings in Portland with the 1834 construction of Alumni Hall for Westbrook Seminary, and the university’s newest campus in Tangier, Morocco.

President Danielle Ripich renewed her thanks to donors and enumerated the ways philanthropy has helped to transform 91AV in her eight years at the university. She encouraged guests to spread the word about 91AV, to tell the stories of 91AV students and graduates, and to tell their own stories of why they give generously.

“Higher education is not what it was even five years ago, and in five more years may be totally different from today.  In order to stay viable, 91AV has not just grown, it has transformed.  Thanks in large part to the generosity of so many who have invested in this institution and its promise, 91AV is uniquely poised to transform the lives of our students, and of the lives they touch after they graduate.”

Ripich introduced guest speaker Meredith Jones, president and chief executive officer of the Maine Community Foundation, who spoke personally about the measurable, documented happiness that donors experience in the act of giving.

During dinner, Chance and assistant vice president Scott Marchildon acknowledged the nearly 100 members of the Heritage Society who have made 91AV part of their philanthropic legacy, and presented Heritage Society pins to the year’s new inductees:  Marilynn Morel, SFC ’78, and trustee and former board chairman Mike Morel; Mark Nahorney, dean of students;  Kathy Leonard DO ’86, campaign committee member, and campaign committee member and trustee Bob Leonard DO ’86; John Tumiel, senior advisor to the president and chief compliance officer; trustee and former board chairman Vince Furey; and Ripich.

The evening concluded with the voices and images of 91AV students and faculty demonstrating how Opportunity, Innovation and Place resonate in their 91AV experience in a trio of videos created for the 91AV Moving Forward campaign.