June 2025
Greetings, Black Bears!
I have so many great opportunities to engage with fellow UMaine alums in my travels for the
Alumni Association. The past month has been full of wonderful people, and I’m pleased to
share a few with you here.
My wife Michelle ’92 and I had the privilege of joining the most recent trip in our UMaine
Alumni Travel program. We spent 9 magical days touring Portugal with our group of 20 Black
Bear alumni and friends (16 alums, 4 guests). Portugal was amazing, from Lisbon to the Algarve
region on the south coast, to the small mountain communities. If you’ve been considering
joining us on a future UMaine Alumni Travel trip, I can tell you that my firsthand experience
with our UMaine Alumni travel partner, Collette Travel, was simply amazing. Every detail was
covered, from travel to and from the airport, to the flights, meals, and experiences they
planned, to the skilled and knowledgeable tour guides – traveling with Collette Travel was a
first-class experience. And, we traveled together with old and new friends who all shared a
common bond of our time in Orono! I would encourage you to check out our lineup of future
UMaine Alumni travel trips here.
As we continue our year-long celebration of the 150th anniversary of the UMaine Alumni
Association this year, it was my honor and pleasure to join with several members of our board
and other proud alums in Augusta to receive an official sentiment from the Maine State
Legislature honoring this anniversary. It was especially inspiring to touch base with so many
Black Bears in leadership positions in our state that day, and to hear from each of them about
how the University of Maine shaped their lives in such positive ways. We are grateful to Rep.
Jim Dill ’72, ’74G for being such a kind host to our group and for sponsoring this legislative
sentiment. We also enjoyed hearing from several alumni legislators about their experiences
and their commitment to UMaine today, including Rep. Ed Crockett ’83, Rep. Ambureen Rana
’16, Rep. Tavis Hasenfus ’10, Sen. Stacey Guerin ’81, Sen. Joe Baldacci ’87, and Sen. Trey
Stewart ’16, ’18G. Thank you all for your warm Black Bear welcome to us in Augusta!
I look forward to sharing more encounters with fellow Black Bears in the months to come.
Go Blue!
Tom Peaco ’88
President & CEO