Claim Your Crown Fund Created by Alumni

Claim Your Crown Fund Created by Alumni

Barnardos

 

Nick and Garrett Bernardo (Class of 2014 and 2015, respectively) are co-owners of NOVUS, a clothing company that offers sportswear and apparel to teams and corporations. Garrett is the CEO/Creative Director, Nick is the COO/Director of Sales, and Scott is the CSO/Director of Outside Sales. 

“UMaine was always on my radar due to my parents,” Nick says. “They met their freshman year in Stevens Hall!” The brothers grew up vacationing in Maine from their home in New York. When deciding where to attend college and play baseball, Nick and Garrett already felt like UMaine was a second home. Both brothers were members of the University of Maine men’s baseball team – Nick played first base, and Garrett played infield and outfield.

The brothers also established the UMaine Claim Your Crown Fund at the University of Maine Foundation in 2021. This endowed fund provides financial assistance for purchasing athletic team championship mementos. The first benefactors were the UMaine 2021 America East Field Hockey Champions.

NOVUS has committed to contributing to the Claim Your Crown Fund for the next five years. “As we continue to work hard on growing our business, we’re excited to work along UMaine and their commitment to excellence in both academics and athletics,” Garrett says. Nick adds, “We are a mission-driven company, and giving back to the community and those that helped get us to where we are today is all part of our greater plan. Maine has always held a special place in our hearts.”

If you’d like to contribute to the Claim Your Crown fund, click here.

 

Read  the full story on the Maine Business School news page

 

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None of the information on this website should be considered legal or financial advice. We encourage you to consult with your own legal counsel or financial/tax advisor before deciding whether or not to proceed with a gift or change to your estate plan.

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Rod Sparrow (’71) Pledges $1 Million Gift to Support UMaine Athletics Facilities Master Plan

Rod Sparrow (’71) Pledges $1 Million Gift to Support UMaine Athletics Facilities Master Plan

Rod Sparrow Photo

Orono, Maine – UMaine Athletics has received a gift of $1 million to support the Athletics Facilities Master Plan, part of the University of Maine System Transforms campaign. The generous gift was made by Rod Sparrow (’71) and will support the football program’s capital improvements including new coaches and team offices, meeting rooms, and provide Sparrow with the naming rights to the new office facility.
 
“We couldn’t be more grateful to Rod and the Sparrow family for their significant support of our transformational campaign and the Black Bear football program,” says Senior Associate Athletic Director for Development, Seth Woodcock. “Rod represents all we stand for in UMaine Athletics; he is humble, hardworking, positive and has a team first attitude. Rod’s early gift to our campaign reinforces his value in true leadership and the pride and love he has for his alma mater is palpable to all from the first day you meet him. Simply put, we are lucky to have folks like Rod Sparrow as part of our Black Bear family and we are humbled to have his philanthropic support.” 
 
“On behalf of Black Bear fans everywhere, I want to thank Rod and his family for their support of our student athletes,” added University of Maine President Joan Ferrini-Mundy. “Their generosity will help us bring best-in-class facilities to the University of Maine that will welcome everyone to our state’s flagship campus.”
 
Sparrow, a former UMaine Football student-athlete, graduated from the University of Maine in 1971 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and Marketing. Sparrow is the former President and CEO of Leaktite Corporation, a manufacturing company based out of Leominster, Mass.

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Helen Klocko makes real estate gift

Helen Klocko makes real estate gift

Sandy Blitz
With her children grown, Helen Klocko rarely visited her lakefront property. After considering her options, she chose to donate her property outright to the University of Maine Foundation—a gift that brought her tax and financial benefits and fulfilled her desire to make a difference “in some small way” to nontraditional students at the University of Maine through the Thursday Club Scholarship.  Helen recognized that there are adult learners who are excellent students, willing to work hard to create a bright, more secure future for themselves, their families, and their communities. She knew that nontraditional students face substantial difficulties meeting the requirements of their academic programs while at the same time meeting their other family responsibilities and she wanted to help.

Helen found that it was much easier to give her property directly to the Foundation and have the Foundation deal with realtors and all the hassles of selling. She received an income tax deduction for the full fair market value of the property and owed no capital gains tax on the property’s appreciation. The Foundation then sold the real estate and endowed the net proceeds in the Thursday Club Scholarship.  “It just made sense. But my true reward is the knowledge that my real estate donation is helping students who really need assistance. That means so much to me,” says Helen.

An asset you’ve had for generations can be a gift for generations of needy students to come. Gifts of real estate can frequently save you thousands of dollars in income and capital gains taxes, while providing a substantial benefit to the University of Maine Foundation. We accept many types of real estate from residential and commercial properties to undeveloped land.

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UMaine Foundation Announces $100,000 Maine Day of Giving Gift

UMaine Foundation Announces $100,000 Maine Day of Giving Gift

Joe and Sue Cyr

University of Maine Foundation President Jeffery Mills announced the receipt of a $100,000 gift today to kick off the annual Maine Day of Giving event led by the Foundation. Donors Joe and Sue Cyr of Old Town have provided $50,000 to name a biomedical engineering prep lab in the Ferland Engineering Education and Design Center, $40,000 to support the MaineMBA program and up to $10,000 as a Maine Day of Giving matching challenge to support gifts to the Collins Center for the Arts. 

“Over the course of our lives, we have had the opportunity to observe the countless services, contributions and good deeds made by the University of Maine Foundation to the citizens, students and local community, and Maine as a whole,” said the Cyrs. “We believe these actions should be recognized, rewarded and encouraged.”

Maine Day of Giving was created in 2016. UMaine alumni and friends unite from wherever they happen to be and are invited to support an area they love at the College of Our Hearts Always as their way to participate in the traditional annual UMaine day of service

The annual Maine Day tradition was established in 1935 by University of Maine President Arthur Hauck. He stated that the day would help the campus, through work projects, become a more attractive place, foster the spirit of friendliness and cooperation, identified as the Maine spirit and strengthen loyalty among people and to the University.

“The gift from the Cyrs exemplifies the Maine spirit fostered by President Hauck. Each area receiving support has a large impact on the greater community,” said Mills. “We are very grateful to Joe and Sue for this generous gesture and gifts they have provided previously.”

The engineering center and the MaineMBA program contributions will help UMaine to meet the matching requirements of the recently announced Harold Alfond Foundation grants.

“Support for UMaine engineering and MaineMBA is an investment in the state and its workforce, and aligns with our UMS TRANSFORMS initiative made possible by the Harold Alfond Foundation,” said UMaine President Joan Ferrini-Mundy. “Joe and Sue Cyr are community leaders who have long been partners in helping UMaine advance its mission. We appreciate their vision and are grateful for their ongoing support.”

Interim MaineMBA Dean Faye Gilbert and College of Engineering Dean Dana Humphrey agree that gifts like these are critical to moving their programs forward and attaining the matching requirements of the Harold Alfond Foundation grants. They acknowledge that projects of this magnitude rely on the generosity of UMaine alumni and friends like the Cyrs. 

The Collins Center for the Arts will use the funds to encourage others to support the center by matching their Maine Day of Giving donations with the Cyr gift. CCA has been closed to public performances for over a year, and has been functioning as a classroom and COVID testing facility to support the campus community during the pandemic. 

Collins Center for the Arts Executive Director Danny Williams was very pleased to receive the Maine Day of Giving opportunity, “We are so very grateful to Joe and Sue for their generosity. Like the CCA itself, they have always been about community support and engagement. A gift of this magnitude is always something to be celebrated, but given the additional challenges the performing arts community has faced this past year, we are even more grateful for their generosity and support,” he said.

In 2020, the Maine Day of Giving effort was pivoted to fundraise for the Student Crisis Fund. Over $271,000 was raised to help students in need as a result of the pandemic. With this gift, the 2021 Maine Day of Giving is off to a great start to help raise money to support all areas across campus.

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William and Harriet Currie: Providing for UMaine’s Future

William and Harriet Currie: Providing for UMaine’s Future

William D. Currie, fondly known as Bill, was always full of hope for the future. Bill also planned for the future of a place that was near and dear to his heart: Buchanan Alumni House. In 2013 in his role as Co-President of the Class of 1952 Bill facilitated the creation of the Class of 1952 Buchanan Alumni House Fund, a permanently endowed fund at the University of Maine Foundation that provides financial assistance for the operation and maintenance of the Robert D. Buchanan Alumni House facility.

Bill and his wife, Harriett, spent a lot of time at the place he considered the home of Black Bear alumni. They enjoyed attending Reunions, Class of 1952 meetings, and visiting their friends at the University of Maine Foundation and Alumni Association, both of which are fortunate to have Buchanan Alumni House as their home.

During Bill’s lifetime, he and Harriett consistently donated to the Class of 1952 Buchanan Alumni House Fund. In Black Bear spirit, he asked many of his classmates to do the same. Bill wanted his legacy of exemplary leadership and extensive service to the University of Maine as a proud alumnus to live in perpetuity, so he decided to name the University of Maine Foundation as a beneficiary of an employer-sponsored life insurance policy to benefit the Class of 1952 Buchanan Alumni House Fund.

Bill’s remarkable leadership and service as a Black Bear alumnus were recognized with several alumni achievement awards, including the Block “M” Award (1997), Black Bear Award (2002), Golden “M” Award (2002), and the Pine Tree Emblem Alumni Service Award (2011). Bill was grateful for his UMaine undergraduate experience, which he believed gave him a strong foundation for his success in life – both professionally and personally. Bill was also fortunate to meet his classmate Harriett, and the Bear Pair built a wonderful life together. Sadly, Bill and Harriett both passed away in 2020. They will be missed dearly by all who were fortunate to be part of their Black Bear family.

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Helping Students to Afford to Attend UMaine

Helping Students to Afford to Attend UMaine

Why would a couple from Berkley, California who did not attend the University of Maine create a $3.4 million scholarship for Maine’s neediest students?

Durant Sheffield and his eight sisters all attended school in Thomaston, Maine. Their mother, Wilma T. Sheffield, was a homemaker and their father, Henry F. Sheffield, worked at the cement plant. When Durant graduated from Thomaston High School at the age of 17, attending the University of Maine was not an option for him. He joined the U.S. Army and when his enlistment ended, he attended the University of Connecticut with the help of the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, the G.I. Bill.

With an electrical engineering degree, he spent his entire professional career with General Electric as a Project Engineer working all over the world on energy generating projects. He met his wife, Fumiko, in New Mexico and they settled in California.

He always regretted that he had not been able to attend UMaine right out of high school.

As Durant and Fumiko began their retirement, they and their advisor turned to the University of Maine Foundation for help with their one and only charitable goal – helping Maine students who could not afford to attend UMaine. Because he was so grateful for the difference that the G.I. Bill made in his life, Durant wanted to replicate that impact by creating an endowment that would someday provide full scholarships for Maine’s neediest students.

Durant and Fumiko created a charitable remainder annuity trust in 2004 that provided a steady income to them for their lifetimes, with the remainder to be endowed to provide as many full scholarships to UMaine as possible in perpetuity. At the same time, they included the University of Maine Foundation in their wills to further augment their endowed scholarship fund.

Durant believed that the best engineers never hesitate to say, “I don’t know.” He appreciated the University of Maine Foundation’s role in working with their attorney to assure a generous life income and the ultimate establishment of the scholarship he had been hoping to create throughout his career. Sadly, Durant and Fumiko passed away in 2018. Because of their generosity, fewer students will have to face an inability to attend UMaine because of finances. Durant and Fumiko’s legacy of helping Maine students will forever be an incredible testament to their success and to their love for the state of Maine.

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