By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
AROOSTOOK COUNTY — Forty-two business and community leaders will depart Bangor this morning for a three-day trip through Aroostook County orchestrated through Leadership Maine, a program of the Maine Development Foundation.
“The focus of the tour is to understand more fully how Aroostook County’s people are proactively engaged together in creating a vibrant and sustainable economy, and to learn of the economic and cultural assets of the region,” explained Cheryl Miller, senior program director of Leadership Maine.
This is the 19th year that Leadership Maine has been helping to afford the state’s leading minds a better understanding of Maine’s economy and its people.
Past program graduates from Aroostook County include President and CEO of the Loring Development Authority Carl Flora, Houlton Band of Maliseets Chief Brenda Commander, Thompson Hamel LLC co-owner Brian Hamel, Northern Maine Community College (NMCC) Director of Development and College Relations Jason Parent, Manager for the Town of Madawaska Christina Therrien and Vice President of Academic Affairs at the University of Maine at Fort Kent (UMFK) Rachel Albert.
According to Parent, the program offers participants a truly unique statewide learning experience, designed to build a pool of talented leaders to shape the state’s future.
“Those taking part learn first-hand about the critical issues facing the state through an intensive behind-the-scenes program that provides access to key community and business leaders,” he said.
Leadership Maine participants are charged with three primary goals for their Aroostook tour: understand the cultural and economic attributes of the region, have a better understanding of the efforts to ready the workforce in the region and to have a better understanding of some best practice businesses and organizations contributing to the quality of life in the region.
Today, tour participants are slated to speak with Chief Commander in Houlton before continuing up to Presque Isle, where they’ll visit the Maine Mutual Group (MMG) before venturing over to NMCC to speak with President Timothy Crowley and tour the Northern Maine Center for Excellence in Alternative Energy Training and Education.
Tomorrow’s tour schedule is equally packed, starting with a trip to Smith’s Farm in Presque Isle to view the farm and the vegetable processing plant. Continuing their journey northward, the group heads to Limestone to tour the Applied Technologies Center of the Loring Commerce Centre followed by lunch at the Loring Job Corps Center. The tour continues to the very top of the state, visiting UMFK for a campus tour. The evening winds down with an authentic Acadian dinner, followed by an overview of the World Acadian Congress 2014.
The Leadership Maine Tour concludes on Friday, traveling to Ashland for a tour of Northeast Pellets followed by lunch at the Oxbow Lodge.
