Annual Awards Dinner celebrates Maine’s Bicentennial

Patrick Dempsey, Maine’s living Governors, and this year’s awardees recognized in celebration of leadership

The Maine State Chamber of Commerce presented its celebration of the bicentennial of Maine's statehood at our annual awards dinner on Wednesday, October 30, 2019. Maine's seven living governors shared their perspectives and provided a historical context on what makes Maine unique through a professional video presentation. Special guest Patrick Dempsey, a Maine native and television and film actor who founded the Dempsey Center, joined us to share his thoughts on what makes Maine special. Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce President Deb Neuman was recognized with our "Chamber Professional of the Year" award for her leadership in, enthusiasm for, and dedication to promoting a positive business climate in the Bangor region.

We have posted the highlight of the evening's program - our professionally produced video reflection by Maine’s living Governors - on our website, as well as video highlights and photos of the evening's festivities. If you haven’t seen it yet or you’d like to see it again, the video project is available on our website, in the Annual Dinner recap, if you would like to watch it: www.mainechamber.org/2019-annual-dinner.html.

In the days that followed our flagship annual event, we heard compliments from our attendees, guests, and board members. We'd like to share a couple of them with you:
 
"My congratulations to you and the staff for another nice annual dinner. We were honored to be part of it. I worried about the length of the video but it moved quite well and proved to be a great bit of history. Congratulations on taking on such an ambitious project and making it happen. Again, we’re proud to be associated. My best to you and thanks to the entire staff."  ~ Michael Bourque, MEMIC
 
“Thank you so much for your help in selecting our table of students last night at the Annual meeting. We had a great group of engaged, mostly engineering, students from UMaine/USM. We made a really good connection with them all and were able to exchange cards and contact info with a couple of them. We had a great evening. The Chamber staff did another amazing job. Well done!”   ~ Judith Borelli, Texas Instruments
 
The Maine State Chamber wishes to thank our special guests, our sponsors, our attendees, and the many people that brought this vision to reality: It was truly a memorable and historic celebration!