The Acadia Centennial in 2016:
Celebrate Our Past and Inspire Our
Future!
Friends of Acadia and the Acadia Centennial Task Force invite all visitors to Acadia National Park to join us in celebrating this special place in 2016 as we celebrate the Acadia Centennial. Throughout 2016, all who love Acadia will come together for a yearlong, community-based, world-welcoming celebration.
One hundred years ago, Acadia National Park was conserved to ensure that its stunning beauty, natural wonders, and cultural treasures would be protected for the inspiration and enjoyment of all. This, together with subsequent efforts that created the Acadia we know today, was the achievement of many committed individuals, and we celebrate their foresight and generosity. At the same time, Acadia’s Centennial is our chance to renew the passion and vision that is the founders’ legacy—to ensure that Acadia National Park is protected for generations to come.
Eagle Lake
With the leadership provided by Friends of Acadia, more than 350 Acadia Centennial Partners — organizations, businesses, and individuals who feel a connection with the park—have stepped up to contribute to the celebration. These “ACPs” are planning centennial events, creating and selling centennial products, and contributing financially to the effort. The official Acadia Centennial website at acadiacentennial2016.org includes a searchable calendar of events, listings of centennial products — sales of which benefit the park — and thoughtful historic and forward-looking summaries to help deepen your appreciation for Acadia and its hundred-year history.
Acadia National Park staff
We invite you to:
• Learn more about Acadia’s past, present, and future through lectures, exhibits, publications, or films
• Try a new activity or discover a new special spot in the park
• Experience Acadia through the eyes, ears, and minds of the artists and writers who are inspired by this remarkable place
• Bring home the memories with centennial commemorative products produced by businesses and artisans from Acadia’s surrounding communities
• Give back to Acadia and help inspire its next century of conservation through special volunteer opportunities or by making a donation to Acadia’s centennial
You’ll find something for everyone: year-round and seasonal residents of the Acadia region; first-time and lifelong visitors; kids, teens, and grownups of all ages.
Acadia was the first national park created by donations of private land from many families and individuals, and that legacy is visible today in the way Acadia’s boundary waves in and out of the communities surrounding the park — and in the closely interwoven relationship between the parks and its surrounding communities. Signs of the Acadia Centennial abound in the coastal Maine villages that border Acadia. As visitors walk through downtown Bar Harbor, they will see many businesses and establishments proudly displaying decals and flags with the Acadia Centennial logo. This indicates their participation in the celebration and in many cases will let shoppers know that these stores are selling official centennial products. Events and ongoing exhibits will take place throughout the busy summer and fall season, so a visitor can be a part of the Acadia Centennial no matter when they come.
National Park Service officials on the Precipice trail
Before, during, and after visiting Acadia, social media is a great way to keep current on the celebrations. Managed from the Friends of Acadia office in close collaboration with ANP interpretive staff, the Acadia Centennial Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter sites highlight upcoming events and new official products, share news articles and other media about the centennial, and provide a forum for questions and commentary about this momentous year. They are also a great place to share your own centennial activities! Use the #Acadia100 hashtag to be part of the centennial social community.
Acadia shares its 2016 centennial with the National Park Service — a happy coincidence. Conservation of Acadia brought the mission of the national parks to the east, created a park from a fully settled area for the first time, and showed how private philanthropy could help create a public reservation for all. The Acadia centennial celebration will honor the special, century-long relationship between this park and the NPS.
In addition to providing leadership for the celebration, Friends of Acadia will make many direct contributions to the Acadia Centennial through events inside and outside the park, special publications, and centennial projects to launch the next hundred years of conservation in this very special place. For more information visit friendsofacadia.org and acadiacentennial2016.org.
—Aimee Beal Church
Friends of Acadia, the independent philanthropic partner of Acadia National Park, was established in 1986. Its mission is to preserve, protect, and promote stewardship of the outstanding natural beauty, ecological vitality, and distinctive cultural resources of Acadia National Park and surrounding communities for the inspiration and enjoyment of current and future generations.