Maine Maritime Academy

Maine Maritime Academy is currently seeking $300,000 to renovate the floor, bleachers, and bleacher wall in Margaret Chase Smith Gymnasium in order to provide a first class venue for the teams that call it home. Your generosity will help us provide the home they deserve.

Smith Gymnasium has been home to so many memories over the years. Wins, losses, rough games, physical education courses, and, of course, championships.

Our Mariners have won 404 men’s and women’s basketball games and volleyball matches inside of the gym’s walls. Those squads have produced 11 championships. Volleyball has gone unbeaten at Smith Gym five times and Women’s Basketball has posted double-digit win seasons inside of Smith Gym nine times.

Helping Mariners grow, teaching them to earn success and having fun in the process is as renewable as each school year. Unfortunately, the venue in which those processes occur, is not.

The floor in Smith Gym is original. It has provided 56 years of service to the Academy. Its boards have expanded and contracted with the temperature for more than 20,400 days and nights. It is well beyond its intended lifespan, and keeping up with repairs becomes more of a challenge each day. Our athletes and visiting teams deserve better than broken boards. Our fans, all of them, deserve a comfortable seat. We must show our future Mariners that we value their athletic experience. And we need your help.

Over the past five years, the venue has seen many changes. New padding adorns the end walls. Pepsi provided a state-of-the-art digital, LED scoreboard with statistics wings. Custom chairs on the benches serve as bookends around the three scorer’s tables. New banners have been hung at either end and above the benches. Three of the four walls and the ceiling are befitting of one of the nation’s premier public colleges and the world’s finest maritime academy.

Growth. Success. Fun. They have all been constants in Margaret Chase Smith Gymnasium. Please consider giving to this renovation project so the memories will live on!

NAMING RIGHTS OPTIONS

• Naming of the court … $200,000
• Naming of the bleachers … $50,000
• Naming of a chairback seat in front row … $1,500

With your support, the new gymnasium bleachers will feature 10-inch wide countoured seats with branding opportunities for the Academy on the end of each row when opened and in the collapsed position. Seat backs and spacers will provide maximum comfort for guests in the front row, while sections of the first row may be collapsed in allowing for wheelchair access as needed.

How to get involved:

1. Give online today using your credit card
2. Give by phone by calling the development office: 207-326-2223
3. Give in person at the Wyman House
4. Or, give by mail: send your check to
   Maine Maritime Academy
   1 Pleasant Street
   Castine, Maine 04420

Your support is appreciated.