{"id":1377,"date":"2017-08-02T13:17:43","date_gmt":"2017-08-02T13:17:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mainemaritime.edu\/giving\/?page_id=1377"},"modified":"2025-01-13T19:30:51","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T19:30:51","slug":"smith-gymnasium-renovation","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mainemaritime.edu\/giving\/completed-campaigns\/smith-gymnasium-renovation\/","title":{"rendered":"Smith Gymnasium Renovation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Smith<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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

Our Mariners have won 404 men\u2019s and women\u2019s basketball games and volleyball matches inside of the gym\u2019s walls. Those squads have produced 11 championships. Volleyball has gone unbeaten at Smith Gym five times and Women\u2019s Basketball has posted double-digit win seasons inside of Smith Gym nine times.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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\u2019s premier public colleges and the world\u2019s finest maritime academy.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\t