Drive Dull Care Away Campaign to preserve Sandy Ives’s Legacy

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University of Maine Foundation: Giving *Please be sure and indicate that your donation is to go to the Sandy Ives Fund on the form.

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When Sandy (Edward D.) Ives  began collecting tape recordings in a shoebox under his desk in 1957, he had no idea he was beginning an archive that would attain international significance.  When Sandy died in August 2009, he left a rich legacy of cultural stewardship, both in the archives and in the people he inspired with his passion for the folklore of Maine and the Maritime Provinces. He created a national treasure.

Nick Spitzer
Nick Spitzer

Our honorary campaign chair, American Routes host and folklorist Nick Spitzer spoke at the Hartgen Award at the University of Maine on April 16:

Maybe we can learn something from French joie de vivre here in Maine, that’s my particular love and interest, I will say that. But all I would ask is that you take care of this special jewel you’ve got in the Archive. Support the rebuilding of its staff. Understand that the University of Maine in some ways is put on the national map by that small archive. And know that that archive in turn maps to the regions, ethnicities, occupational cultures, the hopes, the dreams, the creative powers of all Mainers, whether we know it now or not. And I want us to think about the future, what that activity could be with the archive and the university at the center of it. Tied to the Folk Festival, tied to the Maine Arts Council, tied to the good people in historic preservation, and tied to the planners and economic developers who tell me they want to deal with the cultural resources of the future of this state and their sense of its future.

The Sandy Ives Folklore and Oral History Endowment was established in the University of Maine Foundation in 1996 for the benefit of the Maine Folklife Center in recognition of its longstanding commitment to document, interpret, preserve and present the traditional culture and living lore of our region.

Increasing the size of the endowment is crucial now, given the uncertainty of university funding.  Our goal for this year is to raise our endowment from its present level of $100,000 to a million dollars.  Once the goal is reached, income generated from the endowment will be used to fund the ongoing programs of the Maine Folklife Center.  Pledges may be paid over a 5 year period.

Your support will help ensure that this national treasure, the Maine Folklife Center continues its work of training a new generation of students in folklore methods to document our community cultures.  The Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History (NAFOH) now reside with the Raymond H. Fogler Library Special Collections Department.

For more information on ways of giving contact the planned giving officers at the University of Maine Foundation.