Signs celebrating the centennial of Acadia National Park are sprouting in the gateway communities around the park/Friends of Acadia

June brings full leaves, family guests, and, this year, the rising tide of the Acadia Centennial. Well more than 400 partners have stepped up to offer an event, product, or their support for the yearlong, community-based, world-welcoming celebration of the 100-year-old national park. This month, Acadia National Park lovers can join these partners in art, birding, science, music, history, puppetry, garden design, baseball, and ice cream—all to celebrate America’s favorite place.

* Father’s Day on Sunday, June 19, will be Acadia Day at Fenway Park with the Red Sox, the newest Acadia Centennial Signature Sponsor. Thanks to additional support from L.L.Bean, Cape Air, and Friends of Acadia, at least two busloads of parents, kids, and other Acadia lovers from Acadia’s surrounding communities will travel to the game. The Red Sox will give Acadia air time on Fenway Park’s Jumbotron, and children in the Acadia group will take a pledge on the field to protect the park. When you go, why not bring along a copy of Signature Sponsor Down East Magazine’s June issue, dedicated entirely to the Acadia Centennial. It features an inspiring array of essays, observations, and recommendations for making the most of the centennial celebration.

* Centennial-inspired art abounds in June. Many art exhibits run through the month—such as At the Edge of Expressionism at the Argosy Gallery, which will also partner with Galyn’s Restaurant on Main in Bar Harbor on June 19 for their Art on Deck show. Rug hookers from Hancock County will offer their Impressions of Acadia at the Ellsworth Public Library though June. Puppetry gets some play at the Barn Arts Collective in Tremont on June 17, with a performance of Cecily’s Summer. The 5th annual Art Meets Science exhibit at the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory opens on June 20 with a lecture by science historian Catherine Schmitt. On June 28 at the Jesup Memorial Library in Bar Harbor, artist Liddy Hubbell and historian Jack Russell with offer a blended commentary on Hubbell’s Acadia-inspired work.

* Science and its links with Acadia National Park will be the focus of four important June events. On June 21, the College of the Atlantic will open their George B. Dorr Museum of Natural History with an ongoing museum-wide exhibit on the long and fertile relationship between Acadia National Park and COA-conducted science. June 25 is Park Science Day and the rededication of the ANP Nature Center at Sieur de Monts to a permanent exhibit on Acadia and climate change. That evening, all three ANP campground amphitheaters will premiere a new film on science in our national parks by film entrepreneur David Shaw.

* The centennial musical beat continues in June. Birders can enjoy an encore of nature’s song at Downeast Audubon’s birding event at Sieur de Monts, the morning of June 12. The big event comes on the night of Saturday, June 25, when the faculty and alumni of the Bar Harbor Brass Week give their grand finale at The Criterion. The concert will honor those who work for Acadia National Park and feature the world premiere of Terry White’s An Acadian Portrait and a libretto narrated by Dr. Bill Horner. On June 24, those with lively feet can enjoy partner dancing, an Acadia tradition, at the Bar Harbor YWCA. And from June 26 through the end of the month, the Acadia Trad School will offer Acadian, Irish, Cape Breton, Old Time, and Cajun Music concerts and dance workshops.

* Acadian historians will continue to “celebrate our past” in June. On June 16 the Maine Historical Society will open Designing Acadia, a major exhibit on the contribution of premier landscape architects to Acadia, which will run until next January at their Portland headquarters. On the afternoon of June 18 the Gouldsboro Historical Society Museum will offer an exhibit on the town’s long, strong relationship with ANP at Schoodic. From June 18 until the end of September, the Thuya Lodge and Garden in Northeast Harbor will welcome guests to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Lodge. The Seal Cove Auto Museum hosts a demonstration day on June 16 and the summer opening of their Acadia-based Auto Wars exhibit on June 29. Trains get their due on June 23, when railroad historian George Barrett speaks at the Ellsworth Public Library on the railroads that opened the way to MDI and Acadia and took folks up Green Mountain (Cadillac) for a while. Finally, the MDI Historical Society, in one of its many centennial contributions, will open its Somesville museum summer-and-fall exhibit on the Champlain Society on June 23.

What is a birthday without ice cream and cake? Thanks to Gifford’s Famous Ice Cream, there is plenty for all! On Friday, June 24, at Hannaford in Ellsworth, Gifford’s will throw an Epic Birthday Party for Acadia National Park. There will be free ice cream and cake for all, the L.L.Bean Bootmobile, the Darling’s car dressed for the Acadia Centennial, a live broadcast from Star 97.7, kids’ activities from several other signature sponsors, and some celebratory remarks from the Gifford’s family, Senator Brian Langley, and Friends of Acadia’s David MacDonald.

New products listings on the centennial website include a great variety of fair trade and eco-friendly gift items featuring the Acadia Centennial logo, fine art photographic prints and posters, a handsome finisher’s medal for the virtual Acadia Centennial Trek, and tasty treats from fine olive oil and coffee to blueberry gin and peppermint patties—yum! Official Acadia Centennial products are a great way to celebrate and commemorate Acadia’s birthday, and a portion of the proceeds from all sales of official products will be donated to benefit Acadia National Park.

Friends of Acadia, the organizing entity behind the Acadia Centennial Task Force, thanks the Acadia Centennial Partners whose combined contributions to the celebration—including event planning, product offerings, and financial support—are setting the standard for national park centennials. In particular, the Centennial Signature Sponsors have made leadership-level contributions: Bar Harbor Bank & Trust, Boston Red Sox, Darling’s, Down East Magazine, EMHS, The Hinckley Company, The Jackson Laboratory, The Knowles Company, L.L.Bean, The Mount Desert Islander, MPBN, Ocean Properties, Star 97.7, and Wallace Events.

Visit the Acadia Centennial website to see a calendar of 2016 events, browse the centennial product listings, or to apply to become a partner and add your own once-in-a-lifetime contribution to the 2016 Acadia Centennial.