Acadia Centennial Partners

UPDATE 5/20/2016: Acadia Centennial Trek Medal now available for purchase, to help raise funds for the park

Acadia on My Mind is one of the official Acadia Centennial Partners, approved on Jan. 19, 2016 – a fitting date, since that’s the 1st of 3 birthdays being celebrated by the park, marking the 1929 change in name from Lafayette National Park to Acadia.

Happy 100th birthday Acadia – glad to be in on the year-long party!

This page will be where we’ll post details of our planned events and activities in celebration of our favorite national park’s 100th birthday, officially being marked on July 8, 2016, on the anniversary of its founding as Sieur de Monts National Monument.

We opened for registration our first event, the inaugural 100-mile virtual Acadia Centennial Trek, on Feb. 26, Acadia’s 2nd birthday, marking it becoming Lafayette National Park in 1919. This free race, with more than 140 people signed up in 2 weeks and a few already crossing the virtual finishing line, is being run through Dec. 31, and will offer an optional finisher’s medal for purchase to help raise funds for the park. Sign up now. You have until the end of the year to complete the 100 miles. Details of the finisher’s medal to come.

Be part of history by joining the first-ever 100-mile virtual Acadia Centennial Trek, and have the option of buying a finisher’s medal to help raise funds for the park.

There’s a special page for this event, a guide to all the virtual 100 mile markers, with links to Google Maps photos where available, and links to the Facebook events page for the race and other resources.

The trek takes you virtually over all 26 peaks of Acadia on Mount Desert Island, beginning on Cadillac, and along sections of the Park Loop Road, carriage roads, routes of MDI YMCA’s real-life Acadia and Fall Half Marathons, and ending at the real-life finish line for the MDI Marathon.

It’s a great way to keep Acadia on your mind during this Centennial year while being part of a virtual community of Acadia fans. Log your workout, no matter where you are in the world, and no matter how you are getting your exercise in, and see your map icon update instantly on the 100-mile virtual route. The trek is a chance to reconnect with old friends and make new ones, to motivate yourself and others to a greater level of fitness.

George B. Dorr is father of Acadia National Park

George B. Dorr, pictured along the shores of Jordan Pond, far right, fought to protect the lands that would become Acadia. (NPS photo)

We’ll update this page with information about our other events and activities as they become finalized.

Among our Centennial plans: Donate copies of our hiking guides to local libraries and historical societies; further develop a series of historic trail highlights on our blog; further develop a “Wildlife Sightings in Acadia National Park” citizen science database at www.anecdata.org, a project of Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory; start a Facebook group for people to share Acadia hiking trail conditions; and offer official Centennial-licensed and autographed copies of our hiking guides for sale to help raise funds for Acadia.

In the meanwhile, check out the official Acadia Centennial page, where you can learn about becoming a Partner yourself, and find out what other Partners have already planned by way of events, activities and officially licensed products to help raise funds for the park.

And if you missed any of our posts about the Centennial, below is a handy list.

Check back regularly as we update this page. And if you have any questions or comments, feel free to post them below, or in the contact form in the About us page.