By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
Jason Parent, president of the Maine delegation to the organizing body of the 2014 World Acadian Congress and director of development and college relations at Northern Maine Community College, was recently named by Mainebiz as one of the next 10 people shaping the future of Maine’s economy.
Contributed photo
Jason Parent, of Caribou, was recently named by Mainebiz as one of the next 10 people shaping the future of Maine’s economy. Parent, the president of the Maine Delegation to the organizing body of the 2014 World Acadian Congress and director of development and college relations at Northern Maine Community college, said he was “very surprised and very humbled” to be chosen for the honor. According to the Mainebiz website, “Every year, Mainebiz searches for 10 movers and shakers — people we know are influencing Maine’s economy in a significant way — to appoint to our Next List … all demonstrate a deep commitment to Maine and the people who live and work here.” Congratulating Parent on his award, which was presented at a reception last Wednesday at the Augusta Civic Center, was his wife, Kimberlee.
According to the Mainebiz website, “Every year, Mainebiz searches for 10 movers and shakers – people we know are influencing Maine’s economy in a significant way – to appoint to our Next List. Some are entrepreneurs, some are the heads of family-owned businesses, some are steering non-profits and some blend all of the above. But all demonstrate a deep commitment to Maine and the people who live and work here. We call them Nexters.”
Parent, a Van Buren native, said he found out about the honor in September and was asked to keep relatively quiet about the acknowledgement.
“I kept it [the news] in a very close circle,” he said. “Karen [Gonya], associate director of college relations, had actually taken the call from the editor of
Mainebiz so she had an idea that something was up, so I told Karen and I told my family.”
Parent, 36, a member of Leaders Encouraging Aroostook Development (LEAD), said he was “very surprised” to be chosen for the honor.
“Quite frankly I was very humbled,” he said. “It’s quite the honor, and to be the only representative from northern Maine this year is an honor, as well.
“You’re sort of asked if you accept the honor in the first place, and it’s not that I felt that I was more worthy than anybody else in northern Maine to receive it, but I did accept it in large part to help really draw attention throughout the state to the great things that are happening in northern Maine,” said Parent. “There are some really good things happening both at the college and with the World Acadian Congress and I was nominated for my work with both organizations.”
The World Acadian Congress, which is held every five years in different regions populated by Acadians, will be staged in northern Maine, northwestern New Brunswick, and the Témiscouata region of Quebec from Aug. 8-24, 2014 in a region now called Acadia of the Lands and Forests. The event is expected to draw at least 50,000 people to the area over a two-and-a-half week period.
Festivities typically involve more than 300 events, which include family reunions, popular regional celebrations, ceremonies, sporting events, cultural events, shows, forums, and conferences. The economic spinoff for recent World Acadian Congresses has ranged from $30 million to $50 million within and surrounding the host region.
“The program guide for the last World Acadian Congress that was held in the Acadian Peninsula region of New Brunswick was thicker than the Aroostook County phonebook,” said Parent. “That was just in French. We’re going to have both a French and English variation of that this time around.”
Though four years away, Parent is excited about the St. John Valley’s involvement in the World Acadian Congress as the Acadian culture is his culture.
“This will be the most significant development in the Acadian culture and the St. John Valley since the early 1990s when Sens. Bill Cohen and George Mitchell were successful in passing the Maine Acadian Cultural Preservation Act through Congress which provided for the Maine Acadian Cultural Preservation Commission,” said Parent. “The commission was responsible for finding ways to preserve and promote the Acadian culture.”
Parent said being named to the Next List ranks quite high among his professional accomplishments.
“This is right up there with when I was the first man to be named the State of Maine Young Careerist by the Business and Professional Women of Maine in 2000,” he said. “With the Next List honor, being of French descent makes the acknowledgement that much more special especially coming from a state where there was a higher percentage of Ku Klux Klansmen than anywhere north of the Mason-Dixon Line. In Maine, the KKK was against the French, so to have this honor and the title of the piece that ran in Mainebiz to be ‘French ascent’ bodes well for the Franco-American population in Maine.
“We have many opportunities to succeed, and we as a culture are coming into our own,” said Parent, who one day hopes to run for State Senate District 35. “I couldn’t be more pleased.”
Don Levesque, chairman of the Maine Regional Coordinating Committee, which is tasked with mobilizing the St. John Valley to host the large scale event, first worked with Parent in the early 1990s when Parent was the executive director of the Greater Madawaska Chamber of Commerce.
“I was on the Acadian Festival Committee,” said Levesque. “Then in 1996 I headed a committee that brought approximately 1,400 Levesque family members to the St. John Valley. Jason was still heading the chamber then and our close collaboration greatly contributed to the overwhelming success of our family reunion.
“Of course, Jason continued collaborating when he headed the Fort Kent Chamber of Commerce and then went to work for the University of Maine at Fort Kent. By then I was the publisher of the St. John Valley Times,” he said. “We also worked together to organize a fundraiser for the victims of Hurricane Katrina which devastated parts of Louisiana.”
In addition, Levesque and Parent both served on the United Way board of directors and then on the provisionary committee to bring the 2014 Congrès Mondial Acadien to the St. John Valley.
“A few months ago I was elected president of the Maine Regional Coordinating Committee of CMA 2014 and our long history of successfully collaborating on projects continues unabated,” said Levesque. “I am extremely pleased that Jason figures prominently on the Next List. It’s always been a given for the people of the St. John Valley and, more recently, to the people of Aroostook County, that Jason figures prominently on anybody’s ‘Next List.’ Given Jason’s history and his interests, it will be interesting to see what’s next on his list!”
Other awards Parent has received include the Greater Madawaska Area Citizen of the Year in 1999, and Outstanding Young Alumni by his alma mater – the University of Maine at Presque Isle – in 2000.
Parent and his wife, Kimberlee, reside in Caribou with their two children: Christopher, 8, and Kallee, 5.
The 10 honorees were formally recognized at a reception last Wednesday at the Augusta Civic Center.
