Philanthropy Gets Personal
Dear Friends,
Philanthropy begins with a deeply personal question: What matters to me?
For each of us, the answer is different. Sometimes it’s gratitude for an experience that changed our lives. Sometimes it’s love for a person or place. And sometimes it’s the hope that we can make someone else’s journey a little easier than our own.
This year, we’ve each been reminded of the extraordinary power of giving through stories close to our own hearts.
Corey: When my aunt and uncle, Charlie ’76 and Debbie Hascall, were newly married, they had a dream: Charlie would earn his accounting degree from USM. Making that happen took determination, sacrifice, and a lot of love. Debbie put her own education on hold and worked while Charlie attended classes. They saved every penny they could, making monthly trips to USM finance office to pay his tuition bill. Dinner was often chicken pot pies, five for a dollar, because every dollar saved brought them closer to their goal.
Charlie went on to build a successful carcer in business, but neither of them ever forgot what it took to get there, or what USM made possible for their family. Nearly 50 years later, for my 50th birthday, they gave me a gift I never could have imagined: a $50,000 gift to establish the Charles R. ’76 and Deborah L. Hascall Family Scholarship, supporting future USM business students.
Their gift honored our family’s deep connection to USM, including their daughter Jessie, who studied nursing here, and my own experience as a student and now as president of the USM Foundation. It was their way of telling me they were proud of the work I do, while giving back to a university that has shaped so much of our family’s story.
I was overwhelmed by their generosity, but even more by the love behind it. They wanted to create something lasting and something our entire family could contribute to for generations to come I think about those chicken pot pies, those monthly tuition payments, and two young people determined to make a better life together. And I think about the USM student who, years from now, will receive a scholarship from a family they’ve never met.
That is the power of philanthropy. One family’s sacrifices become another student’s opportunities. And a story that began nearly 50 years ago gets to keep going.
Steve: I felt that same deeply personal connection to giving when my siblings and I came together to honor our late father and stepmother, Edson and Eileen deCastro, by naming one of the Crewe Center’s magnificent Steinway pianos in their memory.
Today, that Steinway Spirio concert grand piano sits on the stage of the new Margaret Griswold-White Performance Hall, where it will be played by talented students and extraordinary musicians for generations to come.
For our family, this gift is about so much more than a name on a piano. It’s a way to keep two people we loved dearly close to us, while giving something beautiful to a place where young musicians are discovering their own gifts.
I love knowing that long into the future, when a student sits down at that piano and begins to play, a little piece of Edson and Eileen’s story will live on through the music. And perhaps that’s one of the most beautiful things about philanthropy: the people we love can continue to make a difference in the lives of people they’ll never meet.
Our stories are different, but they have taught us the same lesson: when acts of generosity get personal, it reveals the power of what matters most to cach one of us. Yet when those acts come together, their collective impact is downright extraordinary.
We saw that truth demonstrated as never before in 2025-26. You, our USM community, collectively donated $18.5 million to the University and made it the most successful fundraising year in USM’s history.
This historic total is the sum of countless personal decisions: to honor someone’s influence, leave a family legacy, create an opportunity, or invest in USM’s future. Each gift began with its own story. Those stories give USM unprecedented power.
Throughout this Annual Report, you will see what personal philanthropy makes possible for our students, educators, programs, and campus. To everyone whose story has become pare of USM’s story, thank you. Your generosity has made history. More importantly, it is helping shape USM’s future.
With Gratitude,
Corey Hascall ’99
President & CEO
Steve deCastro
Chair, Board of Directors
A Personal Space
The Crewe Center for the Arts was envisioned as more than a home for music, theater, dance, and visual arts. It is a place where students discover and refine their talents, where faculty push the boundaries of artistic excellence, and where the university and community come together to experience the transformative power of the integrated arts.
On A Personal Level
USM creates opportunities for people to pursue new directions-and spaces where the university and its community can learn, work, and gather together. For more than two decades, the University Events Room in the Glickman Family Library has embodied both parts of that vision. Its creation grew from Barbara Briggs’ ’86 gratitude for the university that helped launch her second career.
A Personal Connection
Maine’s communities depend on nurses who bring skill, judgment, and compassion to people at their most vulnerable. Preparing those nurses requires more than rigorous education; it also requires the support that allows talented students to keep moving forward when life becomes difficult.
A Personal Partnership
Less than half a mile separates USM’s Portland campus from Fitzpatrick Stadium, home of Portland Hearts of Pine. Thanks to a generous anonymous donor, those neighbors are now partners.
At the Heart of the Crewe
For USM Project Manager Dave Burrows, caring for the Crewe Center for the Arts became personal. Having helped bring the building to life, he and his wife, Linda, made a gift to help protect the people who would fill it, funding automated external defibrillators (AEDs).
Where Innovation Gets Personal
For USM’s Esports Club, gaming has always offered more than competition: a place to connect, participate, and belong. With more than
125 active members, the club already had momentum. What it needed was a home equal to its ambition.
Personal Persistence
Talent can be found in every Maine community, but opportunity is not always distributed as widely. The Promise Scholars Program identifies first-generation, limited-income students with leadership potential and a commitment to service, then surrounds them with the financial, academic, and personal support they need to thrive.
Personally Committed
For Nola Urban ’86, ’09G, life has been defined by teaching numbers and honoring commitments. Her giving to USM shows how one person’s generosity over time can create lasting strength. Her recurring gifts provide dependable support USM can count on today. Her endowment gifts are invested to benefit students for generations.
A Personal Legacy
When Linda Varrell ’00 opened two century-old yearbooks from the Gorham Normal School (a USM predecessor), a small family mystery came into focus. The discovery punctuated a realization Linda had made in her own life. “I realized as I developed my career that I had probably been defining creativity too narrowly,” she says.