Three local organizations are celebrating The Great American Smokeout with a special event this week that encourages community members to go “cold turkey” while also helping the region to Stomp Out Hunger. ACAP’s Healthy Aroostook, TAMC, and UMPI will team up at Gentile Hall from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 19 to encourage smokers to quit for one day and to help fight hunger in The County in a unique way—by building food sculptures out of canned food and other nonperishables and then donating the materials to those in need.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle will host nationally renowned photographer and videographer Scot Miller as part of the 2015-2016 Distinguished Lecture Series. Miller’s multi-media presentation, titled Emerson, Muir, Thoreau: A Photographic Trilogy of American Wildness, will take place Tuesday, Dec. 1, at 7 p.m. in the University’s Campus Center. All are invited to attend this free event.

The trustees of the Higher Education Assistance Foundation (HEAF) have awarded a scholarship in the amount of $1,000 to Christopher Morley, a University of Maine at Presque Isle junior who is studying Business with a concentration in Accounting. Morley is a graduate of Thornton Academy.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Bio-Med Club, through its partnership with the Maine-based, non-profit organization Partners for World Health [PWH], is working at the local level to make a global impact. The Bio-Med Club has asked local medical facilities for donations of medical supplies that the club will transfer to PWH so the organization can distribute them to developing countries.

Members of the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Fall 2015 Drawing II class have been filling small sketchbooks with all kinds of art this semester as they participate in the Brooklyn Art Library’s Sketchbook Project. Before their finished sketchbooks are submitted to the Project, however, the class will be giving the campus and community a special sneak peek at their work by hosting a show on Friday, Nov. 6 at 6 p.m. in the Pullen Art Gallery as part of the First Friday Art Walk.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle is welcoming 9 new employees in the first part of the 2015-2016 academic year, including new professors and professional staffers.