Sponsored by the Bates Student Philanthropy Club, the event is open to the public at no cost. For more information, please call 207-786-6129.

Brothers Bert and John Jacobs began the company that would become Life is good in 1989, when they designed their first T-shirt. They started in Boston, selling their shirts college to college, dorm room to dorm room, but had little luck until they designed what is now known as the “Jake” shirt: a cartoon drawing of a face with a contagious grin, sunglasses and the words “Life is good.”

In September 1994, the brothers presented their new Jake shirts at a street fair in Cambridge, Mass. The shirts were a hit. Since then the small company has grown to a much larger enterprise, with Jake the trademark figure. Today their merchandise is sold across country and the company has reached sales of more than $100 million a year, without a dollar spent on traditional advertising.

The company is known for its nonprofit organization, The Life is good Kids Foundation. The Foundation receives financial support principally through the company’s donation of 100 percent of the profits from the sale of select products and public donations at Life is good Festivals held in major cities across the country.

The foundation supports extraordinary charities that create a lasting positive impact on children facing unfair challenges, including the traumas of violence, poverty and loss. So far, more than $4 million has been raised for this cause.

Roy Heffernan is “chief operating optimist” for Life is good, ensuring that the company delivers on its promises. His presentation is sure to offer solid lessons for entrepreneurs, philanthropists and optimists alike.

The Bates Student Philanthropy Club provides Bates students the opportunity to become acquainted with the philanthropic process, increasing philanthropic awareness on campus and strengthening the Bates community at large.

Ralph Perry ’51 (right) received the 2007 Distinguished Alumni Service Award, named for Helen A. Papaioanou ’49 (left). Perry received the award in Pettengill’s Joan Holmes Perry ’51 Atrium — a space that honors Perry’s late wife — during Homecoming’s Volunteer Recognition Dinner. Perry was saluted for his philanthropy, for his “profound and passionate service to Bates,” and for helping “others understand that Bates is a very special place that needs strong support to preserve its future.”

Perry partnered his extensive philanthropy initially with Joan Perry, who died in 1994, and now with his second wife, Mary Louise Seldenfleur. It was Perry and Seldenfleur, in fact, who proposed using Perry Atrium to showcase high academic achievement, and in 2008 that showcase, the Mount David Summit, celebrates its seventh edition.

Led by trustee David Parmelee ’64, the Annual Alumni Fund reached an all-time high of $1.68 million, a 25 percent increase over last year’s record. Three hundred alumni volunteers joined the Annual Fund staff in increasing alumni participation by eight points to 47.3 percent, the highest level since 1989-90.

Mark Shriver and Dr. Patricia McKay of Atlanta, Ga., whose son Andy graduated from Bates this spring, coordinated the most successful Parents Fund in the college’s history. More than 1,000 Bates parents, past and present, contributed $258,000 to the Parents Annual Fund.

Overall, Bates received gifts totaling $7.6 million from a record 8,998 donors from all sources. The dollar total was raised despite the lowest bequest total since 1979. However, total gifts from alumni set a new record.

Also contributing to this highly successful year was $2.1 million in the form of life-income gifts, the largest amount ever received in this category at Bates. These gifts pay their donors a lifetime income and are then used for the charitable interests at Bates identified by the donors.

“It was a satisfying and productive year for the Bates development program and the college, which is grateful for the financial support offered and the distinctions it brings Bates,” said Ronald A. Joyce, vice president for development and alumni.