Maranacook's No. 1 fan will be missed


A GREAT FAN: Maranacook Community High School fan Peter Burbank was always encouraging athletes and students at the school with his customary phrase “Bears are awesome.” Burbank passed away last week. His life will be celebrated at 7 tonight at the Maranacook student center.

GARY HAWKINS 12/27/2008


Peter Burbank's name doesn't necessarily resonate with central Maine high school sports fans, but his persona does.

If you attended an event at Maranacook Community High School in the past several years, you probably saw him and undoubtedly heard him. Burbank was Maranacook's cheerleader, a middle-aged bespectacled gentleman who often carried a small megaphone.

His catch phrase for Maranacook students and athletes -- Bears Are Awesome -- reverberated throughout the playing fields, gymnasium and auditorium at the Readfield school.

Burbank died last week, succumbing to ALS, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. He had retired a couple of years ago and moved to Orono. Fans immediately sensed something was missing from their field hockey, basketball, baseball and soccer games.

No Burbank.

"My kids started at Maranacook in the mid '90s," Doug Boyink said. "Peter was kind of a fixture at that point. I didn't really understand what his role was. The more I got to know him, the more I got to know how much an influence he was on kids' lives."

Burbank's life will be celebrated at 7 tonight at the Maranacook student center. Friends are welcome, and he had many.

His support for the students and the school extended well beyond cheering, but that was primarily how many fans came to know him. Visiting fans would sometimes show their annoyance at Burbank's booming cheers, but he never once cheered against an opponent.

It didn't matter what the score was either. The Awesome Bears could be behind by several points, runs or goals, or for that matter ahead. In Burbank's mind they were always awesome.

"He was a great ambassador," Superintendent Rich Abramson said. "He never had an ill word for anyone."

Burbank had no children, in fact he never married. But he had a family larger than anyone's. His original involvement with students came when someone invited him to read for grandparents day at Wayne Elementary School. He was asked back and his involvement blossomed.

"It became a remarkable thing," Boyink said.

Burbank followed that particular group of kids through middle school -- he cheered at those games as well -- and into high school. He took thousands of photos, giving them to the children or their parents.

His involvement grew and Burbank spearheaded an all-sports boosters club, the first at Maranacook. It was appropriately named the Awesome Bears Society and has raised thousands of dollars for school projects, on and off the playing fields.

His greatest gift was the one he gave to the kids themselves, one of interest and self-esteem.

"By the time they graduated, he knew every kid by his first name and knew something about their family," Boyink said. "It was his family and his life."

Students dedicated a yearbook to Burbank a couple of years ago. And a student recently approached the school about naming the gymnasium in Burbank's honor. They could just as well name a room where the math team or speech and debate teams competed because Burbank was there for those events, too.

In one of his last appearances in the school gym, Burbank announced starting lineups for both teams, as he often did, prefacing his introduction of the Maranacook players by booming, "Now it's my high honor and great privilege to introduce the awesome Black Bears."

Later in the game, he went in front of the student section and started pantomiming letters as he yelled out, "Give me a B!"

The kids loved it and so did the adults.

"He was just one of those wonderful positive human beings who could take a kid who wasn't feeling great about himself and make him feel good," Boyink said.

Gary Hawkins -- 621-5638

ghawkins@centralmaine.com

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