One young business leader in Maine has a simple strategy for improving her local business climate: asking the question why at any opportunity.

Dawn Blake, 28, an assistant vice president and branch manager at Bangor Savings Bank in Unity and vice president of the Belfast Area Chamber of Commerce, finds herself wondering, among other things, why more businesses aren’t headquartered in Maine, why the midcoast lacks a technical college and why so many small businesses cannot afford health insurance.

“You ask all of those why questions,” Blake said in a recent interview. “People aren’t necessarily open to lots of change. There’s an older mentality [in Maine]; people want to keep everything the way it is. I think that to keep younger people here, to bring them back here to where their families are, could require some change.”

Blake fits the description of the young, educated people Maine is trying to keep from moving out of state. Yet her perspective has been formed by her experiences growing up in Dover-Foxcroft, moving away and then returning to Maine.

A graduate of Foxcroft Academy, Blake attended Thomas College in Waterville, graduating in 2000 with a bachelor’s degree in sports management with a minor in prelaw. She quickly found work with the USA Triathlon organization in Colorado Springs coordinating events for Team USA, the organization’s amateur group of competitors. While in Colorado, she completed her master’s degree in sports management via online study.

“Colorado Springs totally promoted a healthy lifestyle. They made sure you always had access in the city to something you can do for exercise,” Blake said. “There were natural town parks throughout the town, red rocks to climb on. … It wouldn’t be uncommon to see people throwing up ropes and climbing in all the different parks.”

Despite the outdoorsy, athletic appeal of Colorado, thoughts of family in Maine beckoned her back to her home state. In 2002, she returned to live with her mother in Augusta. After finding temporary work at Capital Area Federal Credit Union, Blake was hired on full time. In 2003, she moved to Portland and became a marketing manager at First American Title, then moved on to a management position at Union Trust Co. in Belfast in 2005. Two months ago, Blake accepted her current position at Bangor Savings Bank.

Blake said she more or less fell into her banking career and admitted feeling disappointed by the lack of opportunities to use her sports management degree in Maine.

When asked what keeps her here, Blake said: “It’s that old cliche – the way of life – or whatever. That stands pretty true for me. I absolutely love knowing that I can go 10 minutes this way for the lake or I can go to some really great state or national parks that are within an hour. … And there are still the amenities of a larger city. I can go to Portland, Augusta or Bangor.”

Blake said she and her fiance, Chad Place, enjoy living in their apartment in downtown Belfast. In her free time, Blake is trying to address some of the “why” questions she has raised about the area and its economic development efforts. She organizes the Chamber of Commerce breakfast events, “Eggs and Issues,” and its “Business Afterhours” functions and was a valedictorian in the Mid-Coast Leadership Academy professional development course. She also serves on the Belfast Downtown Community Development and Advisory Council and raises money for the national Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

When she first got involved in the Belfast community, Blake said her age and newcomer status made some people question her expertise.

“A lot of times it’s a matter of people saying, ‘Who’s this crazy girl who came in from out of town? What does she know? … That always gives people something to think about.”

Blake credits her mother, a former media relations director at the Maine Farm Bureau, with instilling in her an enthusiasm for being an active and vocal presence in her community.

“The more people see me and the more people can associate what I do with what might benefit them or impact them … I think that they can give credit to what I say or do.”