BIDDEFORD — More than 50 people gathered at Banded Horn Brewing Company Thursday to celebrate the launch of a new networking group aimed at connecting young professionals in the Biddeford-Saco area.

Luke Nielson, a marketing specialist, author and Saco native, helped found the group, which is aptly named DiriGo-Getters ”“ a portmanteau combining the state’s motto, which in Latin means “I lead,” and the term “go-getter.”

“It happened very organically,” Nielson said of the group’s inception. “A group of young people in the area just found each other and we started talking and very early on we learned that there was one idea, one pretty simple idea, that we were all super interested in pursuing.”

That idea, he said, is the notion that, collectively, young professionals in the area will be much better off the more that they connect with each other.

Speaking to the crowd at Thursday’s event, Rep. Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, who founded the group along with Nielson and a handful of others, explained why now is the perfect time for a group like this to spring up.

“The growth that’s happening in the downtown demonstrates that … Biddeford is not the old mill town that it once was,” he said, and it’s important that young people stay here to work and help catalyze that growth.

In a similar vein, Biddeford-Saco Chamber of Commerce and Industry Executive Director Craig Pendleton said in a press release last week that “our future will be brighter if we support these young people so that they stay in the area and work to build businesses here.” The chamber is supporting DiriGo-Getters.

While warm smiles, cold beer and chit-chat centered on college and careers dominated the Pepperell Mill brewery Thursday evening, a more serious matter was discussed, too, as Sen. Angus King delivered a video message about student loan debt ”“ a burden most fresh-out-of-college professionals bear.

“We’re all going to be seeing the same types of opportunities just because of our stage in life,” said Nielson. “But we’ll also be facing many of the same challenges, and one of those challenges ”“ perhaps the primary challenge ”“ is student loan debt,” which is why the group asked King to speak about it.

“There seems to be a lot of doom and gloom around the student loan issue,” said King. But while student loan debt can “amount to a mortgage but no house,” he also assured the crowd that they’ve “bought something valuable.”

“It’s an (investment) that I think should and will pay off for you in the long run,” King said of a college education.

The senator also pointed to some of the things Congress will be working on later this spring to help those heading into college, those still in college and those who’ve graduated from college. In addition to recent college graduates, University of New England students made up a considerable chunk of the crowd at Thursday’s event.

King said one goal for lawmakers will be to simplify both the process of applying for financial aid as well as the process of repaying student loans. “The goal is to get it on a postcard-size piece of paper,” he said of the currently lengthy and complicated financial aid application.

King said he would also like to see student loan repayment plans cut down to two options: a 10-year fixed rate or an income-based rate. This would ensure that young adults aren’t “pressured to take a job … simply to make their payments,” he said.

King hopes all of these changes will ultimately draw young adults who may have fled the state for big cities’ promise of higher pay back to Maine. “Your future is our future,” he said to the crowd.

Thursday’s event marks the first in a series of events hosted by the new group. DiriGo-Getters plans to hold a similar event every third Thursday of the month as well as smaller-scale brunches on various Saturdays.

— Staff Writer Angelo J. Verzoni can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 329 or averzoni@journaltribune.com.