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A Fun Harvest is Coming

October 15, 2008 - SEBAGO LAKES REGION -- The days are shorter, the foliage is fleeing and the nights are getting crisp. But before Lakes Region residents batten down for winter, the middle of October offers several opportunities to catch the last splendor of the season.

In what organizers call “the last unofficial fair of the year,” visitors can enjoy a day at the New Gloucester Fairgrounds on Saturday, Oct. 18, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. at the New Gloucester Community Fair.

It has been almost a decade since the first fair was organized to coincide with national Fire Prevention Week, said former New Gloucester Selectman David Lunt. Approximately four years ago, organizers decided the fair had outgrown it roots in the public safety activities sponsored by the New Gloucester Fire Department.

So, the fair started on its own at the fairgrounds on Bald Hill Road, which are more than a century old. The growth has led to a day of games and stories for children, tethered hot air balloon rides, live music, craft sales and a bake-off.

“This has all been about connecting community,” said Lunt, a member of the planning committee for the last four years.

As it has grown, the fair has kept several staples, including the annual car show sponsored by the Gray-New Gloucester Lions Club. “It seemed like there were a million cars last year,” said Lunt about the assemblage on the 1⁄2-mile track around the fairgrounds.

This year, he said, visitors should expect as many as 50 cars competing in different classes.

A part of connecting the community comes from two fundraising efforts for New Gloucester firefighter George Carman, who has cystic fibrosis. Carman will eventually need a lung transplant, and money to defray the medical and living costs associated with the transplant will be raised by selling baked goods from the bake-off and through sponsorships for those running a mile around the fairgrounds track.

While not associated with Fire Prevention Week anymore, fair organizers have kept an emphasis on public safety by featuring extrication demonstrations by the New Gloucester Fire Department and by showing the dangers of driving while intoxicated through the Fatal Vision program presented by deputies from the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office.

Then, before fireworks brighten the sky over the fairgrounds at 6:30 p.m., visitors can dine on barbecued chicken prepared by members of the New Gloucester Fire Department. The fireworks will be followed by a bonfire and storytelling by New Gloucester resident Michael Fralich.

In Dayton, what had been a roaming festival celebrating American Indian culture and reverence for the earth has come home to the Yellow Feather Cultural Center, a 12-acre site given to the Metis of Maine almost a year ago.


A closer look:

The New Gloucester Community Fair is Saturday, Oct. 18, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. at New Gloucester Fairgrounds, 109 Bald Hill Road.

Admission and parking are free. Volunteers from the cheering squad at Gray-New Gloucester High School will guide visitors to parking spaces while accepting donations.

Proceeds from a 1-mile run around the fairgrounds track and sales of baked goods will benefit the New Lungs for George Fund, to help defray expenses associated with the lung transplant for New Gloucester firefighter George Carman, who has cystic fibrosis.

A chicken barbecue, sponsored by the New Gloucester Fire Department, is followed by fireworks at 6:30 p.m.


The Metis Eastern Tribal Society of Maine Fall Gathering & Powwow is Saturday, Oct. 18, and Sunday, Oct. 19, at the Yellow Feather Cultural Center in Dayton, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

The event features dancing, storytelling, music, crafts and food. An honoring dance for police officers, firefighters and emergency personnel is Oct. 19 at 2 p.m. Names of deceased public safety and emergency workers will be read.

Admission is $3 for adults, $1 for children ages 6-12 and free for children under 6.

For an event schedule and directions to the Yellow Feather Cultural Center, visit www.metisofmaine.org.


Night of the Jack O’ Lantern, sponsored by the Bridgton Historical Society, takes place at Narrimissic Homestead on Ingalls Road in South Bridgton, Saturday, Oct. 18.

Visitors are invited to bring thier own or buy locally grown pumpkins to carve into jack o’ lanterns, beginning at 4 p.m. The carved pumpkins will be lit at dusk.

For more information, call 647-3699 or visit www.bridgtonhistory.org.

On Saturday, Oct. 18, and Sunday, Oct. 19, the Metis Eastern Tribal Society of Maine will host a Fall Gathering and Powwow to celebrate the harvest, the change of seasons and the work of police officers, firefighters and emergency workers.

Bob Brawn, chief of the mixed ancestry Metis group, said it preserves American Indian culture with the message, “We are still here, we have not gone away.”

What is new is the land and farmhouse the tribal society, which invites anyone with any American Indian ancestry to join, was given to host powwows and gatherings throughout the year.

Brawn, whose tribal name is Siver Eagle, said this is the sixth powwow held by the Metis in the five-year history of the society. Sites in Cornish and Limerick have been used in the past.

The powwows draw American Indians from New England and the mid-Atlantic states, who participate in dances, ceremonies and rituals that include pipe circles and sweat lodges, but also recognize wider society by saluting veterans and the emergency workers.

“This is to show how we use Mother Earth – we respect her,” said Brawn, who first organized a powwow with his wife, Little Dove, in 1994, before helping the establish the Metis.

The fall gathering pays homage to the gifts of the earth at harvest, Brawn said, but the powwow demonstrations are intended to show how the beliefs are exhibited in everyday life, as well.

Because the Metis are of mixed heritage and do not require a quantum - a certain percentage of American Indian ancestry to join – the ceremonies will draw from elements of Mic Mac and Sheani tribal lore, in dances and rituals Brawn said he largely learned in Nova Scotia.


“We are an adaptive people,” Brawn said, but added there have been powwows where dances and ceremonies drew some objections for not following a particular tribal method.

Visitors should be aware that not all ceremonies and dances can be photographed, although Brawn typically announces when cameras are forbidden. Because the first three songs during the dance for the public safety workers are sacred, photography will not be allowed, he said.

Accompanying the dancing and story telling are craft sales that Brawn and his wife Little Dove strive to ensure feature only crafts made by American Indians.

The selection includes leather goods and clothing, drums, rattles, jewelry, sculptures made from antlers and animal bones and woven dream catchers, adorned with feathers, made to block nightmares from the bearers.


As the Bridgton Historical Society prepares to close Narrimissic for the season, the 19th-century homestead on Ingalls Road in South Bridgton, will be the scene of a flashy finale during Night of the Jack O’ Lantern.

Ned Allen, president of the society, said the idea to have visitors bring or buy pumpkins at the farm, carve them into jack o’ lanterns and light them as daylight ebbs is not original, but striking enough to try for the first time this year.

Surrounded by fields and the hills of western Maine, the old Peabody-Fitch farmhouse may not be open for a full tour, as it lacks proper lighting for the shorter days, but Allen hopes visitors admitted for free will still marvel at the setting as it is accented by their lit handiwork.


By David Harry
dharry@keepmecurrent.com


Lakes:
Regions: Sebago


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