Summer Intern in the Common Ground Country Fair Office
Homebrewing and Winemaking Competitions Depart from Common Ground
Volunteer Coordinators for the 1999 Fair

Summer Intern in the Common Ground Country Fair Office

Kristin Stone and Rusty Sugg bring cheer to the Fair office.

The Common Ground Country Fair office is grateful for the help of summer intern Kristin Stone. We couldn’t have managed all of the mailings, phone calls, volunteer registration forms, writing, editing, cleaning, special events and, yes, wet diapers without her! Kristin’s super-speedy work style helped us immensely this year as we tried to address many of the challenges from last year’s Fair.

Kristin first came to Maine from Pennsylvania in 1992. She worked off her CSA (Consumer Supported Agriculture) share of veggies at Hidden Valley Farm in Alna, and liked the taste of farming so much that she became a MOFGA apprentice during the following summer. Kristin has attended every Fair since 1992 as a worker in the Tuva Bakery/Hidden Valley food booth. You may have gotten a peek at her smiling face peering out from behind a cloud of kebab grill smoke. Last summer, Kristin and her partner, Brian O’Mahoney, took over the food concession from Bambi Jones, who owns Hidden Valley Farm. This year, Brian is managing on his own so that Kristin can, at last, participate in some Fair events – or so she thinks! We’ll be snaring Kristin in for some help in the office, no doubt.

Kristin continues promoting organic, sustainable agriculture as a Trustee of the Morris Farm in Wiscasset. She is helping the Farm develop an education program for elementary schools.

If you see Kristin running around the Fairgrounds this year, be sure to thank her for all the great work she did. We will miss her when she leaves the office for her final year of graduate school at Antioch in Keene, New Hampshire, and a counseling internship at the Kennebec Valley Mental Health Center in Augusta. Thanks Kristin, and good luck. We’ll miss you in the office.

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Homebrewing and Winemaking Competitions Depart from Common Ground

We are sorry to report that the Homebrewing and Winemaking Competitions will not take place at the Common Ground Country Fair any longer. The main reason for letting go of these festive, exciting, educational and unique contests is that we simply do not have adequate accommodations. Judging beer and wine is extremely difficult in an agricultural fair tent because the natural elements (i.e. wind, dust, rain, heat, cold, animal smells, etc ...) penetrate tent sidewalls. Common Ground will miss the competitions and wishes the coordinators Jonathan Bailey (wine) and Tom O’Connor (beer) and long-time competitors all the best in finding a venue that can do the contests justice.

Beer and wine are among the oldest agricultural products on Earth, and clearly, enthusiastic homebrewers and winemakers are widespread in Maine. The Common Ground Country Fair Steering Committee hopes that a variation on the Competition theme will arise in the next few years and will educate fairgoers about the countless possibilities for making organic beer and wine right here in our own home state.

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Volunteer Coordinators for the 1999 Common Ground Country Fair

The following people are members of the Common Ground Country Fair Planning Team. All are volunteers who give countless hours of their time, knowledge and expertise throughout the year.

Agricultural Booths: Ernie Glabau, Jarrod Pooler

Agricultural Demonstrations: Paul Birdsall, John Bunker, Jack Kertesz, CR Lawn, Joan Sheldon, Mark Silber, Terry Silber

Animal Products: Cathy Reynolds

Announcements: Skip Green

Antique Tractor Shuttle Rides: Glen De Witt

Bicycle Parking: Jeff Miller

Camping: Peggy Connell

Children’s Area: Marie Hickey

Children’s Parade: Beedy Parker

Common Ground Country Fair Counsel: Spike Stein

Common Kitchen: Kim Bolshaw, Catherine LeBlanc, Barbara MacLennan, Chuck Snell, Bill Whitman

Country Store: Dennis Merrill, Lisa Miller, Roy Miller

Crafts: Peggy Strong, Joann Tribby, Susan Blaisdell, Audrey Nichols, Tom Opper, Susan Sherman

Donkeys & Mules: Jan Rowe

Draft Horses: David Stevens

Electricity: Paul Murray, Steve Plumb

Entertainment: Stirling Kendall

Environmental Concerns: Obie Buell, Heather Burt Exhibition Hall: Martha Gottlieb, Valerie Jackson, Amy LeBlanc

Fair Office: Debbie Kipp

Fairgrounds Assistant: Dave Howe

Farmers’ Market: John Belding

Fiddle Contest: Bucky Bohrmann

First Aid: Robert Pelletier, Stacy Pelletier, Ham Robbins

Fleece Show: Judy Kirk, Jeanne Young

Folk Arts: Anu Dudley

Food Area: David Gardner, Joanna Linden, Matthew Strong

Foot Race: Christopher Bovie, Skip Howard

Greening of Technology: Danuta Drozdowicz, Lisa Hawkins

Harry S Truman Manure Pitch-Off: Mort Mather

Historical Consultant: Jolene Gamage

Information Booth: Sue Buck, David Hilton, Willie Willette

Lighting: John Eastman

Livestock: Cathy Reynolds

Low-Impact Forestry: Geoff Zentz

Maine Businesses: Steven Koenig, Ellis Percy

MOFGA Booth: Donna Bradstreet, Bob Martin

Native American Arts: Theresa Hoffman, Richard Silliboy

Open Mic Entertainment: Joc Clark

Oxen: Wes Daniel

Parking: Amos Alley, Jim Bowers, Dave Colson, Dawna Doyon, Paul Volckhausen

Parking Lot Clean-Up: Fred Pinette

Pig Calling Contest: Rufus Percy

Poultry Exhibit: Forrest Hooper

Rabbit Exhibit: Perley Emery, Diana Whitehouse

Recycling: Jonathan Collinson, BJ Jones, Steve Peary, Tina Roberts, Scott Wilkerson

Safety: Lucy Behnke, David Blocher, Andy Bray, Mike Burns, Mary Ellen Cooper, Vernon Leeman, Don Thamert

Signs: Wendy Decrodo, Faye Krause, Joan Sheldon, Peggy Strong

Social & Political Action: Dan Hamilton, Gary Lawless, Beth Leonard

Sound Systems: Stuart Reynolds

Standardbred Pleasure Horse Show: Ansley Newton

Stoneworkers: Pat Manley

Ticket Gate: Carol Dorr, CR Lawn

Traffic: Matthew Strong

Volunteers: Sue Dwyer

Wednesday Spinners: Mollie Birdsall, Cynthia Thayer

Whole Life Tent: Barbara Balkin, Herbie Brewer, Barbara Foust

Youth Enterprise Zone: Bob Egan

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