Mapleton Daze saved

    MAPLETON, Maine – More than 20 people responded to the Mapleton Daze Committee’s plea for volunteers, and now officials say there will definitely be a 20th annual summer celebration next year.    According to Debbie Sawyer, outgoing vice president, there was concern that without additional volunteers, Mapleton Daze would fold. The committee made a public appeal, which was heard Aug. 15 at a meeting that would determine the fate of the June tradition.
“We had 21 people – both new and former members – show up at our meeting,” said Sawyer. “We were really excited to have them.
“For this year’s Mapleton Daze, we had nine active and non-active members, but you really need to have more hands-on people,” she said. “With the 21 people who showed up, we’ll definitely have the numbers needed to plan and pull off Mapleton Daze another year.”
At the meeting, two new officers were selected. Penny Nadeau will return to the committee as vice president after taking a year off as president, while Heather Craig will serve as treasurer. She replaces Jennifer Buzza.
Three new committee chairs have also been identified. Julie Clark and Jen Edgecomb will co-chair the annual auction, while Nadeau will chair the calendar committee.
“What we’re going to do is break the committee down a little bit, so we’ll have smaller subcommittees,” said Nola Farley, Mapleton Daze president. “That way, we won’t have one or two people trying to do everything which is what’s been happening in the past and that causes extreme burnout.
“In the past, members of the committee who have younger children and families that come into town for Mapleton Daze were spending the entire weekend running the weekend and not being able to enjoy any of the weekend,” she said. “By breaking out into subcommittees, everybody will be able to help out, but also enjoy some personal time to enjoy the event.”
Farley said she hopes next year’s 20th annual celebration will be bigger and better than past years.
“Though we’re really only in the beginning stages,” she said, “we want to make it even better … a bigger parade, a bigger fireworks display, and more. Mapleton Daze has been a great event to have as it is throughout the years, but we’re really looking to bring it into more of a grand scheme of things to really celebrate the 20th year.
“Within the next couple of months,” said Farley, “we’re going to have some real strong brainstorming sessions to see what we have for new ideas and where we’re going to be at in terms of budgeting to be able to follow through with anything and everything we want to add, and also support everything we’ve had in the past.”
The next meeting will be Wednesday, Aug. 29 at 7 p.m. at the Pizza House and new members are welcome.