STRONG — The Sandy River Festival made its triumphant return to Strong on Saturday, June 10, with a host of activities, including face painting, kayaking, fly tying and fly-casting demonstrations, log rolling and more.

The festival opened to the public at 9 a.m. at the American Legion field, 76 South Main St. Sponsors for the festival included the Natural Resources Council of Maine [NRCM], Mainely Outdoors, IEC Electrical & Data Services, Poland Springs, David Kidd and Rob Thorndike and Maine-ly Trees.

Also appearing at the festival were the Sandy River Ramblers, who performed at 12 p.m. and Maine Poet Laureate Julia Bouwsma who read from her select work at 2 p.m. Representatives from NRCA, High Peaks Alliance and Alaskan Salmon Foundation were also at the event to provide pamphlets and brochures for their organizations.

For the kids, Healthy Community Coalition had face painting, inner tubing and a story hour led by Robin Lisherness, Karen Calloway, and Paula Roy as Fly Rod Crosby.

Food was provided by Great Grub Food Truck and a Strong Fire Department barbecue.

The festival made its return after 14 years of silence and that is largely thanks to Marc Edwards of NRCM.

“We [Edwards’ family] had moved here in late 2006, early 2007,” Edwards said in an interview on the riverbank of the Sandy River. “We came to the last one, and for us just moving here, it was a great activity, a great way to kind of meet folks in the community and be involved in the community and float the river and it was just a great time.”

Edwards’ career took him out of state, but since joining NRCM, he has been more active in Strong and the rest of Franklin County. Edwards took this as an opportunity to help bring back the festival.

“I thought, ‘what a great event for the community and for NRCM to kind of be a part of it to build relationships in the community and help celebrate this wonderful resource,” he said.

Edwards reached out to Milt Baston, who was originally involved with the Sandy River Festival in 2002 when it was put together to celebrate the bicentennial of the town of Strong, which took place in 2001.

“We had such a wonderful response from people from all over the place,” Baston said. “They came from the coast, they came from the southwestern part of Bethel, as well as up and down Sandy River Valley. So, we did it the next year.”

According to Baston and Edwards, the last festival took place in 2008. However, a conflicting report states the last Sandy River Festival happened in 2009. Either way, Baston has been hearing locals ask him for years when the Sandy River Festival would return.

“People were always coming along going, ‘You really got to do that, again, we really got to do it.’ And every time someone would say you got to do that,” Baston said. “It’s like, ‘No, I don’t. You have a template and I’ll help ya.’”

Baston wanted to see the event led by someone else with fresh ideas. “Let’s try to turn this over and let other people think of events, not just this kind of event,” he said. “Marc took it up, and I came back to help him.”

Edwards, despite being the catalyst for the festival, credits it to the community who helped him put everything together.

“I brought these folks together and we collectively did the planning,” Edwards said. “We collectively solicited volunteers. And so, it truly is a group community effort, and all these folks are really involved heavily involved in the community. They want to see their community grow and be successful.”

Edwards and Baston also credit Andrew and Erica Bracy, Joel and Kathleen Doyon, Valerie Tucker, Bill Pierce, Dennis Blake, John Stinchfield, and Jeff Reardon. With the success of this year’s festival, the group is eager to bring it back to Strong for next year.

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