Nice weather and huge crowds highlight Moose Lottery Festival
By Mike Lange
Staff Writer
GREENVILLE — Aside from a few pop-up showers over Moosehead Lake, the first-ever Moose Lottery Festival held in Greenville last weekend appeared to be a rousing success.
It was also a huge boost for non-profit groups like the Moosehead Lake Kiwanis Club, Columbia-Doric Masonic Lodge, Boy Scouts, C.A. Dean Memorial Hospital and the Greenville Fire Department who set up vendor booths in the school parking lot and Pritham Gymnasium.
Observer photo/Mike Lange
COME AND GET ‘EM — Boy Scouts, from left, Dustin Freethy-Poiss, Logan Adrien, Matthieu Adrien and Max Schnetzer had a successful day selling oversized cookies and soft drinks at the weekend’s Moose Lottery Festival.
Sporting goods and outdoors outfitter Cabela’s was a major sponsor of the festival, passing out hundreds of green caps with the company logo.
At the Friends of Squaw Mountain booth, the non-profit group running the ski resort, T-shirt sales were brisk all day. “We’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of the mountain this year,” said volunteer Amy Lane, manning the booth with Noel Wohlforth. “This is great exposure for us.”
Observer photo/Mike Lange
PLENTY OF VISITORS — Moosehead Lake Region Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Amber Lavigne was busy all weekend, thanks to the influx of visitors for Moose Lottery Festival.
Motel rooms were either scarce or non-existent, hundreds of people visited the Moose Mainea Craft Fair and the classic steamship Katahdin downtown, and it was standing room only at the Greenville school auditorium for the highlight of the weekend: the moose hunt lottery.
Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Commissioner Chandler Woodcock kicked off the lottery by thanking Greenville Town Manager Gary Lamb and all those who organized the three-day festival. “We do have EMTs on site, in case you get palpitations when your name is read,” he joked.
Woodcock, IF&W Deputy Commissioner Andrea Erskine, Boy Scouts, Key Club members and other volunteers each read 100 lottery winners’ names, prompting an occasional cheer when a lucky hunter was in the audience.
By marketing the moose hunt lottery with other social activities, the town of Greenville “did an outstanding job,” said Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine Executive Director Dave Trahan. “We’ve seen a steady crowd here (in the school gymnasium) all day, we’ve signed up several new members and sold a ton of raffle tickets.”
Observer photo/Mike Lange
SAM SUCCESS — Dave Trahan, the executive director of the Sportsmen’s Alliance of Maine (SAM), said that he was pleased with the turnout at the Moose Lottery Festival. He’s pictured with SAM Operations Manager Becky Morrell.
Moosehead Lake Region Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Amber Lavigne said she was “out straight” since mid-week, but couldn’t be happier. “I really have to thank (former executive director) Bob Hamer for getting the vendors on board in February and working with the town to make this happen,” said Lavigne. “I’d like to see this weekend become the starting point of the Moose Mainea revival. We have a lot of first-time visitors, and we want them to come back.”
Moose Mainea started several years ago as a prelude to the summer season, and was designed to attract visitors to Greenville to see Maine’s official state game animal as it became more active and visible.
Despite being a hotbed of activity for moose watchers and hunters, however, this was the first time that the IF&W random drawing for moose permits was held in Greenville. More than 52,000 people applied for, and 4,110 ultimately received, a permit to hunt in one of four sessions this fall: Sept. 23-28, Oct. 14-19, Nov. 4-9 and Nov. 4-30.
Observer photo/Mike Lange
SQUAW MOUNTAIN BENEFIT — Amy Lane, a volunteer for Squaw Mountain Ski Resort, sells a souvenir T-shirt to Jim Quimby of Dexter.