Do you love the Common Ground Country Fair? Maybe you’ve been coming each year since you were young, or maybe you volunteered for a few shifts last year and want to do so again. We are looking for some dedicated individuals to join our volunteer team. Each year many individuals work hard to ensure that the different pieces of the Fair run smoothly. From the parking lots to the kitchen to the speakers’ tents, volunteers take the lead. Do you love wool and yarn, are you up for taking on a shift in the parking lot, or are you excited about alternative ways to get to the Fair? Perhaps you’ve volunteered many times in a particular area and are interested in becoming one of our hardworking area coordinators, organizing volunteers and scheduling events in a particular area of the Fair. Current area coordinator openings are posted at www.mofga.org/The-Fair/Fair-Volunteers. Whatever your interests, you can have a positive impact on the Fair. Online volunteer registration will open in early June. Contact Andrew Graham, MOFGA’s community engagement coordinator, at agraham@mofga.org or 207-568-4142 with any questions.

September 2019

Logan Johnston is a farmer, former book publisher, musician and, most importantly to him, he is civically engaged. The many hats he wears or has worn in his hometown of Gardiner speaks to that commitment to his community. Johnston and his wife, Phyllis Gardiner, run Oaklands Farm, currently a commercial cow-calf operation on land that has been in Gardiner’s family since the 1750s. In 1990, when the family dairy closed, they were tasked with planning the future of the farm.

June 2019

Art, agriculture and education intersect uniquely for Kevin Martin, winner of the 2019 poster design contest for the Common Ground Country Fair.

“Over the years,” he says, “I’ve been thinking that being an artist is less about what I produce than how I think” – that is, seeing things from many dimensions, being willing to take risks, and approaching problems in unconventional ways in order to understand them. “I’ve taken that mindset to everything I’ve done in my professional career.”

June 2019

Jo Ann Myers comes from a farm family in northeastern Connecticut and spent a rather peripatetic lifestyle living in Alaska, Washington state and Kentucky while working on rural health systems. After that she and her husband, Wayne, finally landed in Waldoboro on the farm named after JoAnn's French Canadian ancestors, Beau Chemin Preservation Farm. Beau Chemin means "beautiful path," which certainly describes Myers' journey.

March 1, 2019 – When you talk with Aidan Richman, the words that keep coming up are “sustainability” and “ecology.” Now in his gap year after graduating from Portland High School, he is spending his time meeting new people and listening to their stories. The ones he heard at the Common Ground Country Fair last fall from volunteers, staff and fairgoers make him even surer that he will set his sights on an education that has those two principles at its core.

January 15, 2019

A highlight during MOFGA day at the Maine Agricultural Trades Show was unveiling the 2019 Common Ground Country Fair poster. The poster features two Dexter heifers posing with oats and red and crimson clover. Dexters are raised for dairy, beef and draft power, making them an excellent triple-purpose breed for homesteads. Local artist Kevin Martin of Vinalhaven created the design – an engaging and fitting image for the 43rd annual Common Ground Country Fair, September 20, 21 and 22. Posters are available through MOFGA's online Country Store.