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V O L . X X V I I N O. X M AY 1 7 , 2 0 2 1 6 B U S I N E S S M A I N E Business news from around the state Common Ground will hold fair in September — if it can muster enough volunteers B y M a u r e e n M i l l i k e n U n i t y — Common Ground Country Fair, held annually in September by the Maine Organic Farmer & Gardeners Association, will be held live this year at the organization's Unity fairgrounds — provided it can muster the volunteer power to run the three-day event. The fair, which features organic food vendors, craft sell- ers, speakers on rural life, and more from around the state, is scheduled for Sept. 24-26. This year's fair, the 44th, will have attendance limits, require masks for all participants, have touchless payment systems, additional space between vendors to allow social distancing and increased sanitation in high-touch areas. "The safety of our community remains our top priority," fair director April Boucher said. "We would not be planning this event if we did not believe we could support a safe experience for all involved." But all this would depend on a network of volunteers. In 2019, the fair had 1,512 volunteers who filled 2,579 shifts for approximately 9,249 volunteer hours, according to MOFGA's fair timeline. MOFGA estimates it will need 2,000 or more to run the 2021 fair and is looking for commitments from volunteers. Much interest, but hesitance The 2020 fair was an online event, including a marketplace that ran through January. The 2019 fair had 58,028 attend- ees and featured 775 educational workshops, demonstra- tions and performances by artists. The Common Kitchen served more than 7,000 meals throughout setup, the fair itself and the cleanup. Survey responses show there's a great deal of interest in gathering in person, but also hesitance among those who attend or participate in the fair, she said. The decision to hold a live event came after months of discussions, research and planning, including "months-long conversations with staff and volunteers," survey results from nearly 4,000 respondents, Maine Center for Disease Control and Maine Department of Economic and Community Development guidelines for outdoor festivals and talking to organizers of other festivals, Boucher said. Boucher said organizers are committed to providing the same quality of the fair, despite the restrictions. "Educational talks and demonstrations on organic production and sus- tainable living are at the core of the fair experience," she said. "We are committed to continuing this and offering a high-quality event with safety in mind." MOFGA will have updates to the status of the fair on its website throughout the spring and summer. The fair, which celebrates organic farming and garden- ing and rural life, began in 1977 in Litchfield as a MOFGA fundraiser. It took place in Windsor from 1981 to 1995, and has been held on MOFGA's 200 acres in Unity since then. Since 2017, it has been fully powered by alternative energy, including a 102-kilowatt solar array, heat pumps and a wind turbine. P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y O F M O F G A The safety of our community remains our top priority. — April Boucher Common Ground B R I E F The Common Ground Country Fair will be back to being a live event this year, if enough volunteers sign up to help. Optimism ahead of summer tourism season A focus on local travel, numbers that grew as the year wore on, the percep- tion of Maine as a safe and friendly place and high visitor satisfaction helped keep the Maine tourism industry afloat in 2020 and bodes well for 2021, those in the industry were told at the annual Governor's Conference on Tourism. In 2020, Maine had 12 million visitors, and while that was just a fraction of the 37.3 million who visited in 2019, the tourists visited despite months of quarantine, shutdowns and travel restrictions. A silver lining is that Mainers traveled around the state like they never had before, helping to sup- port local businesses and discovering regions and activities that were new to them, said Steve Lyons, commissioner of the Maine Office of Tourism. N O T E W O R T H Y S T A T E W I D E U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King announced that the U.S. Depart- ment of Health and Human Services awarded a total of $689,821 to nine organizations in Maine for Head Start and Early Head Start Programs. Recip- ients included: Community Concepts, $124,601; Penquis Community Ac- tion Agency, $110,456; Southern Kennebec Child Development Corp., $84,271; Androscoggin Head Start and Child Care, $73,737; Aroostook County Action Program, $71,330; Midcoast Maine Community Action, $67,417; York County Community Ac- tion, $66,815; Downeast Community Partners, $48,456; and Waldo Com- munity Action Partners, $42,738. Blue T LLC in Portland, Cote & Dunton LLC in Farmington, Pear's Ice Cream and Hoagies in Otisfield and Yash LLC in Waterville each received a $10,000 small business grant from Verizon. RMS to be sold to Calif. firm South Portland-based Residential Mortgage Services Inc. signed an agreement to be acquired by San S T A T E W I D E S O U T H E R N

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