Letter from the President

The Harmony Patriarchs Club

Presents the 70th Annual

Harmony Free Fair - 2017

Welcome to the 70th Harmony Free Fair brought to you by the Harmony
Patriarchs Club. This year, the Patriarchs Club has taken on some major projects
at the fairgrounds. The ﬁrst thing you will notice is the new food pavilion
where you will be able to order your hamburgers, hot dogs, french fries and
other fair food from one window. After you order, you will be able to sit down in
our covered eating area, or if you prefer, our outside seating area. Both areas
have a nice view of our outdoor stage which will be packed with entertainment
this year. None of this would have been possible without the generosity of local
businesses and individuals. Please take a moment and read the dedication
plaque located in the pavilion.

Kavanaugh Amusements will once again be ﬁlling our midway with rides and
games. We will also have many private vendors tempting you with merchandise
and delicious treats. There will be lots of demonstrations being held on any one
of our three stages throughout the fairgrounds. Returning this year is the “Weed
Walk” where you can learn wilderness foraging. Everyone loved the lizard show
and the sheep dog demonstrations; both will be included in this year’s program.
The Demo derby, truck pull, ¼ scale tractor pull, antique tractor rodeo and
doodlebug pull all will be back. Fireworks, pig scramble, horse show and horse
and oxen pulling will be returning as well. Please check our announcement
board for exact locations and times for these and many other events.
Don’t forget to visit our livestock barns as they will be full of information and
demonstrations involving the many different types of animals at the fair.

On our entertainment stages this year we will be bringing back some old
favorites and some new acts and performers that have never been here before,
like the old time ﬁddling contest, which is sure to be a crowd pleaser.

Kids - remember to stop by the Prize Ticket booth and answer a question
on an agricultural topic so you can have your name entered in the drawing for
one of the 30 bikes we will be giving away. Entering is free but, if your name is
called as a winner, you must be present at the time of the drawing to win your
bike.

As most of you know, the Harmony Free Fair is sponsored by the Patriarchs
Club. The fair is the club’s major fundraiser.

The Patriarchs Club gives back to the town in so many ways. Among the
things we have sponsored this year is the $1000 scholarship that is awarded
to Harmony students pursuing high education. We also sponsor the fair poster
contest in collaboration with the Harmony Elementary School art classes. A
donation is made to the art program and cash prizes are awarded to the artists
winning ﬁrst, second, and third place in the poster contest. Asia Young is this
year’s ﬁrst place winner. Look for her design on posters advertising the fair in
the area and on the 2017 Fair T-shirt.

This year we also sponsored a Wash Your Hands poster contest. Students
in the lower grades at Harmony Elementary School created posters reminding
fair goers to wash their hands when leaving the animal barn, before eating etc.
All posters will be displayed during the fair. Harmony certainly has some great
budding artists.

The club also sponsors the Citizenship Award at the elementary school each
year. This year’s winner is Harmony Elementary student Abby Knapp.
The annual ﬁshing day for the students at the elementary school was a suc-
cess again this year. Almost every participant was able to proudly carry home
trout at the end of the day.

This past year, the Harmony Patriarchs Club continues on our mission of
giving as much as we can back into our community. This past winter concerned
citizens came to us and explained that, as we all know, times are hard and
many residents from Harmony and Wellington are struggling to make ends
meet. We have all been there at one time or another and the idea of opening a
food pantry where residents in need could go to supplement their monthly food
purchases seemed like a good way to help.

In keeping with the club’s mission as a community betterment organization,
the Patriarchs Club was instrumental in the establishment of a program where
neighbors can help neighbors. One of the program’s mottos is “if you need a
little, take a little - if you’ve got a little, give a little”.

The Patriarchs Club donated a building in the center of town that has become
Harmony Cares, our community food bank. Using the club’s nonprofit status we
were able to secure a grant from the USDA which will help make some needed
repairs and restorations to the building. Other signiﬁcant contributions came
from local companies. Special thanks to McKusick Petroleum for donating a
complete heating system and A.K Electric and Gilman Electric for donating all
the work and materials needed to upgrade the electrical system. While the Patriarchs
Club hopes to partially support this project in the future, it will take the
generosity of other groups to fully fund this much needed community project. As
of this date about 45 families are using the pantry.

The Patriarchs Club has had another busy year and is looking forward to another
great fair. The club is open to anyone who has an interest in the Harmony
Free Fair or the town of Harmony. Please contact any one of our members if
you would like to join or volunteer a few hours to help out before, during or after
the fair. It is a nice way to give back to our community and meet some great
people.

We had a great fair last year and as always we hope to have a better one this
year and hope you can join in the fun.

SEE YOU AT THE FAIR!
Jeff Chadbourne

2016 Letter from the President
2015 Letter from the President
2014 Letter from the President
2013 Letter from the President
2012 Letter from the President

The Harmony Patriarchs Club
Presents the 69 Annual
th
Harmony Free Fair - 2016
Welcome to the 69 Harmony Free Fair! The Harmony Patriarchs Club has been busy over the past year
th
planning and putting together what will be the best fair ever for this year. As always we listen to
comments and suggestions made during and after the fair. Last year we heard you loud and clear that we
need shade over the bleachers that surround the main stage. We put this at the top of our list for
improvements and there will be shade over all of those bleachers this year.
We also heard “Where is the horse show that you always had on Labor Day?” Well the answer is it’s
back bigger and better with over $1,000.00 being awarded. See it Monday after the parade.
This year’s entertainment will be fantastic with some new groups and some old favorites. Sadly, this past
year the Harmony Free Fair lost one of its most beloved entertainers, Mr. Bob Elston. Please join us
Saturday when we will be presenting a plaque to his wife for the many years he played at our fair.
Kavanaugh Amusements will be providing the midway again and are bring plenty of rides to fill the
midway - some of which have not been here before. Look for more vendors this year.
This year we will be giving away THIRTY bikes on Monday afternoon - that’s 10 more than last year.
You must be present to win. We had lots of happy kids last year.
This is the 25 year of the pie auction and this one will have some special surprises. Huge thanks to Rosie
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and Glen Carlow for doing this over the years.

We will be adding more agricultural demonstrations this year. They were very popular last year and once
again we will be awarding $100 to what we feel is the best one. Each presentation should be about 30
minutes long and can be anything from a lecture to a demonstration to a field trip around the fairgrounds.
Please contact us to set up a time for you.
For the 5 year we have had our fair poster designed by running a contest at our local school and it’s a
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beauty this year. We will also be selling our one-of-a-kind t-shirts at the prize ticket booth during the fair.
While you’re there, remember to buy your prize tickets for the grand prize drawing. You do not need to
be present to win.
Please look through our fair book to find the events that you can’t miss, be it the truck pull, demolition
derby, pig scramble, fireworks, quarter scale tractor pull, or livestock shows and the list goes on and on.
We continue to support our community through scholarships, awards, and special events like fishing day
for the kids. Don’t forget to get three of your buddies together and sign up for our 2 annual volleyball
nd
tournament. The fair will make a donation of $200 to the charity of the winning team’s choosing.
Projects that we would like to do in the future are combining the Patriarchs Club’s food booths and
adding a covered area where people could sit, eat and visit. We would also like to finish the inside of the
fiber arts building, and add a new food booth by the demo derby area. Also on our wish list is adding
lights to the livestock arena for night events and other general improvements to the fairgrounds. All of
this will take time and money.
As it has always been, our fair will remain Maine’s only free agricultural fair with no gate fee and free
parking. This is made possible by the large amount of volunteers in the community. I want to thank
members of the Fire Department, Ambulance, Community Center and the other people in the community
that give up their time to volunteer to work a few hours during the fair and in the weeks that lead up to it.
Some Patriarchs Club members this year have given up a weekend to go to a food safety seminar.
Another member has spent this winter putting together a safety plan for our fairgrounds.

Please remember we consider our fair a family event. No alcoholic beverages are permitted and smoking
is prohibited. Anyone that is disorderly will be asked to leave. We love all our four-legged friends but
our midway is not the place for them unless they are service animals, so please leave your pets at home.
They will probably be happier staying away from the crowd.
If you would like to learn more about the Patriarchs Club and the Harmony Free Fair, please ask anyone
wearing an orange Patriarchs Club shirt at the fair, call one of the numbers in this book, or check out our
Facebook page.
SEE YOU AT THE FAIR!
Jeff Chadbourn