HARMONY – Amy Bagley Lake attended the Harmony Free Fair from the time she was a little girl until last year.

Her children, Coty and Monica, were among the approximately 10,000 people each year who enjoyed the rides, watched events and spent time with friends at the free agricultural fair.

During this year’s fair on Sept. 2-5, organizers will honor the memory of the three, who were murdered at their Dexter home in June. A special fireworks display is planned, and a local musician will perform a song written for them.

“We miss Amy and Monica and Coty,” said Mel Chadbourne, a trustee of the fair. “It was the most public thing we could do at the fair.”

Lake’s estranged husband, Steven Lake, 37, of Wellington, shot his wife and two children before killing himself June 13. Amy Lake, a kindergarten teacher, grew up and attended school in Harmony.

Amy Lake, 38, helped run the fair as part of the sponsoring organization, the Patriarchs Club. She organized the parade and events for children, said Jeff Chadbourne, fair president.

He said he remembers Monica Lake, 12, singing on stage and participating in the pig scramble. Coty, 13, liked to look at the antique tractors and they both rode the mechanical bull. “They were a regular fixture at our fair,” he said. Amy Lake “enjoyed the fair so much.”

At dusk on Sept. 4, Harmony resident Craig Stutzman will perform a song he wrote called “The Dragonflies.” Its lyrics include: “Can you see the tears we cry? Don’t you know, it’s not goodbye ’cause everything you did surrounds us, made the memories of our lives.”

Then the special fireworks display by Central Maine Pyrotechnics will begin. It will show a large purple ribbon and have a purple theme — the color is a symbol of domestic violence awareness, Chadbourne said.

There will also be a petition aimed at gathering support for having two bridges in Harmony renamed in memory of Amy, Monica and Coty Lake.

The petition proposes that Higgins Stream Bridge on Route 150 be renamed the Amy, Coty and Monica Bridge To End Domestic Violence, and that Maine Stream Bridge on Route 154 be renamed the Remember Me Bridge.

Morning Sentinel Staff Writer Erin Rhoda can be contacted at 612-2368 or at:

erhoda@centralmaine.com

 

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