POWNAL — Pownal’s attempts to resurrect a beloved town festival and foster some much-needed community togetherness have been halted by the coronavirus pandemic.

For years, Edna and Lucy’s restaurant and the North Pownal Store were the two spots in Pownal where the community gathered to socialize. After Edna and Lucy’s closed in 2017 and the North Pownal Store followed suit a year later, the small town of about 1,500 was left with a gas station, a k-5 school and no real place to get together as a community, said Heidi Richards, co-chair of the Pownal Recreation Committee. Nothing has really been able to fill that gap since, but Richards hopes to help change that.

“It’s time to bring back some things that unite the town,” she said. 

Richards, who moved to Pownal eight years ago, teamed up with Kathy Hogue, a Pownal resident of 40 years, to bring back Pumpkin Fest, a fall festival that, until about 20 years ago, was a highly anticipated annual event. 

At the 2019 town meeting, residents voted to appropriate $2,000 to get the event up and running again, and planning commenced for the festival, scheduled for Oct. 17. 

They brought back some of the favorite events from years past as well as lots of new ideas, Hogue said. 

There was going to be a parade, community market, pumpkin decorating and size contests, a baked good competition and sale, historical reenactments celebrating the state’s 200th anniversary and the historical society’s 50th, a pumpkin trebuchet, hayrides up to Bradbury Mountain State Park, games, crafts and live music throughout the day. 

“Some of the people remembered what it was like when they were little kids and how fun it was,” Richards said. 

Pownal has had trouble coaxing people to join committees in recent months, but Richards said recreation committees were always well attended, sometimes as many as 20 people sitting around the table to help plan. 

“There was a lot of excitement and it was really nice that everyone was coming together,” she said.

But once coronavirus hit Maine and restrictions were put in place, Hogue and Richards watched as festivals and fairs across the state started canceling. 

“It just didn’t feel like that right thing” to keep going, Richards said. “We don’t know, by October, what things are going to look like.” 

So they moved to plan B. 

Now, residents are encouraged to pick up pumpkin seeds at Mallett Hall to grow at home. Oct. 17, they will be asked to place their pumpkins, carved, decorated, painted or plain, at the end of their driveways. People will be able to drive through town, see the finished products and vote— sort of like a cross between a parade and a scavenger hunt, Richards said. 

“It’s a way to keep community spirit up without the gatherings,” Hogue said. “People are looking to connect with the community more.”

“Before COVID, the town was really making an effort,” Richards added. 

This year, Pownal officials and residents have worked to foster more community spirit in the town. 

In January, the town hosted a “Twelfth Night” celebration at the historic Mallett Hall, the former Grange Hall, which town officials are hoping might one day be a Pownal Community Center. Selectboard Chairman Jon Morris cooked a traditional Twelfth Night cake, which had a bean cooked inside.

Whoever selected the piece with the bean was dubbed the “Lord or Lady of Misrule” for the night. Morris said in January that he hopes next year the hall’s stage will be home to a theater troupe performing William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. 

The following month, residents revived another Pownal tradition in which the select board picks a resident “who has contributed to the fabric of the community,” according to a letter from the board. 

Rosie Edwards, who runs the Short Stop, the town’s gas station, has “touched many people, young and old,” and always has “something to say about everything,” they wrote, and now “it’s the town’s turn to say something to her.” 

The community gathered to make homemade Valentine’s for Edwards, something she reportedly has a soft spot for, and asked people to bring cookies (or chili) as well. 

Hogue and Richards hoped the next event, a spring festival in May complete with flower crowns, a Maypole and a plant swap. The festival was where they were going to hand out the pumpkin seeds to get people ready for Pumpkin Fest— an unofficial kickoff. They planned to advertise the event in mid-March, but then the pandemic hit and everything stopped. 

“Right now, people’s health and safety is of the utmost importance,” Richards said. 

For now, they’re keeping their fingers crossed for next year. It won’t be the same, especially without the state’s 200th and the historical societies 50th anniversaries, she said, but “it will still be a great pumpkin fest.”

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