Tony Mazzucco correctly pointed out to me that several facilities have been updated recently. Family Eyecare/Mavor Optical just completed a major renovation to their facility on Herschel Street and added a really nice electrical sign on the side of their building. The building that houses Subway and others is being updated with new trim and a real nice stone façade and Paradis’ Shop ‘n Save repaved and lined their parking lot.
Businesses spending hard earned dollars on their facilities are always an optimistic sign and examples of investing in the community.
We just completed our second Thursdays on Sweden in two consecutive weeks. How much fun is that!? Lots! This past one contained the chilliest weather so far and we still had a good crowd come out. Several food vendors spiced up their entries for the week’s theme and there was chili and others with an international flavor.
We have one more Thursdays on Sweden to go for the season on Sept. 26, which will be a part of O.P. Pierson Days here from Sept. 26-28. As we celebrate this home-grown genius and what he meant to the community, there will be many great events including programs in the schools that Thursday, another great night on Sweden Street, tours of local farms and manufacturers on Friday and a big day on Saturday.
That Saturday at the downtown mall will be fun events from 10 to 2 with antique cars and tractors, potato races, vendors, live music, great food, an art show, farmers’ market and more! The afternoon features some great high school soccer games. And after will be more great music, food vendors, and it will all be finished off with a finale of fireworks! It is going to be a glorious three days!
One small part of the O.P. Pierson Days activities is crowning the best French fries in Caribou. What business or restaurant makes the best fries? You can decide the answer. On our Facebook page is a poll of all the French fry vendors in the city and you can vote for your favorite. Of course, there is no way that you can make that call unless you go out and try an order from each place, right? What a terrible job! Ha! You can vote by taking the poll on the Facebook page or by sending your favorite to me via e-mail or give me a call with your choice.
The French Fry King or Queen will be announced during O.P. Pierson Days. Why are we doing this? Well, because O.P. Pierson invented the frozen french fry!
I spent part of Friday visiting some of our members from Presque Isle. These members smartly understand that they do business in Caribou and can reach Caribou area residents by joining our Chamber. The invitation is wide open to other businesses outside our community that do business here. Let us support you and join today.
Please mark down on your calendars that the Bessie Gray Memorial United Methodist Church is celebrating the 100th anniversary of their beautiful edifice this year. They have a huge week of celebration beginning Sept. 29 and running through Oct. 6. I will provide more details of the events in weeks to come as we get closer to those dates. But this is a major historic milestone in our city from an organization that has served this community for a very long time.
I recently completed a great big survey from the Maine Office of Tourism. My major theme for them with my answers was that tourism does not stop at Bangor or beyond the coastline. Aroostook County is a wonderful place to visit for a thousand different reasons. And despite the state forgetting that we exist up here, people do come here all the time. I was talking to Donna Murchison of Russell’s Motel and she was saying that she gets visitors from everywhere including Europe all the time.
My favorite moment of the week occurred at the Thursdays On Sweden event. Many weeks ago I had gone and visited Kate McCartney at the Old Iron Inn. And she had a slogan she felt the Chamber should adopt. The slogan? “Caribou: The COOLEST city in Maine.” I love it and had some T-shirts made to sell at the TOS events and at the office. I kept hoping I would see her and never seemed to run into her. But she and Kevin came out to our street event and stopped by. When she saw our T-shirts, I thought she was going to cry. She said they made her day. And of course, that made my day as well and week as well.
Executive Director William Tasker may be reached in the CACC office at 498-6156 or e-mail him at cacc@cariboumaine.net.
