Last week, President Rick Fowler of the Mapleton Lions Club announced the club’s 61st Annual Auction would be rescheduled to June 10, 2023, due to a conflict.
The auction will be held at the Mapleton Lions Hall.
The last two years the club ran successful online auctions, but members felt auction buyers were missing the traditional social experience of older auctions. This year the club decided to host a hybrid auction, which consists of an online portion where starting bids for items will be taken online. These online bids will become the starting bids for the in-person event, where final bids will be made.
Readers should monitor greggauctions.com/) for the posting of the online portion of this auction. Items can be viewed online. All items purchased at the auction can be taken the night of the auction or will be available for pickup on June 11. There is no admission fee to the auction festivities.
Club members have begun soliciting nearly 300 items, gift certificates and services that will be auctioned. The auction is one of the two largest fundraising events for the Lions, and approximately 30 percent of the club’s annual income comes in that one evening.
Donations are always welcome. Any lion club member will be willing to accept your donation for the support of the Lions club projects. The auction will begin at 6:30 PM with Lions Club auctioneers Matt Gregg and Ron Leonard.
Pine and Spurs dinner
Prior to the Mapleton Lions Auction, the Pine and Spurs Riding Club will host a public dinner at the Mapleton Lions Hall.
The dinner will be served from 4:30 to 6 p.m. by volunteers of the riding club.
Everyone is encouraged to come out and have a good time, while supporting this annual fundraising evening for both the Mapleton Lions Club and Pine and Spurs Riding Club.
The cover of Dr. Dena Winslow’s new book “They Lynched Jim Cullen New England’s Only Lynching Facts, Folklore, and — What Really Happened” published through Amazon in December 2022. (Courtesy of Dena Winslow)
Lynching victim innocent?
The Haystack Historical Society will host DR. Dena L. Winslow, historical researcher, as she presents newly found information that suggests James Cullen was wrongfully accused and lynched 150 years ago.
Winslow will present at 3 p.m. Saturday, May 13, at the Haystack Historical Society Museum in Mapleton.
Cullen died at the hands of a lynch mob in Mapleton on April 30, 1873, becoming the only victim of lynching in New England. In her new book, “They Lynched Jim Cullen, New England’s Only Lynching, Facts, Folklore, and – What Really Happened,” Winslow tells the story of this tragedy that shook Aroostook County residents to the core after a small group of local folks took matters into their own hands and may have mistakenly lynched Cullen.
Since these events that fateful spring of 1873 which left three men dead, a lot of new evidence has come to light which makes it highly probable that Jim Cullen was not the person who murdered Deputy Sheriff Granville A. Hayden and William Thomas Hubbard in a camp in the woods of Chapman.
Winslow’s program is free and open to the public. Donations to the Historical Society will be accepted.
Trails are closed
ATV riders, remember trails are not open until the end of May. The official date will be posted. When ATV riders go on soft trails before they are officially open, clubs run the risk of landowners closing the trails to ATV traffic due to damages caused by riding on soft, wet and muddy trails.
For information, call Mickey Maynard, club president, at 764-1236.
Terry Sandusky is the Star-Herald correspondent for Mapleton, Chapman and Castle Hill and can be reached at 764-4916 or at starherald.Tsandusky@gmail.com.
