Moose "Go Home"

On Saturday, May 14th, with the help of their friends, the painted moose went home to reside on the premises of their respective patrons. They will be on location until the Grand Gala and Auction on October 29th, 2005.

Thanks to all the great guys (and gals) who met at 6:00 AM Saturday, to begin the tedious job of loading concrete bases and moose onto the various trucks for deliver all around town. Keith Martin of P.J. Martin, Inc was the co-ordinator and Chair of the Moose Transport Committee. Keith formatted everyone's job, down to the most minute detail, and as a result, everything went perfectly.

We followed one of the crews as they worked their assignment. There was Mark Shea who offered the use of the Shea Family Funeral Home's boon truck. Joining him were Ken Kennedy, driver of the truck and trailer hauling the moose, and Dave Began who operated the boom truck.

Our first stop was Leonard's True Value Hardware on Route 7, in Pownal. Mr. Leonard met us there. He told us he had just telephoned Linda, his wife, telling her to bring her camera, so that she could "photograph some new merchandise" just in. We don't know if she fell for that story, but we nevertheless would have liked to have stayed and seen the expression on her face as she saw for the first time "Rufus" (painted by Pam DiSano) in front of their store. Rufus boldy stands guard now at our most southen point.

Next on Route 7 was the placement of "Nellie" at the Pownal View Barn Furniture Store. Some of Howard Armstrong's neighbors were already there before Howard arrived on the scene. Nellie, whose formal name is "Seasons of Vermoose", and which was painted by Sherry Steeves, was named for Mr. Armstrong's Grandmother Nellie. Howard remarked that his grandmother would be proud of her namesake. As we were leaving, Mr. Armstrong was already planning a picket fence to go around Nellie.

Third on our agenda was continuing on down Route 7 to The Apple Barn and Country Bake Shop. We pulled Harry Diamond away from his baking long enough to verify the placement of Windweaver (artist Dan Turcotte). Later, as the crew was palcing Windweaver on his concrete pedestal, Mr. Diamond came out with a tray full of coffee and doughnuts, and forced us to imbibe. Not to gloat or anything, but the doughnuts were still warm, and the coffee was nice and hot! Yum! Thank you, Harry!

Continuing north on Hwy 7, we came to Maguire's Market. Owner Pattie Maguire was out working with another crew so she didn't get to see Anonymoose (artist Lucy McNulty) come home. Pattie Maguire and Mary Morrissey are the Partons for Anonymoose. At this point we left our crew temporarily , as we were called upon to visit with another crew headed by Steve Eddington. When we came back to check, Anonymoose was in place, happily grinning at all who came by to visit.

Our crew's final assignment, was Leafleigh (artist Tracy Bushee, Patrons Drs. Guild, Salem, and Macksey) for placement at the Post Office on Elm Street. We may have stopped traffic just for a very brief time, but everyone was all smiles, and took time to watch alsong with us as Leafleigh was gently put into place. One elderly gentleman said, "This really dresses up the place!" To which someone replied, "We are dressing up our whole town!"

THANKS TO ALL THE CREWS ALL OVER TOWN WHO DID INDEED DRESS UP THE PLACE!