For the last 15 years, dozens of volunteers have fanned out across Sebago Lake to direct traffic, weigh fish and handle registrations in order to ensure the smooth functioning of Maine’s biggest ice fishing derby, the Feb. 14-15 Sebago Lake and Cumberland County Ice Fishing Derbies.

The cooperative effort represents the culmination of a nearly yearlong effort by a dedicated group of core organizers from the Sebago Lake Rotary Club who plan the annual event, which includes the popular Shaw’s Polar Ice Dip off Raymond Beach, by holding meetings, gathering sponsorships, arranging parking and plowing, assuring compliance with state regulations, and more.

Lead organizer Deb McPhail – a longtime Rotarian and Windham businesswoman who took over the reins after last year’s organizer, Toby Pennels, unexpectedly died last fall – characterizes her fellow organizers as “a few people doing a ton of work.”

This year the committee includes Rotarians McPhail, Nicole Lajoie, Tammy Farthing, Cyndy Bell and Ingo Hartig. Bell is the Lakes Region Weekly’s advertising account executive.

According to Lajoie, another longtime derby organizer, the process of planning and executing the derby never really ends. After the Sebago and county derbies are complete, the group prepares for the annual Kids’ Derby, which this year will be held at Range Pond in Poland on March 7 and usually attracts about 500 children and their parents.

“It’s kind of a year-round process,” Lajoie said. “You really never stop thinking about it or ever stop contacting people about it. When the derby ends you still have contact with people who won things.”

According to Tom Noonan, the former lead organizer of the derby who ran the event from 2001 to 2012, the large size of the prize pool drives the need for long-term planning. This year, combined prizes for the derby total $20,000.

“Planning for the next year starts before the first one’s over,” Noonan said. “Sponsorships are the big thing. You need to have the capital to run the event. You really need to have the thing funded before you can know what you can offer in the following year for prizes.”

But securing sponsorships, which begins in earnest in the summer, is just the start of the committee’s work. According to McPhail, there have been about 16 committee meetings since September.

Lajoie said she’s spent “countless hours” preparing for this year’s derby.

“I set up the vendors at the Raymond Beach area, I also work with weighing the fish, I work with the awards banquet and then the planning,” Lajoie said. “We meet pretty regularly from September through now, to just go through everything with our budgets, our sponsors, our prize pools, about everything. You have your committee and then you delegate out to the different people.”

Every year, the committee coordinates a host of activities with a variety of agencies, organizations and government bodies, including the Sebago Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce, the Portland Water District, the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office, the Maine Wardens’ Service, the town of Raymond, the Standish Fire Department, and the Maine Children’s Cancer Program, McPhail said.

Another requirement, Noonan said, is ensuring compliance with state regulations. In the years after the derby began, the size of the derby and its prize pool caused the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to draft new regulations for big derbies, in order to protect fisheries. Noonan said the Rotary club helped to craft some of the new regulations.

“We helped write that with the state because they didn’t have stuff in place to handle large derbies like this,” Noonan said. “It was a cooperative effort.”

As the derby gets closer and finally arrives, McPhail said, the committee typically expects lots of assistance from fellow Rotarians and their families.

“We always ask for help and we get help,” she said. “We’ve got a really good, tight club and we’re able to pull it off. We get husbands and wives and friends.”

Derby weekend entails a large volunteer effort, Noonan said.

“With all the events, it usually takes in excess of 50 volunteers, and that’s during the event,” Noonan said. “We have people that plow snow and direct traffic and weigh fish, and any number of things. It takes quite a bit of effort.”

But once the derby is over, the work doesn’t end. The Rotary club’s board then determines how to divide up the charity donations received, Noonan said. Prizes also must be distributed, as well.

Despite all the work involved, McPhail said, the committee’s composition doesn’t change much from year to year.

“It’s pretty much the same group of people that help out, last year, this year, and pretty much every year,” she said.

“I’m extremely tired,” McPhail said earlier this week.

This year, McPhail said, registrations have been slow as a result of the unrelenting snow. Although cold weather is forecast for this weekend, McPhail said, the solid ice – between 12 to 18 inches on Jordan Bay and along the shoreline – should attract a good crowd.

“Ice fishermen will fish in every type of weather,” McPhail said. “They’ve got their little shacks. They’ll be fine.”

Despite the bright sun, the temperature was around 12 degrees when volunteers from the Sebago Lake Rotary Club and the Maine Children’s Cancer Program assembled on the ice at the Raymond Boat Launch Wednesday morning to continue preparations for this weekend’s annual Polar Dip to raise money for the cancer program. Helping to organize the event are, from left, Sebago Lake Rotary Club director Amy Senatore, Rotarians Cyndy Bell, Nick Moore, George Bartlett and Debbie McPhail, as well as Tara Studley and Patrick Mejia with the Maine Children’s Cancer Program, and Rotarian Peter Burnett.Photos by Rich ObreyIn what has become an annual tradition on the Wednesday morning before derby weekend, volunteers from the Sebago Lake Rotary Club and the Maine Children’s Cancer Program cut the first opening in the ice off Raymond Beach to begin preparations for Saturday’s Polar Dip.