Mallett Brothers Band, shown here performing at the 2022 Dorcas Fest in Buxton, returns this year for a concert at 6 p.m. Saturday. File photo / American Journal
Buxton is the place to be this Saturday.
It’s the annual Dorcas Society Fest, featuring the Mallett Brothers Band, 5K road race, a church fair and lawn sale, classic car show, parade and fireworks. All events will be held at Tory Hill at the intersection of routes 202 and 112.
The Dorcas Society of Hollis and Buxton, a women’s charitable group, the town of Buxton and the Tory Hill Meeting House have collaborated for months organizing festivities.
The concert
Mallett Brothers Band drummer Brian Higgins at Riverbank Park in Westbrook Monday. Robert Lowell / American Journal
The Mallett Brothers Band will entertain at 6 p.m. Saturday on a stage behind the Brewster Mansion.
The band has made appearances at several Dorcas Fests.
“We’re thrilled to play there, such nice people,” band drummer Brian Higgins said this week.
The Dorcas Fest gig is a homecoming for the widely-traveled Maine band. They are Luke Mallett, Gorham; Will Mallett, Sebec; Nick Leen, Freeport; Andrew Martelle, Yarmouth; and Higgins, a Westbrook native.
Higgins, who now lives in Massachusetts, grew up at the intersection of Westbrook’s Cumberland and Bridge streets and began playing drums in his mother’s basement. Don Doane was his fifth grade music teacher and Terry White his Westbrook High School music mentor. He played in the high school jazz and marching bands and studied as a senior under George Bookataub.
“I had some great teachers,” Higgins said.
He graduated from Westbrook High School in 1985. Growing up, he was an altar boy at St. Hyacinth Church and had an American Journal paper route, he said.
Higgins is an original member of the band, formed in 2009, that plays rock ‘n’ roll, Americana and country music all over the nation.
“We’re road warriors, we love it,” Higgins said.
Tickets for the concert are $25 and are available at eventbrite.com and at the gate, which opens at 5:15 p.m. rain or shine. Take your own chair or blanket.
Get an early start
The Dorcas Dash, a 5K road race and walk, kicks off the day’s packed schedule at 8 a.m. There’s still time to register at runinarace.com. Race day registrations ($25 in cash) are available starting at 7 a.m. at 1197 River Road. Kids 12 and under can enter for free and register at the race. All proceeds will benefit the Dorcas Society Mission.
The 218-year-old barn at the Brewster Mansion will open at 8:30 a.m. with activities, including door prizes of stuffed animals and two bicycles, and historical Buxton exhibits. Visitors also are invited to stroll through the flower gardens and groomed grounds at the mansion, owned by Richard and Beverly Atkinson.
The church lawn fair and craft sale opens at 9 a.m. Musician Bob Costigan and Madeleine the Magician will perform.
No one will go hungry. The church will sell hot dogs, chips and baked goods at its fair. The Dorcas Society will serve up hamburgers, hot dogs and beverages throughout the day and evening. Big Daddy’s Ice Cream will be available in the Brewster barn along with cookies, Beverly Atkinson said.
About 100 classics are expected at the free car show, including a 1941 Buick sedan with a “Fireball 8” engine, three speeds ahead and standard shift owned by Paul Baresel of Buxton.
“It was a luxury car,” Baresel said. “Last of the big cars built entering World War II.”
Paul Baresel of Buxton owns this 1941 Buick that will be at the Cars and Coffee show Saturday. Robert Lowell / American Journal
Paul Baresel at the wheel of his 1941 Buick. Robert Lowell / American Journal
He’s had it up to 65 mph. “You could go to sleep in the back,” he said.
Baresel bought the car 15 years ago in Freeport. It wasn’t running when he acquired it and Baresel, who has been working on vintage cars for 30 years and does 90% of his own mechanical work, replaced the majority of the wiring. He uses a heavy dose of peppermint spray to keep the mice away.
He said the car is going great and it’s time to “pass it on” to someone who would drive it. He declined to name a sales price.
It’s been a “fun car,” he said. He and his wife, Felicia, have taken it on a number of road trips, including to Cape Cod and Vermont. He once drove it as a chauffeur for a wedding. “I’m not a trophy hound,” Baresel said.
Retired from the University of Southern Maine, Baresel hopes to return to SAD 6 this fall as a volunteer automotive instructor. The car hobby is disappearing, he said, because “nobody knows how to work on them.”
“It’s important to get youth involved,” he said.
Baresel, who helped launch the initial Dorcas Fest car show, has a collection of several cars, including a 1924 Hupmobile.
Parade and fireworks
Kids scramble for candy during the 2022 Buxton parade. File photo / American Journal
The parade rolls out at 11 a.m. with the theme Eat, Sleep and Play Sports. Forty entries had signed up as of Monday.
Joann Groder, retired Buxton Food Co-op director, will be grand marshal. “Pat Cote will drive Joann in her bright yellow Mustang convertible,” said Town Clerk John Myers, who organized the parade with Deputy Town Clerk Angela Michie.
The parade lineup begins at 10 a.m. with fire trucks on Salmon Falls Road and all other entries on Depot Street. The parade route will run from Main Street to River Road (Route 112), ending at Woodman Road.
“We are good to go,” Myers said.
Community fireworks, sponsored by the Narragansett Number One Foundation, will cap off the day’s events at dusk after the concert.
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