Annual Sebago Lake Togue & Pike Derby nearing

By Ed Pierce

For many fishermen, competing in the Annual Sebago Lake Togue & Pike Derby is the perfect way to wrap up a summer of fishing on Sebago Lake and also help out a good cause as well. This year is no exception as the 11th Annual Sebago Lake Togue & Pike Derby will be conducted out of Port Sebago Resort’s Main Marina area in Casco on Saturday, Sept. 12 and Sunday Sept. 13, on the weekend following Labor Day.

Last year's First Prize winner winner of the
Sebago Lake Togue & Pike Derby with a
9.15-pound 29-inch lake trout was John 
Sailhamert, center, shown with members of
the Sebago lake Anglers Association. This
year's derby will be held on Saturday,
Sept. 12 and Sunday, Sept. 13 on
Sebago Lake. SUBMITTED PHOTO     

Fishing activity begins at 6 a.m. on both days with the official weigh-in station at the marina area closing at 4 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday. An awards ceremony will be held shortly thereafter on Sunday, Sept. 13.

Hosted every year by the Sebago Lake Anglers Association, event organizers say that this is a community-based fishing derby focused on families and children but experienced fishermen and guides with clients are welcome to participate.

Cash prizes will be paid to the top three places by weight in the event, as well as a prize for the biggest fish caught on Saturday, three prizes for any Togue submitted in the Togue lottery, and one prize for the smallest Togue, caught by hook and line.

All Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife rules for Sebago Lake fishing apply. Only fish caught during the derby’s legal fishing hours will count toward prizes.

Participants do not have to fish both days, and they do not have to be present to win a prize if a fish is legally entered and checked in by staff within the established time limits for the derby. Prizes for those who will not be present during the awards ceremony may be picked up at Port Sebago Resort’s Main Marina during business hours for 30 days after conclusion of the derby.

Fish that derby participants don’t want to take home may be donated for an area church’s fish fry, or to a local food pantry. Receptacles will be available to do that, and a fish-cleaning station will also be provided.

Anglers are reminded that there is no minimum length for togue and no bag limit on togue less than 26 inches. Anglers can possess one togue measuring 26 inches and above. Participants do not need to fish on both days of the derby to qualify for prizes.

Anyone interested in registering for the 11th Annual Sebago Lake Togue & Pike Derby can do so by picking up a registration card at the following locations: Hilltop Mini Mart on Route 302 in Raymond; Jordan’s Store on Route 114 Sebago; or Dag’s Bait and Tackle on Minot Road in Auburn. Online registration is available in advance at https://tickets.simplederby.com/sebagolaketoguepikederby/tc-events/tickets/

Same-day registration is possible starting at 5 a.m. at Point Sebago Resort by the gas dock. You must have your derby ticket for the official derby weigh-in station.

The cost to participate is $35 for adults and $15 for kids under the age of 16. All anglers on board a boat participating in the derby must be registered to claim a prize. The Weigh-in Station will be located at Point Sebago Resort Dock in Casco.

Proceeds from the Annual Sebago Lake Togue & Pike Derby are used to pay out the prize money and buy Youth Lifetime Fishing Licenses for Maine children.

To learn more about the 11th Annual Sebago Lake Togue & Pike Derby, visit the Sebago Lake Anglers Association’s Facebook page. <

Rehearsals nearing for Lake Region Community Chorus

By Ed Pierce

The Lake Region Community Chorus is looking for singers for its new season.

The first rehearsal for the Lake Region Community Chorus
will be held at 6:20 on Monday, Sept. 7 at Bridgton
Academy and anyone wishing to sing is welcome to
to register and participate. COURTESY PHOTO 

This singing group is made up of about 60 members from 12 surrounding towns in the Lakes Region including Windham and Raymond. The first rehearsal for the chorus will be on Monday, Sept. 7, in the Twitchell Chapel at Bridgton Academy in North Bridgton. There are no auditions to participate but some experience in choral singing and reading music would be helpful.

Rehearsals are from 6:20 to 8:30 p.m. on Monday evenings. Registration begins at 6 p.m. on Sept. 7, and there is a $30 registration fee to help cover the cost of the music. Registration will also be held on Sept. 14.

Lake Region Community Chorus is conducted by Jan Jukkola, Susan Stockwell and Charles Oehrtmand and accompanied by Patrick Speckamp. It welcomes sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses with programs made up of a variety of pieces from many musical genres and styles. There is something for everyone and designed so singers and audiences have an enjoyable time at rehearsals and performances.

Concerts for the upcoming winter season featuring the Lake Region Community Chorus are scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 4 and at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 6 at Lake Region High School in Naples.

The chorus is a vibrant and dynamic non-profit organization providing choral programs for the Lakes Region of Maine community. Its history is short because it’s a relatively new organization. The chorus had its first meeting in February 2013 to discuss the possibility of forming a choral group in the Lakes Region.

It was amazing how quickly everything seemed to come together, and with Laurie Turley as its original conductor, chorus members performed their first concert in June 2013. Since then, the original group of 36 singers has grown with each season.

The LRCC is a community of voices joined together in song and its purpose is to provide an opportunity for individuals with an interest in singing to share their love of choral music through regularly scheduled rehearsals that will culminate in community and outreach performances. It also strives to enhance each member’s ability to sing by teaching vocal exercises and techniques and to enrich their choral experience by providing a wide variety of musical selections that will increase their knowledge and appreciation of choral literature.

Each year the Lake Region Community Chorus performs two concerts with one in early December and features seasonal holiday music, while the other is a springtime concert generally falling in mid-May.

With the generous support of Bridgton Academy, the concerts are performed by the chorus in the Twitchell Chapel on the Bridgton Academy campus in North Bridgton. All the chorus members would like to thank Bridgton Academy for their help and support and providing them with rehearsal space and a concert venue. They would also like to thank their enthusiastic audiences and local sponsors for making this such a worthwhile experience. 

Each Lake Region Community Chorus concert is free but donations to help cover the expense of music and operating costs will be gratefully accepted.

If interested, come and join the Lake Region Community Chorus, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. as they lift their voices in song. This year’s Winter Concert is sure to be remembered long after the final chords sound.

To participate, contact Jukkola for more details by email at [email protected] or call 207-647-2584 or visit the Lake Region Community Chorus website at lakeregioncommunitychorus.org <

Free outdoor concert features Polished Brass ensemble

By Ed Pierce

Great ideas live on forever and that was the inspiration for a new brass concert coming to Camp Timanous in Raymond.

Polished Brass, a nine-musician ensemble of the Maine Pops
Concert Band, will present a free concert called 'Echoes
Across the Water' at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 26 at 
Camp Timanous in Raymond. COURTESY PHOTO

Polished Brass, a nine-musician ensemble of the Maine Pops Concert Band, will present a free concert at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 26 at Camp Timanous called "Echoes Across the Water." Music played during the concert features Americana favorites, Broadway and movie tunes, big-band-era selections, and several classics.

The free outdoor concert will offer a unique opportunity to enjoy live music from the shore or from the water. Guests may arrive by land and bring a lawn chair or blanket, or by boat and anchor in the cove. Picnic suppers are welcome; attendees are asked to carry out what they carry in. Golf cart transportation will be available from the parking lot to the grounds near the beach for those needing accessibility assistance.

Audience members are welcome to come by land or by water: people can sit near the beach or bring their boats to the cove to listen. In case of rain, the concert will move indoors to the camp's barn.

“The ‘come by land or come by lake’ idea is partly inspired by the ‘boat concerts’ I participated in the late 1960s as a camper at Amherst Summer Music Center, now the site of Kingsley Pines,” said Arthur McClanahan of Raymond, who manages Polished Brass along with his wife Diane. “People would arrive by boat, drop anchor, and listen to an evening of the ASMC band and orchestra.”

Polished Brass consists of musicians performing on trumpet, trombone, French horn, euphonium and tuba. In 2025, the Maine Pops Concert Band took a major step in expanding musical opportunities for its musicians and created the Polished Brass ensemble.

According to McClanahan, the small ensembles program is designed to allow increased opportunities for individual and group musical performance while also increasing band outreach to smaller venues, regional and town events, and community groups.

“My wife, Diane, and I are Raymond residents and we live on Panther Pond,” he said. “Echoes Across the Water also celebrates a piece of Panther Pond’s musical history when the Amherst Summer Music Center was then located adjacent to Camp Timanous.

That connection never faded. When Diane and Art began looking for a vacation spot after they married, they returned to Panther Pond to see if they could find a place to rent near ASMC. In 1980, they found one, a cottage at Plummerville Cottages, and they kept coming back every summer after that. In 1992, they bought a place of their own on the lake, locking in Panther Pond as their summer home for good.

They always dreamed of eventually retiring there, and that dream came true in 2020. The timing brought its own challenges, though: they retired right in the middle of the pandemic, when community involvement of any kind was hard to come by.

Music became their way back into community life. The couple had originally met through music years earlier in college, and it seemed a natural fit to pick it up again together in retirement. After attending a Maine Pops holiday concert, they joined the band in January 2023, marking the start of what is now three full years of playing together, she in the French Horn section, he on trumpet.

As Maine Pops grew to more than 100 members, the band became too large for some of the smaller venues it once played. The board's solution was to form smaller ensembles that could perform in more intimate settings — and, just as importantly, provide an entry point for musicians on the waiting list who hadn't yet been able to join the full concert band.

Today there are eight active ensembles under the Maine Pops umbrella, spanning flute, woodwind quintet, saxophone, clarinet and brass groups that perform throughout the greater Portland area.

The Camp Timanous site is located at 85 Plains Road in Raymond on Panther Pond and has a long and distinguished history. Its tradition as pioneers in youth education can be traced to 1886 when Dr. Luther Gulick and his wife, Charlotte, launched a children’s camp in Connecticut. They believed every child benefits from camping and founded the Camp Fire Girls organization in 1910.

Gulick had gained notoriety for introducing the first physical education programs for the New York City school system and he also developed the triangle logo for both Springfield College and the YMCA. The Gulicks moved their children’s camp to Sebago Lake in Maine in 1907.

Camp Timanous relocated to its present site on Panther Pond in Raymond in 1920.

The 100-plus-members of the Maine Pops Concert Band have a mission to “bring people together through the joy of live music” and McClanahan says this "Echoes Across the Water" concert fits that purpose. The Maine Pops Concert Band is directed by David Watts.

“Whether you come by car or by boat, ‘Echoes Across the Water’ promises an evening of brass music, summer scenery, and a distinctive Panther Pond experience,” McLanahan said. “Polished Brass is grateful to Camp Timanous director John Suitor for the opportunity to offer this musical evening.”

For further details about the Maine Pops Concert Band program and the Polished Brass ensemble, visit www.mainepops.org. <

Fanfare Concert Band ready to perform in Casco

The Fanfare Concert Band will present a series of concerts in the Casco Days Park in Casco Village on Thursday evenings in August.

The Fanfare Concert Band under the direction of Stan
Buchanan will present a series of concerts in the Casco 
Days Park in Casco Village on Thursday evenings
during August.  SUBMITTED PHOTO    

As the days grow shorter, the concerts will start earlier with the following schedule – 7 p.m. on Aug. 13, 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 20 and 6 p.m. on Aug. 27.

Band director Stan Buchanan has chosen an audience-pleasing variety of music from movies, television and Broadway shows. In addition, each concert will include Fanfare Band’s featured vocalist, Patty Buchanan, singing “Over the Rainbow” from the original “Wizard of Oz.”

She will also lead the audience in singing “America the Beautiful” as a tribute to America’s 250th anniversary.

At each concert, a free-will offering will help to support a local non-profit organization. The concerts on Aug. 13 and 20 will be for the benefit of the Casco Village Church Food Pantry. This volunteer organization provides food for about 65 families every month.

The final concert on Aug. 27 will be a very special one. It will be a Remembrance Tribute to Fanfare Band member Bob Travis from Casco and will include the low brass performing group, Locomotion (Euphoniums and Tubas).

The Fanfare Concert Band has been entertaining audiences since 1987 when it was started with three members by Al Cochrun and rehearsed at the George E. Jack School in Standish. It recently provided music for the Lake Region and Fryeburg Area Adult Education and Training graduation ceremony and participated in the annual celebration of Maine composer, R.B. Hall at the Westbrook Community Center.

Members of the band hail from a wide geographical area including Buxton, Bridgton, Hiram, Sebago, Sweden, Casco, Naples, Gray, Auburn and Raymond. In everyday life, band musicians include current or former music educators, elementary, middle school and high school teachers, students, financial advisors, doctors, nurse practitioners, veterinary technicians, Bath Iron Works workers and others.

The band now has more than 30 members and come together to perform under the direction of Stan Buchanan.

He has had a 44-year military career and a 48-year career as a music teacher, with 40 years in both roles simultaneously. In the Maine Army National Guard, Buchanan was a Senior Chief Warrant Officer and the director and commanding officer of the 195th Army Band.

In public music education, his Nokomis Regional High School Band won numerous state and national awards and performed twice at the world-renowned Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. He also directed a 200-member marching band during President Bill Clinton’s first inaugural parade in Washington, D.C.

At present, in addition to conducting and performing in three Maine community bands, a low brass octet (Euphoniums, Tubas), and a jazz band, Stanley Buchanan has served on the MSAD 61 Lake Region School Board for 13 years.

He and his wife Patty, also a musician and former Maine Army National Guard band member, are cat show judges certified by the Cat Fanciers’ Federation. 

Patty Buchanan received her musical training at the Navy School of Music, Norfolk, Virginia and the University of Maine, Orono. She retired as Sergeant First Class after 28 years in the 195th Army Band where she was a vocalist and Drum Major and played saxophone and bassoon. In retirement she continued as a science educator and educational innovator, developing an award-winning program for training Medical Assistants at the University of Southern Maine.

Retired as a professor in the Maine college system, Patty continues her musical interests by playing in two community bands and a jazz band where she plays tenor sax and is a vocalist. She is also a Basic Life Support instructor.

The concerts in Casco are outdoors on the green next to the Casco Community Center at 940 Meadow Road (Route 121). Bring a chair or blanket for comfortable seating.

In case of rain, concerts will be held in the Great Room of the Casco Village Church across the street at 941 Meadow Road in Casco. <