Annual path expanded to make fund-raiser even more a-maize-ing
By Lisa Chmelecki
Staff Writer

POLAND – Apparently, two and a half acres of corn stalks wasn’t big enough to present the ultimate challenge.

This year, the Abused Women’s Advocacy Project has doubled the size of its Amazing Corn Maze.

The event was organized for the first time five years ago and it has been growing ever since. For $4 a ticket, people are invited to find their way around a maze cut through a cornfield on Empire Road in Poland.

The event, scheduled for this weekend and next, is AWAP’s largest moneymaker. It raised $14,500 last year, and organizers want to reach $20,000 this year.

They are hopeful that the bigger, more challenging maze will help them reach their goal.

The maze stretches across five acres of a field in Poland across from the Fairlawn Golf Course. AWAP Director Chris Fenno estimated that it will take most people 45 minutes to get to the end.

Although it is the main attraction of the two weekends, other activities have been planned, including free face-painting, musical performances, a yo-yo demonstration and family races.

This year, the field is surrounded by sunflowers that some participants could get as prizes for finishing the maze.

All proceeds are used to help AWAP support victims of domestic violence in Androscoggin, Oxford and Franklin counties. Services include a 24-hour help line, court advocacy and an emergency shelter.

Each year, organizers schedule the maze during the weekend of the Great Falls Balloon Festival, which starts Friday, to draw on the crowd that comes to the area for that event.

lchmelecki@sunjournal.com