The recent Swampdonkeys benefit concert paid for an additional acre of Roberts Farm Preserve.

Concert proceeds benefit land trust

NORWAY – Norway’s Kathryn Gardener and Mike Newsom and Western Maine’s traditional folk band, the Swampdonkeys, packed Norway’s Café Nomad on Aug. 22 and raised $1,000 for the Western Foothills Land Trust’s Roberts Farm Preserve acquisition project.

As part of a current challenge pledge, those earnings will be fully matched, resulting in a total of $2,000 raised (equivalent to another acre of the 150-acre preserve paid for).

Gardener and Newsom opened the concert, performing a mix of tunes. The Swampdonkeys followed with their blend of old time, bluegrass, Canadian maritime, Irish and modern rock.

Gardener and Newsom, as well as Swampdonkey members, John Gunn, Michael Hayashida and Ted Tibbetts offered to give the benefit concert to bolster the trust’s Roberts Farm Preserve fund-raising efforts. Scott Berk, owner of Café Nomad, donated the venue.

The next concert fundraiser for Roberts Farm Preserve will be held Saturday, Oct. 11, when Maine’s David Mallett takes the stage at the Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School. Tickets will be available at Books’n Things, Creative Media and online at www.wfltmaine.org.