Alabama group helps out Farmington parks

FARMINGTON — An Alabama church group has spent most of the week painting benches and railings in local parks.

They went where the Lord led them, but the group of 14 adults and teens did appreciate the cooler, less humid weather in Maine, a break from the less-comfortable climate in Mobile, Ala., where they are from, the Rev. Mike Bedford said.

“We love coming here,” he said.

Bedford has brought a group north for the past 10 years. Seven of those years were spent in Augusta and the past three have been spent with Farmington’s Baptist Church on Whittier Road.

They’ve led sports camps and have worked on other projects.

Tuesday night, they will help with Farmington Baptist’s Vacation Bible School, he said. Tomorrow, they’ll do some work for a local widow.

The two Baptist churches, both associated with Southern Baptists, cooperate, the Rev. Dave Lewis of Farmington said. Next winter, some Farmington parishioners may go south for a week.

This year, Farmington Parks and Recreation was contacted to see if there were projects the group could do to help the community.

They scraped and painted the baseball shack, maintenance building, picnic tables and front fence at Hippach Field on Monday, Matt Foster, assistant director of the department, said.

On Tuesday, they painted railings, benches and the gazebo in Meetinghouse Park and picnic tables at Walton Mill Park, he said.

“We are very thankful to have them helping us,” Foster said. “Our parks will be in great shape this summer after they are finished with the work they plan on doing.”

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