RUMFORD — A Bethel man is organizing a cleanup around the Falmouth Street area Friday morning and filming it for a new TV show called “Inside Maine’s Outdoors.”
Tony Bennett, best-known for his TV show, “Down East Dickering,” on the History Channel, said he’s picking a town in each of Maine’s 16 counties for a cleanup.
The idea came to him a couple weeks ago when he watched his granddaughter play softball on the field across from Aubuchon Hardware on Falmouth Street. He noticed the debris in the area, including material floating in the Androscoggin River, he said.
Bennett asks volunteers to gather at 8:30 a.m. on the old tennis courts by the footbridge near the Rumford Eagles hall on Rumford Avenue. The cleanup will be from 9 a.m. to noon around Falmouth Street and nearby areas.
“I love the Androscoggin Valley watershed, period,” he said. “I’m a big outdoorsman and love anything to do with the outdoors. I hope to make people realize not to throw out this trash.”
He said the hands-on effort would be an important lesson for young people.
A crew will film the activity as part of a documentary he’s putting together for “Inside Maine’s Outdoors.”
Material for his show to date includes the Kenduskeag Stream canoe race in Bangor, a film about Boothday Harbor and a bow and arrow hunt he did for a moose hunt a couple of years ago. It can be seen on YouTube at: youtube.com/watch?v=BbmYI2XXc00.
Bennett said local businesses have offered tools, gloves, trash bags, T-shirts and food. They include Marden’s, Aubuchon Hardware, Dunkin’ Donuts, Tractor Supply Co., Hannaford, Frosty Delite, Rumford House of Pizza, Labonville, Jarato’s Screen Printing, Blaisdell’s, Community Energy and Advance Auto Parts.