WLBZ-TV (Bangor,ME)

4-26-2008

Young Woodsmen Keep Maine Tradition Alive 

Sarah Delage , Backpack Journalist Last Updated: 4/26/2008 9:53:53 PM

BRADLEY (NEWS CENTER) -- Some Maine student athletes were showing off their skills today, but they weren't hitting baseballs or throwing footballs.

They were chopping, cutting, and ax-throwing at Woodsmen's Day at Leonard Mills in Bradley. Students from Colby College, Unity College and the University of Maine at Orono showed the public some of the different events at Woodsmen's competitions. The students come from all over the country, but many said it's the tradition of logging that draws them to the sport.

"I think just being able to do that traditional woodsmen's events," said Rachard Russ of Unity College. "It's something completely different. In Rhode Island we didn't have anything like this, and just the fact that I'm in Maine, out in the woods, chopping, it's awesome."

"My grandparents, my parents, and even beyond that they were loggers and they spent time in the woods," Alice Doughty of the University of Maine at Orono told NEWS CENTER. "I think it's important to keep that connection with your heritage and understand what they had to go through. They don't have chain saws, they don't have huge lumber mills, they had to do it all by hand."

The Woodsmen season runs all the way through the school year, with competitions from September until May. Many of the students also compete in professional competitions and in fairs over the Summer.

NEWS CENTER