Top of Maine Trade Show features new exhibits

MADAWASKA – People with summer plans or those wondering what to do and how to do it can get information this weekend at the 12th annual Top of Maine Trade Show.

Seventy exhibitors, 23 of them new to the show, will have their wares on display.

Each year, 4,000 to 6,000 people attend the show, held before the warm days of May make their debut.

The show will be open to the public from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, April 28, and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, April 29, at the Madawaska Multipurpose Building.

“There’s a lot of new blood exhibiting this year,” Louise Martin, an associate at the Greater Madawaska Area Chamber of Commerce, said Wednesday. “It makes for a lot of new displays to see.”

Whether people want to investigate leisurely ways to spend the summer, on the lake with a boat, on the trails with an ATV, or on the road in a new vehicle, exhibitors from northern Maine and Quebec will have the information.

There will be booths for pet care, home cleaning services, wellness technology, mobile communications services, banking services, pre-built homes, dining and bed-and-breakfast establishments and cruises.

Several construction companies, materials distributors and landscaping professionals will be on hand with their merchandise to show those who attend how to fix up their homes. Well-drilling and drinking-water suppliers will have displays, and furniture displays will be visible in several areas.

Several medical services will be on hand to explain their offerings, and some will offer screenings in their booths.

Food will be available from several local groups including the Girl Scouts, the Maine Potato Board and St. John Valley Associates. One booth will give tips on cooking at home.

On display all weekend will be an antique tractor exhibition by Jalco Farms of Madawaska. The exhibitors have dozens of pieces of antique machinery that they show at several Madawaska festivals during the year. Each display is different.

The Picard Family Reunion Committee will share plans for the large reunion to be held during this year’s Acadian Festival in late June. There also will be information on the annual festival, which brings people from far and near to Madawaska for the four-day event.

Hourly door prizes totaling more than $2,500 will be given out during the two-day Top of Maine show.

On Saturday, Irving Oil Co. will give away 500 gallons of home heating fuel. On Sunday, the major prize of a $1,500 computer system with one year of Internet service will be given away by Northern Computers Inc. of Madawaska.