From adolescent to senior, festival volunteers see job as payoff

Sean Seekins, 11, and his brother Tyler, 14, spent the weekend parking cars. Their friend, Andrew Casey, 12, spent his time with the Bucket Brigade. All three are from Glenburn and were volunteers at the 65th Annual National Folk Festival.

“We thought it would be cool to work at the event and we got a free T-shirt,” said Tyler Seekins.

The Seekins brothers are both Boy Scouts and earned service hours for their work.

The more than 800 volunteers helping out at the festival ran the gamut from a 9-year-old to several hundred senior citizens.

“We came last year and thought it was fun, and we thought it would be fun to volunteer this year,” said Sue Perkins, mother of Casey. “We wanted to be a part of the community and somehow wanted to help out and show our guests hospitality.”

More than half of this year’s festival volunteers, including the Seekins brothers, pitched in last year, according to Julia Munsey, local NFF media coordinator.

“This festival is just a very positive, well-run festival. I think volunteers feel that it’s important for them to be here,” Munsey said. “They get well trained and well rewarded. I think it’s such a big event people just want to be a part of it.”

Many of the volunteers were from the Bangor area.

“Most are from the greater Bangor region, but we sent newsletters to Arizona,” said Noelle Richard, volunteer services coordinator. “They came from all over Maine – up in The County [and beyond] to the New Hampshire border.”

Regardless of where they came from, the volunteers worked hard during the day and on Saturday night partied hard at a reception for artists, organizers and sponsors at the Holiday Inn in Bangor. Wylie Gustafson, Linda Lay, Dale Watson and members of Sensacion Vallenata con Gustavo Nieto and Wawali Bonane and Yoka Nzenze held jam sessions while guests danced to a fusion of Latin, honky-tonk and Congolese tunes and marveled at cowboy serenades.