FORT KENT – Next month is quickly gaining the nickname of “March madness” in this northern Maine town where disabled athletes will compete over a two-week period, right after the town gets over its 13th annual CanAm Crown International Sled Dog races.

Nancy Thibodeau, event director for the International Paralympics Committee’s 2005 Paralympic Nordic World Championship, outlined the events of March 9-21 on Wednesday morning at a breakfast attended by about 100 people at the University of Maine at Fort Kent.

The 2005 games, the first world championship of any sports ever held in Maine, will bring at least 120 athletes from 19 nations on four continents to Fort Kent. They will utilize the same venue as the Biathlon World Cup last March.

Thibodeau said they need 250 volunteers for the games, although some positions do not require work every day of the competitions.

The IPC Nordic skiing competitions are for athletes with physical disabilities competing in sitting, standing, and visually impaired classes. They compete in both cross-country and biathlon, which combines cross-country skiing with target shooting.

“This is a much larger human interest event than last year’s Biathlon World Cup,” Thibodeau said Wednesday. “While there is no national and international television covering these competitions, we expect powerful competitions.

“School children, already more than 500 have said they were coming, will play a big part in the athletes’ lives,” she said. “Athletes have been told of students’ fan clubs of last year and they are anxious to see.”

The athletes will be coming to Fort Kent from a World Cup competition in Switzerland. Many of the athletes will be competing for places at the World Paralympics that will be held in Torino, Italy, next year.

Athletes will be coming from Sweden, Norway, Finland, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada, China, Poland, and the United States.

The organizing committee will be looking for sponsors to help cover the $250,000 cost of the games. Athletes and support staff will be housed from Fort Kent to Caribou.

Large sponsors for the games include the Hartford Insurance Companies, Banknorth Group Inc., Xerox, UMFK, Northern Maine Development Commission, Peoples Bank, MWSC, the 10th Mountain Division Lodge, and local businesses and agencies.

The Greater Fort Kent Chamber of Commerce has agreed to take over the social activities during the two-week period.

There will be cultural events during the 12 days including a Northern Drama Festival and the Fort Kent Lions Club Pride of Lions Show.

Like last year, schools will be involved. Already nine schools have said they will send buses of children to the games. Student fan clubs are starting to organize, Thibodeau said.

People wishing to volunteers can sign up on the Internet at, www.mainewsc.org/Volunteer/volunteer home.asp.