DOVER-FOXCROFT – It was a chance to lift their spirits and partake of an event that was annually put on by their former employer.

The Piscataquis County Transition Team held a barbecue Friday afternoon for former Moosehead Manufacturing Co. employees and their families on the day their former employer would have provided the benefit. More than 100 people were expected to be served before 7 p.m.

The company announced in February that it was closing its doors because of foreign imports, and about 120 people lost their jobs.

One of those was Charles Green, 35, of Dover-Foxcroft, who was mingling Friday with some of his former co-workers.

“It’s good to see my friends,” Green said. His layoff after seven years as a sander and elevator operator at the furniture-making business wasn’t all that unusual for him, he said, since he was laid off previously from Pride Manufacturing in Guilford years earlier for the same reason – a glut of cheap foreign imports.

Green said he missed working but is attending adult education classes to improve his future job chances. He said he might go to college to become a forest ranger or a welder, although he recognizes it will be a struggle.

Like Green, Dwayne Peirce, 62, of Brownville Junction has lost his job twice because of foreign imports. Peirce had traveled 63 miles one way five days a week for a job at the former Eastland Woolen Mill in Corinna before he was laid off in 1995. He had to travel 32 miles one way when he was employed by Moosehead Manufacturing Co. where he worked for nine years.

Peirce was lucky enough to have reached retirement age when Moosehead made its announcement, although he said he wished the company had waited a few more years so he could have gotten his full Social Security benefits. To offset that loss, Peirce said, he would work part-time at a millwright job about 19 miles away from his Brownville home. Following the latest layoff, Peirce, who left school in the eighth grade, also has gone back to school to get his general equivalency degree.

Robert A. Warman, 64, of Greenville Junction also left school in the eighth grade, but few of his former co-workers were aware he could not read well. “If there was something I didn’t know, I’d just ask,” he said Friday. Those co-workers who surmised he had reading problems would read aloud news posted on the company’s bulletin board to save him from embarrassment, he said. There was a silver lining to his layoff in that Warman returned to school where his reading and comprehension have improved greatly, he said.

After working 17 years for the Monson company, Warman said it was good to see “the old crew” Friday.

Jennifer Brooks, community relations manager for the Penquis Community Action Program, said the event gave the former co-workers a chance to see their friends.

She said Dover-Foxcroft Kiwanis members volunteered their time cooking hot dogs and hamburgers. Supplies and food for the event were donated by the local food cupboard, Manna, the Training and Development Corp., Good Shepherd Food Cupboard and Edwards Shop and Save, she said.

“It’s kind of a no cares kind of activity to do with their families,” Brooks said of the event.

Peirce, Green and Warman were especially appreciative of the picnic and fixings held at the Piscataquis Regional YMCA. “It’s nice,” Warman said.