PORTLAND – Organizers of groups from Maine planning to travel to next weekend’s peace rally in Washington, D.C., say they have been overwhelmed by the level of public interest in the trip.

Peace Action Maine originally chartered two buses for the trip, but that number is now up to nine.Greg Field, the group’s executive director, said Sunday he is astounded and thrilled by the public’s enthusiasm, adding that opposition to a possible war in Iraq is building.

“People are feeling the need to be active,” he said. “People who have not been in the group for years, or have never been in a group at all, are turning out for planning meetings.”

Steve Burke, a founder of a new peace group in Maine’s midcoast, agrees.

“People are really opposed to Bush’s push for war,” he said. “As the drumbeat continues … people feel they have to be on the streets in D.C., that this is our last chance to derail the mad rush to war.”

Maine activists, who are charging $65 to $75 per person for the bus ride, say they have even received contributions from people who can’t come.

“Some people who can’t go have written a check for a seat and said, ‘Here’s a seat on the bus. Give it to someone who needs it,”‘ Field said.

The Bangor-based Peace and Justice Center of Eastern Maine has sold enough tickets to fill nearly four of the nine buses and has about 30 names on standby to replace anyone with a ticket who can’t go.

“The problem at this point is finding bus drivers,” said Ilze Petersons, program coordinator for Peace and Justice. She explained that two drivers were needed for each bus because of the distance being traveled and the plans to drive through the night.

Meanwhile, the phone continues to ring with people from all over northern and eastern Maine interested in the trip, she said.

“Every time I hang up, there are three more messages from people who want to go,” Petersons said.

Many of those calling are not the typical activists associated with the group, according to Doug Allen, Petersons’ husband and the education coordinator for Peace and Justice.

“Most of these people we don’t know,” he said. “A lot are vets, and there are some people in their 60s and 70s.”

“We also have high school students and college students,” Petersons added. “It’s just across the board.”

She said the group would continue taking calls in case another bus can be chartered or in order to connect callers to others who might be interested in making separate arrangements.

“One group from Presque Isle is renting a van and driving all the way to Washington,” she said.

Those who can’t go to Washington can participate in a send-off for the buses at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 17, at the Bangor Theological Seminary. The buses will leave from Wellman Commons at 300 Union St. and will join the other buses from the midcoast and Portland. For those who can’t go, there also will be a Martin Luther King Jr. birthday commemoration co-sponsored by the Peace and Justice Center of Eastern Maine and the Bangor Theological Seminary from 3 to 7 p.m. Sunday, Jan. l9, at Wellman Commons. For more information, call Peace and Justice at 942-9343.

Among those planning to make the trip to the nation’s capital are Steve and Kathy Cartwright of Nobleboro and their two teenage children.

“You can write a letter to the editor, you can call and leave a message for your senator and for your congressman, and I’ve done these things,” said Steve Cartwright.

“You can send e-mails and whatever, but is that really enough? And I guess I want to be counted this way, too.”