BELGRADE — In case the determined look on his face wasn’t enough to tell, the bits of pumpkin stuck to his nose and smeared on the elbows of his tiny sweatshirt made it clear. Dallas Harmon was very much into his work of carving a pumpkin Saturday during the Belgrade Harvest Festival.

“You’re really concentrating, aren’t you? I can tell by your face,” Jennifer Harmon, Dallas’ mother, said of the youngster who’ll turn 2 years old next month as they worked, together, carving a small pumpkin into a jack-o’-lantern outside the Belgrade Community Center for All Seasons. “We’ll put a tea light in him tonight and watch it glow.”

Additional Images

A tractor-drawn hay ride rolls under red foliage through Belgrade Lakes village on Saturday during the Belgrade Harvest Festival. Staff photo by Joe Phelan

Later, Dallas had a go at some of the games set up for the event, using a pumpkin to bowl over a set of large plastic candy corns, as other children played bean bag toss nearby.

The Harmons are from Saint John, New Brunswick, and were in Belgrade this weekend to visit relatives and celebrate Thanksgiving, which, in Canada, is celebrated the second Monday of October. Jennifer Harmon said they planned to have a turkey and all the fixings.

Saturday’s Harvest Festival festivities didn’t feature turkey or trimmings, but eating was definitely on the agenda for many at the festival, which was spread across multiple locations in and around the village. Seasonal snacks included cider doughnuts, cider and ginger snaps at The 1830 House; popcorn and hot dogs at the community center; Octoberfest-themed food, including tall beers, on the lawn of the The Village Inn; and hot dogs and apple crisp at Day’s Store, where a live band played outside.

A tractor with a trailer full of hay pulled people around town for a hay ride. And a motorboat, provided by Belgrade Boat Shop, provided free rides from the community center to the village.

Valencia Schubert, director of the community center, said the views alone made the boat ride to the village worth it, especially with fall foliage providing a colorful background on the water’s edge.

Branden Belanger, a junior at Messalonskee High School, demonstrated the Messalonskee Robotics Team’s robot in the community center’s gymnasium, using a video game joystick to maneuver the rectangular, remote-controlled robot to the center of the floor, where it launched Frisbees toward the basketball hoop, several of which nearly went through the hoop.

“We demonstrated it at a Red Claws game and we were able to get it in the basket four times,” Belanger explained, noting that on Saturday, they had their robot built for a previous competition with them, not their most recent robot, because “it’s cooler to demonstrate and easy to transport.”

The six-wheel-drive robot the team of students, known as Team 2648 Infinite Loop, had put together in six weeks chucked Frisbees from half court of the gymnasium, several times hitting the net or backboard but not quite making it into the basket.

“Wow,” a youngster in the bounce house set up at the opposite end of the gymnasium marveled, stopping bouncing to watch the Frisbee-slinging robot.

“Today we’re showing them what we can do,” Belanger said of the children watching the robot during the Harvest Festival. “We try to spark some interest early in kids. They’re the future leaders, the next innovators, who’ll come up with the next big thing. This is where it starts.”

The village area was decorated with multiple scarecrows, entrants in a scarecrow contest, which was new to the festival this year. Competitors were asked by organizers to make their scarecrows whimsical, not frightening.

Other festival events included a flu shot clinic at the Belgrade Regional Health Center, a craft sale at Union Church and boat tours of Great Pond.

Keith Edwards — 621-5647

kedwards@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @kedwardsk

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