BIDDEFORD — The ghosts of mill workers past will be on display Saturday at the Pepperell Mill Campus.
Actually, the ghosts will be played by Biddeford High School students, members of the school’s Natural Helpers and Carolyn Gosselin’s theater class.
“Spirit Stories at the Biddeford Mills” will include a walking tour of the mills as well as skits of ghost stories relating to the mills and the area.
The event, sponsored by the Biddeford Mills Museum, is a fundraiser. Proceeds will be divided between the museum and a Thanksgiving food drive held by BHS’ Interact Club, which is affiliated with the Biddeford-Saco Rotary Club.
Gosselin said the 17 students in her class are involved in the fundraiser because they are “very community-oriented.”
The students will be acting in a wide array of skits, including one, said freshman Samantha Fields, about Francis Spencer, inventor of the Vellux blanket. It was the invention of Vellux that kept mill workers employed in Biddeford until 2009 as other textile mills in the area closed down.
In the skit, said Field, Spencer’s spirit “is still roaming the halls” of the former Pepperell mills.
Another skit, said sophomore Matthew Hayes, is about Samuel Batchelder, the man who is deemed responsible for constructing the first mills in Biddeford in the 1800s.
Freshman Tyler Day said the skit in which he is involved will be about immigrants who “pretty much built the canals with explosives.
“I’m the boss,” he said.
Freshmen Ashkan Saadatfar and Tarek Fawzi will act as immigrant workmen who died doing the dangerous work.
Sophomore Shelby Varney will play an apparition named Rose. According to Gosselin, one of the stairways in the mills sometimes smells like roses.
“No one knows why,” she said.
“We made up a story of a woman named Rose,” said Gosselin.
Varney will play that role and will wander up and down the stairway.
Another skit relates a story of how Canadian Francos were recruited to the area by Sir William P. Haines since the mills were understaffed during the Civil War. Senior Monica Gatchalian and freshman Sydnie Nelson play some of the thousands of Quebecois who migrated to Biddeford to work in the textile mills.
Freshmen Miranda Koch and Lyna Kheang will be part of a skit that didn’t happen in the mills, but instead took place in the Saco River that powered the mills when they were first built.
Their skit is about curse that took place when three white men happened upon an American Indian mother and her baby in the river. The men threw the baby in the river to see if he could swim, but the baby drowned. As the story goes, the Indian chief cursed the river, saying that each year it would take the lives of three white men.
While working on their skits, the students learned about the textiles produced at the mills, said sophomore Carson Neuman.
“We also learned about the injuries and deaths ”¦ and (those) who worked there,” he said.
The public is encouraged to attend on Saturday, said Gosselin. They will be entertained, learn a little about the history of the mills and support a worthy cause, she said.
For many years, Interact has accepted food and monetary donations to make up Thanksgiving baskets for families of high school students in need, said junior Emily Belanger.
“Last year, we made up 20 to 30 baskets,” said Amanda Kimball, a junior.
For those who can’t make the event, said Gosselin, she encourages them to contribute food or money at the high school, as Interact needs more donations to have enough supplies for all the baskets.
Spirit Stories at the Biddeford Mills will take place Saturday from 4-8 p.m. People can drop by anytime between those hours, and the tours will start every 15 to 20 minutes. The last tour starts at 8 p.m. Tours, which are appropriate for ages 10 and older, begin at 100 Main St. in Biddeford, across from the Happy Dragon restaurant and the intersection of Main and Alfred streets. The cost is $5 at the door.
— Staff Writer Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 324 or dmendros@journaltribune.com.
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