A lot to celebrate on the Penobscot River

There was a lot to celebrate in Brewer as groups hit their special milestones.

Close to 80 people showed up from the Natural Resource Council and The Penobscot Paddle and Chowder Society to the Penobscot Salmon Club.

Paddlers canoed along the river from Brewer to Orrington.

Camps were set up along the river for paddlers as they went.

"Yeah, so we're here to celebrate three things today here on the Penobscot River,” says Todd Martin, of Outreach, Natural Resources Council. “We're celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of the Natural Resources Council of Maine, we're celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Penobscot Paddle and Chowder Society, and we're also celebrating the ongoing recovery of the Penobscot River, after the removal of the Great Works and the Veazie Dam about seven years ago."

"It's our fiftieth anniversary,” says Allan Fuller, and organizer. “The canoe club was formed in twenty, fifty years ago from people who paddled in the first and second Kenduskeag Race. And so, there was a letter sent out and we all got together at the Bangor Daily News and Lou Gilman, Sunny Coburn, and Bill Sterns, we formed the Canoe Club and added the name title "Chowder Society" because we didn't want to be just some other canoe club."

Organizers say It was a great collaboration among groups and a perfect day for paddling.