State lawmaker from Winthrop humbled by community support after burn accident

Last month, State Representative Craig Hickman was seriously burned on his farm in Winthrop.

As the lawmaker recovered, the community came together to keep his farm and bed and breakfast running.

As Joy Hollowell reports, it's the same community that Hickman and his husband have helped since they came to Maine 16 years ago.

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The soulful sounds of the late Aretha Franklin are a staple at the Annabessacook Farm in Winthrop. Music pipes through speakers stationed around the early 1800s farm house. Craig Hickman and his husband purchased the place in 2009 to run as a bed and breakfast. Then, Hickman had a vision.

"I said to my husband, we are going to become bona fide farmers," says Hickman. "And he said- you can't take care of anything, so how much do you think you can do this? And I said- well if you give me a challenge, I will prove you wrong."

Today, Hickman farms up to four acres. Much of it ends up at a stand at the end of his driveway, both for sale and for free.

"We always wanted to make sure that we were feeding the community," he says.

The farm stand is open day and night, often stocked not only with vegetables but items from the Winthrop Food Pantry.

"People are not starving, they are hungry and they need good nutrition, not calories," says JoEllen Cottrell, Executive Director of the Winthrop Food Pantry. "There are just some people that can't get through our doors. And Craig picks up those people."

In addition to the farm stand, Hickman provides space for a large cooler where the food pantry stores perishable items. And across the street, there are nine plots for community gardens.

"As soon as I started farming, I decided that it might be a good idea to work on food policy in Augusta," he explains. "And so I ran a campaign based on feeding people and making sure that farms had right sized regulations."

Hickman lost his first election, but won in 2012. He has represented House District 81 ever since.

"I decided this year to go all in, which meant that I was going to grow more food, have a fuller menu, stock the farm stand, market our food to restaurants, and just live my platform even more," says Hickman. "Everything was going along swimmingly well. And then on July 10th, an accident happened."

Hickman poured gasoline on a wood pile, then waited for the vapors to evaporate.

"On that day, I think the humidity, the dew point, and the atmospheric conditions were too oppressive, and the vapors didn't go anywhere," he says.

When Hickman lit the fire, he felt an explosion.

"I didn't know what had happened, I just knew that I was burning. The explosion seared my skin from head to toe. So I had second degree burns over 20-30% of my body."

Hickman says he immediately took a cold shower to cool down his body. He then smothered himself in eggs, a homeopathic treatment for burns that Hickman learned from his mother. He would spend the next two nights in Maine Medical Center's burn unit in Portland.

"I was in an enormous amount of pain to the point where I thought I was going to die from the pain," he says.

Almost immediately, friends and co-workers rallied together to keep the farm going.

"Literally the day I was out of the hospital, there were like 10 people here," says Hickman. "Every day, people coming and going, every single day"

From weeding and watering to cooking and dish washing, people continue to help Hickman as he recovers.

"It was the most pleasantly overwhelming experience of my life," he says.

Today, Hickman is back on the farm and proudly showing off his okra, black beauty eggplant, silver queen corn.

"I feel great," he says. "My fatigue is almost completely gone."

Hickman calls his experience humbling.

"Life is new again," he says. "There is nothing that really bothers me that much anymore. When you look death in the face, life is the only thing that matters."

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For more information on the farm as well as the community outreach provided, you can log onto http://www.annabessacookfarm.com/

They are also on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AnnabessacookFarmMaine/http://www.annabessacookfarm.com/

https://www.facebook.com/AnnabessacookFarmMaine/