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Community leader's legacy lives on at Yarmouth Clam Festival

A former Yarmouth town councilman died six years ago, but his love for his community and antique trucks, lives on at the annual Clam Festival.

YARMOUTH (NEWS CENTER Maine) -- Some things, like the Yarmouth Clam Festival, can bring a community together. There is also someone whose life was dedicated to bringing his neighbors together.

Erv Bickford passed away six years ago but it’s this time of year, every year, his dedication to community is still very much loud and clear.

Ask Erv Bickford’s family or friends and they’ll all tell you, he loved his community. He served on the Yarmouth town council and many boards. His daughter tells me he would walk five or six miles a day, just to pick up trash around the neighborhood.

► VIDEO: Terry Seavey talks about Yarmouth Clam Festival

But there was something else he really enjoyed: restoring and collecting hundreds of antique trucks. One particular piece he would use to ride through town to mark the beginning and end of the Clam Festival every year. Now his daughter will be driving to continue the tradition.

“He really instilled in all of us as a family the importance of being a part of the fabric of the community,” said his other daughter, Tamson Bickford.

So even though he passed away in 2012, this time of year his friends and family continue doing what he loved so much. That also includes a trip with several others, some who are from out of state, to the annual truck and tractor show in owl’s head. They’ve been going for decades and make a pit stop at Bickford’s Yarmouth garage, where his family and friends continue to collect and restore antiques.

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