NORTHPORT — Friends of the Mt. Battie Tower held a dance and silent auction on Saturday night at Point Lookout in Northport at Erickson Hall. Featuring Creatures of Habit as the band, the dance floor lively for three hours as young and old danced the night away to benefit repairs of Camden’s iconic mountain tower.

Randy Stearns, committee member for the Friends of Mt. Battie Tower, said he was happy with the night’s results.

“We raised about $7,000 not counting an anonymous donation,” he said. “We needed to sell around 80 tickets to break even and we sold around 175. We picked up $375 from Rockport Automotive and we had a $100 donation. The silent auction was all profit, so overall it was a wonderful night.”

The high point of the night came in the form of an anonymous donation of $25,000.

“I was sitting down when I got that call,” Stearns said. “By the time I got off the phone there were tears coming out of the corners of my eyes. It was fantastic and we loved it. The donors have asked to remain anonymous.”

Heather Moran, also on the Friends of the Mt.Battie Tower committee, said the night was a total team effort.   

“The community has really turned out to support this,” she said. “I am so thrilled and it’s onward and upward. Money from here on out will go into a legacy fund for repairs in the future.”

Moran said that with the money raised this evening, they can start to solicit bids for the tower repairs.

Stearns said there were four parts to the fundraising. The first was for tower repair. The second was to replace the two generators that power the Christmas star. Last week, two citizens came forward and each wanted to buy a generator.

And a $1,000 donation that the friends wanted to make to the state park for all their efforts has now been spoken for.

The Friends of the Mt. Battie Tower steering committee includes Heather Moran, Randy Stearns, Peter Rollins, Karen Hansen, Jane Lafleur, Jeremy Howard, Jim Bowditch, Jim Christie, Dawn Emery, Ronna Emery and Anneli Skaar.