HeartSpots

Heart of Biddeford (HOB), a downtown organization modeled on the Main Street Maine program is working over the next year to broadly engage the community in recalling its past to help fuel a vision for the future. During one community event, the Orton Family Foundation set up a booth with a map of downtown and invited Biddeford residents to point out the places where their favorite memories of the past occurred. The final product was named the HeartSpots map.

HeartSpot signs were subsequently posted downtown at these special locations inviting passers to call a city phone number where they could tell a story about their memories of the place and have it digitally recorded in the city archives. The stories are then transcribed and will be made available on a special HeartSpots website that combines the audio clips with a GIS map pinpointing their location. While the website is still in the works, some stories are currently available on the Orton Heart of Biddeford website.

The project has great potential to be a powerful tool in community planning applications, as town planners can listen to stories and discover the places that are special to residents. This way the town may develop while maintaining and enhancing the places that its residents hold dearly.