Another ‘Hopeful’ Sign Has Appeared on Route 302 in Windham, Maine

By now, Mainers are quite familiar with the '"Hopeful" signs that have popped up around the state with a design that looks like a sign you might see from decades ago. Now another sign has gone up, but this one is a bit different.

The color full "Hopeful" signs lit with bulbs that run along the writing of the word "Hopeful" were designed by Maine painter Charlie Hewitt and have been installed in Portland, Lewiston, Brunswick and Bangor previously.

According to the Palette Contemporary website, he came up with the design when he was in a bad place. on  "I was feeling sad at the time about politics, about addiction, about life,” said  Hewitt. “Hopeful is not a gift. It’s a challenge. To be hopeful requires action, it requires commitment, it requires opening your eyes, it requires making a decision, it requires being part of something. It requires being passionately in love with your country, passionately in love with your family, and passionately in love with everyone in your community. That passion and that love I want back. I want a resurgence in my soul for that kind of life.”

The new sign is on Route 302 in Windham right across from Century Auto Repair, but it's not like all the others.

I saw this one putting put up by two men when I drove by a few days ago. It's at the entrance of a new site that has had fill put in and a fence installed and it appears construction on something is about to begin.

We're not sure what's going here, but maybe someone can shed some light on it. Will the Hopeful sign be a permanent fixture? Maybe there'll be an actual sculpted sign like the others once whatever goes here is finished? We'll have to wait and see.