MEDWAY — To Dawn York, the Penobscot River is one of Medway’s most underused as-sets.

That’s why the Medway Community Association will hold Medway Rivah Days start-ing today and ending Saturday night at the Roy Powers Rec-reational Area off Route 157. The free event will revive briefly for the dedication of the newly rebuilt Route 116 bridge at 5 p.m. Monday.

Rivah Days, York said, is in-tended to offer residents a good time and show how the river can be used to promote Med-way’s businesses, culture and recreational opportunities.

“If you want people to know what they can do with the river, we have to show them how we can use it,” York said Thurs-day. “It’s valuable. Not every community has a river beside it. Maybe they [residents] have ideas. When they come down and see what we are doing with us, maybe we will think of more things we can do.”

Rivah Days raises money for the 135th anniversary of the town in 2010, which the associa-tion hopes to commemorate with a weeklong celebration, York said.

A replacement this year for Medway Old Home Days, an annual summer celebration the association typically hosts, Ri-vah Days is funded by about $1,700 in donations, said Donna Bishop, the town’s tax collector.

The event begins at 4 p.m. to-day with a spaghetti supper. A sock hop and bonfire follows at 6 p.m. with a teen dance at the Medway Fire Department at 7 p.m. for grades five-nine. Ad-mission to the dance is $5. Sat-urday’s events feature local singers, food vendors, a kayak demonstration on the river, a boat parade, bean supper, live AWA pro wrestling and fire-works at 9 p.m.

Rivah Days is also intended, York said, to promote construc-tion of a recreation, community and conference center at the Powers recreation area.

Under tentative town plans, the center would cost as much as $1.5 million. It would feature two meeting rooms, recreation department offices, a commer-cial kitchen, restroom and changing rooms and several storage areas. No construction timeline had been set.

In January, residents voted against pursuing a $350,000 state Community Development Block Grant to help create the center, citing a fear of in-creased taxes. To qualify for the grant, Medway would have had to come up with $87,500 in matching funds, town Adminis-trative Assistant Kathy Lee has said. She expected it would have taken several more years to fully fund the project.

Residents who don’t seek a town recreation and commu-nity center can still enjoy Rivah Days, York said.

Schedule:

RIVAH DAYS

Roy Powers Recreational Area

Friday, Sept. 19

4-6 p.m. Spaghetti supper

6 p.m. Sock hop

7-10 p.m. Teen dance at Medway FD

Saturday, Sept. 20

8-10 a.m. Breakfast at Medway DAV and yard sale

10 a.m. Events open at Roy Powers

11 a.m. Kayak race registration

Noon Kayak race at the dock

1 p.m. Kids’ Fireman’s Muster

2 p.m. Boat parade

4-6 p.m. Bean supper

7 p.m. Pro wrestling demon-stration

9 p.m. Fireworks

Source: Medway Community Association