Allison Pederson had never seen a cell phone amplifier before. On Saturday, she was holding one made of maple and mahogany. A Two Bridges Regional Jail inmate made it in the wood shop that is part of the Route One, Wiscasset facility’s industries program.

Pederson and friend and fellow Phippsburg resident Pam Spooner were attending the program’s annual craft fair. Spooner said she doesn’t go to a lot of craft fairs, but traveling past the jail about a week before the fair, she saw the sign announcing it. “I wanted to see the jail,” she said.

Pederson discussed the amplifier with corrections officer Casey Walker and was thinking about getting it as a gift for a family member.

The amplifiers were nearly sold out, Walker said about midway through the four-hour event. He runs the wood shop. Many of the inmates who enter the program already have some carpentry skills; the work helps them pass the time and it gives them more experience,  Walker said. “It can help them get a new start.”

The fair was the fifth annual one, said Lt. Naomi Bonang, industries program supervisor. “It keeps getting bigger every year. I always see new faces, so I think word-of-mouth is helping.”

The money raised there and at the program’s waterfront kiosk supports the program, according to jail staff. In addition to the items that go up for sale, the inmates make hundreds more to donate to gift drives over the holiday season; this year’s will go to Toys for Tots, the Santa Fund, the Church of the Nazarene in Wiscasset and one item to Wiscasset’s Spirit of Giving holiday program, Bonang said.