Annual concert to aid Buck Memorial Library

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Seven years ago, trombonist Don Blodgett of Orland volunteered to organize a benefit concert for the Buck Memorial Library.

Blodgett brought together a group of local musicians who called themselves the Downeast Dixieland Allstars.

That initial effort has since become an annual event and, along the way, Blodgett has invited other groups from eastern Maine to join the fun and help the library.

This year’s seventh annual concert to benefit the Buck Memorial Library, “Toe Tappin Music,” is at 7 p.m. Friday at the Miles Lane School, off Broadway, in Bucksport.

A minimum donation of $7 per person is suggested, and tickets are available at the library or at the door the night of the concert.

Ben Blodget of Bucksport is chairman of the trustees of the Buck Memorial Library, and Don Blodgett’s cousin.

So, even though one side of the family kept the extra “t” in its name and the other didn’t, it is obvious both sides of the family agree on supporting their local library.

Ben Blodget sent us information about this year’s concert, and we are pleased to note that the Downeast Dixieland Allstars again headline the concert, which also includes the Penobscot Banjo Company, led by Wes English of Bangor.

Last year, a group from the Blue Hill area, the New Trad Trio led by Chris Harris, made its first appearance. The trio returns this year, and a new group has been added that is sure to please all who attend: the all-female Six Basin Street Band led by Jan Klitch of Old Town.

The concerts originally were held at the Miles Lane School and then moved to the renovataed Alamo Theatre “for two years” before returning to the school, where the event enjoys a “cabaret atmosphere,” Blodget wrote.

“We have always had a capacity audience of people who know the musicians, as well as summer visitors,” Blodget wrote.

“It is an evening of good music and fun, and those who attend seem to enjoy it.”

We thank Blodget for providing us the history of the library, which dates to 1887.

Although Richard Pike Buck of New York, grandson of Bucksport founder Col. Jonathan Buck, died before he was able to establish a library for his hometown, his widow and daughter carried out his wishes and, in 1887 for a cost of $20,000, constructed the library at the foot of School Street.

Made of brick and outerfaced with Blue Hill granite, the facility was entered on the National Register of Historic Places during its centennial year, when plans were also made to build an addition.

The expansion was completed in 1989, doubling the library’s usable space. Major restoration work on the granite facade is an ongoing project, Blodget wrote, so proceeds from this annual concert, which average $650, go to the restoration fund.

Sounds like a great concert for a great library.

We hope it plays to a full house.

Today is Flag Day, and we remind you that the 11th annual Bangor Flag Day ceremony is 11 a.m. at the Bangor waterfront near the harbor master’s cabin.

Patriotic music, songs, the reading of the 10 Commandments of the Flag and participation by local dignitaries are all part of the event organized by Judy Butler Miller of Eddington to honor our nation’s flag.

Then, this afternoon, Joan Dalton of Stillwater informs us, the Frances Dighton Williams Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution invite the public to attend a program on the American flag at 2 p.m. at the Ross Manor Health Care facility, 758 Broadway in Bangor.

On behalf of the Bangor Nature Club, Ruth Barker of Bangor invites the public to participate in a bus trip to the A.E. Howell Wildlife Conservation Center in Amity.

Passengers will meet at 7:45 a.m. Wednesday, June 23, at the Cameron Field parking lot on Mount Hope Avenue, Bangor.

The cost is $12 for Bangor Nature Club members, $15 for nonmembers. Individuals are requested to bring their own lunch.

Arthur E. Howell Jr. has operated the center and the Spruce Acres Refuge since 1981, where he works to successfully return injured and abandoned birds and animals to the wild.

If you would like to participate in this trip, call Barker at 942-5977.

We have heard again from one of the “youngest-at-heart” people we know, Lt. Col. Viola Sargent of Ellsworth. Sargent, who is in her late 80s, is active as ever as project officer for the Downeast Patrol Civil Air Patrol Squadron of Ellsworth.

Sargent wrote to tell us that the Downeast Patrol CAP Squadron “has taken part in the Maine State Parade and other parades in Bar Harbor, Ellsworth, Sullivan, Franklin, Hancock and Waltham, since 1957.”

But, to be able to participate in proper fashion in those events, “we have used borrowed or hand-me-down equipment, and acquired what we could, but it is getting worn or worn out,” she wrote.

“We need new flags and carrying belts, helmets, gloves, boots and white shoelaces and belts” to be properly attired as parade participants.

To that end, the squadron is “embarking on a very ambitious undertaking,” Sargent wrote.

`We are trying to raise $1,500 for new equipment.”

The fund-raiser, she explained, is a “MEGA-DRIVE” for returnable cans and bottles that will be conducted in the Ellsworth-Bar Harbor area “for a whole week, July 12 through July 17.”

Sargent’s hope is, that “by starting to publicize it now,” the Downeast Patrol CAP Squadron will be able to gain the public’s support and our readers “will start saving their returnables for us,” she wrote.

So, forewarned is forearmed.

By saving your returnables for this effort, you can help the Downest Patrol CAP Squadron step out smartly the next time the parade marches by.

Joni Averill, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402; 990-8288.