Starting at the beginning of September, the 179 pupils attending the Dr. Levesque Elementary School in Frenchville began bringing pennies to school to fill cans in their classrooms.

At 1 p.m. today in the school gymnasium, just before their seasonal assembly, the pupils will present a check for $764.30 to Rev. Claude Gendreau, pastor of the Frenchville and St. Agatha parishes. The donation will help ensure that the less fortunate people in those communities have a very Merry Christmas.

School principal Jane Smith suggested the penny-collecting idea last fall to teachers at the school that serves pupils in pre-kindergarten through grade six living in Frenchville and St. Agatha.

“My rationale for doing this is that these two communities are so highly involved in the school,” Smith said.

“They really take a great interest in our school by participating, and assisting us in many ways.

“We have a highly motivated PTO that is very active,” she added, “and lots of community support.

“There is a strong interest in this school as a learning environment, and we would like for it to be the nucleus of the community.”

Smith viewed raising funds for the needy in the two communities, “as a way to pay back the benefits we have received from the community.”

When all was said and done, Smith found herself with lots of pennies in $50 bags. You can probably guess who counted all those pennies.

“Whenever I had a few down moments, I could be seen in my office,” counting those pennies, she said.

“I got pretty good at shuffling them across my desk.”

She did have some help, however, thanks to some thoughtful parents who assisted whenever they could.

Smith is pleased with the results of the project.

“That’s a lot of pennies to bring in,” she said.

And today, just before the start of the school’s seasonal assembly, all those pennies, in the form of a check, will go to the Rev. Gendreau. He will distribute the funds, as needed, in the communities served by this school.

We applaud the work of the youngsters and their families whose persistence in penny collecting will certainly make this a much brighter and happier holiday for their neighbors in need.

In Wednesday’s column, we wrote of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots & Teens program in our area, and told you that members of the University of Maine men’s ice hockey team would make an autograph appearance at a local store Saturday.

We have learned from the university’s athletic department that due to National Collegiate Athletic Association regulations, the players cannot participate in an autograph session.

Toys for Tots & Teens coordinator Corinne Van Peursem of Bangor has informed us, however, that members of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve will be at KB Toys from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 16, to accept new toys or monetary donations.

We have learned from Laura Poll, coordinator of the Pax Lodge Patrol of Abnaki Girl Scout Council, that members of that group will be gift-wrapping from Saturday, Dec. 16 through Sunday, Dec. 24, at the Airport Mall in Bangor.

Poll reports the Cadet and Senior Girl Scouts will be available to wrap your gifts, for a donation, all day Saturdays and Sundays and, after school, beginning at 4 p.m. weekdays.

The patrol is made up of 13 girls and three adults from Bangor, Millinocket, Liberty, Mariaville, Hampden, Hermon, Pittsfield, Seal Cove, Veazie, Orono and Brooksville.

The Girl Scouts are earning money to travel to London, in July 2002 to attend London Experience III at Pax Lodge, one of four world centers of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts.

The girls and their adult leaders hope you will stop by with your gifts, have them wrapped, and help them get to England next summer for this very special event.

“The Sun Never Sets on Hancock Point” is the title of a two-volume history of the community written by Sanford Phippen of Orono and Hancock.

Phippen will autograph copies of the book from noon to 1 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 16, at the Orono Public Library.

“The book is about the people of the Greater Bangor area who settled Hancock Point as a summer colony in the 1870s,” Phippen said.

“I know a lot of people will be interested in it. There are a lot of names people will recognize.”

The book is dedicated to Phippen’s mother, Elizabeth Clarke Phippen, as well as the late Harriet Adams Gundersen and the late Robin Crabtree.

In the dedication, Phippen wrote that his mother and Gundersen were “two great sources of inspiration and Hancock stories who spent most of their summers on Hancock Point.”

Of Crabtree, who was the wife of our Bangor Daily NEWS colleague Scott Haskell, Phippen wrote that she was “a direct descendent of the founders of Crabtree’s Neck who loved her ancestral home and considered Hancock her hometown.”

All proceeds from the sale of the book will benefit the Hancock Historical Society.

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

990-8288.