Jazz lovers have an opportunity to hear some of the best local talent around when the Castine Arts Association presents the Acadia Big Band of Bar Harbor at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 13, at Delano Auditorium on the Maine Maritime Academy campus in Castine.

Donations of $10 are requested to benefit the CAA, and students are admitted free.

Proceeds from the concert will help enable the CAA to sponsor local programs in the visual and performing arts.

A jazz quartet will play for 20 minutes before the concert.

Castine residents Silas Yates, Dick Starke and Dave Unger are among the band members who will be volunteering their talents to benefit the CAA.

“It’s sort of, have band, need charity,” Yates said of the 20-piece band that was formed last September under the direction of Joe Wainer, a teacher at Conners-Emerson Middle School in Bar Harbor.

“This is our fifth concert,” Yates said of the group that was organized to help support community organizations.

Half of the band members, like Yates, are professionals, he said, and the other half are students from the Mount Desert Island area.

And, as many of you may already know, those young jazz musicians are terrific.

In fact, Yates remarked of the Mount Desert Island Memorial High School bands, “they just cleaned up at the state level” in recent jazz competitions.

He added that MDI high school band director Dan Granholm is also a member of the Acadia Big Band.

Yates described the group as “a very energetic band.”

The repertoire includes the jazz classics of such composers as Sonny Rollins, Thelonius Monk and Count Basie.

“It’s a very energetic band,” Yates said. “We’re playing real jazz, with just some swing music from the ’40s.”

Yates had high praise for the younger members of the band, many of whom were “trained by Wainer, a professional drummer who has performed extensively in New York and throughout New England.

“He trained these kids to play really great in the rhythm section,” Yates said. “They have lots of energy.”

Yates, a professional trombonist, said the band “is getting a good response” to its offer to help out area charities, and encourages representatives of any organization to call him at 326-0663 to inquire about a benefit performance.

With so many participants, the Abnaki Girl Scout Multi-Family Yard Sale from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 9, at 156 North Main St. in Brewer should offer something for everyone.

All proceeds from the sale will be used by the Scouts for opportunities such as exploring careers, sciences and high adventure.

The Brewer Garden & Bird Club will hold its annual plant sale from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, June 9, on the Wilson Street side of the Brewer Auditorium.

The event also features a white elephant table, food, books, morning coffee and coffeecake.

However, co-president Jan Cox writes, “we are asking that area gardeners donate their extra plantings [things that are taking over more space than you want them to] to the Garden Club.”

If you need help digging those plants out, club members are available to work with you. Call Cox, 989-5391, or Dot Niles at 989-5090 to make those arrangements.

Plant donations can be left between 5 and 8 p.m. Friday, June 8, or before 9 a.m. Saturday, June 9, at the Brewer Auditorium.

Cox adds that “profits from this annual event help keep our city beautiful by planting flowers at various places,” helps club members keep the Blue Star Marker in good repair and helps with the upkeep of The Children’s Park on the corner of State and North Main streets.

The trio, “A Celtic Weave” appears at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 13, at the historic Friends Church Museum on Route 1A in Fort Fairfield.

Kenneth Gilman, Kate Scheindler and Bruce Wilkins will perform a variety of traditional and contemporary Celtic and other music as they entertain on the mandolin, fiddle, bodhran, guitar, pennywhistle and banjo.

Gilman, who grew up in the mountains of northern New Mexico, was trained on the classical violin.

Scheindler is a native of Scotland and a New Brunswick resident who grew up in a singing family performing in Glasgow. She plays the bodhran and guitar.

Wilkins, a longtime resident of Aroostook County and a Delaware native, is a composer who performs on guitar and pennywhistle. The trio will perform many of his original pieces.

The concert is free, but a donation basket will be available to help with the upkeep and continued restoration of the Civil War-era Quaker Church, which dates to 1859 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Refreshments will be served after the concert.

An easy smile, a quick, firm handshake, and a truly delightful gift of gab were the hallmarks of Fred Knaide of Brewer, who died on Sunday, June 3, at the Maine Veterans Home in Bangor.

But, more than that, was Fred’s ability to share the loves of his life – family, friends and sports – with all whose paths he crossed.

And he always remembered your name.

To his wife, Thurza Knaide, their family and friends, our deepest condolences on the loss of one nice guy.

Fred will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved him, and were fortunate enough to share his time on this earth.

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

990-8288.