MDI organization plans fourth Dine Around Day

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Island Connections is a nonprofit organization providing services to the elderly and those with disabilities so they may continue to live independently, at home, on Mount Desert Island.

Originally funded through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/Faith in Action, the organization began serving MDI residents in 1997 by matching volunteers with people who needed services.

One of the nicest approaches to fund raising for this organization is its annual Dine Around Day, in which MDI restaurant owners pledge to the organization a portion of their profits from that day.

Island Connections’ fourth annual Dine Around Day is Saturday, July 14, at 42 restaurants on Mount Desert Island.

The idea is for natives and visitors to eat out that day, bringing along their island friends and neighbors, thus helping the organization match the $6,500 the event produced last year.

This Saturday, if you plan to dine on Mount Desert Island, you might just check and see which restaurants are participating.

I can tell you that, from the beginning of the alphabet to the end, from A to Z, you’ll find plenty of restaurants to choose from.

Michael Reisman of Island Connections told me that Chris Pasha, who owns Miguel’s Mexican Restaurant in Bar Harbor, is one of those participating in the fund-raiser.

Reisman said that Pasha recognizes the value of the services Island Connections provides to older and retired people who live on the island, “and, he hopes, when the time comes, that he’ll be able to use the services of Island Connections,” Reisman said.

Among its more recent activities, Reisman said, Island Connections “has been getting two to three people from the island to Bangor for cancer radiation treatment, and we’re in the process of helping another on Swans Island.”

The organization also is discussing the possibility “of having some of our volunteers be trained in respite care,” Reisman said. “That’s something still in the works.”

Again this year, a couple of local high school students worked as interns with the organization, and Reisman hopes more will do so next year.

He also wanted to get out a piece of information that might be helpful to other organizations and communities.

Having originally been funded by the Robert Wood Foundation Faith in Action grant “that encourages volunteerism,” Reisman said, he thought our readers might like to know that “the Foundation is planning to fund 2,000 more Faith in Action programs throughout the country.”

“So, if local groups and communities are looking for a way to get started in a project such as this, for example, they might just want to contact the foundation.”

That address is Faith in Action, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, N.C. 27157-1204.

The telephone number is 336-716-0101 or toll-free, 877-324-8411, and the e-mail address is info@FIAVolunteers.org.

Winston Cup and other racing fans will love this: Ricky Craven’s No. 32 Tide Car will be in front of the Bangor Wal-Mart from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Friday, July 13, to help raise funds for Ricky Craven Charities.

According to Don Emmons and Kathy Welch of Wal-Mart, the event’s purpose is to raise funds and awareness for the four organizations the Maine native and Winston Cup driver supports through his Snowmobile Charity Ride held each year in Greenville.

That event benefits Children’s Miracle Network of Eastern Maine Healthcare, the National Bone Marrow Foundation, the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Maine and the Travis Roy Foundation.

Friday’s fund-raiser features hot dogs, lots of fun and, of course, THE CAR.

Michael Sirota, executive director of Coastal AIDS Network in Belfast, wrote me recently with an update of the results of an artwork raffle and how that fund-raiser has led to another.

Last summer, Eric Hopkins, owner of Eric Hopkins Gallery in North Haven, donated a piece of his work, “Sky Bands #2,” as a gift to raise funds for CAN.

“We raffled off the original watercolor during the holiday season at the end of last year,” Sirota wrote, “raising nearly $3,000 in the process.”

Now, he writes, “the same image has been made into beautiful note cards” and, having seen one, I can tell you they are lovely.

Proceeds from the sale of these blank cards “will be used to provide direct services, emergency assistance funds for people living with HIV and AIDS, and prevention education programs for the children, youth families and adults that CAN serves in Knox, Lincoln and Waldo counties,” Sirota explained of this organization that serves “more than 2,200 people every year.”

The note cards are $15 for a package of 10 plus a $3.50 charge, per order, for mailing and handling.

They can be ordered by calling CAN at 338-6330, or by writing CAN, P.O. Box 956, Belfast 04915.

From Sirota’s P.S., cyclists might like to note on their calendars that Saturday, Sept. 22, is the date for the 40-mile pledge bicycle ride for C.A.R.E., the Coastal AIDS Ride for Equity. Sirota promises to provide more information about that event as the date draws near.

The Brewer Hometown Band Concert is 7 tonight in Sunset Park near Pendleton Street School in Brewer, if it doesn’t rain.

The free concert, at which donations are accepted, will be held in the Brewer Auditorium in case the weather doesn’t cooperate.

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