The spirit of Thanksgiving will fill the air as people gather to celebrate the presence of Rev. Leland Bowden Jr. in their lives during a benefit concert at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 24, at The Grand Auditorium in downtown Ellsworth.

Bowden is the well-known and highly regarded pastor of the Christian Ridge Church of God in Ellsworth.

After first being diagnosed with cancer in 1996 and having lived in remission since that time, Bowden was recently diagnosed with leukemia.

The difficulty now, according to friend Bill Thomas, is that Bowden “has already had a bone marrow transplant, and you can’t have another.”

Thomas said Bowden is traveling to Boston for treatment and consultation; the benefit “will help to pay for medication and help with expenses” incurred by the family during this time.

There is no admission to Saturday’s concert, but an offering will be taken during the event.

Bowden lives in Ellsworth with his wife, Linda. His stepdaughter Amie Kilkoyne teaches in Ellsworth and his stepson Chad Fickett is a pastor in Laurel, Md.

Saturday’s concert features two well-known Maine Christian bands, The Rock Show and Yadah Cruse.

Members of The Rock Show are lead singer and guitarist Scott Connors, drummer Daniel Miller and Brian Spencer on bass.

Thomas is the lead singer and guitarist for Yadah Cruse with drummer Tony Crossman and Billy Andrews on bass.

The benefit concert is a Rock Show Ministries Production.

The band members are appearing in concert to help a man they believe has put his heart and soul in serving his congregation, his community and all whose lives he has touched.

If you are unable to attend, but would like to help in some way, call Andrews at 667-6688, or Spencer at 667-6210.

Faith Holman of Levant wrote the Bangor Daily News to publicly extend her “deepest admiration and thanks to the entire staff of the Maine Veterans Home in Bangor.”

Her late husband, Nathaniel “Nate” Holman, resided there a few months before his death on Tuesday, Nov. 13.

His wife wrote that all her husband’s “needs and wants were answered promptly and professionally, even to the point of a fishing trip” arranged for him, “which was to be his last and which he thoroughly enjoyed.”

Although his death was a difficult time for his family, it “was eased by the caring and compassion that everyone exhibited,” Faith Holman wrote.

She especially thanks the nurses and aides who looked after her husband.

“I’ll never forget your loving care,” she wrote.

“Thank you all, once again, and may you all be blessed.”

Members of the Maine Credit Union League and its 78 affiliated credit unions are participating in the annual Ending Hunger Campaign Incentive Week 2001, running now through Monday, Nov. 26.

Last year’s Maine Credit Union Campaign for Ending Hunger awarded more than $102,000 in incentive grants to more than 100 hunger organizations in Maine.

Working with the nonprofit Partners in Ending Hunger in Camden, the Maine Credit Union League is participating in Incentive Week by collecting food and money for several hunger organizations.

The public is encouraged to help make this campaign successful by contributing to Ending Hunger Campaigns being conducted by their local credit unions.

Although this is Thanksgiving week, I thought readers might be interested in knowing that nearly $6,000 was raised at the fifth annual Kiwanis’ Haunted Forest on Halloween weekend at Sprague’s Nursery in Bangor.

Event co-chairman Tom Dwelley commended the work of students from the University of Maine, Husson College and Penobscot Job Corps who worked hard to help make the event such a success.

Proceeds from the Haunted Forest benefit Children’s Miracle Network of Eastern Maine Healthcare to help provide pediatric services at Eastern Maine Medical Center and The Acadia Hospital in Bangor, The Aroostook Medical Center in Presque Isle, Inland Hospital in Waterville, the Pathfinders Program of Hospice of Eastern Maine and the Maine Coalition for Safe Kids.

All money raised for CMN by these events stays in our local communities.

As thousands of American families gather for Thanksgiving today and sadly face an empty place at their tables, I am reminded of a similarly difficult national holiday many of us remember all too well.

It was 38 years ago today, on Friday, Nov. 22, 1963, that President John Kennedy died at the hands of a madman, leaving vacant the place at the head of our national Thanksgiving table less than one week later.

It was a difficult Thanksgiving that year for all of us.

But we came together, as we always do, in celebration of our resilient national spirit and gave thanks for being Americans, despite the unfortunate circumstances that faced our nation and the world at that time.

On Sept. 11, other madmen killed thousands of our citizens and those who worked in our country.

And, once again, we find ourselves facing a very difficult Thanksgiving.

But we will gather around our tables and celebrate just as we did 38 years ago, just as we have always done in perilous times.

We will give thanks today for the privilege of being Americans and ask God to bless “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

I will be off for a few days.

The Joni Averill column returns to Page B4 on Tuesday, Nov. 27.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

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