Valentine’s Day dance aids Habitat for Humanity

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One month from today – as hard as that may be to believe – folks will be swinging and swaying to the live band music of Brian Catell & Friends when they attend the Bangor Board of Realtors’ sixth annual Valentine’s Day benefit dance from 8 p.m. to midnight Saturday, Feb. 9, at the Bangor Civic Center.

Longtime event volunteer Jan Currier of Bangor wants people to know that tickets for the dance, at $15 each or $150 for a table for 10, are available through any area Realtor, at the Grasshopper Shop in downtown Bangor and at Patrick’s Hallmark in the Broadway Shopping Center in Bangor.

This outstanding event benefits the Bangor Area Chapter of Habitat for Humanity, which is in the process of raising funds for its eighth home, the second to be located in Brewer.

Last year’s event, in which the chapter received matching grants from the Maine Association of Realtors’ Affordable Housing Fund and Wells Fargo Mortgage, raised $10,000 for the nonprofit program, which helps support the completion of a new home for a qualifying family.

In the past five years, the local Realtors – with matching grants – have donated more than $50,000 to our local Habitat chapter.

The event promises to bring all the music you love to dance to, from standards to pop, Latin, swing, rock, music of the ’40s and maybe even some jazz.

Word has it that this is always a terrific event and a great way to raise funds for a program that helps provide affordable homes for families in Bangor and Brewer.

If you would like information about the work of Habitat for Humanity, perhaps as a volunteer or a partner family, call 942-8977.

The number is connected to an answering machine that is checked regularly by Habitat for Humanity volunteers.

Speech director Robin Lisherness and members of the Skowhegan Area High School speech team invite the public to an open house at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 10, at the high school.

The speech team recently was the host for the fourth annual Kennebec Valley Conference Speech Championship.

SAHS won the overall sweepstakes for the fourth consecutive year, competing against three KVAC teams plus seven other schools.

As the team prepares for the state championships Saturday, Jan. 12, in Brunswick, you have the opportunity to see and hear what a speech competition is like by moving from classroom to classroom during the open house.

You can select from up to 30 presentations of humorous and dramatic interpretations, prose and poetry readings, duo ensemble performances and other categories.

Admission to the open house is free.

However, by purchasing refreshments and raffle tickets from the SAHS Speech and Drama Boosters, you will be helping that group raise money for the department’s trip representing Maine in the Fringe Festival next August in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Among the award-winning speakers taking part in the open house will be many who will perform in Edinburgh.

SAHS winners in the KVC championships were Andra Spearrin, Richard Small and Alex Dyke in ensemble, Katelyn Hartford, prose, and Emmy Spencer, novice poetry. Small was a dual winner in novice prose, as was Hartford in poetry.

Other SAHS winners were Marry Berry, oratorical declamation; Audrey Schoenthaler, storytelling; Kaitlin Sprague, original works; Erin McFadden and Jeremy Chapman, duo; and Lizzy Reinholt, dramatic. Berry was a dual winner in extemporaneous.

Other winners were Brunswick High School students Nicki Cronin in original oratory and Maranda Lawton, humorous.

As one who took part in high school speech competitions, I urge you to support the efforts of these young people, and assure you a tremendously enjoyable evening.

Marion Syversen of Hampden has written to let readers know it is time to make plans to attend the Boston Flower Show.

The annual bus trip sponsored by the Bangor Garden Club leaves at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, March 19, from the Broadway Shopping Center in Bangor and returns at about 9 p.m. to that location.

This year’s show, “Shades of Spring,” is again produced by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Syversen wrote, and “promises to be a bright spot in a long winter.”

Tickets are $60 each and include transportation and entry to the show, but not meals. A coffee break and a dinner stop are included on the schedule.

Checks should be made out to the Bangor Garden Club and sent to Marion Syversen, 70 Main Road South, Hampden 04444.

Reservations may also be made by calling her during business hours at 862-2952.

Money raised by this trip, and the club’s annual spring plant sale, help fund a number of civic projects.

Included among the many activities of BCG members are plantings at the Bangor Public Library, the patio garden at Bangor City Nursing and the Bangor Mental Health Institute’s Circle of Senses, weekly plantings with children in the pediatric ward at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, camperships and other youth programs.

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