For more than three decades, the MDI Rod and Gun Club has raised funds to help send youngsters to Camp Jordan, the Bangor YMCA resident summer camp on Branch Pond in Ellsworth.

Those funds are raised through the MDI Rod and Gun Club’s Ice Fishing Derby, which takes place Sunday, Feb. 17, throughout Hancock County.

“People can fish anywhere in the county,” reported club President Dennis Smith of Otter Creek.

“The weigh-in is 3:30 to 6 p.m. [that day] at the American Legion Hall, which is located between Trenton and Ellsworth,” Smith said.

Tickets are available at several stores throughout Hancock County and cost $5 each or four for $15.

Additional information and tickets may be obtained by calling 288-2767, 288-9572 or Smith at 288-5457.

Perhaps the most pertinent piece of information, however, is that tickets must be purchased by Saturday, Feb. 16, Smith said.

Proceeds from the event benefit the club’s campership program, which last year enabled five deserving youngsters to attend Camp Jordan.

In addition to supporting a most worthy cause, some participants will come home exceedingly happy.

“We have a first prize of $1,000,” Smith said. “And it doesn’t go to the person with the biggest fish, either. All you have to do is enter a fish and get your name in the hat for the drawing.”

The derby does have first and second prizes for the biggest fish, however, and there is a special division for young anglers, 15 and younger.

“We also have a gate prize of 100 gallons of fuel oil from Island Plumbing and Heating, and several merchants have donated other prizes that will be drawn during the weigh-in,” Smith added.

Anyone with questions about this event or wanting more information about the MDI Rod and Gun Club or its campership program is welcome to call Smith for further details.

Here’s a nice Valentine’s Day opportunity to thank some special people.

On behalf of the Charles A. Dean Memorial Hospital & Nursing Home, Mary Marin Lyon invites the public to attend a dedication ceremony set for 3 to 3:30 p.m. today in the facility’s rehabilitation center.

At that time, Jeri Ann Gilbert and members of her annual Bike & Boat Benefit Ride Committee will be honored for their efforts during the past three years, which have raised more than $22,000 to help purchase equipment for the hospital’s new cardiac rehabilitation program.

During the ceremony, a plaque will be dedicated in honor of the work of these earnest volunteers, and heart-healthy refreshments will be served.

You can’t call it the Maine-Missouri compromise, but you can call it the Maine-Missouri consideration.

Felicia Knight, press secretary for Sen. Susan Collins, wrote me about a rather unusual request Collins and Sen. Jean Carnahan of Missouri made recently.

The two members of the Senate Armed Services Committee were part of the congressional delegation that visited our military in central Asia recently.

According to Knight, while the senators were aboard the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt, they were “made aware of the fact that the carrier, for security reasons and mission requirements, had not made a port call” for nearly three months and that the “sailors were anxiously looking forward to seeing releases, on video” of some of the latest films, especially “Harry Potter” and “The Lord of the Rings.”

“Their movies were really very old,” Knight said.

The considerate senators decided to try to do something about that situation, so they wrote Jack Valenti, president and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America to seek his assistance “in providing copies of these and, perhaps, other, newer releases, to the carrier’s crew.”

The senators pointed out to Valenti that “these men and women deserve any support we can provide,” and that the senators “would be most grateful and appreciate any assistance you might offer.”

Knight will let us know how Valenti responded to that request!

Life Christian Academy in Trenton recently launched its 2002 annual fund campaign with the goal of raising $150,000 to meet the needs of the school and its programs.

Denise Bowden is chairwoman of the fund-raising campaign for which parents already have pledged more than $50,000 to help support the only inter-denominational Christian school in Hancock County.

Life Christian Academy is a private educational institution for children from kindergarten through high school.

Anyone wanting more information about LCA or about its annual fund campaign is welcome to call the school at 667-8622.

Although they spend much of their time studying, student nurses at the University of Maine at Fort Kent also contribute to the community as a way of saying “thank you for your support.”

Members of the UMFK Student Nursing Organization, of which junior Jennifer Hay is the current president, donated $400 to the American Red Cross last month for the New York disaster relief fund.

The group also made a $400 contribution to the family of a 7-year-old Aroostook County girl who was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, which required treatment and hospitalization in Boston.

The approximately 25 student nurses active in SNO raised the funds through candle and T-shirt sales.

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