Although they are just getting under way with their “Pennies for Patients” program, Brewer Middle School Project Reach specialist Shannon Greaney reports pupils there hope to double the amount of money they raised for the Massachusetts Chapter of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society last year.

“Pennies for Patients” is a national program that helps support the regional chapter with more than 300 schools in Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire signing up to collect coins during a three-week period in February and March.

The Brewer Middle School program began Friday, Feb. 8, and runs through Friday, March 1.

During that time, the pupils will be collecting spare change and bringing pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters to school to put in the “Pennies for Patients” containers in their classroom.

Nationally, the school raising the most money will receive a personal visit from The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s national honorary chairwoman and multiplatinum recording star Mandy Moore.

And while Greaney recognizes that Brewer Middle School probably won’t have that honor, since the school is competing with thousands of other schools nationwide, she does expect it to do well, and reports that the classroom raising the most money in the school becomes eligible for a pizza party.

“As long as we raise at least $300, the top classroom gets the pizza party,” Greaney said.

She feels confident that amount will be raised since the school just completed a T-shirt fund-raiser and half of that money will be put into the “Pennies for Patients” account.

Last year, BMS raised $400 for the Massachusetts Chapter of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, which received $300,000 from the schools in the three participating states. This year’s goal is to raise $400,000.

Funds raised support the society’s mission to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma, and to improve the quality of life of patients and their families.

For more information about the “Pennies for Patients” program, call (800) 688-6572 or visit www.leukemia-lymphoma.org.

Last month, I reported that folks at the Curran Homestead were urging you to “Save your 17s,” and one of those 17s is coming right up.

It’s time for the Curran Homestead Living History Farm and Museum Winter Carnival, the Second Annual Currier & Ives Sleigh Rally, and the First Annual Fields Pond Family Ice Fishing Outing, with all events taking place Sunday, Feb. 17, at the Curran Homestead overlooking Fields Pond in Orrington.

The Winter Carnival is 10 a.m.-3 p.m.; the Sleigh Rally 11 a.m.-2 p.m.; the Sleigh Rides noon-2 p.m.; the Family Ice Fishing noon-3 p.m.; the Farm Winter Olympics Snow Sculpture Contests for individuals, families and groups of all ages is ongoing; and the Curran Farm and Museum Open House is 10 a.m.-4 p.m. that day.

You can register, on site, for the Family Ice Fishing event, which is being conducted in cooperation with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

No license is required for this event, but an adult must accompany children under 12.

Volunteers, business sponsors and DIFW wardens and staff members will be there with traps, ice chisels, bait, skimmers, information about state laws, safe fishing and fish and wildlife conservation, as well as hot chocolate and coffee.

Certificates and prizes will be awarded.

Ribbons also will be awarded in several divisions of the Sleigh Rally and, if you want to participate in that event, call coordinator Paula Leavitt of Dixmont at 234-4537.

All food and events, with the exception of the horse-drawn sleigh rides and purchases at the gift shop, are free and open to the public, although donations are encouraged and appreciated.

For more information about this special “Save your 17s” event, call 947-0749 or 745-4426.

Wondering what to do with your old cell phone?

By turning in your used wireless telephones to U.S. Cellular now through Sunday, March 31, you will be assisting U.S. Cellular’s new Community Action Recycling Effort, or C.A.R.E., program, which raises money for the Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund.

Unused phones can be brought to a U.S. Cellular retail store or authorized agent location.

Funds generated from the collected phones will benefit the scholarships fund dedicated to providing educational assistance for post-secondary study to financially needy dependents of those killed, or permanently disabled, in the Sept. 11 attacks.

The company will accept any portable cellular or digital phone, but not bag phones or vehicle-installed models.

The phones do not need to be in working order, and U.S. Cellular also will take the phone’s battery or charger, if that is available.

Collection bins are located at all U.S. Cellular retail stores and authorized agents.

The Hannaford and Shop ‘n Save Help Schools program, which was conducted for 10 weeks last fall, raised more than $250,000 in its first year.

Shoppers could raise funds for local schools by purchasing certain General Mills products. More than 1,000 schools in five states participated in the program.

Blaine Whitney, store manager of the Shop ‘n Save on Hogan Road in Bangor, recently presented a check for $1,332 to All Saints Catholic School of Bangor.

The amount reflected the dollars earned by the school plus a $1,000 education grant awarded the school through the Shop ‘n Save Helps Schools program.

Hannaford Bros. Co. is based in Scarborough and operates 115 supermarkets and food and drug combination stores in Maine, New Hampshire, New York and Massachusetts.

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