With the beautiful, white “poor man’s fertilizer” covering the ground the first day of spring, and birds flitting about trying to keep warm, it is comforting to know that in a few weeks we can step inside the Bangor Auditorium and Civic Center and sense springtime in all its glory.

Many individuals, groups, organizations and businesses are busily preparing for the 2002 Bangor Garden Show, which runs Friday, April 12, through Sunday, April 14, at the Auditorium and Civic Center in Bangor.

The much-anticipated event gets under way with Preview Night Thursday, April 11.

A red, white and blue display will honor national heroes and our cultural heritage.

Preview Night admission is $35 per person, by presale only. Tickets must be reserved no later than Tuesday, April 9, by calling 990-4444.

Show hours are 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday, April 12 and Saturday, April 13, and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, April 14.

Admission is $8 for adults, $3 for children and free for children under age 5.

However, much work still needs to be done to prepare for that event, and your help is not only invited, but greatly needed.

Gretchen Faulkner, director of education at the Hudson Museum on the University of Maine campus in Orono, is co-host of the Children’s Room for the 2002 Bangor Garden Show.

She called recently to say that her committee is seeking volunteers to work in the Children’s Room.

“Volunteers will be assigned activities, and also will be handing out educational material, plants and seeds,” she explained.

This year’s theme for the Children’s Room is Bark, Bugs, Bees, Bears.

The exhibit will take guests into the Maine woods to explore the “buzz-y” world among the trees.

“Lectures” by a beaver and an otter will be featured, and a beaver lodge, constructed by Joe Rizzo of Brooksville, is sure to delight visitors of all ages.

“No training is needed,” Faulkner said of those who volunteer for this special exhibit.

Most of the activities volunteers will oversee “can be taught very quickly,” she added.

Children’s Room volunteers are asked to work at least a two-hour shift, and those who do volunteer will receive free admission to the show.

If you are interested in assisting with this enjoyable exhibit, call Faulkner, during normal business hours, at 581-2904.

I also received a pre-garden show notice from Jan Cox of Brewer, writing on behalf of the Penobscot District Garden Club Federation of Maine.

Once again, that group “will be presenting a Standard Flower Show at the Bangor Garden Show,” she wrote.

“In order for the show to be a success, we depend on the area people to enter their flowering and nonflowering house plants, container-grown herbs, forced bulbs and arboreal exhibits.

“This is open to nonmembers as well as members of the Federation,” Cox emphasized.

“We hope this year’s show will surpass all others,” she wrote, and she knows that, “with the enthusiastic participation” of our readers, “it can happen!”

Anyone who would like to participate in the Standard Flower Show should call Linda Hansen at 989-3674.

Remember, Cox points out, “you may have an award-winning specimen right in your own house or yard!”

What a wonderful report the Bangor Daily News received from John Paul LaLonde regarding the outcome of the Bucksport bone marrow drive held earlier this month at International Paper Co.’s Fitness Center in that community.

“On behalf of Alec Beeson and all those whose lives depend on bone marrow donors,” LaLonde wrote, “I thank all who participated” in that drive.

“Our goal was to add 200 new names to the national registry, and we exceeded this goal by 136. That says volumes about the unselfish, giving nature of people in the Greater Bucksport area.”

We were pleased to be included with the Enterprise and other news media for helping get out the word about this drive, and LaLonde also thanks the “many special people who worked hard on this project, as well as numerous businesses that donated food or equipment.”

“Finally,” LaLonde wrote, he and members of the bone marrow drive committee “thank International Paper, the [Maine] Leukemia Foundation, and many individuals for financial donations to help with lab costs for each of the 336 new registrants.

“Thank you, all.”

Attention Oak Grove graduates!

Helen Marston of Tenants Harbor wants you to know that the Oak Grove Class of 1952 is planning a luncheon in celebration of its 50th graduation anniversary from that school, and every Oak Grove graduate is invited to attend!

All Oak Grove graduates, all individuals who attended the school, and their guests, “are invited, regardless of the class,” Marston wrote.

“We are searching for all who attended the school, which is no longer in existence. Our lists include graduates and attendees from 1923 to 1970.”

The former private school in Vassalboro is now home to the Maine Criminal Justice Academy.

The Oak Grove Class of 1952 celebratory luncheon is scheduled for Saturday, June 1, at the East Wind Inn in Tenants Harbor.

For information about this event, call Marston 7 a.m.-7 p.m. at 372-8494, or e-mail hlmaim@midcoast.com.

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