The week of May 19-25 is Emergency Medical Services Week, and part of the local celebration of that event will be an EMS open house to which the public is invited.

Sponsored by Capital Ambulance and the Bangor Fire Department, the EMS open house runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, May 19, at Station 5, the department’s newest station on Hogan Road in Bangor.

Fire Department paramedic Joe Wardwell reports the open house will feature games, prizes and bicycle helmet giveaways.

He also said emergency rescue personnel will be featured in demonstrations “such as a high-angle rescue, with rappelling, and we will have vehicle extrication demonstrations and ambulance tours.”

If the weather permits, and as long as it is not busy, Wardwell said, he expects the LifeFlight helicopter to land at the site “perhaps around 2 p.m.,” so everyone attending can get a close-up view of that aircraft.

The event will help introduce Emergency Medical Services and “and what we can provide for the general public,” Wardwell said. “Our theme is ‘EMS: On Call for Life,’ and we will have handouts for those who attend.”

Head gardener Whitney Williams Granholm invites you to view the blooms of more than 115,000 bulbs during the second annual Spring Garden Show from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 18, at the estate of William and Barbara Smith, 28 Sergeant Dr., Northeast Harbor.

Proceeds from your suggested $10 donation will benefit the Carlo Ninfi Scholarship Fund at Mount Desert Island High School.

The rain date is the same time on Sunday, May 19.

In addition to the beauty of thousands of blooming hyacinth, narcissus and tulips, you will enjoy a brass quartet, lemonade and beautiful scenery.

Marion Syversen, vice president of the Bangor Garden Club, invites you to attend its annual plant sale 8-10 a.m. Saturday, May 18, at Paul Bunyan Park near the Bandstand on Main Street in Bangor.

During setup, BGC members request “no early birds, please,” Syversen wrote.

The sale features perennials, annuals, garden treasures and delicious homemade food, all at very reasonable prices.

Proceeds benefit such BGC civic projects as plantings at Bangor Public Library, the patio gardens at Bangor Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, the Bangor Mental Health Institute Circle of Senses program, and weekly plantings with children in the pediatric ward of Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.

To help cover expenses for the 19th Annual Special Family Weekend May 31-June 2 at Maine Maritime Academy in Castine, a special family weekend bake sale and raffle is planned from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 18, at Marden’s in Brewer.

Organizers Kerry and Darnell Salls of Brewer have put together a sale that includes raffle items such as a 19-inch television/VCR, a wooden rocking horse and many gift certificates.

SFW volunteer Lillian Leighton of Franklin reports that throughout the day a video of the weekend will be playing, and SFW volunteers will be available to answer questions about the event that brings Maine families and their children with special needs to Castine for a fun-filled, educational, recreational and networking weekend.

For more information about SFW, call Leighton at 565-2774 or Cynthia Vaughan of Levant at 884-8898.

The Castine Arts Association invites you to meet Tracy Kane, the New Hampshire author and illustrator of the children’s book, “Fairy Houses.”

Kane will sign books from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, May 18, in the Compass Rose Bookstore on Main Street in Castine. This event is free.

She will lead a fairy-house-building event at 2 p.m. at the Fairy House Building on the Wilson Museum Grounds on Perkins Street. The rain date is 1 p.m. Sunday, May 19.

And while this event is free, space is limited, so you should call Lyn Mayewski at 326-8433 for reservations.

Children are welcome to attend the events dressed as fairies.

Kane’s third appearance will be at 4 p.m. Sunday, May 19, in the BIW Lecture Hall at Maine Maritime Academy on Pleasant Street in Castine where she will deliver a presentation on the process of creating children’s books, from concept to printing.

Although this lecture is geared to adults, children are welcome. Suggested donations at the door are $5 for CAA members and $7 for nonmembers. It is free for students.

The open house beginning at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 19, at the Brooksville Free Public Library in the Brooksville Public Service Building is a very special event.

It celebrates not only the 50th anniversary of the incorporation of the BFPL, but also the 10th anniversary of its move to the Public Service Building.

The open house begins with a plaque dedication in honor of the two surviving members of the original Board of Trustees, Rev. George Bovill and Kathleen Andrews.

After that presentation, Brooksville selectmen will present a plaque naming the library board room in honor of the late M. Evans Munroe, whose efforts to make the Public Service Building a reality also enabled the BFPL to find a new home.

A celebratory cake cutting at 2:30 p.m. will be accompanied by the musical entertainment of Erin Doherty, Alice Guilford, Molly Maltezos, Aisha Woodward and Kate Durost, also known as the George Stevens Academy Chamber Music Ensemble.

The festivities close with a juggling show featuring Zachary Field at 3 p.m. in the large meeting room of the Public Service Building.

The public is cordially invited to attend, and refreshments will be served throughout the afternoon.

In Thursday’s column, I typed the wrong date, but the right day, for Hermon High School sophomore Niki Lake’s Locks of Love haircut. That special event takes place at 4:30 p.m. today at Country Side Hair Smythe in Hermon.

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