Although the ceremony took place last February, the events of that special occasion are just as fresh and clear in the mind of 92-year-old Dorothy Malone of Oakfield as they were when she was there and part of it all.

The occasion was one that brought great pride to Malone, who has outlived her husband and three children.

In February, her 46-year-old granddaughter, Laurie Townsend, “became a full bird colonel,” Malone reported of the single mother of two who is stationed at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado.

“I was swelling right up with pride,” Malone said of the ceremony in which she pinned her granddaughter’s new insignia “on one side, and her father pinned the other.”

Col. Townsend is the daughter of Glenn McDonald, who flew in from Florida for the ceremony and the late Carol McDonald.

“It was just a great time,” Malone said of the trip that started with a niece, who lives in Houlton, driving Malone to Bangor for an overnight stay at a local hotel.

There she met another granddaughter, who drove up from Hyannis, Mass., to make sure her grandmother got comfortably off on her 5:30 a.m. flight.

Describing herself as a “seasoned flier who has visited Germany and Hawaii three times each, been to Alaska and all up and down the West Coast,” Malone didn’t mind the trip a bit, adding that having a wheelchair at all the stops really made a big difference.

Malone and McDonald also had another reason to celebrate the occasion.

“Laurie had worked in the Pentagon a short while prior to it being bombed,” Malone said of a fortuitous transfer to Colorado before the terrorist attacks in Washington, D.C., New York City and Pennsylvania.

Col. Townsend lived in Maine and Massachusetts while growing up, and is a graduate of Amherst College.

“I’m really proud of both Laurie and her brother,” Malone said of the new colonel and Dr. Greg McDonald, who heads the emergency room at Bay State Medical Center in Springfield, Mass.

“Both Laurie and Greg did it all practically all on their own. I remember Laurie used to put out chairs on the beaches down on Cape Cod to pay her way through college.”

And now Malone has even more to look forward to, she said.

“Laurie and her fiance are planning a November wedding.”

As promised, Peggy Markson of the American Cancer Society in Topsham, has provided the results of the ACS Presque Isle Relay for Life event held May 31-June 1 at the University of Maine at Presque Isle.

And as she has reported before, each event is memorable: This one for the performance of a ballet solo by a young cancer survivor to a song from the Broadway show “Annie,” which, Markson said, “touched the hearts of those in attendance.”

And while a heavy rain forced the ceremonial survivors lap to be held inside the UMPI gymnasium, winds did not prevent the event from its 9 p.m. start.

She also added that Presque Isle firefighters, “who are usually putting fires out,” kept the luminarias around the track lit “during a windy candlelight ceremony.”

Major sponsors of this event were First Citizens Bank and Presque Isle’s Citadel radio stations.

Julie Krzanik of the ACS Houlton office managed this Relay for Life “and worked with a team of local volunteers to make it a success,” Markson wrote of the event that raised $18,600 to support ACS programs.

The next Relay for Life begins with a survivors lap at 6 p.m. Friday, June 14, at the Bryant E. Moore School in Ellsworth.

If you are interested in participating in this 18-hour, family-oriented event, such as forming a team or purchasing a luminaria candle for the ceremony that begins at 10 that evening, call the ACS at (800) 464-3102 and press 3. Luminaria candles are $10 each.

Nancy Roberts of United Way of Eastern Maine called to report that inclement weather forced the rescheduling of the United Way of Eastern Maine Shop ‘n Save Golf Classic and Auction to Wednesday, June 26, at Hermon Meadow Golf Club.

The fund-raiser was originally scheduled for Wednesday, June 5.

The event, which benefits the UWEM program, “Read for Success,” is co-sponsored by Pepsi, Oakhurst Dairy and the Bangor Daily News.

The $75 per-person entry fee for the 18-hole scramble includes a golf cart, giveaways, refreshments on the course, and a steak and chicken barbecue lunch.

Due to the postponement, Roberts said, openings are now available, and she wanted our readers to know that “if they have an interest in participating, it is not too late.”

You can register for the tournament by calling UWEM at 941-2800.

Folks planning the 20th reunion for Brewer High School Class of 1982 are running into some difficulties: They are missing many, many of their classmates and really want to know where you are!

In fact, their list of “missing classmates” numbers 90 and includes everyone from George Avery, first on the list, to last-on-the-list, Frank Zimmerman, with John Kidder smack dab in the middle!

The reunion is Saturday, July 13, at the Bangor Motor Inn Conference Center.

Addresses and information to help planners get information to you can be sent to Kevin Forrest, 60 Gettysburg Ave., Brewer 04412, or e-mail forrfam5@aol.com.

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