While many young people this week are enjoying athletic opportunities made possible through the generosity of authors Stephen and Tabitha King of Bangor by competing in the Senior Little League World Series here, other young people are enjoying artistic opportunities made possible by these most generous local residents.

Windover Art Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to children and the arts, is located in Newburgh.

Director Mari Abercrombie called to tell me about the many exciting things happening there.

Through grants from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, Windover has been able to start up a digital video studio, Abercrombie reported.

And, through a grant from the Libra Foundation, the students (who are enjoying their final week of the summer program) have expanded their Birch Tree Theatre.

In the digital video studio, students work with cutting-edge technology along with one of the oldest forms of three-dimensional animation, known as Claymation.

Professional cameraman and film editor Bruce Abercrombie, from the Washington, D.C., area, visited the center recently to help students produce a short film, and University of Maine student Peter McDermott is working with them on film projects involving wildlife and UFOs.

The theater has a new backstage area so it now has room for young actors and actresses to prepare for productions, lending a higher level of professionalism and quality to their shows.

Additionally, the students can work on projects in an expanded glass-working area using torches and kilns, and do glass-beading and stained-glass work.

But there is much more Windover would like to be able to offer, Mari Abercrombie said.

The center would like to offer a scholarship program, find cabin-sized studios that could be dedicated for a specific discipline, have a music studio, a textile or fabric workshop and the means to create a film using special effects and a blue screen.

To this end, Windover has begun a $100,000 “Fun(d) Raising Campaign” for the studios and other projects.

Among the fund-raising activities are a silent auction and an Old Town kayak raffle, as well as participation by the students in the recent WLBZ Downtown Bangor Sidewalk Art Festival and Hampden Children’s Day on Saturday, Aug. 17.

If you would like more information about Windover, or wish to contribute to its campaign, call Abercrombie, 234-4503, or write Windover Art Center, 3001 Kennebec Road, Newburgh 04444.

Nancy Dysart, director of Children’s Miracle Network of Eastern Maine Healthcare in Bangor, and CMN coordinator Jill Reynolds invite the public to attend a victory celebration barbecue beginning at 5 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 15, at Sam’s Club on Hogan Road in Bangor.

The event celebrates the arrival, by Kubota lawn tractor, of Shawn Cowan, who is leaving today and driving the tractor from The Aroostook Medical Center in Presque Isle to Sam’s Club in Bangor to raise funds for CMN.

The fund-raiser was organized by Cowan and his fiancee, Sam’s Club associate Carol Lackedy, to benefit CMN.

The couple thus far has raised $10,000 in sponsorships and individual pledges to support the neonatal intensive care unit of Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.

Dorr’s Equipment of Bangor donated the tractor, and Lackedy will drive an escort van donated by Darling’s Rent-A-Car as the couple proceeds down Route 2 to Bangor.

Along the way, Lackedy will be collecting additional contributions and pledges from anyone who wants to donate to the cause.

If you miss them, but still want to support their effort, donations can be sent to Eastern Maine Charities, P.O. Box 404, Bangor 04401-0404, with the gift designated for the CMN Tractor-A-Thon.

And don’t forget to welcome the tractor-travelers when they arrive on Thursday at Sam’s Club in Bangor.

In the event there is a delay in their arrival, the celebration will take place at 5 p.m. Friday, Aug. 16, at Sam’s Club.

With the 27th annual Machias Maine Wild Blueberry Festival coming up this weekend, what a perfect time to hear Maine author David C. Fickett read from and discuss his first novel, “Nectar.”

Fickett appears at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 15, in the Riverview Room of the Ellsworth Public Library, 20 State St. in Ellsworth.

The book is a fictional chronicle of three generations of a Maine family involved in blueberry farming and beekeeping.

A Winter Harbor native, Fickett is a graduate of the University of Maine in Augusta and Sumner Memorial High School in East Sullivan.

Copies of “Nectar” will be available for purchase and signing by the author.

For more information about EPL activities, call Julie Gillette at 667-6363.

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