The 26-year-old Mount Desert Island Youth Hostel in Bar Harbor, the only remaining American Youth Hostel Association facility in Maine, seeks a few generous individuals or businesses to make donations that will get the site renovated, quickly, in preparation for its opening on Memorial Day, said MDI Youth Hostel president Rob Jordan.

“Our immediate need is to get some renovations done” to make the facility compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, he said of the former single-family residence located at the corner of Main and Edgewood streets.

Jordan said no exterior work is needed, but “we have to renovate interior bathrooms and showers for handicapped accessibility,” as well as creating parking with handicapped spaces and install a wheelchair-accessible ramp.

A contractor has been identified, and now the organization needs to raise at least $76,000 to pay for the work.

This nonprofit’s plea for funds is slightly different from others, Jordan explained.

“One of the key things is that it is not a broad-based capital campaign. We’re only looking for a few large donors to get it renovated quickly. The incentive is that we’re only asking people once, and we won’t be back every year asking for money.”

When the project is completed, “any net revenues will be distributed to other nonprofits in the area,” he said of organizations such as Emmaus, an Ellsworth shelter, and local food pantries.

Jordan wants potential donors to know that their contributions are an investment in the area as well as a donation to the youth hostel.

Originally targeted for international traveling students, Jordan said, membership in the American Youth Hostel Association, with headquarters in Washington, D.C., “is open to anyone, young or old, foreign or domestic,” who can then “stay at any licensed hostel.”

“The worldwide mission of the international organization,” he said, “is to promote greater understanding of the world and its people while following a tradition of communal camaraderie.”

For information on how you can help open the MDI Youth Hostel before Memorial Day, call Jordan at 288-9680 or e-mail rjordan@gwi.net.

Eighth-graders at Charlotte Elementary School invite you to attend a “Sweetheart Dinner” at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 14, at the school, 1006 Ayers Junction Road in Charlotte.

The cost is $10 per person or $15 per couple.

If you plan to attend, you must make your reservations by today by calling the school at 454-2688.

Reservations are necessary because seating is limited to 50 people.

Those who do attend will find the school gymnasium has been turned into a romantic cafe with delightful dinner music provided by Chris Guida on flute and recorder, and Aerial Raff and Ann Simmons on violin.

Funds raised at this event will benefit the eighth-graders’ Boston class trip fund.

Congratulations are extended to everyone involved with the Maine Credit Unions’ 2002 Campaign for Ending Hunger, which raised a record $193,640.

Representatives of 69 Maine Credit Unions (91 percent of all Maine credit unions) participated in the fund-raiser, which enabled the organization to surpass the $1 million mark in money raised to help feed the needy in Maine since the program began in 1990.

Gene Staffiere, Northern Maine Division director of the March of Dimes, has announced that Sharon Versyp, coach of the University of Maine women’s basketball team, will serve as the Bangor-Brewer March of Dimes WalkAmerica honorary chairperson for 2003.

Founded in 1938, the mission of the March of Dimes is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects and infant mortality.

To register for WalkAmerica, call (800) 525-WALK or visit www.marchofdimes.com/walkamerica.

Darlene Hawkes, assistant vice president and marketing communications officer for Bangor Savings Bank, reports that the bank has added its name to the list of contributors to the $1.5 million capital campaign for the Maine Children’s Home for Little Wanderers in Waterville.

The campaign will enable the organization to repay two loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which made possible the purchase and renovation of the former Criminal Justice Academy on Silver Street in Waterville as its headquarters.

Bangor Savings contributed $10,000 to the campaign to help Maine Children’s Home continue assisting children and families with adoption and other services, as it has been doing since 1899.

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