People who have lent their support to the Bangor Area Homeless Shelter are being issued a special invitation.

Shelter Executive Director Dennis Marble wrote me recently to announce a “new event we’re planning: Our first annual Friends of the Shelter evening,” which is 7-8:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 25, in the ballroom of the University Center on the University College Bangor campus.

“The Penobscot Job Corps Center’s culinary arts program will be supplying appetizers and providing some students to help serve,” Marble wrote, “and the United Technologies Center’s culinary arts program will be preparing additional hors d’oeuvres.”

During the evening you will be listening to the string music of Sam Glazman.

“We are excited about this event,” Marble added. “It’s our opportunity to say thank you to everyone we can think of who helped us, and do so, to all, at the same time” and in the same place.

“We look forward to acknowledging all the individuals, churches, organizations and businesses” that help provide more than half the shelter’s annual funding, he wrote.

The evening also will be an opportunity to thank “the volunteers and meal providers who help provide coverage to the shelter,” by serving more than 30,000 meals annually.

It also gives the facility an opportunity to thank “the community leaders and other businesses who help us maximize the wonderful support that we receive,” Marble wrote.

Marble said invitations will go out to “any and all who are friends of the shelter,” and added more than 800 invitations soon will be in the mail.

His main concern, however, is that everyone who should receive an invitation actually gets one.

“We know it’s possible we may miss some [people] in terms of invitations,” he explained, “and we encourage folks to contact us if they feel we should have invited them.”

If you are one of those people, call the shelter at 947-0092 to say you’d like an invitation.

Marble would greatly appreciate your call.

Now through Thursday, March 13, Brewer Middle School pupils are collecting spare change as part of the “Pennies for Patients” program to benefit the Massachusetts chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

The project’s Reach Specialist Shannon Greaney reports this is the third year for the local program, which has received “a great deal of support from the school and surrounding community,” she wrote.

Last year, the pupils raised $813, doubling the amount of the first year, and, she added, “we expect it to be another successful year.”

Schools in Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire raised $280,000 last year.

This year’s goal is to break the $350,000 mark.

The Bangor Museum and Center for History is holding “Historic Fashions on Parade” at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 2, at the museum, 6 State St. in Bangor.

Thanks to a grant from the Maine Humanities Council, the program is free and open to the public. However, seating is limited, and reservations can be made by calling 942-1900.

Judy Bielecki, director of Washburn-Norlands Living History Center in Livermore, will display Civil War-era women’s clothing in this interactive program, which includes audience participation.

Entertainment will be provided by a string duet from S&G Studio in Bangor, featuring Michelle Dempsey on violin and Mackenzie Gass on viola.

The program complements the current museum exhibit of historic costumes, “Ruffians, Ruffles, Parasols and Patriots,” and will be the final presentation in this series.

The museum will be closing on Monday, March 3, to prepare for the next exhibit, which will open in June.

The museum gift shop will remain open during regular business hours. Tours of the organization’s Thomas A. Hill House on Union Street are available by appointment.

Nominations will be accepted until Friday, March 7, for the Bangor Sam’s Club eighth annual Teacher of the Year program.

Anyone can nominate an outstanding teacher for this award by filling out a nomination form at the store’s service desk, or by visiting www.pdkintl.org.

Winning teachers receive a certificate and a $1,000 grant for their school from Sam’s Club Foundation and have the opportunity to apply for state and national honors.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. partners with the educational association Phi Delta Kappa International to honor outstanding teachers in more than 3,400 communities throughout the country, according to a recent release.

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