Community News

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Bangor

Pilgrim Thanksgiving

The Hammond Street Congregational Church will celebrate its second annual Pilgrim Sunday with a special worship service at 10 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 23. Members of the congregation are encouraged to attend dressed as Pilgrims or Indians.

The “Thanksgiving Celebration in the Manner of the Pilgrims” will require men and boys to sit on one side of the church, and women and girls to sit on the other. Readings will be from a 1610 Geneva Bible. The choir and congregation will sing from Ainsworth’s Psalter, published in 1612. Unruly and sleepy worshippers will be reprimanded by the tithing man, who will make a report at the end of the service on the congregation’s behavior.

After the worship service, a harvest home meal will be held. Members are encouraged to bring authentic foods, which may have been served at the first Thanksgiving.

The Rev. Dr. Mark Doty, a descendant of a Mayflower family, introduced Pilgrim Sunday to the congregation. To obtain more information, call 942-4381.

Downtown Photo Show

Bangor Center Corp.’s third annual Downtown Photo Show will be exhibited at the University of Maine Museum of Art on Harlow Street from Nov. 21 to Jan. 17.

The opening reception will be held 4:30-6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 21, at the museum. Light refreshments will be served, and jurors Bob DeLong, Alan Stubbs and Bill Kuykendall will give a gallery talk. Prize winners, selected by the jurors, will be identified at the opening reception.

“This year’s entries are the strongest we’ve seen in the three years we’ve juried the contest,” Kuykendall said. “We are very excited about the quality of the photographs and seeing the work hung in this very prestigious space.”

Bangor Center Corp. sponsors the annual contest to encourage people to explore and enjoy downtown Bangor; to strengthen the connection between photography and other expressions of art and culture downtown; and to encourage professional and amateur photographers to develop photographic portfolios of downtown for current use, enjoyment and posterity.

“The Nutcracker” preview

Bangor Symphony Orchestra and Robinson Ballet members will be on hand noon-4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 29, at Borders Books and Music, Bangor, to preview their upcoming production of Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker.”

Shoppers may order tickets, win prizes and meet BSO musicians, who will perform live selections from “The Nutcracker.” Robinson Ballet dancers, in costume, also will entertain shoppers.

“The Nutcracker” will be presented at 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 7, at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono.

Ticket prices range from $22 to $29, $11 to $15 for youth under 18, with senior and group discounts. Tickets may be reserved by calling the Bangor Symphony Orchestra box office at 942-5555, or (800) 639-3221. More information is available at www.bangorsymphony.com.

Foster Grandparent Program

The Bangor Wal-Mart has awarded Penquis Community Action Program a grant for $500 to support its Foster Grandparent Program. The grant will fund a social event for foster grandparents and the children they serve.

The event, to be held next spring, will focus on the tradition of making and giving May baskets. Foster grandparents will teach children about the age-old custom and help them make May baskets of their own to give to a loved one. Program manager Gary Dorman said that the project will promote the tradition of giving to others while strengthening bonds between seniors and children.

Penquis CAP operates the Foster Grandparent Program in 14 of Maine’s 16 counties. More than 120 senior volunteers age 60 and over work with children at 81 sites, from schools to Head Start centers to libraries. This past year, the volunteers gave 90,800 hours of their time to help the children of Maine, including children with developmental delays, language barriers, learning disabilities, medical impairments and histories of abuse or neglect.

For information about the Foster Grandparent Program, call Gary Dorman at 973-3611.

Eclectic art at the library

The Bangor Public Library will show art selected from its own collection during the last weeks of November and throughout December, upstairs in the Lecture Hall.

The collection is eclectic and includes prints, paintings, pastels and etchings by Maine masters.

Flying high at the library

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers’ historic first flight, Bangor Public Library will hold events in honor of the early aviation pioneers’ achievements.

Editor and pilot Rolf Estela will lead a discussion on Orville Wright’s “How We Invented the Airplane” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 11. There also will be a discussion about well-known pilot and author Ernest Gann’s “Fate is the Hunter.” Copies of both books will be available at the library well before the discussion date.

Bangor Public Library’s local history-special collections librarian, Bill Cook, will give a slide presentation on the history of aviation at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 17, the anniversary of the Wrights’ first flight.

Cook, a longtime aviation historian and pilot, has served on the boards of directors of the National Warplane Museum in Geneseo, N.Y., and the Maine Air Museum in Bangor. He will show slides of aircraft – civilian and military – from the earliest days to the present, and will display a selection of period flight clothing and gear from World War I to the jet era from his private collection.

Child care training

The Penquis Community Action Program Resource Development Center is offering six hours of training in “Foundations of Center-based Care,” 6-9 p.m. Mondays, Dec. 1 and 8, at Penquis CAP, 262 Harlow St. The cost is $10.

The training sessions provide a basic overview of working in child care centers. Topics focus on the role and requirements of the early childhood educator, the needs of young children, the components of quality early childhood programming and options for pursuing additional training.

Current child care providers may apply to the Penquis Resource Development Center’s Scholarship Fund for reimbursement of the fee.

To obtain information or to register, call 941-2840.

Art society auction

Artists from throughout Maine will participate in a Bangor Art Society auction at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 5, at the Union Street Brick Church. The auction will benefit the society’s programs, which include artist lectures and workshops, annual art exhibits, and scholarships to high school and University of Maine students.

A silent auction will be ongoing throughout the evening, and selected items will be auctioned live. Hors d’oeuvres and music will be provided while attendees browse the art.

Tickets for the evening are available at The Grasshopper Shop, Rebecca’s Gift Shop and Picture This frame shop. Call 884-8670, 943-7471 or 659-0063 for more information.

Symphony orchestra grant

The Maine Charity Foundation’s Fund of the Maine Community Foundation recently awarded the Bangor Symphony Orchestra a grant of $4,000 to support the orchestra’s annual presentation of three youth concerts in March at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono. The concerts are performed for more than 4,500 Maine schoolchildren from as far north as Island Falls, east to Machias and Woodland, west to Skowhegan and from as far south as Richmond.

“We are thrilled that Maestro Xiao-Lu Li has become so personally involved in our education programs,” said Diane Kern, BSO education coordinator. “And besides supporting the concerts themselves, this funding allows the extra rehearsal time needed to put together a special program for the young audience – one that will fully engage the students’ imaginations.”

The Bangor Symphony Orchestra began presenting the annual youth concerts in 1984. Other BSO education programs include the Maine High School Concerto Competition in January, and Know Your Orchestra!, the BSO’s educational outreach program that sends musicians to Maine schools for workshops and performances. Call the Bangor Symphony Orchestra at 942-5555 for more information.

The Maine Community Foundation works in partnership to support Maine communities. To obtain more information, call toll-free (877) 700-6800.

Brewer

Kiwanis Club, Key Club

The Brewer Kiwanis Club was host to the Brewer High School Key Club recently in honor of Kiwanis Key Club Week.

Key Club President Brett Rees, Vice President Pete McGuire, Secretary Laurin Green, Treasurer Vanessa Michaud, Points and Projects Chairman Ryan Gooding, Bulletin Editor James McLeod and Brewer High School adviser Mike Hutchins presided at the meeting. Hutchins gave a short report on the Key Club activities.

The 61 Key Club members are preparing for a food drive to fill Thanksgiving baskets for those in need. Dr. Ellen Howard donated the turkeys for the baskets.

At the meeting, Lt. Gov. Bill Newberry inducted Kim DeBeck into Brewer Kiwanis. Secretary Herb Hopkins introduced the newest member of Brewer Kiwanis, Art Monk. Glen Rand introduced guest Theresa Ayot. Clair Wood, Division 2 Lt. Gov. Paul Harris, Fred Otto and Wayne Hamilton from the Orono-Old Town Kiwanis Club also attended.

“In-house chef” Clay Hardy provided the meal. Brewer Kiwanis members Wes Archer, Kemp Humphrey, Dusty Fisher, Carlton King, Jane Newberry, Bill Newberrry, Andy McPhee and Herb Hopkins recently ran a casino at the Samoset Resort to benefit the Maine Physical Educators Association.

Holden

Art at Fields Pond

Janice McCafferty of Lincoln has her paintings on display at the Fields Pond Audubon Center. She grew up in Maine and said she has been fascinated with nature all her life, with a special interest in frogs, turtles and birds. Her paintings depict subtle details, such as the intense concentration of herons watching for prey.

Her exhibit, “The Art of Pond Life,” includes paintings of a gray tree frog, a leopard frog and a painted turtle.

McCafferty creates scenes with scientific accuracy and with an appreciation for beauty. Nature magazine and a biology textbook recently published her illustrations. She has studied photography in Denmark and has displayed her work in Maine and Arizona. She works as a clerk at Lincoln Memorial Library.

The Fields Pond Audubon Center is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays and 1-4 p.m. Sundays. To learn more, call the center at 989-2591.

Orono

Penobscot restoration

The Penobscot River Restoration Project will meet 7-9 p.m. Monday, Nov. 24, at the Orono Council Chambers, 59 Main St. The object of the meeting is to provide information and to answers questions from residents in the Penobscot River watershed.

The project, a proposal by multiple parties – including PPL Corp., the state of Maine, the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Penobscot Indian Nation and conservation groups – seeks to restore native sea-run fish, maintain hydropower production on the Penobscot River and address the needs of riverside communities.

For information, call 827-5938, Ext. 13; or 827-5364.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin