You have until Friday, Dec. 19, to purchase stars in honor or memory of someone to help decorate the Mount Desert Island Hospital Auxiliary Christmas tree.

All stars are $5 each.

Charlotte Skiff of the auxiliary reports, “This is our 12th year with this fund-raiser,” while explaining that “what we make goes into our general fund to purchase equipment for the hospital that doesn’t make it into the budget.”

The auxiliary “recently purchased a pediatric crash cart, and had the upholstery recovered in the solarium,”‘ she wrote. “As you can see, we not only buy equipment to help with patient care, but we also buy items to ‘beautify’ the public areas” of the hospital.

Skiff also wants readers to know that “we always welcome new members, and appreciate the community support we have received over the many years of fund raising for the hospital.”

Checks made out to MDI Hospital Auxiliary, for the number of stars desired, should be mailed to MDI Hospital Auxiliary, P.O. Box 8, Bar Harbor 04609-0008.

If you wish an acknowledgment to be mailed to you, include your name and address, and if you have any questions, call Skiff at 288-3103.

Rivertown Playschool of Winterport, a nonprofit, parent-run preschool, is hosting its Christmas Songfest and Bake Auction at 6:30 tonight, at Leroy Smith School on South Main Street in Winterport.

Jodi Hatch told me the sale will include such goodies as “homemade cheesecake, pies and fudge, and we’ll be including Longerburger baskets in the auction, too.”

Leading the songfest “will be our 3- and 4-year-olds,” she said of the little ones whose brief performance will include not only the popular “Jingle Bells,” but some original songs as well!

At the event “people looking for holiday gifts will also be able to buy tickets for a raffle of wall hangings of Bob the Builder and Dora the Explorer,” Hatch said

All proceeds will help support the preschool’s activities.

Home Living of Hampden, which opened July 1, has two, two-bed supported-living homes, which provide housing for adults with developmental disabilities who are clients of the state’s Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services, according to administrator Denise Dinsmore.

Home Living also provides community support for consumers who live on their own, or have other living arrangements.

Those individuals, Dinsmore reports, “live on very limited funding.”

Those who reside in the supported-living homes must provide “their own bedding, towels, personal care items and household-type things,” Dinsmore explained, which is why she is asking for your assistance “in making the holidays happier ones” for those at Home Living.

Dinsmore stressed that while some of the clients “have very active family members, others do not.”

“To make all consumers feel they are part of the family, we try to do more” for the ones who don’t receive such support.

Among the items appreciated this holiday season are games, arts and crafts, puzzles, clothing, personal care products, CDs, tapes and movies, and winter items ranging from gloves to sleds.

If you can help, items can be left at the Home Living office, 9 Emerson Drive in Hampden.

Arrangements can also be made to pick up contributions, if that is more convenient, and gifts need not be wrapped.

If you have questions, or would like to help, call Dinsmore at 862-2358.

Sam Cannon, adjutant of Whitcomb-Baker VFW Post 4633 of Hampden, called “to let people know we are trying to send packages from our local area” to Mainers serving in the military.

“Anybody who would like to make donations of money or items” that would be useful to those serving away from home, can send them to VFW Post 4633, P.O. Box 555, Hampden 04444.

Or, you can call the post at 862-2553 any weekday morning for more information, “because there is always someone there” to answer your questions, Cannon said.

“We’re looking for basic necessities such as razors and batteries, which are really hard to come by,” he added.

And, he said, post members “want to send these packages” as soon as possible, but he emphasized “this will be an ongoing thing,” and not limited to the holiday season.

If you have questions or want to help, call the number above.

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