The Native American Silent Auction Dinner-Dance, the annual fund-raiser for Boys & Girls Clubs Penobscot Nation, is 5 p.m. Saturday, March 27, at Black Bear Inn in Orono.

Board member Pam Colson Power hopes “this year’s fund-raiser will surpass our expectations to help us in the development of our educational, cultural and recreational programs” for the organization.

She invites the public to “share the native traditions of dancing and drumming with the Penobscot Nation.”

Last year, the fund-raiser enabled PNBGC to establish “a state of the art technology center” named for the late “Stephanie Mitchell, a Maine champion of the National Children’s Miracle Network,” Power wrote.

Auction items include Native American baskets, jewelry, crafts and original paintings, along with a golf club owned by philanthropist Harold Alfond of Belgrade, who is “a strong supporter of the Waterville Area Boys and Girls Club,” Power told me.

The Waterville club, she added, “was very supportive and helpful in establishing the PNBGC.”

Tickets are $100 for two people, and you are encouraged to “dress for the occasion.”

For tickets or information, call PNBGC Unit Director Carla Fearon, 817-7355.

Power reminds you “this is a special opportunity to contribute to the empowerment and joy in the lives of Native American children.”

The Orono High School Diversity Team and Spruce Run Association present “You the Man,” a play about teenage relationships and sexual assault, at 8:15 a.m. today at Orono High.

The play is open to the public.

After the play, reports OHS Diversity Team advisers Shirley Ellis and Margot Dale, a discussion group for students only will be led by members of the Diversity Team.

An Indoor Beach Party, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, March 27, in the gymnasium of Deer Isle-Stonington Elementary School, celebrates the efforts by the Causeway Beach Network to acquire Causeway Beach, which lies between Deer Isle and Little Deer Isle.

Presentations by the U.S. Coast Guard and Maine Environmental Research Institute, or MERI, food sales, auctions and musical performances, including two steel bands, are all part of the fund raising that will be matched by a challenge grant.

Henry Bray will bang the gavel at noon to begin an auction featuring jewelry, photographs, lobsters, fuel oil and island trips by plane, kayak, lobster boat and motor launch.

Marnie Reed Crowell reports the silent auction, which ends at 12:30 p.m., features the artwork and signed books of Deer Isle writers Ingrid Bengis, Linda Greenlaw, Terry Lester, Katherine Hall Page, Cynthia Voigt and the late Robert McCloskey and Emily Muir.

CBN has raised nearly three-quarters of the $125,000 needed to purchase “this locally cherished scenic beach significant to both shorebirds and marine resources,” Crowell wrote.

Donations to help this effort can be sent to CBN, P.O. Box 431, Deer Isle 04627.

Raffle prizes ranging from round-trip airfare to gift certificates for art or dinner are included in the Bowl for Kids’ Sake Super Raffle, the largest fund-raising event of the year for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Maine.

Individuals raising $225 or more for Bowl for Kids’ Sake are entered in the Super Raffle, which will be drawn Tuesday, May 4.

Bowl for Kids’ Sake is from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 27, and Sunday, March 28, at Eastward Bowling Lanes in Ellsworth, and from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, April 25, at both Eagle Lanes in Machias and St. Croix Club in Calais.

For more information, to be a virtual bowler, make a donation or register your team, call (800) 492-5550 or 667-5304, or visit

bbbshc@downeasthealth.org or www.downeastmentor.org.

YMCA-YWCA Barracuda swim team members Joey Quinn, Zach Beaulier, Eliza Woodcock, James Moreside, John Quinn, Mike Rubin and Kevin Trainor have qualified for the YWCA National Championship April 2-4 in Charlotte, N.C.

Team members, coach Jennifer Co, family and friends are conducting a bottle drive to help fund the trip so, throughout the days on Saturday, March 27, and Sunday, March 28, Bangor residents can expect these young people and their supporters to be knocking on doors collecting bottles and cans.

Returnables also can be left at Big Red Redemption Center on Barker Street in Bangor, and designated for the Barracuda swim team account.

For bottle pickup at homes or businesses, call Barbie Quinn, at 947-3786, e-mail JGQPROP@aol.com, or call Carol Woodcock, 942-8490 or e-mail clwoodcock@adelphia.net.

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