Games, gifts to delight at YWCA fair fund-raiser

loading...

The popular eyelash-yarn scarves that many members of the YWCA Bangor-Brewer are wearing these days, including me, were made by Edith Stewart of Bangor.

In fact, she has made more than 100 of them, and they will be among the many items you can purchase at the 28th annual YWCA Spring Fair.

All proceeds from the sale of the Stewart scarves benefit the YWCA.

The Y Fair, as it is popularly known, is from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. today and Saturday, March 27, and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, March 28, at the Bangor Auditorium and Civic Center.

Advance tickets are available at Patrick’s Hallmark Shop or BookMarc’s, both in Bangor. Tickets are also available at the door.

Generous contributions and volunteer efforts of individuals such as Stewart are what make this fun-filled springtime event the largest fund-raiser for the YWCA Bangor-Brewer.

And while it may be the carnival rides and games that the youngsters enjoy most, others are drawn to the food vendors and gift booths.

Chocolate lovers will want to visit the Chocolate Cafe in the Civic Center lobby, where you’ll find everything from brownies to gourmet coffee.

More than 200 items are featured in a silent auction, and you’ll find plants as well as helpful health information.

And, as always, the best of local talent is there to entertain you from middle school, high school and adult bands to youth and adult dancers.

Money raised at this event goes toward scholarships, Youth at Risk Programming, ENCOREplus Breast Cancer Support Groups, Caring Connections Breast-Cervical Health and YWCA child care programs.

From Kay Byther Eames, dean of American Guild of Organists, we learn that the Bangor chapter is offering a workshop for choir directors, organists, singers and anyone interested in the music of Taiz?, an ecumenical community in France.

The workshop begins at 7 p.m. Sunday, March 28, in the chapel at St. John’s Catholic Church, 207 York St. in Bangor.

Byther will present the program with St. John’s music director, Kevin Birch.

Brother Roger founded this ecumenical community 60 years ago, Eames wrote.

The first brothers, who were Protestant, later were joined by Catholic brothers and, today, more than 100 brothers from 25 countries and every continent are part of the community.

The brothers conduct musical prayer services three times a day and, during its busiest weeks, as many as 6,000 young people participate in the Taiz? services.

For further information, call Eames at 942-1474.

Poring through seed catalogs and wondering how some plants got their names?

You are invited to hear Dr. Lois Stack address that topic at 7 p.m. Monday, March 29, at Hancock County Cooperative Extension, 66 Boggy Brook Road in Ellsworth.

Elaine Fernald of the sponsoring Ellsworth Garden Club invites you to learn the answer “to the burning question: How did a nice plant get such a Latin or long or complicated or unpronounceable or ugly or insert-your-own-adjective name?”

The public is invited to attend the eighth annual 3 Bands Concert at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 30, at the Maine Center for the Arts on the University of Maine campus in Orono.

The fund-raiser, to benefit youth services at The Acadia Hospital in Bangor, will feature performances by the UMaine Concert Band, the Orono High School Band and Hampden’s Reeds Brook Middle School Band.

Tickets are $6 for adults and $3 for students with identification, those under age 17 and seniors over age 62.

Tickets can be purchased at the door or by calling Eastern Maine Charities at 973-5055. Tickets are also available online at www.acadiahospital.org.

Internationally recognized clinician Robert Sheldon, who has conducted regional and all-state honor bands throughout the United States and abroad, will serve as guest conductor. He is conductor of the Prairie Wind Ensemble in residence at Illinois Central College.

For the remainder of the month, for each gallon of retail heating fuel sold, Jimmi Brown of Brown’s Cash Fuel in Carmel will donate 5 cents to provide heating fuel for unemployed Eastern Fine Paper Co. workers in our area.

Brown is hoping to raise at least $1,000 and be able to provide a maximum of 100 gallons of fuel, first-come, first-served, to those in need.

For more information about this program, call Brown at 848-4988.

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