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Bangor

Literacy volunteers training

Literacy Volunteers of Bangor will offer English as a Second Language training for volunteers interested in helping other learn to speak English and adapt to American culture. The course schedule is 6-9 p.m. Monday, June 7; 6-9 p.m. Thursday, June 10; 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, June 12; and 6-9 p.m. Monday, June 14, at the Bangor Public Library board room on the ground level. To register for the training, call 947-8451.

Plant sale

The Mabel Wadsworth Women’s Health Center will hold a plant sale 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, May 29, at the Unitarian-Universalist Church, 120 Park St. Plant donations will be accepted 5-7 p.m. Friday, May 28, at the church. Donations of used plant pots also are needed.

Those who need help digging or need someone to come by and collect plants should call Andrea Blunt at 862-6940, or e-mail ablunt44@cs.com.

Informational meeting

Maine Adoption Placement Service will hold an informational meeting about domestic and international adoption from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 25, at its offices at 181 State St. RSVP by calling 941-9500.

Arbor Day

In recognition of Bangor’s Arbor Day Proclamation, Keep Bangor Beautiful held a tree planting ceremony May 19 at the Challenger Learning Center in Bangor.

The proclamation, issued by the Bangor City Council on May 10, outlined the history of Arbor Day and urged citizens to set aside time on that day and throughout the year to appreciate trees and to engage in efforts to protect them.

Arbor Day began in 1872 when J. Sterling Morton proposed to the Nebraska Board of Agriculture that a special day be set aside for the planting of trees. On the first Arbor Day observed in Nebraska, more than one million trees were planted. Arbor Day is now observed throughout the nation and the world.

Bangor Community Chorus

The Bangor Community Chorus, under the direction of Ronald Sherwin and accompanied by Sarah McQuarrie, will present its 36th spring concert at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, May 23, at First United Methodist Church, 703 Essex St.

Sherwin, who has completed his doctorate in church music and education at the University of Maine, has been chorus conductor for two years. He also is conductor of the 90-member chorale at the university, and is minister of music at First Congregational Church in Brewer.

The Bangor Community Chorus was founded by Marion Vafiades of Hampden and performs traditional concerts twice a year.

The theme for this year’s concert is “Songs from Around the World,” including American, Irish, Scottish, French and Italian music, with solos and ensembles. The concert is free, but donations are welcome. The chorus welcomes new members.

To learn more about Bangor Community Chorus, visit www.maineguide.com/Bangor/Chorus/index.html, or e-mail mckinnon@maineguide.com.

New location for Manna

Manna Inc. completed the purchase of the property and buildings at the former Beals College on Main Street on May 13.

Manna will move its soup kitchen, day care and food distribution operation to the property July 1.

Manna will add a clinic to allow uninsured people to receive health services. The program will be staffed and maintained by Penobscot Community Health Care of Bangor.

A 12-15 bed adult extended care facility also is planned. In-house counselors and staff will help men and women deal with sobriety issues. Job placement and job training also will be part of the program, to be known as The Derek House. The program will be the only one of its kind in Central Maine to provide such comprehensive services at one site.

Grave marking

The staff of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra will continue the tradition of planting flowers at the grave of Abbie N. Garland to honor her memory and the vision of a symphony that she nurtured more than 100 years ago. The ritual will take place at 3 p.m. Friday, May 28, at Bangor’s historic Mount Hope Cemetery.

Garland, a piano teacher and composer, conceived the idea for a symphony orchestra in Bangor in 1896. She shared the first year’s management of the organization with its first conductor, Horace Mann Pullen. She recruited the musicians for the second year’s performances and the third year she sponsored the subscription sale.

Garland was born in 1852 and died at age 90 in 1942. She and the two sisters who survived her, Mabel and Jennie, remained unmarried and lived in Bangor together for most of their lives.

Given Garland’s legacy to the city of Bangor – a symphony orchestra that has played uninterrupted for 108 years – the BSO staff thought it appropriate to institute the tradition of honoring Garland each Memorial Day weekend.

The public is invited to join the staff in observing the yearly tradition. For information, call the BSO box office at 942-5555 or (800) 639-3221, or visit www.bangorsymphony.com/memorial.htm.

Playwright’s reading

The Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance invites the public to a literary get-together for playwrights and theater devotees at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 22, at Bangor Public Library.

Playwright Rick Doyle will read from his one-act plays, “Regalia” and “Hunter’s Breakfast.”

Doyle is a graduate of the University of Maine School of Law and has a master’s degree from the University of Maine.

“Regalia” won the Maine Playwrights’ Contest in 2001. Doyle also is a poet whose work has won the Grady Award and the SpiritWord Honors Award, and has been published in “A Portfolio of Maine Writing” and the “Puckerbrush Review.”

The reading is free. A $2 donation is suggested. For information, call MWPA at 386-1400.

Canine Good Citizen training

The Penobscot Valley Kennel Club will hold a five-week class designed to train dogs to obtain a Canine Good Citizen certificate. The program rewards dogs of all breeds and their owners who display good manners at home and in the community. The two-part program stresses responsible pet ownership and good behavior for dogs. Dogs must pass a 10-step test to receive the certificate, which is issued from the American Kennel Club.

Classes are held outdoors and take place at 6 p.m. beginning Thursday, June 3, at University College near 103 Texas Ave. The cost is $40. To register or to obtain more information, call Jane Farley, 667-3562, or Cyndi Darling, 947-2866.

Child care training

The Penquis Community Action Program Resource Development Center will offer Caring for School Age Children classes 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, June 5, 12, 19 and 26, at the Maine Discovery Museum. Lunch is not provided.

The training sessions cover the aspects of providing child care for 5- to 13-year-old children. Registration fee is $10. Current child care providers may apply for reimbursement of the fee. Call 973-3533 to register.

Brewer

Dirigo Drive

After nearly three years of design and permit hurdles, the city of Brewer has started construction of Dirigo Drive, a 1.6-mile road that runs parallel to Interstate 395 and Wilson Street. Construction is expected to be complete by October.

The road was first proposed by the city as part of its 1996 comprehensive plan as a means to reduce traffic congestion on Wilson Street and to open back lands for development. The concept reappeared in 2000 when it was first shown on a plan for the Wilson Street corridor as part of a city proposal associated with the assembly of development parcels on outer Wilson Street, where the Brewer Professional Center is now being constructed.

The city also took steps to create new zoning for the area served by the proposed road in order to encourage the development of a professional corridor in the city. Final approval for the plan was received several months ago.

Festival films

The River City Cinema Society will present two selections from last year’s sixth annual Maine International Film Festival.

“Troubled Waters: The Dilemma of Dams” will be shown at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 21, at the Brewer Middle School auditorium, 5 Somerset St.

The film focuses on Maine, where the planned destruction of the Edwards Dam in Augusta has returned the ecosystem of the Kennebec River to something resembling its pre-dam state.

The film, by George and Beth Gage, visits the landscape of the Southwest and Northwest and revisits the wisdom of poets and writers from Thoreau to Wallace Stegner to evoke the environmental, cultural, economic and spiritual arguments for decommissioning dams.

Bucky Owen, chairman of the trustees, the Nature Conservancy of Maine, professor emeritus of wildlife ecology at the University of Maine, and former commissioner of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, will lead a post-film discussion. Admission is $5.

The cinema society also will show “Postmen in the Mountains” at 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 4, at the Brewer Middle School auditorium.

In the film, a father prepares to hand over his 112-mile mail route to his son. At dawn, the two embark on the three-day roundtrip on foot. Traveling along in rugged landscape, the son learns not only about the isolated communities where they deliver mail but also about his father. Admission is $5.

Visit www.rivercitycinema. com to obtain more information.

Brewer Public Library

The Brewer Public Library was awarded recently a $1,000 grant from the Libri Foundation of Eugene, Ore. The foundation is a nonprofit organization, which donates new, quality children’s books to small, rural public libraries in the United States through its Books For Children program. The Brewer Library Association contributed $350 as part of the two to one donation ratio. The grant will be used to purchase children’s books.

Old Town

Silent auction

Clay-Animation Experience will hold a silent auction 1-4:30 p.m. Sunday, May 23, at Old Town Parks and Recreation, Herbert Sargent School, 342 Bennoch Road.

Proceeds will benefit program scholarships for children with special needs, and for children and youth in Old Town and the surrounding area.

Clay-Animation Experience is a nonprofit organization that teaches children and adults the art of filmmaking with clay characters.

Co-founded by Peter M. McDermott II and Faye E. McDermott, the organization is supported by VSA Arts of Maine. The program has been matched with the Maine Learning Results and the criteria for mental health organizations.

In addition to holding the silent auction, organizers are seeking grants, corporations, business and individual donations to get the program up and running. Already they have been invited to share the program with the governor’s office.

The goal is to have at least 10 children attend two hours per week for nine weeks this summer. Donations may be sent to VSA Arts of Maine, P.O. Box 4002, Portland, ME 04101. For information, e-mail pmcdermottii@msn.com.

Strolling for Strays

The Animal Orphanage will sponsor a Strolling for Strays even, a three-mile walk about Old Town at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 22, at the Old Town city park. Registration is 1-2 p.m.

Participants may bring pledges when they register. Those raising $300 will be eligible for a drawing for an Old Town kayak. Those who pledge $50 will receive a T-shirt. It is not necessary to have a pet to participate in the stroll. To learn more about the fund-raiser, call 827-8777.

Veazie

Community improvement

The Veazie Garden Club honored the Veazie Conservation Commission with the third annual Veazie Community Improvement Award during the club’s annual banquet May 4 at the Lucerne Inn.

The award is given to a business or organization that has made a significant improvement to a property in Veazie, either through renovation or new construction within the previous two months.

The commission was recognized for its development of a trail system for community use on town property known as the McPhetres Farm Forest.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin