Swimmers and volunteers are invited to participate in the fourth Beach to Beach Swim for Breast Cancer from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 8, at Jenkins Beach on Green Lake.

The event is sponsored by Eastern Maine Medical Center, the Bangor YWCA and Sandollar Spa and Pool to benefit Caring Connections, a cooperative breast and cervical health program of EMMC and the Bangor YWCA, and ENCOREplus, a support, education and exercise program for women with breast cancer.

Swimmers will be asked to collect pledges to benefit Caring Connections.

According to Robin Long of Caring Connections, every half-hour, swimmers will swim from Jenkins Beach to a float located one mile out in the water.

“If they wish,” she explained, “they can swim back for a distance of two miles. Those wishing only to go one mile will be provided with a ride back to the beach.”

Swimmers may also choose to swim a shorter distance, swim individually, or swim as a team.

All participants will have an escort kayaker “to help keep them on track, give them a drink of water, as needed, or a place to rest,” Long added.

Planners are not only seeking swimmers, but also kayakers to accompany the swimmers.

“Kayakers need not be lifeguards,” Long emphasized, while adding that volunteers to perform other tasks for this fund-raiser are also needed.

All participants, and those making donations, will have their names entered into a drawing for a $4,600 HotSprings Jetsetter spa donated by Sandollar Spa and Pool and Watkins Manufacturing.

To register or receive more information, call Long at 941-2808.

On behalf of the Hancock Woman’s Club, vice president Patricia Hodgkins invites you to enjoy its 17th Annual Chicken Barbecue from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, July 31, at the Community Center located on Route 1 in Hancock.

The menu for this delicious fund-raiser consists of a half-chicken, your choice of salads, rolls, chips, dessert and a beverage.

The cost of the meal is $7 per person and all funds raised benefit the woman’s club.

If you happen to be in Portland this weekend, you might want to take in the second annual Greater Portland Festival of Nations from 2 to 8:30 p.m. in Deering Oaks Park.

Admission, entertainment and raffles are free while food and gifts are extra.

The festival promotes understanding and appreciation for the diversity of our Maine population with nearly 40 booths offering authentic ethnic food and handmade gift items.

The event is sponsored by Women In Need in collaboration with several other corporations and foundations located in the Portland area.

Rev. Rudolph Leveille of Bangor reports that “plans are completed for the 55th Reunion of the 1949 graduates of John Bapst High School.”

The event begins with a cookout at 5 p.m. Friday, Aug. 13, at the home of Jack and Bunny Quirk in Hampden.

The Reunion Banquet, with dancing to follow, begins at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 14, at Penobscot Valley Country Club in Orono.

Father Leveille will celebrate a Memorial Mass for his 24 deceased classmates at 9:30 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 15, at the Bangor Motor Inn Convention Center.

The Mass will be followed by a brunch and spouses of deceased classmates living in the area are invited to attend.

Father Leveille wrote that the “weekend will conclude with an afternoon gathering at Lamoine, the site of our annual mini-reunions the past nine years.”

In the meantime, planners are seeking information on four “missing” classmates: Mary Genevieve Bohan, Aline Daigle, Robert Kearns and Mary Connors McLaughlin.

If you have information about theses individuals, call either Father Leveille, 942-9715, or Elaine Ryder Higgins at 945-5984.

Looking for an interesting place to take the kids on a rainy day?

Visit the early 20th century, natural history and cultural L.C. Bates Museum at Good Will-Hinckley on Route 201, halfway between Skowhegan and Fairfield.

The facility is open 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 1-4:30 p.m. on Sundays, now through mid-November.

Admission is $2 for adults, $1 for those ages 12-17 and 75 cents for children under age 12.

For more information, call 238-4250.

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