Youth baseball is “big in our town,” wrote Tracy Gran Jr. of Winterport while pointing out with pride that the small Penobscot River community was where retired Major League Baseball star Mike Bordick grew up.

Winterport boasts “two Little League teams and two farm teams, along with T-ball,” wrote Gran, a coach and a member of Friends of Winterport Youth Baseball.

The Friends include local residents, businesspeople and coaches who “love baseball” and work hard to raise money for uniforms, equipment, the grandstand and field maintenance, he explained.

To help support these aspiring, young athletes, Friends of Winterport Youth Baseball is sponsoring a golf tournament beginning at 1 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 29, at Streamside Golf Course in Winterport.

The four-person fee for the scramble, $125, includes “18 holes of golf, hamburgers, hot dogs, cold beverages and prizes,” Gran wrote.

The tournament also includes a raffle and several golfing contests.

Gran hopes you will take this opportunity to get in a round of golf while helping Winterport Youth Baseball.

For information or to register, call Gran at 223-5904, or Streamside Golf Course at 223-9009.

Visitors and locals alike, especially those with an interest in history, should enjoy the “Re-enactment of the Penobscot Expedition on the 225th Anniversary of That Fateful Event,” sponsored by the Castine Historical Society.

Society member Del Davis wrote that “several lectures, tours, exhibits as well as a mock skirmish” are planned for Thursday, Aug. 12, through Sunday, Aug. 15, in Castine.

The event commemorates the anniversary of the ill-fated 1779 Penobscot Expedition, which resulted in one of the worst American naval defeats in history.

Demonstrations, historic exhibits at Abbott School, mock skirmishes, Maine Maritime Academy ship tours, concerts and library presentations will be featured as well as a commemorative U.S. Post Office hand cancellation running for 30 days beginning Saturday, Aug. 14.

Events are free and open to the public.

For information, call 326-4118 or visit www.castinehistoricalsociety.org. Click on “Penobscot Expedition” and then on “Schedule of Events.”

“Under the spreading chestnut tree, the village smithy stands,” wrote 19th century Maine poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

But how many of us have seen a chestnut tree, and what do you know of its current status?

Fran Graham of the Bangor Nature Club invites you to learn about “the regeneration of the American chestnut tree” during a presentation by Glen and Anne Rae at 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 14, at Ecotat Gardens and Arboretum on Route 2 in Hermon.

The couple is “actively involved in bringing back this important tree,” Graham wrote, and you are cordially invited to learn from them by attending this presentation at the Marty E. Blethen Library located at Ecotat’s Crosby House.

“The Blethen Nature Library was established in 1991 in memory of Mary E. Blethen,” Graham wrote. She described Blethen as an “active gardener and conservationist.”

Graham suggests that you “come early and enjoy the gardens.”

Bill Rae of Manna Ministries in Bangor reports that 45 youngsters have already registered to receive free, donated school supplies.

He reminds you that “last year, we gave out supplies to 268 children.”

Manna distributes donated supplies to children who “otherwise might have to go to school without the needed tools for their education,” Rae wrote.

Among the suggested items are backpacks for children of all ages, paper, pencils, notebooks, three-ring binders, crayons, nontoxic glue, calculators, protractors and compasses.

You can deliver your donated school items to Manna between 8:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, at its new location, the former site of Beal College, 629 Main St. in Bangor.

Carl Little of the Maine Community Foundation wants members of startup, nonprofit organizations to know they can apply for grants ranging between $1,000 and $4,000 now through Wednesday Sept. 15.

Projects involving economically disadvantaged or disabled Maine residents, libraries, symphonies, hospice care and projects related to the community of Friendship are eligible for funding from the Maine Charity Foundation Fund.

Applications can be obtained at www.mainecf.org or by calling (877) 770-6800.

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