Last week I spoke with a Michael Reisman, executive director of the new Beth C. Wright Center, located at 3 High St. in Ellsworth.

“We’re spreading the word that we’re up and running, and we’re very excited about being able to help the people of the area,” Reisman said.

The Wright Center is the physical result of a wonderful legacy of the late Beth Charczynski Wright.

Two months before she died of cancer in August 2000, Wright founded the Choose Life Foundation to bring comfort, help, support and inspiration to others, and their families, living with cancer in the Addison area.

Today the service area of the Choose Life Foundation, through the Wright Center, has been expanded to include people from Mount Desert Island to Jonesport and Bucksport.

The Wright Center, of which Dr. Molly Collins of Maine Coast Memorial Hospital in Ellsworth is board president, was made possible by a grant from the Choose Life Foundation.

“She and other community members have been working on this for a year,” Reisman said.

Among the events and activities celebrating the presence of this new facility is an open house from 5 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 25, at the center.

Board members and staff welcome the public to attend, and refreshments will be served.

“We’d love to have anybody who is interested, or who wants to know more about our services or programs, to come and visit the center,” he said.

If you cannot attend but still want to know more about what the Wright Center can offer you, call 664-0339.

The organization is also sponsoring quite a fund-raiser: It’s a house raffle, in which the winner of the lucky $50 ticket will receive a 28-by-32-foot Keiser manufactured house from Wayne Wright of Coastline Homes.

“We’ve been selling tickets all summer,” Reisman said.

The drawing is Saturday, Sept. 18, at the Ellsworth Chamber of Commerce.

Tickets still are available and can be purchased at Machias Savings Bank branches in Ellsworth, Machias and Columbia Falls; at Cadillac Mountain Sports in Ellsworth and Bar Harbor; and the Ellsworth Chamber of Commerce.

The house will be placed on a site of your choosing.

“For the winner, we will move it within 45 miles, at no charge,” Reisman said. “And if the winner doesn’t want the house, it can be sold back to us for $33,000.”

Obviously this fund-raiser boasts a win-win result for the winner.

For information about services, programs, activities and events of the Beth C. Wright Center, including the open house, fund-raisers and volunteering, call the number listed above.

The Mount Pleasant Volunteer Cemetery Angels host their annual baked bean supper at 5:15 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 18, at St. John’s Catholic Church, York Street, Bangor.

Proceeds will help with repair and restoration projects at the Bangor cemetery.

Admission is $6 for adults and $3.50 for children for the meal prepared by Bill Baker and culinary art students at United Technology Center in Bangor.

Call Dianna Ripley, 942-3645, or Theresa Tracy, 947-8701, for information.

For the Orono and Veazie school committees, Fran Neubauer invites you to a reception in honor of retiring School Union 87 Superintendent Thomas Perry.

The reception is 6-8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 23, at Wells Commons at the University of Maine in Orono.

An endowment fund has been established in Perry’s name, Neubauer said.

Contributions to it will be invested with the Maine Community Foundation, and its “income will support Union 87 school programs.”

All contributions are tax-deductible.

Checks can be made payable to School Union 87, with “Perry Endowment” written on the memo line.

Contributions can be mailed to Union 87 Chair, 18 Goodridge Drive, Orono 04473.

Some of the 130,000 people attending the 66th National Folk Festival last month parked their cars to help Special Olympics.

Frank Noyes, manager of Car Quest on Main Street in Bangor, reported the business didn’t charge for parking, but asked for a donation to Special Olympics.

“We raised $996 and rounded it up to $1,000,” he said.

Car Quest is a corporate sponsor of Special Olympics, according to Lt. Ron Gastia of the Bangor Police Department, who works with the organization.

“Every penny we get goes to Special Olympics programs here in Maine,” providing year-round training competition for more than 3,500 athletes of all ages with mental retardation.

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