Orono auction to aid youth exchange program

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One of the area’s best-known and most “historically significant” television personalities and equally respected community volunteer, George Gonyar, will serve as guest auctioneer for the 27th annual AFS Auction.

AFS International is the largest youth exchange program in the world.

The event begins with a silent auction and hot chili from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 14, in the Orono High School cafeteria.

Your $5 donation includes dinner, with Gonyar picking up the gavel for the hour-long auction at 5:30 p.m.

Nancy Grant of Dirigo ME.AFS in Orono reports that items such as a hockey stick signed by members of the 2003 University of Maine men’s hockey team and piano tuning will be auctioned off.

You call also bid on a boat ride down the Penobscot River, a half-day guided climbing tour of Acadia National Park, a flag flown over the U.S. Capitol, landscaping design and round-trip Concord Trailways bus tickets to Boston.

Among the edible items you can bid on are 10 pounds of frozen, home-raised lamb chops, a weekend on the coast with a lobster feed, and an elegant dinner party with Jo Carol Alford.

All proceeds benefit the Orono AFS Scholarship Fund.

For more information nationally, call AFS Informational Center (800)-AFS-INFO or visit www.afs.org/usa.

For local AFS information, call Grant at 866-4542.

On behalf of the Maine Women’s Balkan Choir and the Bar Harbor Folk Orchestra, Anne Tatgenhorst invites the public to an Old World Harvest Celebration Concert and Folk Dance Party at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 11, at Minsky Auditorium on the University of Maine campus in Orono.

The musical traditions of Bulgaria, Macedonia, Croatia, Serbia and Greece will be reflected in the songs and dances and Bulgarian cuisine will be prepared by Bulgarian University of Maine students.

Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for students, and are available at the door.

For more information about this event, or these groups, contact Tatgenhorst at 223-4921 or anci@localnet.com.

Bangor Center’s 6th annual Artists Studio Tour is 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 13, in downtown Bangor where, for $7 per person, you can visit local visual artists’ studios and see their latest work.

Tickets and tour maps are available at BookMarc’s and the Grasshopper Shop, in advance or the day of the tour.

Participating artists are Mari Abercrombie, Ken Brooks, Sally Lesko Bates, Charles Bennett, Fran Clukey, Kristen Eckmann, Sarah Faragher, Peg Hanson and Ed Healy.

Also Tree Heckler, JoAnne Houlsen, Annaliese Jakimides, Nina Jerome, Jan Kaufman, Edwin Martin, Linda Packard and Aquelidio M. Rodrigues.

You will also view the works by Kenneth Schiano, Janice May Scott, Tracey Silva, Linda Stearns, Ralph Weeks, Kristine Welch, Kristborg T. Whitney and Bangor High School advanced art students.

In celebration of its 15th year of caring for people with Alzheimer’s disease, Kristie Miner and staff of Westgate Manor in Bangor invite you to an open house and health fair from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 13, at 750 Union St. in Bangor.

Dr. Penny Lamhut will discuss “Memory Loss, The Importance of Medical Assessment and Treatment Options” at 2 p.m., and Lucie Arbuthnot Ph.D., of the Maine Alzheimer’s Association, will present “Maintain Your Brain” at 3 p.m.

Other activities include a blood drive, blood pressure and body mass index screenings, and Wellness Booths featuring Eastern Agency on Aging, AARP, Maine Medicare Education Partnership Program, Maine Alzheimer’s Association, Coastal Med Tech for the Great American Smokeout and Janssen Pharmaceutica.

For more information, call Miner at 942-7336.

Gene Staffiere, Northern Maine Division director of the March of Dimes, wrote that that organization is seeking volunteers for its WalkAmerica Team Ambassador program.

The March of Dimes wants to identify, enlist and train families of premature infants to help assist the program in its fund-raising efforts.

Team Ambassadors are asked to develop a walk team of premature infants and their families; share their stories at WalkAmerica events; speak at March of Dimes events such as its Kickoff Breakfast, Awards Banquet and Dinner Auction; and to allow March of Dimes to publicize their stories in local newspapers and other media.

If you can help, you are asked to call Staffiere at 989-3376 or (800) 287-6346; fax 989-5500 or e-mail Gstaffiere@marchofdimes.com.

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