Last week, as he does every year, Bangor Area Homeless Shelter Executive Director Dennis Marble took time out of a busy day to sit back and reflect on the year past and what it meant to those this organization serves.

He thoughtfully constructs his message so as not to leave out anyone who is deserving of his thanks.

The shelter opened on Christmas Eve in 1986, he recalled.

As it begins its 19th year, “the cold and gloomy days of winter bring witness to two contrasting events,” he wrote of “the ongoing and increasing presence of people who are homeless, and the continued acts of support, compassion and generosity of the Greater Bangor community.”

He reminds you the shelter “would be unable to offer what it does” without your support.

“We have a wonderful, hard-working staff and a dedicated board of directors committed to our mission and those we serve.

“Despite this, and being hard-pressed to keep up with demand, we simply could not provide the stability and services we deliver without hundreds and hundreds of acts of kindness each year.

“The range and depth of this support is incredible.”

Groups and individuals give not only time and skills to support the shelter and its work; they also offer “human attention, volunteering inside the shelter,” Marble wrote.

Whether it’s pennies from schoolchildren or five-figure gifts “from bigger people,” each donation fills “the significant gap in government funding,” he explained.

One of the most amazing aspects of the type of support BAHS receives is the fact that volunteers prepare and serve meals nearly every evening, and provide two lunches each week.

Individuals, organizations, schools and churches donate to its Emergency Food Pantry, Marble wrote, and “United Way of Eastern Maine provides meaningful support” in many ways.

Marble cites professionals who “offer their services at reduced rates, or for free,” and the fact that “city and other government officials help us navigate through systems and help us with code and life-safety issues.”

Additionally, many “local health and social services organizations bring their skills and resources, directly, to the homeless we serve,” he wrote of the organization, which shares “a community-based, collaborative mission” working “to help prevent and end homelessness.”

As we begin this New Year, Marble extends “our most sincere thanks to all those working for and with us.”

It’s a bit early for cabin fever to have set in, but Cyndi Dalton of Waldo County YMCA in Belfast wants you to be thinking about its Cabin Fever Reliever Supper & Auction.

That event begins with supper at 4:30 p.m., and the auction at 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 29, in the YMCA gymnasium.

Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for children or $15 per family.

But the real reason Dalton wants you to think about the auction is that “we are currently seeking auction items,” she wrote.

She does want you to know “we cannot accept computers and computer equipment, TVs or other electronics, clothing or appliances.”

However, if you have new or “great used items to donate, valued at $10 or more,” she requests that you leave your donation at the YMCA or call her, for more information, at 338-4598.

Lauri Svanoe of Rice Lake, Wis., wrote that her son Erik, who had completed a year’s tour of duty in Iraq, passed through Bangor International Airport on his way home.

She extends “heartfelt thanks to all of the retired soldiers and other wonderful volunteers” who greeted him and his fellow soldiers.

Erik used a cell phone donated by Unicel and handed out by our BIA Troop Greeters. His mother wrote that she received “the most precious gift of a phone call to let me know he was back on U.S. soil.”

She says he told her: “‘You wouldn’t believe it, Mom. There are all sorts of people here, just handing out cell phones and saying call your folks.’

“I’ve waited a year for that call, and there are just not words enough to say how thankful I am for your generosity and warmth of welcome to my son. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

Veazie Congregational Church is sponsoring a bean supper from 4:45 to 6 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 8, at the church, 1404 State St.

Admission is $6 for adults and $3 for children, and $1 from each ticket sold will benefit the David Smalley Family of Drew Plantation, whose home and business was burned in a recent fire.

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