Each time I pass the most recently completed Habitat for Humanity of Greater Bangor home and think of how cozy and happy the family is who lives there, I am more appreciative of the efforts of everyone who makes this much needed assistance available.

That’s why I was pleased to hear, once again, from Jan Currier that the Bangor Board of Realtors is preparing for its eighth annual Valentine’s Benefit Party and Dance for Habitat for Humanity of Greater Bangor.

That event is 8 p.m.-midnight Saturday, Feb. 12, at Jeff’s Catering in Brewer, and features the live music of Desperado, which plays contemporary tunes, favorites and requests.

It also pleases me that ticket prices remain the same as last year, making this a most affordable event with terrific results.

Admission is $15 per person, with tables of 10 available.

Tickets are available through area Realtors, at the Grasshopper Shop or at Patrick’s Hallmark Store in the Broadway Shopping Center, both in Bangor.

In seven years, the Bangor Board of Realtors, through this event and matching grants from area businesses including Wells Fargo Mortgage, has raised more than $70,000 for this cause.

Habitat for Humanity International is a nonprofit, nondenominational Christian housing organization that invites all volunteers to help build affordable houses with HH partnership families.

Partnership families are those who have the ability to repay a set mortgage, and willingly work at least 300 hours with HH volunteers to build the home. Money repaid by the new owners is recycled in another home, with no profit made by Habitat for Humanity.

If you would like to know how you could become associated with Habitat for Humanity of Greater Bangor, either as a volunteer or a partner family, call its answering service at 942-8977 and ask to have an HHGB volunteer call you.

Now through Friday, Jan. 21, in place of a T-shirt, individuals donating blood to Eastern Maine Medical Center Blood Bank can choose to have a $5 donation made to a tsunami relief fund through the EMMC Blood Donor Program, Hemacare-Coral Blood Services.

The EMMC Blood Bank is located at 992 Union St. in Bangor.

Call 262-8797 to make an appointment to donate blood and help tsunami victims.

Walk-in donations are welcome.

Volunteers and others associated with the United Way of Eastern Maine Annual Campaign are reminded that the Campaign Finale is 5-7 tonight, at Dirigo Pines in Orono.

Co-hosted by Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems and Dirigo Pines, Jim Donnelly, United Way Campaign chairman and Machias Savings Bank regional vice president, will preside over the event, which will include awards to area organizations and individuals in recognition of their work on this campaign.

One of five finalists, whose names were randomly drawn from attendance lists at UWEM workplace campaign presentations, will win a 1963 Mercury Comet convertible.

The classic car was donated anonymously to this year’s campaign.

Thanks to an e-mail from freshman world history teacher Justin Kelleher of Penquis Valley High School in Milo, I’m pleased to report that young people in that area are doing what they can to help raise funds for tsunami relief efforts.

One day, Kelleher wrote, two freshmen “approached me about helping start a fund-raising drive for victims of the disaster.”

Within a week, he added, the freshmen had collected more than $1,200 from students and teachers.

“I was amazed and proud of their efforts,” Kelleher wrote.

School organizations also have donated money, as did the Middle School Student Council, and the PVHS Student Council “is collecting and matching donations at basketball games.” Kelleher explained.

In a Wednesday e-mail, Kelleher added that, today, Lynn Weston told him, “the elementary schools are pooling their efforts to raise money for the tsunami relief effort” by holding a Hat Day at Brownville Elementary School. Pupils who donate to the fund can wear a hat in school today.

The same event is planned for Milo Elementary School on Thursday, Jan. 21, and a Crazy Hair Day is planned for Friday, Jan. 28.

Kelleher added that staff and pupils at M.C. Cook School in LaGrange “are donating to Coins for Kids throughout the month,” and that “donation cans are also available in the schools.”

Kelleher wrote he is pleased about the “wonderful things that are going on up here,” and that he is amazed at the “generosity of our community.”

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