Now through Sunday, March 27, Tracy Pinkham of Brewer hopes you will join her and countless others throughout the United States and abroad to help make a difference in the lives of African children affected by AIDS. Pinkham said that last October, she attended a concert in Orono featuring the Grammy Award-winning Christian rock band Jars of Clay.

During the concert, she wrote, band members told the audience about a recent trip they made to Africa where they gave benefit concerts and met people with AIDS.

“The story they told was heartbreaking,” Pinkham wrote. The band visited a hospital with a pediatric AIDS ward “where children were dying from this disease.”

The audience was told that “about 30 percent of all deaths in these Third-World countries are caused by water-related illnesses,” and that “the AIDS epidemic has caused an orphan crisis.”

“When a mother dies of AIDS,” Pinkham said, “the baby then has to drink formula. If the formula is made with dirty water, the baby will die. Without clean water, there is no sanitary way of cleaning wounds and skin diseases that accompany this disease.”

One point the band made “that I found amazing,” Pinkham wrote, “is that one U.S. dollar will provide clean water for one African for one year.”

To that end, Jars of Clay has established a fund-raising program titled Blood: Water Mission, to raise “enough money to repair and build 1,000 clean water wells all over Africa,” Pinkham wrote.

For 1,000 hours, now through March 27, the band is asking “people, everywhere, to mobilize the people in their communities to donate just $1 each to raise money for the 1,000 Wells Project.”

This is Pinkham’s effort to mobilize members of our community.

She requests you participate in this project by sending donations to Blood: Water Mission, P.O. Box 682545, Franklin, Tenn. 37068-2545.

More information can be obtained by visiting, as I did, bloodwatermission.com.

Attention, parents and caregivers: Here’s an idea to help keep the young ones busy this vacation.

Why not have them respond to a request for information from another youngster working on a school project?

Today’s school information request letter is from fifth-grader Ethan Martin of Catskill, N.Y.

Ethan, who wrote a very readable letter in ink and cursive, states that his “class is studying the United States and its geography.”

He requests our readers send him “a postcard, pictures, posters, maps, magazines or anything else that will help me learn more about your state and its people.”

“I will learn much more about our country and its people this way,” he added, while closing that he is “looking forward to anything you can send. Thank you.”

Since youngsters probably know more about what their peers would like than some of us, here’s a chance for them to help someone else with

homework by mailing information about Maine to Ethan Martin, Catskill Elementary School, 770 Embought Road, Catskill, N.Y. 12414.

From Marie Malin of Maine Audubon in Falmouth comes word that financial aid is available for Maine youngsters who want to attend one of Maine Audubon’s residential summer camp programs.

Financial aid is available for summer sessions at Hog Island Audubon Camp in Bremen, and at Borestone Mountain Audubon Sanctuary in Elliottsville.

The sessions include Youth Camp and Coastal Kayaking Adventure for Teens at Hog Island, and Youth Naturalist Programs at Borestone Mountain.

Young people ages 10-17 who are interested in the natural world and can demonstrate financial need may obtain a scholarship application by e-mailing camps@maine

audubon.org or calling

781-2330, Ext. 215.

Friends of Lois Johnson hosted a benefit supper recently for the Dover-Foxcroft resident undergoing her second round of treatment for breast cancer.

Johnson contacted me so she could publicly “express my appreciation to all who helped to make my benefit supper a success. I am overwhelmed by all the kindhearted, caring people who have shown me such support,” she said. “It has really been a blessing, and it means a lot to me. Thank you.”

Arline R. Merry is celebrating her 86th birthday on Saturday, Feb. 26, and it would be an extra special day if she were to hear from old and new friends.

Cards can be sent to Merry at Woodlands of Brewer, 53 Colonial Circle, Brewer 04412.

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