Bangor homeless shelter to recognize volunteers

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Each year, wrote Bangor Area Homeless Shelter Executive Director Dennis Marble, “approximately 200 volunteers provide between 5,000 and 10,000 hours of their time and talents to homeless guests of the shelter. These terrific neighbors bring support, attention and services to the shelter in types and amounts beyond the support that our great staff can offer.”

Nearly every night, he added, meal providers serve hot food they’ve prepared.

One young woman and a group of students from Penobscot Job Corps Center in Bangor also provide a hot lunch for shelter guests once a week.

Additional volunteers help out at the front desk “when staff coverage is thin,” Marble wrote. They answer phones, provide information and offer assistance wherever it is needed.

“Some individuals contribute their unique skills to improve the facility and also help us avoid the cost of repairs or necessary improvements.”

And that is why staff members and members of the board of directors look forward to its annual Recognition Evening, which is 6 p.m. Thursday, April 28, at All Souls Congregational Church on Broadway in Bangor.

The event “is our modest way of saying thank you to all these wonderful people,” Marble wrote. “It is a low-key event, relaxed and informal, and an opportunity for our volunteers to socialize and get to know each other.”

Marble expressed his sincere “hope that all of our volunteers can attend,” and he wants to be sure every volunteer is aware of this event.

“If anyone reading this article knows anyone they feel was missed by an invitation,” he wrote, “please call the shelter at 947-0092.”

Shari Closter, assistant executive director of the Rockland-Thomaston Area Chamber of Commerce, wants members to know its Business After Hours, originally scheduled for Tuesday, April 13, has been rescheduled.

Business After Hours is now 5-7 p.m. Wednesday, April 20, at Fixtures Designer Plumbing Showroom, 143 Maverick St., Rockland.

The event features refreshments, hors d’oeuvres, a raffle prize and networking opportunities through meeting other chamber members as well as its board and staff members.

For more information, call 596-0376, e-mail info@therealmaine.com or visit www.The RealMaine.com.

On behalf of the Alexander-Crawford Historical Society, John Dudley invites you to participate in “The Art of Oral History: A Workshop on Interviewing.”

That workshop is 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday, May 3, at the Breakneck Mountain Sno-riders Clubhouse, 524 Cooper Road in Alexander.

The presenter is folklorist, storyteller, writer and researcher Jo Radner of Lovell, who is past president of the American Folklore Society and a professor at American University.

She is writing a book about the history and culture of rural northern New England.

The workshop fee is $10 and includes coffee served at 8:30 a.m., soup and sandwiches at noon, and a binder with material provided by Radner.

Checks should be made out to Alexander-Crawford Historical Society and mailed to Alexander-Crawford Historical Society, 216 Pokey Road, Alexander 04694.

The registration deadline is Friday, April 22.

The workshop is sponsored by Alexander-Crawford Historical Society and the Maine Humanities Council.

Its focus is on plans you may have for an oral history project that could be used for anything from intergenerational projects and family history to adding your townspeople’s stories to the Library of Congress Veterans History Project, according to information provided by Dudley.

For details, call 454-7476.

Plans are under way for the Bangor High School Class of 1995 10th reunion.

That event is 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 6, at Classics, 41 Washington St. in Bangor.

Brett Elizabeth Cough reports tickets are $20 per person, and checks should be made out to her and sent to 17 Quimby St., Watertown, Mass. 02472.

For more details and to give organizers your contact information, e-mail bangorhigh95@hotmail.com.

Nearly $32,000 was raised by McDonald’s customers and owner-operators in Maine and Eastern New Hampshire during McDonald’s annual World Children’s Day fund-raiser last November.

Owner-operators donated 15 cents from specific purchases, and customers purchased $20,000 worth of paper cutouts in the shape of a hand to benefit Ronald McDonald House Charities of Maine.

In a release, Sheila Peabody, owner-operator of McDonald’s restaurants in Gardiner and Rockland, and president of Ronald McDonald House Charities of Maine, reported World’s Children’s Day “is one of the largest fund-raisers” for the group.

Nationally, during the fund-raiser, $8.6 million was reached to benefit the organization.

Worldwide, an estimated $23 million was raised in more than 100 countries.

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