Last Saturday, many of you read about 20-year-old Emerald Russell of Winterport, a student at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., who recently brought two young Tanzanian boys to this country.

The boys, 9 and 11, suffer from xeroderma pigmentosum, a rare genetic defect that causes extreme sensitivity to ultraviolet light.

Russell met them when she traveled to Tanzania with Cross-Cultural Solutions and volunteered at Mwereni Primary School, which, among its 800 pupils, has about 30 who are visually impaired, she told my co-worker Jessica Bloch.

When Russell returned home after completing her commitment to Cross-Cultural Solutions, she wanted to do something to help those boys, so she contacted the XP Society, which runs Camp Sundown in New York, and was able to raise money to bring them and a guardian to the U.S.

Along the way, the Hampden Academy graduate also managed to secure medical treatment for the boys, one of whom had a cancerous lesion removed from his lip.

The youngsters and their guardian fly home next Tuesday.

After the interview, Bloch received information from Russell that she has asked us to pass along.

Russell “is continuing to raise funds to help the blind children at Mwereni Primary School,” she wrote.

“Not only do they need things like school supplies and food, but sun-protection measures must be made.

“If you would like to help the school, through donations, or know any children who would like an African pen pal,” please e-mail erussell@anselm.edu.

The Second Mark Higgins Bike Ride for Parkinson’s Disease begins at 7 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 6, at Aroostook Bicycle on Chapman Street in Presque Isle and ends Saturday, Sept. 10, at the American Parkinson Disease Association Information & Referral Center at Falmouth Family Health Center.

Higgins, a Skowhegan resident and Presque Isle native, was 35 when he was diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson’s disease 16 years ago.

He is one of more than 1.5 million people in the U.S., and an estimated 7,000 Mainers, who have the disease.

Higgins’ Ride for Parkinson’s will take him along major state routes through Houlton, Bangor, Augusta and Topsham to Falmouth. There are several ways you can help with this fundraiser: By making a donation, joining him for part of the ride, or greeting him when he finishes at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 10, at the APDA Information & Referral Center in Falmouth.

For more information, call Higgins at 474-9659 or e-mail mhiggins@gwi.net. If you prefer, make a tax-deductible check payable to APDA and mail it to APDA-Bike Ride, Suite 1A, 5 Bucknam Road, Falmouth 04105.

Scott DeMoranville, assistant fire chief with the Bradford Fire Department, wrote to the BDN recently to inform readers that, during Bradford Days, “there was something special in the sky over Bradford” on July 16 “that hasn’t been there before.”

He was commenting on the wonderful, 20-minute fireworks show made possible by a $2,500 donation from Andrew and Amanda Costello, who just last year purchased the Bradford General Store.

Bradford Days included a milelong parade, games, contests, an ATV pull, arts and crafts and a horse show.

Then, “at 9:20 p.m., the sky lit up and the 20-minute show” entertained more than 1,000 people, DeMoranville wrote, “and the patriotism and unity was felt by all.”

He hopes the many people he heard commenting on the “awesome show” will stop by the Bradford General Store and express their gratitude in person to the Costellos.

“On behalf of the Bradford Fire Department and all its members,” DeMoranville wrote, “thank you, Andrew and Amanda Costello.”

This weekend, many of us will have the opportunity to say a final farewell to a wonderful friend of our community and state by attending services for Douglas H. Brown, who was 76 when he died July 28 of cancer.

To everyone who knew the owner of one of the state’s most successful grocery chains, he was simply “Doug,” the grocer in the store.

A humble man who often referred to himself as “just a country boy from Lubec,” he was so much more: a corporate giant and community supporter whose kindness and generosity touched countless lives.

At trustee, board or committee meetings, Doug often spoke little, but when he did, people listened.

The “country boy from Lubec” could sum up any situation in two sentences, or less, and he was always right.

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