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Family Art Nights

Family Art Nights, a program of Community Health and Counseling Services and the Maine Discovery Museum is the recipient of a $5,000 grant from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation. The program is for children, their parents and grandparents, and focuses on the visual arts.

Family Art Nights is free to children and their parents. It is for pupils attending schools in Etna-Dixmont and Carmel, the Suzanne M. Smith School in Levant and the State Street School in Brewer.

Through the program, parents – and a special grandparents group scheduled for next spring – and their children ages 7-11 share time exploring art as they work together on a project, such as watercolor painting, or other visual media.

Arrah Vanier, chairman of the Hermon High School art department, facilitates the program.

The program will be held 6-7:30 p.m. Wednesdays, with one session each week for three consecutive weeks.

This school year’s program kicks off at the Suzanne M. Smith School in Levant, Oct. 19, 26 and Nov. 2. Other sessions are:

. State Street School, Jan. 11, 18 and 25.

. Carmel Elementary School, March 1, 8 and 15.

. Etna-Dixmont School, March 29, April 5 and 12.

The grandparents group is open to all the schools and the general public, and will be held April 26, May 3 and 17. All three sessions of the grandparents group will be at the museum.

The first week of each school session will be held at the school, with the final two weeks held at the Maine Discovery Museum in Bangor.

Sign up for Family Art Night sessions at your school. Grandparents may sign up at the school or the Maine Discovery Museum.

Community Health and Counseling Services has been actively involved in bringing arts programs to youths and their families in areas of Penobscot County for the last eight years.

The goal of the programs is to introduce children and their families to the impact the arts have in learning and development. The agency seeks to provide access for children of all abilities to achieve skills in the arts through exposure and mentoring from professional artists. Children’s involvement in the arts often results in the development and enhancement of self-confidence and social, physical and academic skills.

For information on the Family Art Nights program, call CHCS at 947-0366, Ext. 451, or the Maine Discovery Museum at 262-7200.

Bangor High School

BANGOR – The Bangor High School guidance department will present a college workshop for parents of juniors at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 18, in the high school’s lecture hall. Parents should bring the “Junior Planner” that students will receive before the workshop.

Workshop for teachers

ORONO – “We Teach Who We Are: An Autumn Gathering for all Who Educate” will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4, at the Hattie Ricker Conference Center, Poland Springs Museum, Poland Springs. The workshop will help educators at all levels explore the intersection of life and work. Led by Richard Ackerman, University of Maine associate professor of educational leadership, the daylong teacher formation session is for teachers and others working in kindergarten through college classrooms.

Ackerman is a trained Courage to Teach facilitator through the National Center for Teacher Formation in Washington state. Educators from the University of Maine Cooperative Extension and the University of Maine at Farmington also will help facilitate the session.

Based on the work of Parker J. Palmer and the teacher formation principles outlined in his book, “The Courage to Teach,” the teacher formation program is rooted in the belief that good teaching flows from the identity and integrity of the teacher and makes connections between the renewal of a teacher’s spirit and the revitalization of education. The work focuses on renewing the inner lives of teachers and leaders, not on techniques or strategies.

The fee for participation in the daylong gathering is $30, which includes materials, refreshments and lunch. Scholarships are available on request. Registration deadline is Friday, Oct. 21.

For information and registration, call Ackerman, 581-3170, or e-mail Richard.ackerman@umit.maine.edu

Colleges

George J. Mitchell Center

ORONO – The Sen. George J. Mitchell Center for Environmental and Watershed Research continues its fall seminar series, “Juggling Research, Policy and Management Decisions for Federal, State, Tribal and Conservation Lands.” Lectures take place at noon in Norman Smith Hall on the University of Maine campus and are open to the public.

. Friday, Oct. 14. Bill Kolodnicki, Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge, “Conflicts in Management between Migratory Bird Act, Endangered Species Act, Refuge Improvement Act and Research on a National Wildlife Refuge: A Case Study.”

. Friday, Oct. 21. Pamela Underhill, National Park Service, “The Appalachian Trail: An Inspirational Story of Citizen Engagement from Its Inception to the Present Day.”

. Friday, Oct. 28. Alan Hutchinson, Forest Society of Maine, “Conserving Maine’s North Woods: Bringing Stability, via Forestland Conservation, to a Rapidly Changing Landscape.”

For information, call Ruth Hallsworth, 581-3196 or visit www.umaine.edu/water

research/outreach/lecture

series.htm.

Dartmouth College

HANOVER, N.H. – James Sutcliffe of Bangor, a Dartmouth College student in the class of 2006, is studying English in Dublin, Ireland, during the fall term as part of the college’s foreign study program. He is the son of Robert Sutcliffe III and Nina Sutcliffe.

Tiger Huang of Old Town, a student in the class of 2008, is studying in Beijing during the fall term as part of the college’s foreign study program. He is the son of Yuguo Huang and Susan Dong.

Maine Maritime Academy

CASTINE – Midshipman 4/C Shawn Evans of Holden was named an Honor Midshipman Under Guidance during his first semester as a member of the Maine Maritime Academy Regiment of Midshipmen.

The regiment, a student-run leadership and management program, comprises students seeking a U.S. Merchant Marine license as a third mate or third assistant engineer after graduation.

Evans was one of eight midshipmen selected for the first-year honor based on exemplary performance as a junior member of the regiment. He demonstrated personal growth and excellence, enhanced team building skills and improved leadership ability during a preparatory training process.

Evans is a graduate of Bangor High School and is majoring in marine engineering operations.

Dan Rather visit to UM

ORONO – Dan Rather, the CBS News correspondent who served as anchor and managing editor of the “CBS Evening News” for nearly a quarter-century, will visit the University of Maine at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 1, to deliver a William S. Cohen Lecture in the Maine Center for the Arts.

Cohen, the Bangor native who represented Maine in Congress for 24 years and served as Secretary of Defense in the Clinton administration, also will participate in the event, making introductory remarks before Rather’s lecture.

The lecture series is a function of UMaine’s William S. Cohen Center for International Policy and Commerce, established within UMaine’s College of Business, Public Policy and Health in 1997. Cohen, a former faculty member, donated his collection of papers chronicling his Congressional career to UMaine’s Fogler Library when the center was established. In January 2001, Cohen gave the papers from his time as Secretary of Defense to UMaine.

The Cohen Lecture was established to bring to UMaine a distinguished speaker with informed perspectives on matters related to international policy and commerce.

Free tickets to the event are available. Those interested should contact the Maine Center for the Arts box office at 581-1755 or (800) MCA-TIXX.