Last year, the Bangor Y Benefit Auction raised more than $25,000, reported Carrie Anderson-Paquette.

Proceeds from this year’s 7th annual auction “will be used by the YMCA and YWCA of Greater Bangor to develop programs that benefit Bangor area youth and provide scholarships to those who are otherwise unable to participate,” she wrote.

The Bangor Y Benefit Auction is 5-11 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 12, at Spectacular Event Center, 395 Griffin Road in Bangor.

Tickets are $30 and can be obtained at the Bangor Y, 127 Hammond St. or 17 Second St.

Your admission includes dinner, raffles, a silent auction, a live auction with emcee and auctioneer Dick Catelle, and a dance after the festivities.

One of the major raffle items is an Old Town Canoe-Kayak package.

Silent auction items range from large to small, from event tickets to tools.

The live auction includes everything from sports packages and television advertising to books personalized and donated by Stephen King and artwork of Bill Bracken, Debra Daniels and Vitauts Knuble.

Anderson-Paquette reported the fundraiser has moved to a new location “to accommodate more people and showcase our items better.”

With good attendance and spirited bidding, perhaps last year’s amount can be surpassed and even more young people will benefit from all the Bangor Y has to offer.

The public is invited to the St. Croix Historical Society meeting at 7 tonight at The Holmestead in Calais.

Guest speaker Douglas Dougherty will discuss his new book about the history of Todd’s Point.

Joni Miller reminds members “a vote will be taken to amend the bylaws regarding dues increase.”

Refreshments will be served.

Here’s a last-minute notice about an event that’s been six months in the planning, but Mary Jo Sanger hopes tomato lovers will find time to attend.

Tom Roberts of Snakeroot Farm in Pittsfield is the featured speaker during a free Brown Bag Lunch at noon Tuesday, Nov. 8, at Page Farm and Home Museum on the campus of the University of Maine in Orono.

“The whole program is about tomatoes,” from heirloom tomatoes to hybrids and from how to keep tomatoes to how to plant them, Sanger said.

The program will feature “everything everybody ever wanted to know about usual and unusual varieties of tomatoes,” she added.

“Tom Roberts is an organic farmer who attends many of the farmers markets” in this area, she said, “and his program should be of considerable interest.”

Roberts sells organic produce and flowers and is also the market master for the Pittsfield Farmers Market.

You are invited to attend the 2005-2006 Maryann Hartman Awards ceremony from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 9, in the Buchanan Alumni House on the University of Maine campus in Orono.

This lovely new facility on College Avenue is fully handicapped accessible.

This is the 20th year the Women in the Curriculum and Women’s Studies Program has presented this award to Maine women of distinction.

The 2005-2006 honorees are Judith Isaacson, Jean Lavigne, Dorothy Schwartz and Brooke Hayne.

Isaacson is being recognized for her writing and lectures on her Holocaust experience and those of others.

Lavigne is being honored for her HIV-AIDS activism and her leadership in making benefits available to same-sex partners in the UMaine system.

Schwartz is receiving the award for making the Maine Humanities Council a major state cultural institution and a model for the country.

Hayne, who initiated Gay-Straight activities at her high school, despite opposition, will receive the Young Women’s Society Justice Award.

There is no fee and the event is open to the public, but registration is necessary to arrange for seating and light refreshments.

If you would like to attend, please call 581-1228.

The public is welcome to attend a gathering of the American Association of University Women, Penobscot Valley Branch, in honor of a late member, Anne Johnson.

The program, coordinated by Mary Jo Sanger and Kathryn Olmstead with Cassie Gibbs and Mary Bird, is 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 9, at Page Farm and Home Museum on the campus of the University of Maine in Orono.

In addition to her AAUW activities, Johnson promoted the School Garden Network, for which she wrote a series of articles that recently have been reissued in booklet form and distributed to Maine schools.

Johnson also co-founded the Orono Farmers Market.

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