ORONO – Maine’s National Guard members and their families again will be special guests this year at a University of Maine men’s hockey game, thanks to a grass-roots effort called Operation Community Support.

As part of the event, they’ll take in Sunday’s Maine Black Bears game versus Vermont from the comfort of some of the Alfond Arena’s skyboxes, where they’ll be joined by Gov. John Baldacci, according to chief organizer Thomas “Skip” Chappelle.

New to the event this year is the addition of tickets to Sunday’s Beach Boys Christmas Show at the Maine Center for the Arts.

The MCA also is reserving tickets this year to all of its shows for Maine Air National Guard members. The tickets are available at no cost to any show that is not sold out, Chappelle said.

The goal of Operation Community Support is to enhance military family assistance programs with existing community resources, providing support to families while Guard members are deployed.

Tickets to the 2 p.m. game and 7 p.m. Beach Boys show are available to the families of deployed Guard members and Guard members who have been deployed.

For information, call the Family Assistance Center at (888) 365-9287 or Operation Community Support at 941-9549.