Your assistance would be greatly appreciated in helping pupils of Lewis Libby School in Milford with preparations for their very own Winter Olympics, which is planned for the week of Feb. 13-17 at the kindergarten through eighth grade school.

Patty Bradstreet, the school counselor, is one of the staff members working on this very special project. She called to report that art teacher Helen Bosse is seeking very specific items to make this “Olympic” event as similar to the real Olympics as possible.

“She is requesting a dozen poles, 4 to 6 feet long,” Bradstreet said, “and she is looking for sheets that are either white or lightly colored.”

The materials will be used to make Olympic flags for the event.

Bosse would like to receive the materials by Monday, Jan. 30, and she promises that “even if there is an overabundance of materials, we will use them for other projects.”

If you would be willing to donate the needed items, please call the school office at 827-2252.

Bradstreet said that all the pupils in the school are participating in the project.

“They will be studying [and representing] various countries,” she said, “and we will have different winter activities, both indoor as well as outdoor.”

She added snowmen contests will be included in the 2006 Libby School Olympics, “if there is snow!”

Representatives of Good Shepherd Food Bank, with facilities in Auburn and Brewer, will be accepting donations of nonperishable food items and-or financial contributions during two coming athletic events at the University of Maine in Orono.

Good Shepherd’s JoAn Chartier has announced the events will help raise food and funds for Good Shepherd’s Brewer location, which serves all of the areas north and east of Bangor.

Good Shepherd’s first collection will take place at the women’s basketball game when the Black Bears play the University of Maryland-Baltimore at noon Saturday, Jan. 21, at Alfond Arena.

General admission tickets are $8 each.

Good Shepherd representatives will also be available to collect your contributions at 7 p.m. the same day and place, when the men’s ice hockey team plays Providence College.

Tickets for the hockey game are $18 each.

One of Maine’s largest social service organizations, serving more than 540 agencies throughout the state, Good Shepherd Food Bank provided Maine people with nearly 9 million pounds of food last year, and estimates that every dollar donated can provide more than $12.50 in food to help feed hungry Mainers.

The Brewer warehouse, at 88 Stevens St. in the East-West Industrial Park, distributes food to approximately 100 agencies in our area.

For more information about helping with this effort, call Sue O’Brien at the Brewer site, 989-4672.

On average, a Maine family boards an airplane once a week for the trip of a lifetime, thanks to the work of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Maine. The foundation grants wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions.

Amy Theiss reports that her Make-A-Wish chapter, which is based in Camden, has granted more than 600 wishes to children in all 16 Maine counties since it was founded in 1992, even though the average cost of a wish is $5,000.

This is why the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Maine seeks the assistance of the flying public to help grant these wishes.

The organization reports its executive director, Thomas Peaco, is becoming “increasingly reliant” on the donations of frequent flier miles, since “most airline companies no longer allow for discounts for wish families.”

Most major airlines, Theiss pointed out, “make available the option for frequent fliers to donate their miles to the Make-A-Wish foundation.”

To learn how to donate your frequent flier miles, visit www.wish.org and click on Giving or call Make-A-Wish Foundation of Maine at (800) 491-3171 to receive a brochure in the mail.

Disc jockey Tommy Dean e-mailed a while back to extend thanks and congratulations to all who helped him and his committee raise more than $6,200 for Down East area children through the 10th annual Christmas is for Kids Country Music Show & Auction held mid-November in Trenton.

Dean wrote he believes he is “blessed to have so much help, to make what we do so successful,” as he was preparing to present a check to Christmas is for Kids Down East Director Marge Nadeau.

“This year we helped more than 200 kids have a better Christmas,” he added.

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