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Bangor

Talk on Seth Noble

Carol Smith Fisher will give a talk about the life of the Rev. Seth Noble, 1743-1807, at 11 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 25, at the Bangor Museum and Center for History, 25 Broad St. Smith is working on a book about Noble. On that day, Bangor will mark its 215th birthday.

Noble arrived in Bangor in 1786 and was installed as the first minister in Bangor.

In her presentation, Smith will review copies of Bangor’s original 1790 town charter signed by John Hancock, and the 1790 petition for incorporation that Noble wrote. The court in Massachusetts rejected Noble’s petition and the name chosen for the town, Sunbury, was lost.

Fisher will discuss myths about the naming of Bangor and her theory of how the name Bangor was finally chosen for the emerging town. She also will present newly discovered evidence which places Noble among the first to have publicly called for independence from Great Britain.

Organist Alice Mumme will play the hymn “Bangor,” the origin of the city’s name.

Minerva’s Museum Store will be open the day of the presentation and the museum will display winter artifacts such as skis and ice skates from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Museum personnel welcome new volunteers to help with a variety of tasks.

To obtain information, call Willow Martin at 942-1910.

Dental hygiene clinic

The University of Maine System offers a low-cost dental hygiene clinic to the public until April. Dental hygiene services provided include oral exams, dental cleanings, fluoride treatments, sealants, athletic mouth guards and X-rays. Service is provided by dental hygiene students under the close supervision of faculty. For information, call the University College of Bangor Dental Health Programs at 262-7872.

Winter walk

The Bangor Land Trust will be the host for a winter walk at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 26, in the Bangor City Forest, Tripp Road. Dick Andren and other city forest board members will lead the hour-long walk. Participants will learn about the strategies plants and animals use to cope with winter conditions, how plants and animals survive below-zero temperatures, and what preparations they make for winter.

The walk is free, open to the public and appropriate for children and adults. Those who wish to go on the walk should call Lyndsey Monroe, Bangor Land Trust program coordinator at 942-6389, ext. 3219.

The winter walk is the first in the Bangor Land Trust’s new series of public events that will continue throughout the year. The next in the series will be “Building a Community Trail System” with Alix Hopkins, founding executive director of Portland Trails. The event will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 22, at Bangor Public Library.

A bird walk and a photography workshop are planned in future months. To join the Bangor Land Trust mailing list to receive copies of its newsletter, e-mail bgrlandtrust@emdc.org.

Fundraising dinner

The board of directors of the Curran Homestead Living History Farm and Museum will be the hosts at a fundraising dinner at 5 p.m. and 6:15 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 26, at the Oriental Jade Restaurant. The cost is $12, or $6 for children under 12. Tickets must be purchased by Feb. 23.

Door prizes will awarded at each of the two seatings. To obtain tickets, call Karen Marsters at 942-6711, ext. 137; Irv Marsters at 945-9311, or e-mail kmarsters@tcreal.com.

Brewer

Drawing class

The Brewer Parks and Recreation Department is offering a new class, Adult Introduction to Drawing, beginning 10:30-11:30 a.m. Tuesday, March 7, at the Brewer Auditorium. Carolyn Wallace-Zani, a local artist and owner of the Main Street Studio, will be the instructor. Her teaching experience ranges from preschoolers to adults.

The class is designed to provide aspiring artists with an understanding of the tools and techniques of pencil drawing. Participants will be provided with a required materials list.

The fee is $40 for Brewer residents, $45 for others. Registrations are accepted on a first come, first entered basis. Call 989-5199 for information and to register for the class.

Family Read Aloud Program

The Brewer Public Library is ready to launch its third annual Family Read Aloud Program. Registration will be open until Wednesday, March 1.

The program is designed for parents to read aloud to their children or have children read aloud to them for 30 minutes three times per week in March.

The first 30 families to complete the program will receive a Borders gift certificate.

All families who participate in the program will receive a free paperback book.

Books that have been read aloud are reported at the circulation desk for a library staff member to record.

To learn about the program, call 989-7943.

Hampden

Public Safety donation

Members of the Bangor area chapter of the American Sewing Guild made a $100 donation to Hampden’s Public Safety department at the Town Council meeting Feb. 21.

The donation, said guild member Norma Binan, is a way to thank the town for allowing the guild to meet at the municipal building one Saturday each month. The guild teaches sewing classes throughout the year, except in July. The classes attract five to 10 people to each class. The most popular, Binan said, are quilting, pattern fitting and “make and take” classes. To learn about the sewing classes, call Binan at 862-4367.

Levant

Music tour

Shannon Dobbins will be one of the 40 professionals who make up the 2006 Young American Outreach Tour. She auditioned and earned a place for the Ireland-Scotland tour. Tour members will hold workshops, traveling to a new town every three days. They will work with hundreds of students in grades three to 12 in each community.

Dobbins, a former student of Morita’s School of Dance, learned of the Young American workshops through the dance studio. She is the daughter of Mark and Pam Dobbins of Levant.

Orono

Kindergarten registration

Parents of children who will be 5 years old on or before Oct. 15 are asked to register their children 1:30-6 p.m. Thursday, March 9. Registration is by appointment. A legal birth certificate or copy of the birth record is required at the time of registration. A record of immunizations also is necessary to complete the registration forms. Children who expect to enter school next fall must receive communicable disease immunizations.

Parents do not need to bring the child the day of registration. Screening and parent orientation will be held at a later date.

To schedule an appointment for registration, call 8:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. weekdays, 866-2151, or 866-4141.

Reagan Medal recipient

The National Republican Congressional Committee announced that Richard Pare of Orono has been selected to receive the 2005 Ronald Reagan Republican Gold Medal.

Those selected to receive the medal are invited to participate in periodic strategy briefings to provide input on economic and tax issues and how to build broad-based support for conservative initiatives within the business community. Recipients are permanently listed in the ranks of the Republican Honor Roll at the NRCC headquarters in Washington.

Boys and Girls Club dinner dance

The Penobscot Nation Boys and Girls Club fourth annual Dinner-Dance and Silent Auction will take place 5 p.m. Saturday, March 18, at the Black Bear Inn in Orono.

Silent auction items will feature two vacation packages for two people, six days and six nights on a South African safari trip valued at more than $3,000. Other auction items include native crafts made by Penobscot Nation members, collectibles, antiques, services, art, jewelry and much more. Twenty door prizes will be drawn randomly throughout the event.

Corporate tables are available. Businesses reserving a table will receive a gift along with recognition in the program that evening, and the business name will be displayed prominently on the table.

Proceeds will allow the continuation of a program to provide youth with a hot meal every day and a safe place to go after school. The club will be able to continue to expand its programs. Currently the club includes youth from Indian Island, Old Town, Greenbush and Milford.

To obtain tickets or to reserve a table, call 827-7776, ext. 7355.

Talk on Katrina support

Capt. Laurence Wade, master of the Castine-berthed training ship State of Maine, which responded to disaster relief efforts on the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, will speak about his experiences at a Brown Bag Lunch Lecture at noon Wednesday, March 1, at the Page Farm and Home Museum, University of Maine.

The public is invited to bring a bag lunch to this free event. Parking permits are available at the museum the day of the lecture or through the Visitors’ Center at Buchanan Alumni House.

Orrington

Friends of the library

The Friends of Orrington Public Library meet at 7 p.m. the first Wednesday of the month at the library on the Center Drive School campus to plan events and programs and promote the use of the library.

New members and others are welcome. For information, call the library at 825-4938.

Areawide

World War II shipyards

WMPG Radio and Portland Harbor Museum in South Portland have received a federal grant to conduct 35 interviews with World War II shipyard workers from South Portland and former residents in the Ferry Village neighborhood where the shipyards were.

The interviews will focus on “homefront veterans” who built Liberty Ships for the WWII effort and area residents who found their neighborhood full of shipyard workers between 1941 and 1945.

WMPG will air five short documentary pieces in December, and the Portland Harbor Museum will plan an exhibit based on the project. The interviews will be transcribed and archived. There also will be a traveling kiosk exhibit for use in libraries and other organizations.

If you know of someone who should be interviewed for this project, contact shipyardhistory@yahoo.com or call Portland Harbor Museum at 799-6337.

Democratic caucuses

The Maine Democratic Party will hold caucuses on Sunday, Feb. 26:

. Alton, 1 p.m., 5753 Bennoch Road, No. 12, community room, LaGrange. Roberta Williams, 943-5850.

. Bangor, 1 p.m., Peirce Webber Room, Husson College. Gerry Palmer, 990-5730.

. Brewer, 2 p.m., Brewer Auditorium, State Street. William Davis, 989-5314.

. Bradley, 1 p.m., Bradley town office. Kristina Cote, 827-3186.

. Carmel, 2 p.m., Carmel Municipal Building. Robert Sibley, 848-2390.

. Clifton, 1 p.m., Comins Hall, Main Road. Ben Pratt, 843-7502.

. Dixmont, 6:30 p.m., Dixmont town office, Western Avenue. David Bright, 234-4226.

. Eddington, 1 p.m., Comins Hall, Main Road. Ben Pratt, 843-7502.

. Glenburn, 4 p.m., Glenburn town office. Robert Toole Jr., 884-8102.

. Hampden, 2 p.m., Hampden town office. Mary Poulin, 862-3638.

. Hermon, 1 p.m., Hermon town office, 33 Billings Road. Kurt Keef, 848-5261.

. Holden, 1 p.m., Comins Hall, Main Road, Eddington. Ben Pratt, 843-7502.

. Hudson, 3 p.m., Town Hall, 2334 Hudson Road. Michael Belliveau, 827-1027.

. Kenduskeag, 1 p.m., Kenduskeag Town Hall. Jason Goodrich, 884-4032.

. Levant, 2 p.m., Levant Town Hall, 691 Townhouse Road. Sarah Sha’Afi, 884-6767.

. Milford, 2 p.m., Milford town office. Julia O’Leary, 827-2225.

. Old Town, 2 p.m., French Island Community Center, 19 Hildreth St. Claudia Tucci, 827-5696.

. Orono, 2 p.m., Orono Council Chambers, 59 Main St. James Dearman, 866-3045.

. Orrington, 2 p.m., Orrington Town Hall, Center Drive. Earl Baldwin, 825-4439.

. Veazie, 1 p.m., Peirce Weber Room, Husson College, Bangor. Stan Marshall, 945-3706.