Faith in Action is a Hancock County program offering free volunteer services for the elderly and disabled.

Program director Jo Cooper wrote that FIA is sponsoring a training program for volunteers to visit people in their homes. The training will run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, April 21, at St. Dunstan’s Church, 134 State St. in Ellsworth.

The training is free, and light refreshments and coffee will be served.

You are encouraged to bring a brown-bag lunch, but registration must be made by Wednesday, April 19, by calling 664-6016.

The training will provide volunteers with increased knowledge and resources for visiting shut-ins, particularly those with dementia or Alzheimer’s.

Barbara Clark of Hospice of Hancock County will discuss home safety issues, family dynamics, boundaries and visiting people in their homes.

Alzheimer’s expert Sally Smith will address issues relating to people with memory loss, and additional information will be provided by representatives of Eastern Agency on Aging and FIA.

Cooper said FIA’s “friendly visits” program has received so many requests from family members and health care providers that “we can’t keep up with all the requests.”

FIA is “in critical need of volunteers who are willing to commit to visiting a lonely person on a regular basis, as well as volunteer drivers who can transport people to appointments, stores or even the library.

“Sometimes a visit can give a caregiver a much-needed break,” enabling that person “to go shopping or go for a walk,” Cooper said. “It can be a huge help.”

The training program was developed in conjunction with EAA and Hospice of Hancock County with financial assistance from a small grant by Maine Community Foundation.

Our historic Bangor Symphony Orchestra is conducting auditions Sunday, April 23, for the 2006-07 season.

Available positions are second clarinet, principal viola, principal bassoon and section strings as well as substitutes for all instruments.

Contracted musicians are paid on a per-service basis with mileage and housing arrangements included.

For information about audition requirements and audition locations, contact BSO personnel manager Surya Mitchell by calling (800) 639-3221 or 942-5555, or e-mailing surya@bangorsymphony.com.

The BSO, founded in 1896, is the oldest continuously operating community orchestra in the country, and music director and conductor Xiao-Lu Li is now entering his fifth season.

More information is available at www.bangorsymphony.com.

Amanda Burnham is the 22-year-old niece of Patience Fournier of Winslow.

Burnham has cystic fibrosis, and for nearly a year has been on the United States Organ Recipient List.

“At this point in Amanda’s life, she won’t live much longer without the transplant,” her aunt wrote.

To help lower the expenses for the transplant, the Amanda Burnham Double Lung Transplant Benefit Golf Tournament begins with a shotgun start at 9 a.m. Saturday, May 20, at Natanis Golf Course in Vassalboro.

For more information about becoming a sponsor, a participant or making a monetary contribution, write Patience Fournier, Box 245 Abbott Road, Winslow 04901. You can also fax her at the Maine State Chamber of Commerce in Augusta, 622-7723; call her at work, 623-4568, ext. 15; contact her cell phone, 649-7806; or e-mail pfournier@mainechamber.org.

You can also contact Melody Rousseau of Waterville by calling her at work, 623-4568, ext. 12; by cell phone, 649-7311; or e-mailing mrousseau@mainechamber.org.

To the large, loving and much-loved extended family and friends of Inez Boyd of Bangor, who died recently at 91, I offer my deepest condolences on the loss of this kind and courageous woman.

I have known Inez for years, having met her when I first moved to Bangor.

She later became a regular contact with information for this column about everything from the Greater Pushaw Lake Association History Committee to the Bangor Nature Club.

Courage might not be what many recall about Inez, but if you consider matters of the heart and how to live life well, she was a woman of great courage and a wonderful role model for all who face adversity.

Inez knew better than most the true meaning of the old adage “life goes on,” and she went on with it well, no matter what came her way.

A new bride who lost her first husband early in World War II, she outlived two other husbands but never let the deaths of loved ones keep her from moving forward, chin held high, always helping others with a smile on her face and in her heart.

That’s courage.

She will be missed.

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