Tickets are limited to 90 and last year sold out, so get your tickets early for the Castine Arts Association seventh annual Big Band Dance 7:30-10 p.m. Saturday, July 22, at Emerson Hall on Court Street in Castine.

Tickets are $18 to enjoy the big band sound of Sentimental Journey with vocalist Alice French, and are available at Castine Variety Store or by making checks payable to CAA and mailing them to Jean Miller, Box 746, Castine 04421.

This is the only annual fundraiser for the benefit of the Castine Town Band, which is under the direction of Don Menninghaus of Bangor and assistant director Silas Yates of Castine.

The dance also will feature several members of Back Door Dance Studio in Eddington, who will wow you with their moves to toe-tapping music from swing to jazz.

The evening features cabaret seating and light refreshments at no charge.

More information is available at 326-9138.

Nancy LaHaye reminds classmates the 66th Get-Together for Bangor High School Class of 1940 is noon Friday, July 21, at Holiday Inn on Odlin Road in Bangor.

Family and friends of lifelong Newburgh resident Wayne Young, who has cancer, are holding a benefit baked bean and ham supper 4:30-6:30 p.m. Saturday, July 22, at Goldcrest Snowmobile Club on Cates Road off Route 7 in Dixmont.

Young and his wife, Collette, own Young’s Custom Slaughtering and Young’s Screenprinting, and both have been very active in town and community affairs.

The couple helped establish Newburgh Countryside Riders Snowmobile Club, and both were members of the Newburgh Volunteer Fire Department.

Any donations to help the family at this time would be appreciated. More information can be obtained by calling Ginny Yee, 234-2573, or Chris Ward, 234-4165.

Crystal Pace, executive director of the newly established Downeast Scenic Railroad, a project of Downeast Rail Heritage Preservation Trust, reports the first of four volunteer member work days is 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, July 22, at the Vittum Road crossing, a quarter-mile off Route 1A in Ellsworth Falls.

To participate or obtain more information about DSR, call Jennifer Huerth, 942-8080, or visit www.downeastscenicrailroad.com.

Kindergartners through eighth-graders are invited to Meet a Civil War Soldier as part of the summer reading program at Porter Memorial Library in Machias.

Re-enactor Frank Cassidy will help you glimpse history through story excerpts, demonstrations and authentic period clothing during this event at 11 a.m. Saturday, July 22, at the library at 52 Court St.

Children’s librarian Carol Maryan-George reports the remaining summer reading program events, all at 11 a.m., feature Wayde Carter of the Maine Warden Service, Saturday, July 29; a costume party, Saturday, Aug. 5; and the final party Saturday, Aug. 12.

The library is open noon to 6 Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, and kids 10-12 can join the library’s Friday book club.

For more information, call the library at 255-3933.

Barbara Higgins of Veazie reports the Eastern Maine General Hospital-Eastern Maine Medical Center-Husson College Nurses Alumni Association Reunion Field Day begins at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, July 22, in the G. Peirce Webber Campus Center on the Husson campus in Bangor.

Refreshments and beverages will be available during the afternoon, along with games ranging from bingo to bridge.

Alumni are asked to bring an unwrapped gift for the Scotch auction, which begins at 4 p.m., and are reminded that a barbecue chicken dinner begins at 5 p.m.

Reservations for the gathering are $16, and should be made as soon as possible by calling Gloria Lee at 223-5657.

In a later column, I’ll have more information about this organization of year-round and summer residents of Maine and beyond.

But, for now, suffice it to say anyone who would enjoy meeting with members of the East Grand Dames Summer Book Club when they discuss “Elegy for Iris” by John Baley is welcome to do so at 10 a.m. Wednesday, July 26, at a member’s home.

Guests can call Pam Taylor at 448-2928 or Jane Cook at 448-2717, for information and directions.

You do not have to read the book to attend and enjoy the company.

It’s vacation time on the coast of Maine, and my husband and I are eagerly awaiting the arrival of our White family from New York.

My column returns to this section on Tuesday, July 25.

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