Members of G&H Ambulance Service and Eastern Maine Medical Center Blood Center request your participation in their “Become a Local Hero” Blood Drive 3-8 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 29, at the Glenburn Fire Station on Lakeview Drive.

Donna Heathcote reports refreshments will be served and door prizes offered.

For every pint of blood, a donation will be made to Children’s Miracle Network of Eastern Maine Healthcare.

Citing the “blood availability shortage,” Heathcote wrote that “every person donating becomes a local hero to those in need.”

Walk-ins are welcome. Appointments can be made by calling Milissa Smart at 745-9341.

G&H Ambulance is a volunteer organization serving residents of Glenburn and Hudson.

The Belmont, Maine, Backyard Family Reunion begins at midday Sunday, Aug. 20, at the home of Bob and Isabel Morse Maresh, 169 Howard Road in Belmont.

Bring a casserole to share and anything else you’d like to eat, along with memorabilia, family photos and scrapbooks.

For more information, call 342-5208 or e-mail mareshme@fairpoint.net.

Mira Gill returns for the Mary Potterton Memorial Piano Concert at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 23, at Lubec Congregational Church.

The concert is free, but donations are appreciated. Representatives of Lubec Memorial Library will serve intermission refreshments.

For a fee, you can reserve space on the Eastport-Lubec Concert Boat by calling 853-2500.

Millinocket Regional Hospital Auxiliary president Joyce Given invites you to the MRHA Book Fair by Imagine Nation Books, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 24, and 7 a.m.-3 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25, in the Multi-Purpose Room on the MRH ground floor, 200 Somerset St.

Proceeds from the sale, which features hundreds of discounted books from best-sellers to children’s, benefit the Auxiliary scholarship fund.

The public is invited to the Sedgwick-Brooklin Historical Society annual meeting at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 24, at Sedgwick Town House, Route 172, North Sedgwick Road.

After a brief business meeting and election of 2006-07 officers and trustees, Peter Dow Bachelder of Ellsworth will discuss his new book, “Steam to the Summit: The Green Mountain Railway: Bar Harbor’s Remarkable Cog Railway.”

His talk will include photographs and cover the early settlement of the area to the expansion of lodging and activities for summer visitors.

There is no admission charge. For more information, call 359-8958.

Rose Nelson and members of Mayo Regional Hospital Auxiliary invite you to its annual summer fundraiser, “Fantastic Show,” at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25, at Center Theater in Dover-Foxcroft.

Tickets are $10 for adults, $6 for children and are available at Hudson Avenue Florist, Guilford; Mr. Paperback, Dover-Foxcroft, the MRH volunteer office and the door.

“Fantastic Show” features The Notables, a group of young people from the Milo and Dover-Foxcroft area; The Fourth Thoughts, a female a cappella group from Bangor; and the locally popular family group Zevulon, a mother, father and six children who play a variety of instruments.

Proceeds benefit MRHA projects.

You are invited to attend a free, outdoor Gospel Concert and Cookout 3-6 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 27, at Clifton United Baptist Church, 742 Airline Road (Route 9) in Clifton.

Nancy Hatch wrote entertainment will include “singing, piano, trumpet, bagpipes, bells and more.”

The cookout will feature hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad, potato chips, cookies and watermelon.

Although the event is free, donations will be accepted to help purchase new choir robes.

“There will be a huge tent and plenty of seating room,” Hatch added, “so come and enjoy a great time.”

Elaine Fernald sent two messages about Ellsworth Garden Club events.

The first is the EGC annual club sale at 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 26, at Shaw’s Portico on High Street, Ellsworth.

“Proceeds will be used to fund speakers’ fees and for our numerous landscaping projects around Ellsworth,” Fernald said.

Second, Fernald wrote, ECG invites the public “to hear and see” Patrick Smith of EarthWorks Landscape and Gardening on “An Organic Approach to Landscaping” at 7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 28, at Hancock Cooperative Extension, 63 Boggy Brook Road, Ellsworth.

For more information about these events or EGC activities, call Fernald at 244-3085.

For the first time, I will not be enjoying our American Folk Festival, which is Aug. 25-27 on the Bangor Waterfront but, instead, will be on vacation, enjoying a “folk festival” of my own with my Averill grandchildren in California.

My column returns to this section on Wednesday, Aug. 30.

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