Bangor-area hospice offers volunteer training

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Compassionate people seeking a volunteer opportunity are encouraged to consider becoming a volunteer for Hospice of Eastern Maine, which is a program of Bangor Area Visiting Nurses.

Wayne Melanson, director of volunteer services for HOEM, reports that organization is seeking “men and women who feel called to share their time and friendship with neighbors living with terminal illness.”

HOEM provides hospice services to residents of all communities within a 25-mile radius of Bangor.

Those services “focus on the physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs of individuals and families at end-of-life,” Melanson wrote.

“HOEM volunteers provide friendship and comfort care,” and do not provide physical care such as bathing, he emphasized.

For individuals interested in becoming a hospice volunteer, HOEM’s Fall Volunteer Training Course will be conducted from 5:30 to 9 p.m. on six consecutive Tuesday evenings, from Oct. 10 through Nov. 14, in Suite 220 of Eastern Maine Healthcare Mall at 885 Union St. in Bangor.

The course is a “comprehensive, fast-paced” one, which “will prepare prospective volunteers to provide emotional support, respite and bereavement care for hospice patients and families,” Melanson wrote.

When you become a HOEM volunteer, you become a member “of an interdisciplinary team that plans and delivers patient care and services.”

For more information about volunteering with HOEM, for which you must complete an application form and have an interview, call Melanson at (800) 350-8269 or 973-8269.

Hospice volunteers are very special people, providing a wonderful, much-needed service that is greatly appreciated not only by the recipient of that service, but also by those whom he or she loves.

The Universalist-Unitarian Church is sponsoring “Contradance I” from 7:30 to 11 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 30, at the church, 120 Park St. in Bangor.

Admission, to cover expenses, is $5 for individuals and $12 for families, and lessons for beginners and children will be given from 7 to 7:30 p.m.

The Oakum Bay String Band will provide contradance music.

Suzanne Kelly encourages new dancers to attend, and reminds readers that no partners are required for contradancing.

Bill Carlin told me the dance is a warm-up for “Contradance II,” which the church plans to host as part of local First Night celebrations to ring in the New Year.

For more information, call 947-7009.

Meet Maestro Xiao-Lu Li and members of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra during Meet the Symphony from 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 1, at the Oriental Jade Restaurant on Bangor Mall Boulevard.

A BSO ensemble will entertain; you can enter to win special prizes; and KISS 94.5 FM will be doing a live remote broadcast.

The BSO, entering its 111th season, is the oldest community orchestra in the United States having provided continuous service since being established in 1896.

A portion of your dinner cost will benefit the BSO, and you can sign up for a season subscription.

For more information, call the BSO box office, (800) 639-3221 or 942-5555.

Hearty congratulations and a sincere well done to the 3,288 participants who made this year’s Komen Maine Race for the Cure a record-breaking success.

Sally Bilancia reports you raised more than $180,000, which is a whopping $60,000 increase from last year’s event, and that participation increased by 22 percent.

“The key to the high fundraiser is the donations, both from individuals and from participants soliciting pledges for the race,” Bilancia said.

“Pledge donations broke records of their own this year, topping at $5,800 from just one participant,” and one team raised more than $10,000.

“Without the efforts of our participants and volunteers, we never could have surpassed our expectations this year,” Bilancia added.

Beginning with 800 participants in 1983 in Dallas, Texas, today’s Komen Race for the Cure is the largest, 5-kilometer series in the United States, with more than 1.5 million participants worldwide, according to information provided by Bilancia.

The mission of the Komen Foundation “is to eradicate breast cancer as a life-threatening disease by advancing research, education, screening and treatment.”

You will be pleased to know that 75 percent of the net funds raised during the Sept. 19 event in Bangor “stay right here in the State of Maine, supporting local education, screening and treatment programs,” Bilancia wrote.

The remaining 25 percent of the money raised, she added, goes “directly to breast cancer research through the Komen Foundation Award and Research Grant Program.”

More information is available at www.komenmaine.com.

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