Schools

Middle school dance

BANGOR – The Bangor Y will sponsor the Pumpkin Smash Dance for middle school pupils 6:30-9:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 20, at 127 Hammond St. A DJ will provide music. Refreshments will be available. Admission is $3.

Old Town Elementary School

OLD TOWN – Old Town Elementary School will celebrate the arts 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Friday, Oct. 27, at the school.

Several local artists will provide artistic awareness, enrichment, entertainment and new artistic knowledge with kindergarten to fifth-grade pupils. The event will feature Celtic music from Jennifer Armstrong, Passamaquoddy storyteller and author of “Thanks to the Animals” Allen Sockabasin, the Old Town High School Jazz Band, a silversmith, guitarists and folk music and dancing with Bill Olson.

Young entrepreneurs

WASHINGTON – The National Federation of Independent Business Young Entrepreneur Foundation awarded two young people from Maine the fourth annual Young Entrepreneur Award, which includes a $1,000 scholarship. They are:

. Brock Bradford of Kenduskeag, who attended Bangor Christian Schools.

. Andrew Crane of Exeter, who attended Dexter Regional High School.

Hermon High School

HERMON – The faculty of Hermon High School announced that these students have been selected as Student of the Month for September:

Freshmen – Jessie Graffam, son of David and Patricia Graffam of Levant; Samantha Munson, daughter of Leslie Brown of Levant.

Sophomore – Eric Russell, son of Kent and Leah Russell of Hermon.

Junior – Amanda Francis, daughter of Marie Francis and Peter Hughes of Levant.

Senior – Allen Batchelder, son of Richard and Valarie Batchelder of Carmel.

Colleges

Castleton State College

CASTLETON, Vt. – Alden Gregory of Corinth was named to the dean’s list for the spring semester at Castleton State College. He is studying psychology.

Husson College Homecoming

BANGOR – Husson College will hold its annual Homecoming Weekend Friday and Saturday, Oct. 20-21. A full schedule of events is in place anchored by homecoming football, soccer and volleyball games.

The college will hold the Sports Hall of Fame dinner and ceremony at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 20, in the Campus Center. Being inducted are Mark Hreben, baseball; Warren Caruso, basketball and coaching; Sue-Ann Teeney, softball; Stacey Barnes, basketball; Craig Stuber, soccer; and Richard Trott, a friend of athletics. The college also will honor longtime coach and professor Bruce MacGregor.

Events on Saturday include a workshop on assistive technology; football, soccer and volleyball games; nursing alumni tea; a roundtable discussion with college President Bill Beardsley and the Alumni Hall of Fame dinner and ceremony.

Alumni being inducted are Brent Cross, Class of 1994, Bangor; Robert Plourde, 1972, Cumberland, R.I., Charles Cressy, 1973, Durham, N.H.; Barbara Kelley, 1995, Raleigh, N.C.; and Timothy Burton, 1996, Kennebunk.

Area businessman Brent Cross received a bachelor’s degree in business administration at Husson in 1994 and a master’s degree in business in 2001. He is vice president of the Cross Agency.

Born and raised in Bangor, Cross started in the insurance business in 1979. At that time the agency employed five people – his parents, brother and two secretaries.

Today Cross Agency is one of the largest insurance agencies in New England with more than 300 employees. Cross is active in youth sports coaching soccer, baseball, football and basketball. He has served on numerous boards including OHI, Community Health and Counseling, Bangor TB and Health, Bangor Breakfast Rotary as founding president, and Bangor Jaycees as president.

He received the Charles M. Culp Award from the Jaycees as one of the top chapter presidents in the country. He and his wife, Lori, have five children.

New England School of Communications

BANGOR – Gordon Fellis of Veazie, a senior at the New England School of Communications, has been hired as a radio announcer at the Maine Public Broadcasting Network.

Fellis, a native of Lamoine and a graduate of Mt. Desert Island High School, will receive a bachelor’s degree in communications in May 2007. He began at MPBN as an intern, operating the audio console during live broadcasts of MPBN’s “Live at 11” and “Friday Night Jazz.” From there he mixed audio for the television pledge drive and announced on the radio.

In 2005 he was one of three NESCom students who produced a series of spots for Penquis CAP promoting its services for men’s health. The series resulted in NESCom’s student radio station WHSN winning its first award from the Maine Association of Broadcasters.

Homecoming weekend at University of Maine

ORONO – The University of Maine Alumni Association has announced the schedule for the 131st Homecoming Weekend, Friday to Sunday, Oct. 20-22.

Highlights include the Black Bear football game vs. Hofstra, at 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 21, at Alfond Stadium.

Disco party band Motor Booty Affair will kick off the weekend’s festivities at 7:30 p.m. Friday with a performance at Buchanan Alumni House. Tickets are $20 each and available by calling (800) 934-2586. Tickets also will be available at the door at Buchanan Alumni House, 160 College Ave.

Black Bear fans and alumni are invited to join the Alumni Association in the GO BLUE tailgating tent, located between Dunn and Corbett halls, from 11 a.m. through halftime of the football game Saturday, Oct. 21. Concessions and refreshments will be available, as well as face painting and music by the Pride of Maine Black Bear Marching Band.

A popular attraction each year is the Alumni Association Craft Fair and Food Cafe 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday in the UM Fieldhouse. Admission is $1, free to those under 12 and UM students with a MaineCard ID. The craft fair features more than 200 vendors offering only Maine-made crafts.

The Alumni Association will present the 2006 Spirit of Maine Achievement Award to Melissa Reynolds O’Dea, Class of 1992. O’Dea, an assistant attorney general for the State of Maine, will be honored for her groundbreaking work on Maine’s tobacco settlement.

The Spirit of Maine Achievement Award is given to an alumni who graduated in the last 15 years and whose “accomplishments, commitment and initiative in a profession, business or public service arena reflect the high standards and vitality of the University of Maine.”

For information on Homecoming weekend, visit www.mainealumni.com.

University of Maine Foundation

ORONO – John I. Simpson of Bangor was elected 2006-07 chairman of the University of Maine Foundation board of directors at the foundation’s Oct. 4 annual meeting. Simpson is a 1971 graduate of the University of Maine and received a master’s degree in 1983. He is president and owner of Innovative Solutions, management consultants, and former president and CEO of H.E. Sargent.

In 1934, the University of Maine Foundation was started with $1,000 from the class of 1909. It now has total assets of nearly $148 million, including $10 million in new gifts during the most recent fiscal year. The foundation distributed $5.5 million in support of the University of Maine.

The board also elected:

. Darryl Brown of Livermore Falls, vice chairman.

. Ellen Stinson of Standish, treasurer.

. Anne Pooler of Bangor, secretary.

. Amos Orcutt of Bangor, assistant treasurer and president.

. Brent Slater of Bangor, clerk.

The annual luncheon was attended by more than 200 people.

The second annual President Abram W. Harris Award was presented to Habib J. Dagher, director of the Advanced Engineered Wood Composites Center, professor of civil and structural engineering, and Bath Iron Works professor of structural engineering at UM.

Dagher was recognized for his transformational leadership as the driving force behind the creation and growth of the AEWC Center. Under Dagher’s leadership, the AEWC Center has attracted more than $30 million in state, private and federal funding. It has employed more than 300 undergraduate and 40 graduate students and has grown from 11 full-time staff in 2000 to 38.

The $5,000 prize will be awarded annually and was established with an endowed gift to the University of Maine Foundation from A.W. “Pete” Harris III, class of 1950, and family and friends in memory of Dr. Abram Winegardner Harris, who served the University of Maine from 1893-1901.

Puckerbrush Review

ORONO – Several individuals who were there at the beginning of Maine’s foremost literary journal, the Puckerbrush Review, gathered to tell its story and celebrate its achievements in publishing Maine authors and in bringing international authors to Maine readers over the better part of three decades.

The event, “A Proliferation of Puckerbrush: Celebrating 28 Years of the Puckerbrush Review,” was held Oct. 17 in the Special Collections Department of Raymond H. Fogler Library at the University of Maine.

Several presentations told the story of what Puckerbrush Review did for literature in Maine and how the review connected Maine to the wider literary world, the world of such luminaries as Bloomsbury writer and painter Angelica Garnett, poet Phillip Booth, author Mary McCarthy and the legendary May Sarton.

The story was told by several of the journal’s contributors, including writer Sandy Phippen and poet-critic Burt Hatlen, and by some of the authors who Puckerbrush Review launched and published, including Tony Brinkley and Sandra Hutchison. Local poet Kathleen Ellis presented a word collage highlighting various aspects of the review’s achievements.

Sam Hunting, son of the late Constance Hunting, spoke about the future of the review. A memorial issue was presented at the meeting, dedicated to Constance Hunting, who began the journal in 1978.

The program was sponsored by the Fogler Library Friends.