Community News

loading...

Bangor

Friends of Dakin Pool

BANGOR- The Friends of Dakin Pool announced that Paul Brody of WBRC Architects-Engineers recently completed the site plan for the Dakin Pool construction project as an in-kind gift to the campaign. The value of WBRC’s work on the site plan represents a $4,000 contribution.

“The support of WBRC Architects-Engineers was crucial to the forward progress of this project,” said Friends of Dakin Pool President Mike Robinson. “We are enormously grateful to Paul Brody for his professional expertise.”

On Oct. 17 the Bangor planning board approved the Dakin Pool site plan, clearing the way for the project to begin.

As a native returning to the Bangor area, Brody understood the campaign’s significance to local families.

“It was a great pleasure to provide input on this well-deserved upgrade to the existing Dakin Pool complex. This project will provide the kids in the area a great outlet for their summertime energy,” Brody said.

The $100,000 capital campaign for Bangor’s first public swimming pool was launched on the opening day of summer by the Friends of Dakin Pool. To date, $86,000 in gifts and pledges have been received. Funds raised will enhance and improve the area around the pool, located on Bangor’s east side at the end of Pine Street just past Stillwater Avenue, across from Broadway Park.

The campaign will fund five projects: a 28-by-36-foot pool house with restrooms, first aid station, lifeguard office and outside showers; a new fence to create a large, grassy picnic and play area; repairs to the pool deck; a new walkway, and a 10-by-14-foot equipment building to house the pool pump and filtration system.

The Friends of Dakin Pool is a nonprofit organization run by community volunteers. For more information, visit www.dakinpool.com or call 947-4051. Tax-deductible contributions may be mailed to Friends of Dakin Pool, P.O. Box 2657, Bangor, ME 04402-2657.

Leading photographer

The Eastern Maine Camera Club will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 2, at the Bangor Parks and Recreation Building, 647 Main St.

Guest speaker will be Tom Jones, who is recognized as one of the nation’s leading photographers. His work has appeared in national magazines and he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He will be available to critique the work of local photographers.

The meeting is open to the public. For more information, call 942-9469.

Fingerprinting children

BANGOR – Safety is the Focus of ABWA’s Business Women of Bangor’s free fingerprinting clinic for children in partnership with the Bangor Police Department 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28, at the Bangor Wal-Mart.

The Bangor Fire Department will hold a special demonstration the same day. For more information, call Jan Currier at 942-8261 or Deb Whitman at 941-1730.

Adoption and foster care

The Bangor office of the Department of Health and Human Services will host a public informational meeting about adoption and foster care 1-3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 17. To learn the meeting location and to participate, call A Family For ME at (877) 505-0545.

Those considering adoption or foster care through the Maine Department of Health and Human Services are encouraged to attend the open, no obligation meeting. For more information about foster care or adoption and to find out more about this informational meeting, call A Family For ME at (877) 505-0545.

Quilt raffle

A quilt will be raffled to benefit the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation on Sunday, Oct. 29, at Hope Lutheran Church, 1520 Union St.

Multiple myeloma is a blood cancer of the plasma cell, explained Becky Reeve. “Blood cancers are rare,” she said, “but multiple myeloma is the second-most-common blood cancer after leukemia.”

Tickets are five for $5, 17 for $15, or 25 for $20. For tickets, contact Reeve at 356-0425. Checks should be made payable to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation.

C.L.A.E. scholarship auction

Dozens of gift certificates and other items will be up for bid during the annual fantasy silent auction scholarship fundraiser at the C.L.A.E. School 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28, at 96 Harlow St., first floor, Suite 120.

Activities will include the grand premiere of “Star Wars Part II” produced by C.L.A.E., a juggler, refreshments and entertainment. All are welcome.

For information, call 990-5169.

Genealogical workshop

A lineage research workshop will be sponsored by Frances Dighton Williams Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28, in the Lecture Hall, third floor, at Bangor Public Library, 145 Harlow St.

DAR chapters throughout the country offer workshops to encourage prospective members, though all are welcome.

The event will begin with a talk on genealogical resources used to “prove” one’s line back to a Revolutionary War ancestor. Bring a bag lunch.

Talks after lunch will focus on what the DAR does, and there will be representatives on hand to help those interested in working on applications. Elizabeth Hotchkiss, state corresponding secretary and regent of Majabigwaduce Chapter, will present an overview and “Membership, a Three-step Process.”

Brewer

Theater auditions

Ten Bucks Theatre Company Inc. invites local actors to audition for its January and February 2007 show, “Don’t Dress For Dinner,” a comedy by Marc Camoletti, adapted by Robin Hawdon and directed by Dominick Varney.

Bernard is planning a weekend with his mistress. He has hired a gourmet cook, is packing his wife, Jacqueline, off to her mother’s, and has invited his best friend, Robert, to provide an alibi. It is foolproof. What could possibly go wrong? Suppose Robert doesn’t know why he has been invited? Suppose Robert and Jacqueline are secret lovers? What happens if the cook is mistaken for the mistress and the mistress can’t cook?

Marc Camoletti’s boulevard comedy for three men and three women was a smash hit in Paris under its original title, “Pyjamas pour Six,” where it ran for more than two years.

Robin Hawdon’s adaptation of the French original premiered in 1991 and played to critical acclaim at London’s Apollo Theatre.

Ten Bucks Theatre Company in Brewer will present this fast-paced, nonstop, hilarious farce Jan. 25-28 and Feb. 1-4.

Auditions will be held 6-8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 1; 6-8 p.m. Thursday Nov 2; and 1-4 p.m. Saturday Nov. 4, at Brewer Middle School Auditorium.

Roles are available for three men, late 20s to mid-40s; and three women, mid-20s to 40.

Auditioners should be prepared to present a monologue with an English accent, dramatic or comedic.

For more information, e-mail DominickVarney

@umit.maine.edu, or visit www.tenbuckstheatre.com.

Carmel

Harvest party for all

Highway International Ministries will hold its annual Harvest Party 4-7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 31, at 87 Damascus Road. The menu is macaroni and cheese, hot dogs, chips and drinks. Games, hay rides, face painting, music and, of course, lots of candy will be part of the fun. The public is invited. For more information, call 848-7111.

Corinth

Gospel concert

Gospel singer and recording artist Ken Fernald will appear in concert at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 5, at the Corinth United Methodist Church, 17 Main St.

Fernald has traveled in a concert ministry for 26 years and is a seasoned soloist. His friendly, relaxed and good-natured style of singing has made him a popular gospel artist throughout New England. The message in song is done with familiar hymns as well as some of the newer gospel favorites.

Fernald has served as host for both radio and television programs and now travels in a full-time concert ministry. He makes his home in Portsmouth, N.H.

The public is invited to attend the concert.

Hampden

Scrapbooking day

An all-day album-making event will be held 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28, at Hampden Community Church of the Open Door to raise funds to help purchase a wheelchair-accessible van for Tommy Mousseau.

All are welcome to attend and organize photos or work on completing an album.

A beginner’s class is set for 9:30-11 a.m.

The cost for the day is $15, lunch included. For information, contact Esther Littlefield, 945-0244 or meaningfulalbums@yahoo.com.

Hermon

Holiday craft fair

Artisans and crafters are invited to apply for booth space at the second annual Holiday Craft Fair to be held 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 18, at Hermon High School gymnasium, Route 2.

The event is sponsored by Hermon’s Pack 25 Cub Scouts. Last year the gymnasium was filled with more than 50 crafters from around the state selling everything from quilts and original jewelry to wooden creations, paintings, soaps, candles and more. Space is still available but limited. To request an application to participate, e-mail debora.farnham@adelphia.net, or call Deb at 848-0829.

Old Town

Maine Women’s Fund

The Maine Women’s Fund, a statewide grant-making organization dedicated to investing in the power of women and the dreams of girls, announced its program for the 16th annual Evening To Honor Women and Girls of Maine.

This year’s event honors risk-takers from South Portland, Old Town and Portland. The honorees have taken on serious issues, including shaping the services and support available to victims of domestic violence, helping schools include sexual orientation in anti-discrimination policies and building Maine’s only grant-making institution dedicated exclusively to expanding opportunities for women and girls.

The Maine Women’s Fund Award recipients are Skeek Frazee of South Portland and Denise St. Peter of Old Town. Karin Anderson will receive the Sarah Orne Jewett Award from the fund’s board of directors.

In addition to the award presentations, the program will include storytelling from two of the fund’s recent grant recipients. This year’s storytellers are from United Somali Women of Maine, based in Lewiston, and Womancare-Aegis Association, serving women and girls in Dover-Foxcroft.

For more information, visit www.mainewomensfund.org.

Orono

Halloween celebration

A community Halloween celebration sponsored by the Orono Public Library and Parks and Recreation Department will take place 5:30-7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 31, at Asa Adams Elementary School.

Games, crafts, haunted hayrides, refreshments and more will be available. Organizations helping with the event are Friends of the Orono Public Library, Asa Adams PTO, Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity, the Orono Police and Fire Departments, Orono-Old Town Kiwanis and the Orono High School Key Club.

Planetarium shows

Once again the University of Maine Maynard F. Jordan Planetarium will offer the Saturn spectacle, “Ring World,” showing at 7 p.m. Saturdays, Nov. 4, 11 and 18. “Ring World” explores the moons of Saturn and takes an up-close look at the rings and the planet itself.

“Ring World” will take visitors on a journey to close-up views of the most elegant of the sun’s planets, Saturn. Under the dome, visitors travel with the NASA Cassini-Huygens probe and follow its adventure to the Saturnian system of graceful rings, bright storms and exotic moons. The forces at work there are just beginning to reveal themselves to scientists on Earth, and new data arrive daily from the remote science instruments in orbit around Saturn.

A tour of the current night sky, a re-creation of Cassini’s journey and its most recent returns make “Ring World” a true space science exploration.

Also showing is “Our Sky Family” at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 5, 12, 19 and 26. Youngsters will meet each one of the planets and hear them tell a little bit about themselves.

In this delightful first visit to the planetarium, visitors chat with Father Sun and each of the planets, who tell about their best features and their place in Our Sky Family. The planetarium star projector, Franklin, is the guide, and the planetarium host helps everyone see this season’s constellations.

Admission is $3, free to UMaine students. For information, reservations or questions about either of the shows, call 581-1341 or visit the Jordan Planetarium at www.galaxy

maine.com.

Culturefest 2006

Travel the globe without leaving campus 10 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28, in the Memorial Gym Field House as the year’s biggest international event in the region pulls together hundreds of University of Maine international students for Culturefest, a showcase of talent, style and cuisine from cultures of the world.

Students from Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas will turn out in traditional clothing and costumes representative of their homelands for a day of singing, dancing, cooking and exhibits.

Culturefest is free. Adults and children from surrounding communities are invited to learn firsthand about the cultural themes and customs of the homelands of students from many of the 76 countries represented on campus. Members of the UM International Student Association will offer an international food court, talent show, fashion show, information tables with maps and flags, and children’s activities.

“This is the biggest international event on campus,” said co-organizer Sarah Joughin of the Office of International Programs and National Student Exchange.

It also is a chance, added Manaz Mohideen, an electrical and computer engineering junior from Sri Lanka and president of the International Student Association, to see beyond the headline news coverage of violence and disaster in other parts of the world.

Culturefest, he said, allows people to see “what’s unique about different parts of the world, what students bring from different places – their dances, clothing, styles.”

Mohideen is looking forward to performing in a Sri Lankan musical ensemble, a fusion of Asian drums with guitar and other instruments he and his friends hope to assemble for the talent show. He also is hoping Sri Lanka can outdo the cuisine prepared last year by students from India, who won the food contest.

“This year, we’re definitely going to beat them,” he said.

Mohideen expects he and his fellow students will prepare a milk rice and curried chicken offering and promises to tone down the intensity of the spicy curry this year.

Anh Do, a third-year business major from Vietnam, said she looks forward to her third Culturefest because it’s a chance to share her culture with the entire region.

“I don’t talk about my country that much, unless people ask,” she said. “It’s a great opportunity to learn about other countries. It’s just really neat to have everything represented and you see stuff from all the other countries.”

Do said she expects to help prepare native spring rolls, Vietnamese noodles, sticky rice and a special dessert for the food court.

Typically, more than 1,000 people attend Culturefest, according to Joughin. The students request a nominal contribution for food items from the food court to cover expenses.

For more information about the 18th annual Culturefest, call the UM Office of International Programs at 581-2905, or visit www.umaine.edu/international.

Change clock, change battery

The Bangor Fire Department is handing out free 9-volt batteries to Bangor residents to use in replacing the batteries in their smoke detectors. The batteries were provided through a grant from Energizer as part of Energizer and the International Association of Fire Chiefs 14-year program, Change your Clock, Change your Battery.

Bangor residents are encouraged to change the battery in their smoke detector when they set their clock back on Oct. 29 as Daylight-Saving Time ends for this year.

This is the time of year, Fire Department officials said, when the number of residential fires increases, highlighting the importance of working smoke detectors in the home.

Bangor residents interested in obtaining a free battery may stop by Central Fire Station on Main Street 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. Only one battery per household will be given. Supplies are limited, and batteries are available on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, call J. Johnson at 992-4714.