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High school arts residencies

BANGOR – Classes at 12 high schools in the Penquis region, including Bangor, Brewer, John Bapst, Hermon and Hampden Academy, will benefit from a $7,500 grant received by the Maine Alliance for Arts Education from the Starbucks Foundation.

Building Community Through the Arts – MAAE’s artist residency program – is now in its eighth year in the region’s high schools. The only program in Maine to receive the national Starbucks grant this year, Building Community will send theater and dance educators into 11 academic high school classrooms for two weeks in November and again in March. The visiting artists will help students explore social issues and themes from their curriculum, using dance and drama as their medium.

For most of the students this will be their first experience in theater and dance. The November residencies include dance residencies with artist Louis Gervais at two of teacher Tori Kornfield’s communications classes at Bangor High School and one of Kelly Nobles’ English classes in Hermon.

The three classes, along with eight other classes from Piscataquis Community, Schenck and Penquis Valley high schools, and Lee Academy and Mattanawcook Academy, will perform their original works and share thoughts on the collaborative experience 9 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 16, at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 120 Park St., Bangor.

Partners from the Bangor Starbucks will be on hand to offer encouragement, and will provide a variety of iced coffees and pastries to the participants. Admission is free, and the public is welcome to attend. For more information, including a performance schedule, visit www.maineartseducation.org, or call MAAE’s education director, Susan Potters, at 676-9494.

Since its inception in 1997, the Starbucks Foundation has awarded more than $12 million to more than 700 literacy and youth organizations throughout the United States and Canada. The grants provide organizations support in the development of innovative learning opportunities for youth in arts and literacy, and environmental education.

The Starbucks Foundation supports programs for youth, ages 6-18, that integrate literacy with personal and civic action in the communities where they live. Funding for the foundation has come mostly from Starbucks Coffee Co. and individual donations.

Children’s International Summer Villages

OLD TOWN – The Maine Chapter of Children’s International Summer Villages is accepting applications for young people ages 11-18 to participate as delegates in international camps and exchange programs next summer.

Destinations abroad this year are Italy, Canada and France. In the United States, the destinations are Detroit, Cincinnati and Washington, D.C.

The deadline for application is Dec. 15.

Children’s International Summer Villages offers international and local programs that foster global friendships and cross-cultural understanding. CISV is an independent, nonprofit, nonpolitical worldwide volunteer organization that promotes peaceful solutions to global problems. It is dedicated to making a world of difference, and committed to the personal safety and welfare of participants in its programs.

Applications also are being accepted for leaders 21 years and older to accompany the Maine youth delegations representing the United States. CISV-Maine will select delegates and leaders for the following 2007 international programs:

. Villages – four-week programs for 11-year-olds in delegations of two boys, two girls and an adult leader from 12 nations – in Bologna, Italy, June 26-July 26; and London, Canada, July 9-Aug. 5. A female and a male leader are needed.

. Junior Counselor, ages 16-17, to assist staff and leaders at a CISV Village in Forli, Italy, July 1-28, for a female delegate; and in Cincinnati, June 16-July 13, for a male delegate.

. Interchange, a cultural exchange for boys and girls ages 13-14, to spend two weeks with CISV peers and their families in Lyon, France, and for the French CISV interchange delegates to spend two weeks in Maine with their CISV-Maine counterparts. Dates to be announced. A leader is needed to accompany the U.S. delegation.

. Summer Camp for 14-year-olds, two boys and two girls, July 6-28 in Detroit, Mich. A male or female leader age 21 or older is needed to accompany the Maine delegation.

. Seminar Camp, a three-week camp with individual delegates ages 17-18 from up to 20 nations in Washington, D.C., June 30-July 20, for a male delegate.

For applications for all of CISV-Maine’s international programs or more information, call Maine Chapter President Penny Lamhut, 942-3558, or e-mail plamhut@adelphia.net. To learn more about Children’s International Summer Villages, visit www.CIScisvusa.org.

Etna-Dixmont School

The Etna-Dixmont PTF will hold its fifth annual Santa’s Breakfast 8-11 a.m. Dec. 2, at the school. Activities include crafts, face painting, games and pictures taken with Santa. Those who wish may make a donation to the Giving Tree. Craft table rentals are available by calling Rose at 234-2260.

The school’s after-school program runs 3-4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday at the school. Activities offered are sewing, arts and crafts, scrapbooking, cribbage and story hour. Program organizers are seeking someone to teach basic woodworking and cooking. Those with skills to share should call Rose at 234-2260.

Old Town High School

OLD TOWN – Cody Gilks and Scott LaFlamme have been selected as members of the All-State Honors Jazz Band.

Erin Burns, Ethan Shanley and Reginna Kenneway were selected as members of the Jazz All-State Jazz Band. Having five students represent Old Town at the Jazz All-State Music Festival, which will be held Jan. 4-6 at Scarborough High School, is an outstanding accomplishment.

Old Town Army JROTC cadets competed in the Northern New England Drill Competition at Bangor High recently. The trophies they toted home were first place, Color Guard; second place, Inspection; second place, Armed Platoon; third place, Armed Platoon; third place, Unarmed Squad; and third place, Armed Squad. Also, Ryann Grant took home a third place medal in Individual Drill, competing against 125 other cadets.

New scholarships in the guidance office include:

. The AAA Travel Challenge contest. Ninth- through 12th-grade students are eligible. $100,000 will be awarded nationally. For information visit www.aaa.com/TravelChallenge.

. The MENSA Education and Research Foundation. Eligible seniors must be legal residents of Maine or New Hampshire who will be enrolled in an accredited U.S. institution of post-secondary education. The scholarships range from $300 to $1,000. Application deadline is Dec. 31. Apply online at http://foundation.us.mensa.org/scholarships.zipfinder.php.

. The Toyota Community Scholars Program. Those eligible are graduating high school seniors entering a four-year college or university with a GPA of 3.0 or higher, with demonstrated leadership ability and a documented record of service within and outside of school. Applications available in the guidance office, deadline Dec. 2.

Brewer Youth Theatre

BREWER – The longest-running musical in the history of the American theater comes to eastern Maine as Brewer Youth Theatre presents “The Fantasticks” at 7 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, Nov. 16-18, at Brewer Middle School, 5 Somerset St.

Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt’s play opened in 1960 and ran for 42 years and 17,162 performances. Suggested by a play called “Les Romanesques” by Edmund Rostand and drawing from Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” “The Fantasticks” is the story of a boy and girl whose parents try to bring them together by feigning a feud. Actors are hired by the mysterious El Gallo to stage an abduction, which will allow the boy to become a hero.

All is well until the parents’ plot is discovered, driving the boy and girl apart and teaching them some hard lessons about love and life.

The cast features Jamie Bartol and Lexi Marceron as the boy and girl, Elysa Woodhead and Kristin Brown as their mothers, Matt McLaughlin as El Gallo, Angela Patterson as The Mute, and Anthony Severance and Dan Colageo as the old actors, Henry and Mortimer.

The production is under the direction of Rich Kimball with Clayton W. Smith as music director, costumes by Marcia Bartol, lighting design by Lucas Simmons, set construction by Jim Bartol and Ian MacLeod serving as stage manager.

Admission is $5, $3 for students and seniors, and a family admission price of $15. For more information, call Brewer Middle School at 989-8640.

Colleges

Maine Maritime Academy

CASTINE – The Maine Maritime Academy Chapter of Alpha Phi Omega, a national community service organization, will sponsor a fundraising raffle in support of its community service projects.

Held in conjunction with the MMA bookstore, operated by Follett Higher Education Group, the raffle will feature a fleece blanket with an embroidered college seal. Tickets are on sale for 25 cents each or five for $1 at the bookstore through Wednesday, Nov. 15. The MMA bookstore, located in the lower level of Curtis Hall on the college campus, is open 7:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Proceeds from raffle will help support costs associated with APO’s ongoing community service projects. APO sponsors regular blood drives at MMA, conducting three during each academic year. The group’s other service activities have included holiday parties for elderly or handicapped citizens, holiday gift drives for mariners away from home, annual retreats for Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, and service projects at orphanages in ports visited during the academy’s annual training cruise.