When members of the Bangor Community Chorus present their annual holiday concert, two of the singers will be celebrating their 30th year with the organization.

Marjorie Lawrence of Hampden and Carolyn McKinnon of Bangor are what McKinnon describes as “the senior members” of the chorus that was founded in the mid-1970s by Marion Vafiades of Hampden.

The chorus’s annual holiday concert is 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 10, at First United Methodist Church, 703 Essex St. in Bangor.

Led in song by third-year director Joshua Schmersal and accompanied by Naomi Hall, the chorus will offer “a varied program including carols and traditional and popular Christmas songs, as well as solos, duets and singalongs,” McKinnon told me.

Admission is free, but donations are gratefully accepted, “and everyone is welcome to attend and enjoy this special, holiday concert.” For more information about BCC, visit www.maineguide.com/Bangor/chorus/index.html.

Former Brewer High School music teacher and current University of Maine Symphonic Band director Chip Farnham and current BHS music director Brady Harris invite the public to enjoy a concert featuring the Symphonic Band and the BHS Band that includes a combined-band finale.

Farnham taught music at BHS during the ’60s and ’70s, and he hopes to see some of his former students at this concert.

The free concert begins at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 7 at BHS.

Barry Asalone, general manager of Comfort Inn Ocean’s Edge in Belfast, has announced that Lafayette Hotels again is offering its Home for the Holidays program.

Through Home for the Holidays, the 21 Lafayette Hotels in Maine, New Hampshire and Michigan provide free rooms to families with children or relatives in the hospital during the holidays.

Visitors are screened by the hospital and referred to the hotel by the hospital.

The program is also available to families facing an emergency or extreme hardship such as a death in the family or losing their home to fire.

Participating hotels are Ocean’s Edge; Best Western Black Bear Inn, Orono; Best Inn and Best Western White House Inn, Bangor; Best Western Waterville Inn; Fireside Inn & Suites, Auburn; Best Western Merry Manor Inn, South Portland; Lafayette’s Oceanfront Resort, Wells Beach; B. Mae’s Resort Inn & Suites, Guilford, N.H.; A Fireside Inn & Suites, West Lebanon, N.H.; and the Best Western Greenfield Inn, Allen Park, Mich.

Call your hospital or a hotel to make reservations.

The St. Joseph Hospital Auxiliary Lights of Remembrance holiday celebration is 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 7, at the hospital’s Broadway entrance in Bangor.

Bethany McKnight reports the celebration includes lighting of the Remembrance Tree and holiday display, caroling with members of St. John’s Catholic Church Adult and Children’s Choirs, holiday refreshments and a visit with Santa Claus.

For a gift of $10 or more, an ornament with a loved one’s name will be placed on the Remembrance Tree in the hospital lobby.

A $25 gift provides the ornament and a keepsake ornament for the donor and, for $100, your special ornament will be included annually on the Remembrance Tree.

All gifts are acknowledged in an album in the hospital lobby. Ornament order forms are available at the hospital front desk, in the Gift Shop, or by contacting the SJH Public Affairs office at 262-1720.

Waldo Caballero, director of the Orono High School Orchestra, invites the public to hear the student musicians perform from 8:20 a.m. to 9:10 a.m. Friday, Dec. 8, at Pat’s Pizza in Orono.

Caballero hopes you will enjoy listening to this concert as you enjoy your morning coffee or breakfast.

The public is invited to attend Eastern Maine Medical Center’s CancerCare of Maine Lights of Hope tree-lighting ceremony at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 14, outside the Webber West building on the EMMC grounds in Bangor.

In the meantime, Lanie Colson of Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems reports you can help make that tree a brighter one by participating in the Lights of Hope program by purchasing a light in honor of someone whose life has been touched by cancer.

Names of your honorees will be displayed at CancerCare of Maine, and you will receive a Lights of Hope card to send to those you honor.

Last year’s Lights of Hope tribute raised more than $20,000 for technology and support services at CancerCare of Maine.

For more information, or to request a Lights of Hope form, call Healthcare Charities, 973-5055.

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