Residents of the Charlotte area are invited to attend a Christmas concert at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 15, in the gymnasium at Charlotte Elementary School on Junction Road, Route 214.

The concert features holiday music presented by children in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade.

And there is more for you to enjoy when you attend this concert.

“We just established a small drama club,” reported Krista Vining, who is president of the Charlotte School Friends Committee, “and we will be putting on a play directly following the musical part” of the evening.

“A grand Christmas” is in store for all, she said, and while admission is free, donations will be accepted to help support activities of the new CES Drama Club.

The final show of the 2006 season for the Saturday Night in Dover-Foxcroft concert series features the a cappella group Impromptu!

The 11-member ensemble will be singing seasonal and holiday favorites at 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 16, at Center Theatre in Dover-Foxcroft.

Tickets are $15 in advance and $17 at the door, and are available at Mr. Paperback stores in Dover-Foxcroft and Dexter, and at Hudson Avenue Florists in Guilford.

Director Bronwyn Kortge, Luke Hedger and Joanne Goldman formed the group in 1995. It features singers from Hancock, Waldo and Penobscot counties whose occupations range from an attorney to a park ranger, a music teacher and a physician.

Sponsored by Mayo Regional Hospital, proceeds from this event will benefit the restoration of Center Theatre and help support many community-building projects of Piscataquis Chamber of Commerce.

You are invited to attend the Christian Women’s Club Ring the Bells Luncheon, from noon to 2 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 14, at Spectacular Event Center, 398 Griffin Road in Bangor.

Admission is $10 and reservations can be made with Alcinda Hall at 989-5796.

Ring the Bells Luncheon features bell ringer Patti Page.

The featured speaker is Pamela Cahill, discussing “Overcoming Fear with Flashlight and Teddy Bears.”

Lucille Gosslin invites you to “come and celebrate the joy of the season,” at this event that she believes “will put us right in the mood for Christmas.”

Spruce Run Association, the domestic violence agency serving Penobscot County, is asking you to give the gift of time this holiday season.

Spruce Run needs volunteers to answer its 24-hour hot line, and to work with children.

No previous experience or special skills are needed to answer the hot line, and it can be done from your own home.

Volunteers provide support and validation, explore options and provide information about abuse and community resources.

Training for hot line workers is planned for Monday and Thursday evenings, beginning in mid-January.

For parents of children using Spruce Run services, the agency has children’s program volunteers participate in a weekly children’s group, which offers a fun and safe environment.

Volunteer training for this program begins in late January.

For more information about volunteering, call Naomi Barnum, 945-5102, ext. 30.

Spruce Run’s hot line offers a safe, confidential way to talk about what’s happening in a relationship, or about a friend or family member who may be abused.

The hot line, (800) 863-9909, is available to anyone affected by domestic abuse.

What a pleasure it was for my husband and me, heading home Monday after spending a long pre-Christmas weekend with family in Massachusetts and New York, to spot the Wreaths Across America caravan on Interstate 95.

We were in New Hampshire when we saw the first American flag of the vehicles accompanying the huge Wreaths Across America tractor-trailer bearing the holiday gift of Morrill Worcester, president of Worcester Wreath Co. in Harrington.

It was a great sight to see, filling us with pride and making us smile.

And we smiled again, when we pulled into the L.L. Bean parking lot in Freeport, right in front of the spot where workers were in the process of dismantling the facilities where the convoy had obviously spent the night because there was another big Wreaths Across America sign!

This project has received terrific support in this, its 15th year, from everyone to Worcester Wreath Co. employees and volunteers to the Civil Air Patrol, the Patriot Guard Riders, schoolchildren and the Maine State Society.

Christmas wreaths will be laid at noon Thursday, Dec. 14, at more than 230 sites across the country.

Locally, the ceremony will be conducted at the Korean War Memorial in Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor.

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