Downtown Countdown set for New Year’s Eve

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Now that we have reached the mid-December point, and people are beginning to think seriously about making plans for New Year’s Eve, which is Sunday, Dec. 31, I asked Sally Bates of Bangor Center Corp. for some thoughts about how you can ring in the New Year in Bangor.

“Be our guests!” Bates says of those considering celebrating New Year’s in the Queen City.

“Thanks to generous Downtown Countdown sponsors, the hours leading up to midnight” on New Year’s Eve in downtown Bangor, “are filled with music, dance, film, food and more,” she said, “and most of it is free.

“The BAT will run a free shuttle between venues, and the parking garage will be free and open all night long.”

The full Downtown Countdown program is available, online, at www.downtownbangor.com and you can obtain printed programs at Bangor City Hall, Hammond Street Senior Center, Bangor Opera House (home of Penobscot Theatre Company), the Unitarian Universalist Church, Bagel Central, Union Street Brick Church and Bangor Symphony Orchestra’s office.

Here are some activities available to you, on New Year’s Eve in downtown Bangor.

The Epic Sports 5K Finale begins at 3 p.m. The registration fee, before race day, is $10 or $15 on the day of the race. Call Epic Sports, 941-5670, to register.

Maine poet David Brainerd and other Maine authors read at 10 p.m. at Lippincott Books, and you can enjoy a tailgate party inside The Maine Edge, 21 Main St.

There is no admission fee, after 5 p.m. at Maine Discovery Museum, 74 Main St., and family game night begins at 6:30 p.m. at The Briar Patch, 27 Central St.

Creative art activities for kids of all ages, as well as parents and grandparents, will be available beginning at 6:30 p.m. at Frenchboro Books, Art & Antiques, 46 Columbia St., and you can try out instruments, beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the BSO office, 51A Main St.

A host of classic films and bluegrass music will be featured beginning at 4:30 p.m. at the Bangor Opera House, and a spaghetti dinner will be served from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church on Park Street. Admission is $8 for adults, $5 for children and $20 for families.

Contradance instruction follows at 7:30 p.m., at the church, with a contradance beginning at 8 p.m. at the church featuring John McIntyre as the caller.

Hammond Street Senior Center offers card games beginning at 6:30 p.m., and five separate musical entertainment offerings will begin at 6:30 p.m. in Bangor City Hall Council Chambers.

Bagel Blues Central opens at 6:30 p.m. with musical entertainment through 11:30 p.m. and a rock ‘n’ roll dance begins at 8 p.m. at Union Street Brick Church.

Then it’s time for the Smith Law Offices Midnight Ball Drop in West Market Square.

What a wonderful New Year’s Eve Downtown Bangor has planned, and Bates says, “Be there. In the square!”

Here’s a reminder, in case you missed seeing it, in Thursday’s Bangor Daily News.

Chairwoman Jean Carville and members of the committee organizing the Orono Bicentennial Holiday Walking Tour of Homes and Churches find themselves in the awkward, but happy, position of having sold out tickets for the event being held today in Orono.

So, if you planned to take the tour, but did not buy your tickets in advance, you are out of luck.

Starting in mid-November and continuing through the end of next week, pupils at Sedgwick Elementary School are participating in the Read to Feed program to raise money for Heifer International, Margaret Bixby e-mailed recently.

The nonprofit Heifer International program works to end world hunger by giving animals that provide both food and an income source to families in need around the world, she explained.

SES pupils created “a reading challenge for their classrooms,” and are reading “as much as possible,” during a six-week period, “to meet their goals,” Bixby wrote.

“With money from sponsors, they will ‘purchase’ animals from Heifer to help families become self-sufficient.”

Your tax-deductible contributions to help the pupils’ “reading goals and initiative in helping others … will be most appreciated,” Bixby added.

Checks can be made out to the Read to Feed program and mailed in care of Margaret Bixby, Sedgwick Elementary School, 272 Snow’s Cove Road, Sedgwick, 04676.

For more information, or to make a donation in another way, call Bixby at 359-5002 or e-mail mbixby@msln.net.

The incorrect day was used in the headline for my Friday column about the Bangor Band Christmas Concert, which is 2 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 17, at the Bangor Auditorium.

The concert is free and open to the public.

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