You are invited to attend a benefit pancake breakfast from 7 to 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 20, at the Unity House of Pizza on Main Street in that community.

The cost of the breakfast is just $5 per person and all proceeds benefit the Unity Volunteer Fire Department.

I am grateful to Jason Johnson for supplying “a little background” information about this event and about its most gracious host and hostess.

“This is the third pancake breakfast that the Unity House of Pizza owners have hosted,” he wrote of the local business owners, Vrasidas and Rita Menoudarakos, whom Johnson refers to as “V and Rita.”

Johnson explained that V and Rita are first- and second-generation Greek-American immigrants, respectively.

“Since setting up shop in Unity,” Johnson continued, “the two have been ardent supporters of our volunteer fire department, and have gone out of their way to help us out.”

He wrote that the couple even went “so far as to get a beverage supplier to donate enough bottled water to completely fill up the bed of a full-sized pickup.”

The couple also has hosted other benefit pizza sales for the fire department.

“And this is only the tip of the iceberg,” Johnson added. “I have never met a couple, or business, that is so committed to their community.”

The couple has given free pizzas to “the local elementary school children, various fundraisers and the high school athletic teams,” he wrote.

And, after the last pancake breakfast they hosted for the fire department, they “had some leftover pancakes which they gave to the newly formed football club as an after-practice reward,” Johnson wrote in complimenting the couple on their “unending generosity” to the residents of the Unity area.

Johnson believes the Menoudarakoses have become “an integral part of our small-town community,” and he urges anyone who loves pizza to stop by at Unity House of Pizza.

It is, Johnson wrote, as “close to tasting like an authentic, New York-style pizza” as you can find in this part of Maine.

Iris Simon of Maine Coast Memorial Hospital in Ellsworth is co-chairwoman of the 2007 Healthy Hancock Lose and Win program, in which 393 participants on 45 teams are working to lose weight and improve their lifestyles.

While the most recent week’s figures were not available, Simon reported the “Slim Downs” of Otis won the Victory Stick for losing the most weight during the program’s first week, followed by the “Booty Losers” and “Livin’ Life Large Girls.”

Two meetings are planned for Week Three. All Lose and Win participants are encouraged to attend, and admission is free for participants.

Members of the public are welcome to attend any weekly meeting for just $2.

Lose and Win meets at 5:45 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 17, at the Island Community Center in Stonington, where Ann Hooke will discuss the importance of walking to stay fit.

Local recording artist and Mount Desert Island Hospital wellness specialist and Lose and Win program co-chairwoman Laurie Jones will lead the group in movement and dance, stressing physical activity for everyone, during the Lose and Win Meeting at 5:45 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 18, at Ellsworth Middle School.

This Hancock County program, based on the book, “The Town That Lost a Ton,” is sponsored by Healthy Hancock, a coalition of organizations working together to improve the health of Hancock County residents.

The recipe for Week Three is Hungarian goulash soup from Cheryl Wixson’s Kitchen. You can download it, and receive more information, at www.mainehospital.org.

Kathy Walker of Hampden will lead a scrapbooking workshop, “Faithbooking: Finding God’s Presence in Your Photo Memories,” from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 27, at Hampden Congregational Church, 101 Main Road North, in that community.

Members of the public are invited to attend.

The registration fee is $5 at the door and includes handouts, snacks and beverages.

However, space is limited to 25 participants, and you must preregister no later than Sunday, Jan. 21, by calling Lisa Gardner at 989-2165 or e-mailing her at lisadoug91@verizon.net.

Participants should bring a bag lunch. Refrigeration is available.

The workshop will include devotions, time for working on personal albums and sharing ideas and materials.

The snow date is Saturday, Feb. 3.

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