Here’s a valentine you could give the community that would make a real difference in the lives of many people.

Hammond Street Congregational Church pastor the Rev. Mark Allen Doty has announced the church needs someone to be the new volunteer director of the Ecumenical Food Cupboard, which is located at the church on the corner of Hammond and High streets in Bangor.

The position requires between 10 and 15 hours a week for the individual who coordinates the efforts of others who work at the Food Cupboard.

The volunteer Food Cupboard director also would be responsible for the paperwork of the organization.

Rev. Doty reports that the Food Cupboard currently is “very organized, and there are volunteers filling all hours of operation as well as those who help stock and fill the cupboard.”

All that is needed now is someone to oversee those ongoing tasks.

On behalf of the church and everyone whom this Food Cupboard serves, Rev. Doty extends “our many thanks to Lisa Gadoury for all the wonderful work she has done in the past few years as director of the Ecumenical Food Cupboard.”

Anyone who is interested in this special volunteer opportunity is asked to call the church office at 942-4381.

Tickets are still available for the Fusion Winter Snowball to be held 7-11 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 17, at the Muddy Rudder in Brewer.

The evening features dancing with lessons, drinks and hors d’oeuvres.

Semiformal attire is suggested. Tickets are $15 per person or $25 for couples.

The event is sponsored by Winterfest 2007 and Fusion’s founding sponsor, Bangor Savings Bank. Attendees are encouraged to bring new or gently used clean blankets for donation to area shelters.

Tickets will be available at the door, but it is suggested you purchase them in advance by calling Fusion chairwoman Tanya Pereira at the Brewer Economic Development office, 989-7500, or e-mail her at tpereira@brewerme.org.

While most parents and children are focusing their thoughts on the coming February vacation, folks at College of the Atlantic would like them to be thinking about doing something exciting during its spring break, which is April 16-20.

COA is offering youngsters in grades one through eight the opportunity to participate in SpringQuest, during which COA will take them “into the community for an exploration of our place in the world,” according to information provided by COA.

The sessions are from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, April 16, through Friday, April 20, and are based at the COA Educational Studies Center on the Bar Harbor campus.

The cost of SpringQuest is $90.

Enrollment is limited, with registration on a first-come, first-served basis. The registration deadline is Thursday, March 1.

For more information, or to register, visit www.coa.edu/html/educationalstudies.htm or call Judith Cox, Director of Educational Studies, 288-2944, ext. 322.

Now through Saturday, March 3, shoppers at Hannaford stores throughout Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts and New York can participate in its annual Have a Heart for Hunger campaign.

Now in its fourth year, the program that helps provide funds for hunger-relief organizations in these five states has raised more than $255,000 for America’s Second Harvest agencies.

Through the program, customers can make their donations part of their food bill.

All Hannaford stores have donation coupons, in $2 and $5 denominations, available at all registers, and 100 percent of funds raised is donated to local food banks.

In Maine, organizations receiving funds from this effort are the Good Shepherd Food Bank of Auburn, which helps provide food for those in need from Kittery to Fort Kent; and the Wayside Soup Kitchen, based in Portland and serving residents of southern Maine.

My deepest sympathies are extended to the family of Julie Kellogg of Bangor, who died last week at 88.

Julie was one of the most committed, spirited, determined women I have known, and I admired her not only for her intellect, but also for her ability to educate and inform others about the world around us, our responsibility to it, and to ourselves.

She was a big bundle of energy and enthusiasm wrapped in a very small package of sheer determination and grit.

When she spoke, you listened, and you appreciated what she had to say.

She led by example, and served her family, her church and her community well.

Our world was better because she was part of it.

We will miss her.

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