Today is Patriots Day. Really.

April 19 always was Patriots Day until 1969, when wiser heads decided it should be celebrated the third Monday of April in order that residents of Maine and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts could enjoy a three-day weekend.

Many people think April 18 is Patriots Day, but that’s only because that was the date of the “Midnight Ride of Paul Revere,” et al, made famous by Maine poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, whose 200th birthday we celebrate this year.

It was, however, April 19, 1775, that the first battles of the American Revolution were fought in Lexington and Concord, Mass.

Unfortunately, Americans are still at war today.

Patriots in their own right, they are serving their country at home and abroad, and we honor them for that commitment to us and, especially, for their commitment to others.

Maj. Debbie Kelley, wing executive staff officer of the 101st Air Refueling Wing of the Maine Air National Guard in Bangor, e-mailed on behalf of the MANG Family Program “to thank the local community” for its “continuing support of Operation Iraqi Child and Operation School Supplies.”

Nearly 1,000 pounds of donated items have been shipped “to our MAINEiacs in Iraq,” she wrote.

Due to the overwhelming response, Maj. Kelley announced that the Family Program is extending “a challenge to help send 1 ton of items to these worthy causes” with the donation drive continuing through April.

Operation Iraqi Child needs children’s chewable vitamins, new or gently used clothing, new blankets and dry, non-perishable food (in boxes or well-sealed bags or cans) that do not require directions to be prepared.

Operation School Supplies needs colored markers or pencils, regular pencils and pens, rulers with metric, round-end scissors, erasers and pencil sharpeners, flying discs and jump ropes, 6-ounce glue bottles or sticks, construction paper, coloring books, deflated soccer balls and air pumps for them.

Drop-off locations in Bangor are Union Street Laundromat & Dry Cleaners on Union or Harlow streets, Atlantic Awards, 840 Hammond St., and Realty of Maine, 458 Main St.; and Turner’s Sporting Goods in Hampden.

Maj. Kelley reports more information can be obtained by contacting Tech. Sgt Mark Giles, 990-7144 or mark.giles@mebngr.ang.af.mil; Tricia Kenny, 990-7494 or familyservices@mebngr.ang.af.mil; or by contacting Family Services, 101st Air Refueling Wing, 103 Maineiac Ave., Suite 505, Bangor 04401.

SOAR (Support Our American Recruits) of Houlton is planning a baked bean supper from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Saturday, April 21, at Smoki-Haulers Snow Club in Oakfield.

To reach the site, follow the signs off Interstate 95, Exit 286.

Admission is $6 for adults and $3 for children 5-12 and includes door prizes and a 50/50 raffle.

For more information, call Bev Erickson, 532-2963, or Iris Desrosiers, 757-7603.

On April 14, Susan Stoddard of Monument, Colo., wrote that “our son, a United States Marine, has been in Iraq since Sept. 11, 2006.

“Early Easter morning, he landed in Bangor, Maine.

“He and all his fellow Marines cheered when the flight attendant said, ‘welcome to the United States of America!’

“My son said when they got off the plane, there was a group of citizens from your town welcoming them home.

“You do not know how much that meant to my son and his fellow Marines.

“It also brought tears to my eyes, as I would have loved to have been there to welcome them all home, but we had no idea when or where he would land in this wonderful, free country we live in.

“My heartfelt thanks go out to the wonderful, kind citizens of your town who got up so early, Easter morning, to welcome home the Marines.”

Last month the BDN received an e-mail from Carol Palmer Croft who had just received “a call from my son, who is a Marine. He just arrived back from Iraq on U.S. soil in Bangor, Maine,” she wrote in expressing her thanks to our Maine Troop Greeters who “greet these men and women at the airport.”

Although we don’t know where Croft lives, she wanted our Troop Greeters to know that they “could never imagine how much that phone call from Bangor meant to me, and then when he told me about the welcome, I cried a happy cry all day. It’s like holding your breath for months and then finally a release.

“God bless your city and volunteers for doing this. It means a lot.”

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