With great pride, to be sure, the Castine Arts Association invites you to hear the DaPonte String Quartet perform works by Mendelssohn, Barber, Gershwin and Beethoven at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 22, at the Trinitarian Congregational Parish on Main Street in Castine.

The suggested donation is $10.

George Bland wrote me that the arts association “is gradually building a chamber music audience here,” and “the DaPonte is a big step for us.”

Violinists Ferdinand Liva and Lydia Forbes, Mark Preston on viola and cellist Myles Jordan play “a balanced repertoire of traditional and new music to increasingly appreciative critical response,” according to the CAA release.

The award-winning ensemble formed in 1991 in Philadelphia, came to Maine four years later on a Rural Residency Grant, and decided to settle on our coast, calling Maine home.

Here’s late word that Dr. Kyriakos S. Markides, author, researcher and professor of sociology and gerontology at the University of Texas, Galveston, will speak on “Minorities, Aging and Health: An Overview of the Field” from 3:15 to 4:45 p.m. today in Bangor Lounge of Memorial Union at the University of Maine in Orono.

The talk is free and open to the public.

Recently listed among the most highly cited scientists in the world, he is the 2006 recipient of the Distinguished Mentorship Award of the Gerontological Society of America, Behavioral and Social Sciences section.

One of the world’s leading authorities in the field on minorities, aging and health, Markides is editor of the Journal of Aging and Health, which he founded in 1989.

From Jill Reynolds we learn it is time for the annual yard sale to benefit the Brewer Middle School baseball and softball teams.

The event is 7 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, April 21, at BMS, 5 Somerset St., in Brewer.

Reynolds said this annual fundraiser, hosted by team members and their supporters, helps “purchase new equipment and take care of the fields.”

The next fundraiser to help the state champion Hampden Academy Mock Trial Team attend the National High School Mock Trial Competition next month in Dallas is an all-you-can-eat buffet dinner with two seatings at 5 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, April 22, at Oriental Jade Restaurant on Bangor Mall Boulevard.

Admission charge is pre-sale or at the door, and Mock Trial team members will set up, serve, clear and clean out the dining room when the fundraiser is over.

Oriental Jade co-owners Victor and Lillian Lo donate a percentage of the proceeds from the buffet to the team.

For more information, or for presale tickets, e-mail team co-coach Kathryn King at kking@sad22.us or KathrynK4@adelphia.net.

If you cannot attend, but want to help the team compete in Dallas, send donations c/o Kathryn King, Hampden Academy, 1 Main Road North, Hampden 04444-1212.

The 13th Annual Child Welfare Conference, “Adolescent Sexuality: What We Still Aren’t Talking About,” is 7:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Thursday, April 26, at the Bangor Civic Center.

The registration deadline is Sunday, April 22, and registration information, including conference fees, can be obtained by calling Robin Arnold at the University of Maine School of Social Work, 581-2398.

Nancy Kelly of the co-sponsoring UMaine School of Social Work reports the conference features “three motivating speakers,” including author and transgender English professor at Colby College in Waterville, Jenny Boylan; certified sex therapist, author and University of Nebraska-Omaha professor of social work Jane Woody; and Diane Elze, University of Buffalo associate professor of social work, “who has spent most of her career working with, and on behalf of, gay, lesbian and transgender youth.”

The public is invited to join conference attendees that include social service professionals, educators, nurses, law enforcement officers, parents, foster parents, medical professionals and caregivers.

Dawn Emery Gray, community executive for development for the American Cancer Society in Camden, reports the next planning meeting for the Old Town Relay for Life is 6-7 p.m. Monday, April 23, at the Bangor Conference and Convention Center on Hogan Road.

The program begins with a meeting of team captains and is followed by a full committee meeting.

The Old Town Relay For Life begins the evening of May 18 at Old Town High School.

Volunteers are needed to help plan this event, and it is hoped you will attend this meeting.

For more information, to volunteer or register as an individual or a team, call the ACS at (800) ACS-2345 or visit www.acsevents.org/relay/oldtown.

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