Eight-year-old Logan Severance, the son of Stan and Terri Severance of Brewer, has spinal muscular atrophy, a motor neuron disease affecting the voluntary muscles needed, among other things, for walking and head and neck control.

As Logan grows, it is more difficult for his parents to move him about, especially when it comes to getting in and out of the family vehicle.

To help Logan do all the things third-graders love to do, family and friends are helping raise money to purchase a handicapped-accessible van.

You can help in that effort by attending a Benefit Dinner, Live/Silent Auction & Dance beginning with a social hour at 4 p.m. and a buffet dinner at 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 6, at Bangor Banquet & Conference Center on Hogan Road.

The live auction, conducted by the Rev. Robert Carlson (whom you know will keep the bidding lively) is 6-7:30 p.m. and the dance, with music by Mike Dow, is 7:30-10 p.m.

Admission is $10 per person or $25 for families.

Tickets can be purchased by calling Logan’s aunt, Kim Severance, at 989-6357 or 944-3929, and more information is available at his Web site, www.logansfreedomride.com.

Kim Severance reports there are “many valuable items up for auction, including 100 gallons of heating oil, donated by Webber Energy Fuel; a Guide 147 Canoe, donated by Old Town Canoe; jewelry donated by Day’s Jewelry and Kay Jewelry, and much, much more.”

If you would like to donate to the auction, call the numbers above. If you cannot attend, but want to help, visit Logan’s Web site for more information.

Maria Staples of Penquis Community Action Program reminds readers October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

She also reminds you the Penquis Breast and Cervical Health coalition “provides education concerning breast and cervical health, and information on no-cost mammograms and pap smears, available to eligible women through the Maine Breast and Cervical Health Program.”

Staples will participate in a public awareness event from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 5, and Saturday, Oct. 6, at Wal-Mart in Brewer.

“Please stop by and consider making a donation,” she wrote, adding donors will be entered in a drawing for a $50 Wal-Mart gift certificate, and receive information about MBCHP and breast health.

Also, Staples wrote, a no-cost Women’s Health Screening Day is planned for Tuesday, Oct. 9, in Dover-Foxcroft, and for Tuesday, Oct. 23, in Bangor.

Pre-registration is required, and can be made by calling 800- 350-5180 or calling Staples at 973-3586.

Since the inception of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month in 1985, according to Staples’ release, mammography rates have more than doubled for women 50 and older, and breast cancer deaths have declined.

However, “the key to mammography screening is that it be done routinely,” she added.

Jeff Franklin and members of the Caribou Kiwanis Club hope you will attend its Steak-Lobster Dinner and Auction at 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 6, in the cafe at Caribou High School.

Franklin wrote tickets are $15 and are available from any Kiwanis, Key, or Builders Club member, at the Caribou Chamber of Commerce, Caribou One-Stop, Caribou Food Trend, and at the door.

Dinner includes a choice of boiled Maine lobster or barbecued steak, and the auction, at 6:30 p.m., “will feature hundreds of dollars in auction items,” Franklin wrote.

This annual event is a major fundraiser for the Caribou Kiwanis Club, and proceeds benefit the youth and community projects the organization supports.

Carmen Smith wrote on behalf of the Dover-Foxcroft Historical Society that the organization “is repeating the Bus Tour of Old Dover, with Lou Stevens,” from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Oct. 6, beginning at the Observer Building Museum in that Piscataquis County community.

The cost of the tour, which also ends at the museum, is just $5.

Sarah Dinsmore of the Alzheimer’s Association, Maine Chapter, reports Memory Walk 2007 is Saturday, Oct. 6, at 14 Maine sites.

More than 1,500 people are expected to participate in the fundraiser that organizers hope will raise $350,000, all of which will remain in Maine, according to executive director Mary Brant.

The funds will help provide “a broad range of programs and services for people with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, and for their families and caregivers,” she added.

To register for the event, make a donation or learn more about Alzheimer’s, visit www.alz.org/

Maine or call 800- 272-3900.

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