Friends and family are hosting a benefit spaghetti dinner and silent auction for Jenifer Poll of Hampden.

The 37-year-old wife of Stephen Poll and mother of three children, ages 16, 14 and 5, was recently diagnosed with leukemia and is undergoing treatment at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, according to her mother-in-law, Susan Ash of Old Town.

A spaghetti dinner and silent auction for Poll will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 12, at the George B. Weatherbee School in Hampden.

The admission donation is just $5 per person or $20 per family.

Ash reports the silent auction includes a bronze work by Monroe sculptor Forest Hart and many offerings of “other local artisans.”

Poll, the daughter of Gary and Bobbi Southard of Newburgh and Kathy and Danny Fowler, also of Newburgh, is known to many in the area as a local day-care provider.

Additional donations for the silent auction are most welcome, and if you have something to contribute you can do so by calling Ash at 827-1250 or Peggy Brown at 862-2936.

Ash said that cash donations to assist the family through this difficulty are also being accepted at Mck’s Variety on Route 9 in Hampden, and that the contact person for more donation information is Barb McKennan at 862-3196.

Publisher Simon & Schuster Inc. of New York City has announced that the Rev. Peter Panagore, author of “Two Minutes for God: Quick Fixes for the Spirit,” will participate in a book signing in the Queen City.

A call to Borders Books Music Movies & Cafe confirmed that Panagore, who is minister for the First Radio Parish Church of America, will sign copies of his book beginning at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 12, at Borders, 116 Bangor Mall Blvd.

Kristyn Murphy, a 17-year-old senior at John Bapst Memorial High School in Bangor, e-mailed to let readers know that she will be representing East-Central Maine in the Reindeer Records statewide talent search for Maine’s Best High School Solo Artist.

Murphy will appear at 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 13, in the talent showcase at the McAuley Performing Arts Center in Portland, and she is seeking your support, both at the performance and online.

Kristyn “encourages everybody who can travel to Portland to join her” for the event, and also hopes that you will support her music with your vote by logging on to www.mainetoday.com and following the RO4UNO link.

The daughter of John and Marylee Murphy of Orrington has been performing throughout Maine and New England since she was 8 and is known to many as the Barefoot Soprano from Maine USA.

Information about Murphy and the competition is available at www.kristynmurphy.com.

At the end of December, the BDN published a detailed story about plans for a new festival next fall in Millinocket to celebrate hiking in the area where the 2,175-mile Appalachian Trail (beginning on Springer Mountain in Georgia) ends on Mount Katahdin.

Marsha Donahue and husband, Wayne Curlew, and Paul and Jaime Renaud are working with the Katahdin Area Chamber of Commerce to organize the Trail’s End Festival Sept. 13-14 in downtown Millinocket.

Donahue e-mailed me last month about plans for the new festival and seeking your participation.

“Located at the foot of Mount Katahdin, the Penobscot River and Baxter State Park,” she wrote, “we envision a unique festival in Millinocket that celebrates our natural resources.”

She explained the festival “will be a mix of activities related to hiking and the Appalachian Trail,” one that features “outdoor sports vendors and enthusiasts [of] cycling, watercraft, water sports or fishing.”

Also envisioned are activities focusing on everything from climbing to the arts.

The planners are also seeking “food vendors or providers of any sort” and “anything you might want to offer,” Donahue wrote.

Plans include entertainment, boat rides and much more.

“This is a month when many through-hikers finish the trail, so don’t miss the opportunity to come and celebrate together at the foot of Katahdin, the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail,” Donahue continued.

To participate, you must make your plans known by Saturday, March 1, by calling the Renauds at 723-4321, by e-mailing them at pj6150@gmail.com, or by calling Donahue or Curlew at 723-4414 or e-mailing them at northlight@Maine.com.

Reservation forms must be returned by May 1 to secure your spot, and Donahue reports a Web site is planned to keep you “up-to-date on festival plans.”

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