Many needs are waiting to be filled to help make the annual Bangor Y Spring Fair, which is March 28-30 at the Bangor Civic Center and Auditorium, a success.

Ro Le Gasse, director of Caring Connections, e-mailed that the program is issuing its “annual request for books, CDs and DVDs for resale” at the fair as well as donations of “sweet treats for us to sell at the Chocolate Caf?.”

Le Gasse added, “we also need plenty of helpful people who are willing to give their time at the Spring Fair, by volunteering at the Chocolate Caf?, at the book sale, and as a transporter of fine sweets from restaurants and businesses in the Bangor area.”

She wants those particular prospective volunteers to know, “this is a job for persons who are early risers, and it helps to have two volunteers in each vehicle.”

To obtain specific information about what types of sweets to make and how they are to be stored and what types of donations are acceptable for the book sale, call Le Gasse at 941-2808 or e-mail careconn@bangorY.org.

Le Gasse hopes you will volunteer in person or as a donor, “to help us supplement the Caring Connections budget so we can continue to serve women and community individuals and groups at no cost to them.”

Caring Connections is a cooperative, women’s health program of the Bangor Y and Eastern Maine Medical Center, supported through fundraising activities of Healthcare Charities.

Eastern Maine Medical Center President and CEO Deborah Carey Johnson, Penobscot Community Health Care President the Rev. Robert Carlson, and St. Joseph Healthcare President and CEO Sister Mary Norberta are expected to introduce a new patient safety tool during a news conference at 10 a.m. Friday, Feb. 22, at Hammond Street Senior Center, 2 Hammond St., Bangor.

The card, called Your Guide to Medication Safety, is to be carried with consumers and presented to physicians, nurses or pharmacists to help reduce medication errors and promote communication with caregivers, according to a release from the sponsoring organizations.

The event is open to the public and, after the news conference, health care providers will help attendees fill in the medication safety card.

From what I’ve seen and heard, folks around Caribou have plenty of snow, and I hope it lasts through the weekend so their Winter Carnival-Snowmobile Festival will be a tremendous success.

As part of that experience, Carol McElwee reminds readers that the Caribou Kiwanis Club will hold a Fabulous February Dance from 8 p.m. to midnight Saturday, Feb. 23, at the Caribou Inn and Convention Center.

She reports tickets are just $5 each, and that “this will be an adult event with ID required.” The dress is casual and snomobilers are welcome to attend.

The band Overdrive, featuring Kevin Hamel, Scott Hamel and Heath Bartley, will provide the music. Proceeds from the dance will benefit local Kiwanis projects for senior citizens and young people of Caribou.

Mary Bird of Page Farm and Home Museum at the University of Maine reports the next offering in the Brown Bag Lunch Series is “Changing Climate, Changing Forests: The Basis for Two Decades of Tree Diebacks and Declines in Maine.”

This free program, featuring UMaine School of Forest Resources associate professor William Livingston, is at noon Thursday, Feb. 21, at the museum on the Orono campus.

Livingston’s research, Bird wrote, “has focused, especially, on the health and status of pine and spruce trees in Maine.”

Participants should bring their own lunch. Beverages and light desserts will be provided at this series supported by Pat’s Pizza of Orono and Griffin and Jordan, Attorneys at Law.

For information, call the museum at 581-4100.

Alison Rector wants readers to know that the Monroe Community Church Indoor Yard Sale is 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 23, at the church on Route 139.

Table rental fees are $10, and more information is available by calling Rector at 525-3104.

Proceeds from rental fees benefit the church, she wrote, but “vendors keep their own table earnings.”

She added that you will find “lots of bargains” among the sale items that are expected to include household goods, tools, clothing, toys, crafts and furniture, “children’s stuff and more.”

You will also be able to purchase lunch and snacks.

While your attention is focused on activities in Monroe, Sharon Smith has e-mailed that the Monroe Community Library is seeking area artists to participate in its second annual Paint In to benefit the library.

That event is 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, March 6, at the Monroe Community Church on Route 139.

The tax-deductible registration fee is $20 and preregistration is required since space is limited to 20 artists.

To make your reservation, call Nancy Blatz at 525-4410.

“We will paint from photos, yours or ours,” Smith wrote, adding that “all finished paintings are eligible to be entered in the Monroe Library Art Exhibit in September.”

Blatz explained that attending artists “come and bring whatever they are working on” during this fundraiser, to which they also should bring a bag lunch.

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