A Bangor woman is about to add another once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to her list of adventures as she heads to the Academy Awards.

Last year, Tori Kornfield, 62, tagged along with the Maine Warden Service to hibernation dens when the wardens were changing the monitoring collars on mother bears.

“We got to see the cubs,” she said. “They were so cute.”

In 2000 she sailed around the world with her husband as he taught a semester-at-sea course.

She lived in Israel for a year, and now she’s headed to the Academy Awards. The annual festivities honoring motion picture achievements will be held Sunday in Los Angeles.

“This is just adding to the list,” she said Wednesday from California.

Kornfield, who teaches English and public speaking at Bangor High School, will attend the gala event with her brother who works for Pixar, the computer animation production company.

“He’s taken each of his sisters in the last few years,” she said. “This is my year.”

Her brother, Thomas Porter, is taking each of his sisters in chronological order to the awards show.

Finding a dress to wear was a little difficult, Kornfield said. She eventually found a taupe and black number at Macy’s just before New Year’s and a “darling” pair of black suede shoes at The Grasshopper Shop.

“The shoes are the most important, of course,” she said.

Topped off with a necklace from Terra Cotta boutique in Ellsworth, Kornfield says she’s ready to rub elbows with the stars and is looking forward to catching a glimpse of actor Johnny Depp.

“My sisters tell me that you come up to the red carpet in the limousine, the photographers swarm around, the door opens, they look in, and then they go away,” Kornfield said with a laugh.

She wasn’t sure Wednesday where she’d be sitting at the show, but said her brother had requested either front-row balcony seats or a spot on the floor.

“I just can’t wait to see the dresses and jewelry,” she said.

The festivities start on Saturday with a party, followed by brunch Sunday morning and the Academy Awards and after party that night.

Although her brother isn’t up for any awards this year, he previously has earned three Academy Awards and has worked on big-name movies such as “Toy Story,” “Monsters Inc.” and “Cars.”

He’s working on the company’s next big production, “WALL-E,” that’s expected to hit theaters in June.

Kornfield has done her homework and is ready for the show. She and her husband, Irv Kornfield, who’s a professor at the University of Maine, made an effort to try to see every movie up for nomination.

“It’s been very difficult,” she said. “Even if movies come to Bangor, they’re three or four weeks late.”

The couple made several trips to Waterville to see as many of the movies as they could, and Tori Kornfield said she’s rooting for “No Country For Old Men.”

She’s also a big fan of the up-and-coming Ellen Page from “Juno.”

Her husband didn’t join her for the adventure and he wasn’t upset that she’ll miss their 40th wedding anniversary on Saturday.

“I felt guilty, but he said I should do this,” Kornfield said.

The Academy Awards may be seen at 8:30 p.m. Sunday on ABC.

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