Orono farm life museum offers vacation camp

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For parents and guardians concerned with their pocketbooks, and wondering what delights they can offer their children during April vacation, Mary Bird, chairwoman of the program committee of Page Farm and Home Museum in Orono, has a wonderful, and very economical, suggestion for you.

Page Farm and Home Museum will be offering a day camp program, Pathways to the Past, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Monday through Friday, April 21-25, at the museum at the University of Maine in Orono.

The materials fee is just $3 per person, per day, and you are encouraged to register participants in advance, “for the days they’d like to attend, so that there will be enough materials for all,” Bird wrote.

To register, or to receive information, call the museum at 581-4100.

Bird wrote that each day will be different, featuring “its own, special, hands-on explorations of what life was like before electricity came to rural Maine.”

Don’t let this theme fool you: Monday will offer “an old-fashioned look at homework,” Bird wrote.

“No, not the kind you do for school, but the fun and challenging tasks around an old-fashioned home” such as “churning butter, making soap or candles and more.”

Tuesday is Earth Day, and “will focus on garden activities.”

Wednesday “will be devoted to farm animals, and might even feature some surprise guests,” Bird suggested.

Thursday’s Past Times Pastimes will offer the opportunity to explore toys, games and other leisure-time activities,” and “Friday will be Folk Art Day, with stenciling, wool spinning and more.”

Geneva Frost reminds readers of two events to help the family of 10-year-old Nicholas Hovey of Otis, who has cystic fibrosis, to move into a new home with the assistance of Habitat for Humanity.

The first event is an auction and bake sale, which opens for viewing at 10 a.m., with the auction beginning at 11 a.m. Saturday, April 12, at Acadia Christian School, Bar Harbor Road in Trenton.

Among the items up for bid are gift certificates, a quilt, pottery, overnight stays at inns, oil changes and a kayak trip for two, Frost wrote. Proceeds will benefit the Otis Habitat House.

The second event is Ground Breaking Day for the Otis Habitat House, at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, April 13, at 239 Otis Road in that community.

Frost wrote that members of the Otis Baptist Church will host a lunch-potato bar and dessert fundraiser at the church.

The cost of the meal is $5 per person or $15 per family.

Orchid devotees will be pleased to hear from Louise Snow of Orono that the Eastern Maine Orchid Society is hosting its annual orchid sale and show from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, April 12, at the Clapp Greenhouse on the campus of the University of Maine in Orono.

Snow invites you to “come see beautiful orchids, on display, and purchase healthy orchid plants, many ready to bloom.”

She wrote that whether you are an expert or beginner when it comes to growing orchids, you will enjoy talking to others about these beautiful plants, and that you will receive care sheets for the plants you purchase.

And, Snow reminds you, “proceeds from the sale help fund a book award for a University of Maine horticulture student.”

For information, call 567-3822 or 848-5656.

You are invited by the Challenger Learning Center of Maine to participate in Yuri’s Night, honoring Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human to enter outer space on April 12, 1961.

Jennifer Therrien of the CLC reports on Saturday, April 12, “more than 120 Yuri’s Night events will take place in 40 countries on all seven continents.”

Bangor’s celebration begins with a Bring Your Own Rocket Launch & Cake at 6 that night, at the CLC, 30 Venture Way in Bangor.

Those who do not own a rocket can arrive at 5:30 p.m. and build one with assistance from CLC flight directors. The rocket launch is free, Therrien reports.

At 6:45 p.m., the CLC will host a “public mission,” during which participants become mission controllers and astronauts, completing a “rendezvous with a comet.”

The cost of the mission is $10 for students and $15 for adults, and is limited to children 9 and over, with those 14 and under having to be accompanied by an adult.

Preregistration is required for both events. To register, call 990-2900, ext. 4.

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