MDI bulb tour to benefit Island Connections

Many people from the Bangor area, as well as throughout Maine, enjoy this event, reports Sharon Knopp in inviting everyone to attend the annual bulb tour on Mount Desert Island.

Bulbs at Waters Edge is 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturdays, May 17 and 24, at the seaside estate of William and Barbara Stewart on Sargent Drive in Northeast Harbor.

The rain dates are Sundays, May 18 and 25.

Knopp reports visitors will delight in the beauty of what has burst forth from the 85,000 bulbs planted in the “incomparable gardens” of this very special Somes Sound location.

Tickets are $15, and admission is free for children under 12 accompanied by an adult.

Proceeds benefit Island Connections, a nonprofit organization whose volunteers help provide free services to the elderly and people with disabilities residing on Mount Desert Island.

Tickets can be purchased at the entrance to the gardens or, in advance, by calling Island Connections, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday, at 288-4457.

Knopp hopes you will enjoy this wonderful fundraiser for Island Connections, “an amazing nonprofit performing a very valuable service.”

Marnie Reed Crowell e-mailed that the annual Deer Isle birding festival, Wings, Waves and Woods, is May 16-18 and features boat trips and guided nature walks along with presentations by artists and naturalists.

A reception will take place from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, May 16, at the Deer Isle Artists Association; the Local Food Luncheon will be held 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, May 17, at Deer Isle Congregational Church; and Audubon trip leader Bob Deschesne offers a slide show at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 17, at The Inn on the Harbor.

Nature walks will be offered for beginners and experts, throughout the weekend, and full details are available at www.deerisle.com and www.islandheritagetrust.org.

Chairman Martha Whitehouse announces the Hampden Garden Club’s Perennial Plant and Pie Sale is from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday, May 17, at Harmony Hall on the Kennebec Road.

“Since the word is out that Hampden Garden Club members are good cooks,” Whitehouse wrote, “we have decided to double the number of pies baked for this sale. We don’t want to run out of them, early, the way we did last year.”

Proceeds benefit “our beloved Harmony Hall,” she wrote of the facility just listed last year on the National Register of Historic Places.

For more information about the activities of the club, call Judy Luro at 942-7453.

Shirley Lowry invites you to the Penobscot Historical Society second annual spring fling, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, May 17, at the town hall on Route 175 in Penobscot.

Proceeds benefit the work of the society.

Pam Ware invites you to an open house at Camp Capella, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, May 17, at the facility for people with disabilities located on Phillips Lake in Dedham.

“Parents of campers, adults with disabilities, friends and people interested in learning about his great resource” and its programs are particularly invited to attend,” Ware wrote, adding that “buses donated by the Quirk family will shuttle guests from the Dedham School to Camp Capella during the open house.”

The facility, which has been closed for two years by financial difficulties, reopened with help from committed volunteers, she explained, and is now under the leadership of executive director Dana Mosher.

Show co-chair Ruth Perry invites you to the fifth annual Comins Hall Variety Show at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, May 17, in the upstairs auditorium at Eddington Clifton Civic Center on Route 9.

A live video feed will be available in the downstairs dining room for those unable to climb the stairs or when the upstairs is full, and concessions will be available.

Perry reports the two-hour show features 15 performers, including veterans and newcomers.

Proceeds benefit renovations to the 129-year-old building. This year, Perry wrote, the project is to make the building handicapped-accessible “downstairs and upstairs.”

Center Theatre for the Performing Arts executive director Patrick Myers invites you to enjoy a combined performance by the Shiretown Homecoming Committee and Foxcroft Academy: The Gong Show and Young Comics, at 7 p.m. Saturday May 17, at Center Theatre in Dover-Foxcroft.

Tickets are $8 for adults, $4 for students and are available at Center Theatre, the Dover-Foxcroft Town Office and at Foxcroft Academy. For more information, call the theater at 564-8943.

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