Labor Day weekend is really a labor of love for volunteers at Leonard’s Mills from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 30, at the Maine Forest and Logging Museum on Government Road off Route 178 in Bradley.

Admission is free for museum members, or $5 for adults and $2 for children 12 and younger.

Executive director Cathy Goslin reports that with the crops ripening, it’s time to preserve the harvest and prepare for winter, which is what the volunteers will be doing as they dry, smoke, cook, churn and pickle foods that would have been laid in for the winter by our Maine ancestors.

You can visit the log cabin, the smokehouse, and the Sawyer’s house “to learn about sustaining life until the next growing seasons,” Goslin wrote.

Among the MFLM volunteers working hard this Labor Day weekend will be Pamela Dean, whom you can watch cook and prepare foods for later use; and Hanne van Hauen-Lewis, who “will be dyeing and, maybe, spinning in preparation for sewing and knitting” garments that would have been worn in the winter.

The dyes are made from plant materials that were “gathered during the summer and fall to dye wool and fabric,” Goslin explained.

The demonstrations will continue throughout the day.

For more information about this event or the museum and its schedule of activities, call 581-2871 and leave a message.

It was nice to hear, once again, from Joyce Given, president of the Millinocket Regional Hospital Auxiliary.

She wrote to report that the MRHA is hosting its Imagine Nation Two-Day Book Fair from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 28, and Friday, Aug. 29, in the MRH Multi-Purpose Room on the ground floor of the hospital.

Members of the public and employees are invited to visit the fair, and all proceeds will benefit Auxiliary scholarships, Given wrote.

Two more fundraisers are in the works “for two families and the Otis Habitat House project,” wrote Geneva Frost.

The rain-or-shine garage sales are from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 29, at the home of Sharon Jankunas, 239 Otis Road in Otis, and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 30, at the same location.

Donations, with the exception of clothing, are still being accepted; new items have been added to the sale; one-pot coffee packets and lollipops will be sold; and a 50-50 raffle for $500 will be conducted.

For more information, call 537-5452.

George Cary, chairman of the Passadumkeag Historical Society, invites all residents to attend an ice cream social from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 30, at the Little School “in town, which will be open for visiting,” he wrote.

The tasty treat, he added, was donated by Edy’s Slow Churned ice cream.

Beth Lambert e-mailed that the second annual Seafood Celebration to benefit the What’s for Suppa? Food Pantry is 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 30, at the Beech Hill School in Otis.

“There will be lobster stew and mussels, salad and strawberry shortcake, in addition to live music and a prize raffle,” Lambert wrote.

Advance tickets are $20, and tickets at the door are $25.

For tickets or information, call 479-2018 or 537-5950.

“This will be a fun night, with delicious food and great entertainment,” she added.

Lambert also wants readers to know that this very special fundraiser was made possible through the kindness and generosity of many people of all ages, since the cost of the lobster was sponsored by Orion and Thomas Fellis, Arthur Dority, Lance Leffel and Dority Builders.

The Food Pantry, which is open from noon to 5 p.m. the third Wednesday of each month, serves people living in the towns of Mariaville, Otis, Osborne, Amherst, Great Pond and Aurora.

Gloria Collins, chairwoman of the Dover-Foxcroft United Methodist Church 150th Committee, is seeking items for “this momentous occasion.”

Collins e-mailed me recently, reporting that her church will celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2010 and that planning for this sesquicentennial is already under way.

Collins is asking people who have pictures or other memorabilia connected with the church to share it with the planning committee as it prepares for this event.

If you can help and would like to be part of this special occasion, call the church office at 564-2654 or e-mail dfaumc@verizon.net.

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