Early-bird registration has been extended to Wednesday, Oct. 8, for those interested in attending the Blaine House Conference on Volunteerism, reports Rochelle Runge.

The conference, “Blueprint for the Future: Stronger Communities Through Service,” is 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 14, at the University of Maine in Orono.

The conference fee through Wednesday is $75 but will be $85 after that date.

People supervising Senior Companion, Foster Grandparent, VISTA, RSVP or AmeriCorps volunteers are eligible for a $50 scholarship.

To learn more or to register, visit www.VolunteerMaine.org.

Described as “the only professional development conference tailored, exclusively, to the needs and challenges of leaders in the state’s volunteer sector,” the conference “provides learning and networking opportunities for Maine’s volunteer administrators and program managers.

The keynote speaker is Dr. Jean Twenge, associate professor of psychology at San Diego State University and author of more than 60 scientific publications and the book, “Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled – and More Miserable Than Ever Before.”

Runge wrote that conference offerings include “a seminar focusing on the legal and economic impact of volunteers … workshops on the planning and risk management aspects of engaging volunteers in community work, accommodating volunteers with disabilities [and] working with volunteers of differing generations.”

Conference sponsors are Time Warner Cable, the University of Maine Cooperative Extension and the Maine Commission for Community Service.

Judy Kellogg Markowsky, director of Fields Pond Audubon Center in Holden, is issuing a plea for volunteers to lead nature walks for children.

If you’ve ever wanted to be a naturalist or park ranger, Markowsky wrote, “here’s your chance!”

Volunteers will take small groups of schoolchildren through the forest at the center and lead them in “easy activities,” such as tapping a tree with a stick “like a woodpecker,” she explained.

You need no background knowledge because Markowsky and Ruth Perry will train you.

The final volunteer training class will be at 9:30 a.m. Monday, Oct. 6, at the center, and you are asked to call 989-2591 if you plan to attend.

Norma Milton reports Caribou Pet Rescue has moved its “summer-long tent sale to the Valley Flea Market, located on the Access Highway across from the Crown Park Inn in Caribou.”

The market will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays, and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays, now through next summer.

“Caribou Pet Rescue will have sales tables utilizing an honor system, with a donation box available for purchases,” Milton explained.

“Donations will be applied primarily toward this winter’s fuel and electricity bills for our animals.”

Jennifer Therrien of Challenger Learning Center of Maine reminds home-schoolers CLC is continuing its “first Tuesday of the month” home-schooler science workshops for the 2008-09 school year.

The first workshop, Rocketry, is 9-11 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 7, at CLC, 30 Venture Way, Bangor.

The remaining workshops are Astronaut Life, Nov. 4; Circuitry, Dec. 2; Magnetism, Jan. 6; and a Special Event where home-schoolers can be a mission controller and an astronaut on Feb. 3.

Programs are appropriate for grades three through eight but kindergarten through grade two may participate if accompanied by an adult.

Preregistration is $15 per session and $18 the day of the session. Sibling discounts are available, and more information may be obtained calling 990-2900, ext. 3, or at www.clcofme.org/.

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