Here we are, barely into 2005, and folks in Orono are getting all excited about 2006.

That is because Orono was founded March 12, 1806, and many of its current residents are signing up to be members of the Orono 2006 Bicentennial Celebration Committee.

Ginny Whitaker and John Hackney co-chair the committee, which is already hard at work, but they also are actively seeking more volunteers to make this an extra-special, yearlong celebration.

My Bangor Daily News colleague Kristen Andresen Lainsbury is a member of that committee.

She wants readers to know the committee is conducting a fund-raiser to help with celebration expenses.

People are asked to donate proceeds from their bottle and can redemptions at Burby & Bates to the bicentennial committee fund.

Mary Anne Eason is compiling a 2006 calendar and hopes to include significant events in the town’s history. She asks that anyone who knows the founding or opening dates of clubs, civic groups, businesses, churches or schools in town contact her at maeason@eece.maine.edu.

Also, Sherman Hasbrouck’s map of Orono and Scott Peterson’s history of Orono are available for sale at The Store-Ampersand or on the Web, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the celebration.

Volunteers are needed to help with activities ranging from a townwide yard sale during the University of Maine Family and Friends weekend next fall to preparing an Orono Bicentennial Cookbook and planning and planting individual bicentennial gardens.

Donations are essential, and contributions are being sought from individuals, corporations and university and civic groups.

The next meeting of the committee is 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 27, in the Orono Town Council chambers, and you are invited to attend.

In the meantime, you can obtain more information about becoming part of this committee, making a donation, or participating in one of its many projects by visiting www.orono2006.com.

You can also call the co-chairs at 866-2467, or e-mail ginnywhitaker@hotmail.com.

If you are interested in learning more about the cookbook, call chairwoman Lianne Harris, 866-2456, or e-mail lharris@nehs.net.

You can reach Hasbrouck, the historical society liaison, at shermanh@adelphia.net, or garden committee chairwoman Lisa Colburn at 866-3861.

This is an extensive undertaking for residents of one of Maine’s most famous communities, and it is my hope Orono residents will come out in full force to make their bicentennial celebration one of the best in the state.

From Julia Pardy of Bangor comes a nice story of a simple act of respect.

Pardy e-mailed me that she would like to “say thank you to some kind soul who treated my nephew to lunch at Dysart’s” the last Sunday in November.

Pardy’s nephew Jason Lubitz of Bangor is “a sergeant in the U.S. Army,” Pardy wrote.

That day, he “presented a U.S. flag he’d raised over Afghanistan” to the members of East Orrington Congregational Church, “and he had worn his uniform to do so,” Pardy explained.

“After church, he and I, along with other family members, went to Dysart’s for lunch. When the slip arrived, the waitress informed us that Jason’s lunch had been paid for, anonymously. Jason wanted to say thank you, so I’m doing it for him, and adding God bless you to the person(s) who was so kind.”

Pardy wrote that her nephew is now back at Fort Bragg, N.C., and, “at this point in time, he’s not anticipating a return to Afghanistan.”

Women of the World, a support group for international women, begins the new year with Korean cuisine at noon Monday, Jan. 10, at Church of Universal Fellowship on Main Street in Orono.

The meeting includes a display of artifacts to introduce WOW members to Korean culture and heritage, wrote Mireille Le Gal.

Admission is $4, and free for young children attending with their mothers.

WOW is sponsored by the University of Maine Office of International Programs and National Student Exchange. More information can be obtained by calling Le Gal at 581-3423.

If you are a skier age 16 or 17, Maine Handicapped Skiing would like to hear from you.

The state’s largest adaptive recreation program for adults and children with physical disabilities is seeking young people for its Junior Volunteer program at its Sunday River Ski Resort headquarters in Newry.

The Junior Volunteer program was created to introduce young people to adaptive winter sports, and to prepare them to teach adaptive skiing and riding as 18-year-old adults.

The training includes six sessions conducted on five Sundays and one Saturday at Sunday River.

Junior volunteers must be intermediate skiers-riders, provide their own equipment, commit to the six-week program, and have parental or guardian permission.

For more information, call Judy Sullivan at MHS, (800) 639-7770, or e-mail jsullivan@skimhs.org.

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