Everyone associated with Millinocket Regional Hospital is busily gearing up for this year’s 50th anniversary celebration, Hal Cote told me during a visit to my office last week.

Cote said that hospital CEO Marie Vienneau “is excited about being able to thank the community” for its half-century of support with free events in April and July.

Cote, MRH director of diagnostic imaging, is co-chairing this celebration with former hospital COO Mickey Hopkins.

To celebrate its opening in 1955, the public is invited to a reception from 1 to 4 p.m. Monday, April 4, at the hospital, 200 Somerset St. in Millinocket.

Those who attend will be offered tours of the facility.

Cote also wants people in the area to circle their calendar for MRH Family Day, 3-11 p.m. Sunday, July 3, in Millinocket.

To celebrate its half-century of service and show its appreciation to the community, MRH will offer activities that will include games for children, a community barbecue, performers and a street dance at Veterans Memorial Park.

Everything will be free, Cote said, because the celebratory day is “being financed through the generous contribution of vendors” who regularly do business with the hospital.

And while the April reception and tour will be one that locals can easily take advantage of, Cote hopes that many more people, especially those now living “away,” will be able to share in the July activities.

“We picked the July date,” he said, “because between July 1 and 3 all the alumni in the area are home for their reunions.”

So for the time being, plan to attend the April festivities, then do as Cote suggests and circle your calendar for July to include the 50th Anniversary Celebration of Millinocket Regional Hospital.

It came as no surprise to me that Surry Elementary School teacher Pete Loiselle proved inspirational when he spoke before more than 175 people who attended the Healthy Hancock Lose and Win meeting one week ago. Loiselle, you will recall, is the remarkably determined gentleman who, through diet and exercise, lost 500 pounds over a three-year period.

Iris Simon reported The Cute Motivated Tubbies won the week’s Victory Stick for most weight loss, followed by Down East Treads, Otis Optimists, Waist Aways, Union River Belly Busters, Waisting A-Weigh and The Tennis Team.

The accumulated weight loss of the participating teams is 2,949 pounds, and they’re “on the way to breaking 11/2 tons, with two more weeks to report weights,” Simon wrote.

The Week 10 Lose and Win meeting is 5:45 tonight at the American Legion Hall in Trenton.

Jenny Gott, RN, BSN and school health coordinator for Union 98 and Healthy Acadia, will present “Stick to It. You Can Do It” and the Health-Link T’ai Class will demonstrate a slow, graceful movement form of exercise that builds strength and flexibility and improves balance.

Admission is free for Lose and Win participants wearing their buttons and $2 for the general public.

The public is invited, free of charge, to attend the 23rd annual Bangor Symphony Orchestra Maine High School Concerto Competition at 1 p.m. Saturday, March 12, in Minsky Recital Hall, 1944 Hall, at the University of Maine School of Performing Arts in Orono.

The snow date is the same time Sunday, March 13, at that site.

For 23 years, the BSO has presented finalists from a pool of statewide applicants who vie for the top honor at the concerto competition.

Congratulations to this year’s finalists who include Bangor High School senior Ryan Graebert, cello; Bangor High School junior Mary Gratten, clarinet; Cape Elizabeth High School freshman Stephanie House, violin; Cape Elizabeth High School senior Henry Kramer, piano; and Erskine Academy of South China sophomore Benjamin Tibbetts, piano.

The first-place winner receives the $500 Annas-Cupp Award. Second, third and honorable mention receive $250, $150 and $50 awards, respectively, compliments of Friends of the Symphony.

More information about this competition can be obtained by calling the BSO at (800) 639-3221 or 942-5555, or visiting bangorsymphony.com/ConcertoComp.html.

The Gift of Hope, a bouquet of 10 daffodils, can be given to cancer patients or others in need by calling the American Cancer Society at (800) 464-3102 and pressing 3 by Friday, March 11.

The cost is $20 per bouquet for this program, which is part of the annual ACS Daffodil Days fund-raiser.

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