Families and Children Together, located in Bangor and otherwise known as F.A.C.T., has been providing support services to Maine’s children and families since 1993 through its “Family Connections” program, its “Visiting Program” and “Adoption Support Program.”

The agency’s foster parents serve children who have experienced abuse and neglect, and assist them in the transition to permanent living arrangements through reunification with their birth families, adoption or kinship care, and transition to independent living for older youth.

In addition to receiving support from the government, nonprofit organizations, foundations and individuals, F.A.C.T. also receives support from people like you through local fundraisers. One of those events, to benefit its children’s programs, is coming right up.

Popular Orono resident Charlie O’Leary will wield the gavel for the Families and Children Together’s 2nd annual Fundraising Dinner-Auction that begins with a silent auction at 6 p.m. and the live auction after the dinner at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21, at the Bangor Motor Inn on Hogan Road.

Admission is $25 per person and the reservation deadline is Saturday, Oct. 15.

Checks can be made payable to Families and Children Together and mailed to F.A.C.T., 304 Hancock St., Suite 2B, Bangor 04401.

F.A.C.T. executive director Beverly Shumaker provided a sample list of auction items that includes an overnight stay at Maple Hill Farm Bed & Breakfast, 100 gallons of heating oil, a weekend condo at Sugarloaf/USA, a handcrafted Wabanaki drum, a hand-woven rug, original artwork, other handcrafted items, gourmet desserts and gift certificates for area restaurants.

If you cannot attend, but would like to make a donation to this benefit, your contribution would be most welcome and can be made out to F.A.C.T. and sent to the address listed above.

For information about this benefit, or the services offered by F.A.C.T., call 941-2347.

Haslam Septic, Downeast Modular Homes, Borealis Press, Downeast YMCA and the Sea Shack are sponsoring “Downeast to the Bayou,” a Katrina charity auction at 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 8, at the Ellsworth High School track behind the Mill Mall.

The auction is open to the public and sponsors suggest this would be a wonderful way for Hancock County families to show their support for those who lost so much during Hurricane Katrina.

Jerry Miller will serve as auctioneer.

Proceeds from the auction, with items donated by more than 100 businesses and the list continues to grow daily, will be placed in a fund of the Maine Community Foundation to be distributed to Habitat for Humanity, the American Red Cross and the Humane Society of the United States.

Anyone who wishes to donate items or volunteer for the benefit can call Kristin Hanscom at 664-2112.

Dorothy Clukey of Whitcomb-Baker Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary No. 4633 reports that the organization is hosting an indoor yard sale from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday Oct. 8, at the post home on Canoe Club Road in Hampden.

Clukey added that “a few tables are still available,” and if you want information, you can call her at 862-3214 or Rebecca Martin at 862-2343.

Proceeds from the sale will benefit the Auxiliary’s community service and youth activity programs.

Stitchers are needed to help make preemie clothing to be included in the March of Dimes Maine Chapter Preemie Project 1372 event.

Maine first lady and March of Dimes Maine Chapter Prematurity Campaign honorary chair Karen Baldacci will host the event on Thursday, Nov. 3, at the Joel and Linda Abromson Conference Center on the campus of the University of Maine in Portland.

The day will include a visual display of 1,372 articles of clothing for premature infants sewn by Maine volunteers to demonstrate how small premature babies are and how many are born each year in Maine.

The clothing will then be donated to the neonatal intensive care units at Maine Medical Center in Portland, Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston and Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.

Jeff Stimpson, formerly of Hampden and now of New York City, will offer a presentation and book signing of “Alex: The Fathering of a Preemie.”

His son weighed just 21 ounces at birth, and was hospitalized for nearly 13 months.

The Stimpsons served as an ambassador family for the New York chapter of the March of Dimes.

To learn more about this project and how you can help, call Sharon Schulberger at the March of Dimes, 878-1199 or (800) 668-5678 or visit marchofdimes.com/Maine and click on Preemie Project 1372.

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