Operation Keep ME Warm needs more than 2,250 volunteers statewide to conduct this public-private partnership in which teams of volunteers install energy-saving winterization materials in homes of those who are 60 or older, disabled, or have a child younger than 24 months and are eligible for the Low-Income Heating Assistance program.

This week, I’ve been playing “telephone tag” with Michael Holmes of the American Red Cross Pine Tree Chapter after he e-mailed the specific needs for help with this program in the Waldo County area.

According to information available to Holmes earlier this week, “we have 147 households, in Waldo County, that are signed up and qualify for this program.”

“We are in desperate need of folks to help winterize.

“We are looking for 37 teams of three people,” he explained, but to date only one team had signed up to assist in this particular area.

Volunteers must be 16 or older, and will be asked to install such items as plastic window shrink-wrap, foam pipe insulation, weather stripping, caulk, outlet gaskets, and energy-efficient light bulbs.

Now in its second year, Keep ME Warm needs to winterize 3,000 homes throughout Maine, which is twice the number of homes winterized last year.

For more information, or to register a team, visit www.volunteermaine.org, e-mail service.commission@Maine.gov or call 287-4119.

Here’s a reminder from Larry Hersey that the fourth annual Guilford Area Kiwanis Community Walk will be at 1 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 23, at the Recreational Field in Guilford.

Walkers proceed to the Riverbend Housing Development and return to the recreational field.

Money raised through the walk benefits Kiwanis community projects ranging from scholarships to funding for libraries and food cupboards.

Participants are invited to wear costumes, and prizes for the best child and best adult costumes will be awarded.

Cheryl Daigle of the Penobscot River Restoration Trust will lead a public forum exploring nature writing as a form of environmental activism at 1 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 23, at Page Farm Home and Museum on the University of Maine campus in Orono.

The workshop is free and part of a monthly series sponsored by the Dr. Edith Marion Patch Center at UMaine.

Mary Bird, coordinator of the Maine School Garden Network and vice chairwoman of the Friends of Dr. Edith Marion Patch, invites anyone with an interest in nature writing to attend.

More information on these forums can be obtained by calling Bird at 581-2434.

The first of three programs of The Kenduskeag Recital series, “The Russians are Coming,” will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 23, in the G. Peirce Webber Campus Center in Peabody Hall on the Husson College campus in Bangor.

Dr. Patricia Stowell will present a lecture and recital on pre-revolutionary Russian composers of the Russian symbolist period.

Her presentation, which offers an insight into what makes their music sound Russian, will include her playing of works by Rachmaninoff, Scriabin and Prokofiev.

Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at the door or in advance by calling Julie Green, 941-7129, or e-mailing greenj@husson.edu.

A reception follows the recital.

Boys who are at least 11 years old, and their families, are invited to an open house hosted by Boy Scout Troop 1776 at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 25, at the VFW Post on Canoe Club Road in Hampden.

Boys need no prior Scouting experience to join a troop, and current troop members and their adult leaders will be available to answer your questions about their activities, which include outdoor adventure, camping trips, community service and BSA rank advancement.

Troop 1776 is part of the Katahdin Area Council Boy Scouts of America and chartered by Hampden VFW Post 4633.

If you have questions, you are welcome to call Scoutmaster Curt Slininger, 862-4619, or Assistant Scoutmaster Jon Henry, 862-2059.

On behalf of Sebasticook Valley Hospital, Susan diRosario invites the public to its Books are Fun Book Fair from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 28, in the Cianchette Conference Room of the hospital at 99 Grove St., Pittsfield.

Books and gifts for people of all ages will be available at discount prices, some up to 70 percent less than the suggested retail price.

A portion of the sale of the books and gift items will be donated to Children’s Miracle Network of Eastern Maine Healthcare, through Eastern Maine Charities.

DiRosario wants to remind folks that all funds raised for CMN in this area, stay in this region.

Subway restaurants will donate 5 percent of their nationwide sales Sunday, Oct. 23, to the American Red Cross emergency relief efforts for victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

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