Anyone with a connection to Sullivan should be happy to know you can now purchase an afghan featuring some of that community’s historic sites, along with a bridge we remember so well.

Members of the Sullivan Volunteer Fire Association Women’s Auxiliary have ordered afghans featuring some of the historic buildings in town, wrote auxiliary president Helen Gordon.

The afghan depicts the old Sullivan High School, which is now the Town Hall; Sullivan Harbor Baptist Church; Sullivan Harbor Granite Store; North Sullivan Methodist Church; Ashville Community Church; John Dority Grange; East Sullivan Union Church; Sumner Memorial High School in East Sullivan; and what Gordon describes as the “infamous” Sullivan Singing Bridge.

The 21/2-layer, 100 percent cotton, burgundy, green and black afghans are 48-by-68 inches, and are available for $50 each.

A sample of the afghan is available for viewing in the Town Hall, and can be ordered there or by calling the Town Hall at 422-6282 or 422-6719.

Proceeds from this fundraiser will help with updating the heating system at the Barbara Davis Fire Station and help purchase a generator.

Birders have the opportunity to hear Dr. Jeffery Wells give a PowerPoint slide presentation titled “The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker and Boreal: Lessons and Legacies,” at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, July 13, at Houlton Congregational Church on High Street in that community.

Refreshment will be served after the program.

Wells is the senior scientist for the Boreal Songbird Initiative. He works in Hallowell and is completing the “Birder’s Conservation Handbook: North America’s 100 Birds of Conservation Concern,” to be published by Princeton University Press.

“We bird and wildlife lovers, here in The County, are thrilled that Dr. Wells has consented to come up here,” wrote Marlene Hofstetter. “I hope that many people will come to hear him speak.”

For more information, call Hofstetter at 538-0956.

The University of Maine Peace Studies Program is hosting a one-day conference retreat, “Spirituality, Ecology, and Peace.”

The conference opens with a morning ritual and ceremony by Arnie and Jane Neptune and the Rev. James Gower at 6:30 a.m. Saturday, July 15, in Donald P. Corbett Hall on the University of Maine campus in Orono.

Keynote speakers are Terry Tempest Williams and Kyriacos Markides. The $65 conference fee includes breakfast, breaks, lunch and evening concert.

The conference will feature interactive workshops, with topics ranging from personal transformation to Qi Gong and panel discussions including “Poetry, Writing and Ecology.”

A benefit performance for the Peace Studies Program by concert pianist and Arcady Music Festival founder Masanobu Ikemiya, will be held from 7 to 9 that evening at the Leonard and Renee Minsky Recital Hall in the Class of 1944 Hall at UMaine.

Members of the public who do not attend the conference can attend the concert for a $10 donation to the Peace Studies Program.

More information about either event can be obtained at the Peace Studies Program office, 581-2609.

Donations are needed for the Fields Pond Yard Sale, which is 7 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, July 22, and 7 a.m.-1 p.m. Sunday July 23, at Fields Pond Audubon Center, 216 Fields Pond Road, in Holden.

“We need quality items to sell,” wrote Judy Markowsky. “It’s a good way to recycle things, especially small furniture, kitchenware, outdoor equipment, art, antiques and yard items.”

Organizers do, however, request: “please, no clothes.”

You are asked to bring your donations to the center between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. beginning Monday, July 17, but storage can be arranged if you need to donate them earlier, Markowsky wrote.

Call 989-2591 for that option.

Markowsky reminds you this sale is a “great opportunity to gain space” or “find an appreciative home for items of sentimental value,” and she wants readers to know that you will “find wonderful bargains and high-quality items” at this annual event.

Here’s a reminder from Victoria Oakes of Rangeley that the third annual Bikers Against Diabetes B.A.D. Ride begins with registration at 8 a.m. Sunday, July 23, at the Rockland Elks Lodge 1008, 210 Rankin St.

The fee is $35 for drivers and $15 for riders, and includes a pig roast lunch, raffles, live band and official ride T-shirts.

Sponsor contributions will be collected at registration and the riders with the top five donations will each receive 25 pounds of live lobster.

Proceeds benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation in Maine.

More information is available at www.bikersagainstdiabetes.com, or by calling 594-5254 or 864-2658.

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