Something new and special is being offered this holiday season; the “brainchild of Jeff Priest, director of the Old Town High School Jazz Ensemble, and Morita Tapley, dance instructor for the Morgan Hill Dancers,” reports Anna Caballero.

She called, then e-mailed, with details about the Holiday Musical Extravaganza, which begins at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 21, at Morgan Hill Events Center in Hermon.

Tickets are available in three levels: $20 for orchestra seating; $10 for balcony seating; and tables for eight on the first floor for $100 per table or $15 each.

Tickets may be obtained by calling Morgan Hill Events Center at 848-7100, at The Grasshopper Shop in Bangor, and through members of the participating organizations.

The event is a fundraiser for four area musical groups, Caballero reported.

The entertainers include Priest and the OTHS Jazz Ensemble; Tapley and the Morgan Hill Dancers, Waldo Caballero conducting the Orono High School Orchestra Ensemble; and Brady Harris directing the Brewer High School Brass Quintet.

And while this is a first as a fundraiser for these groups, Anna Caballero hopes that with your support the Holiday Musical Extravaganza will become an annual event.

Individuals staying at the Bangor Area Homeless Shelter will be provided free telephone calls by U. S. Cellular from 5 to 6 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 18, at the shelter, 26 Cedar St., Bangor.

Kelly Whalen reports “U.S. Cellular associates will bring wireless phones to the shelter and assist individuals with placing free phone calls to friends and loved ones anywhere in the continental United States.”

U.S. Cellular will also be making a donation to BAHS at that time.

For more information, call Whalen at 441-5624.

For more information about BAHS, call 947-0092.

The Rev. Linda Smith and members of Elm Street Congregational are hosting a “Blue” Christmas service at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 20, in the sanctuary of the church in Bucksport.

“Amid the festivities and joviality of the season,” wrote Elm Street Congregational Church administrative assistant Vickie Adams, “those who are in emotional, spiritual, or physical pain; those who are ‘blue’; dread this season.

“With a deep awareness for those who are hurting, and in hopes of being attentive to those who are ‘blue,’ during this time of year, we will be having this service.”

Anyone who might benefit from this service at this time is cordially invited, and encouraged, to attend.

Adams wrote that the church also will conduct a candlelight Christmas Eve service at 5 p.m. Monday, Dec. 24, to which you are invited as well.

Mary Jude of Penobscot Community Health Center in Bangor has announced that PCHC will be hosting a homeless Memorial Day observance “on the longest night of the year.

“This is a national event, and Bangor held its first ever last year,” Jude wrote.

The homeless Memorial Day observance begins with a candlelight vigil-walk at 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 21, at the Bangor Area Homeless Shelter on Main Street, and proceeds to Hammond Street Congregational Church.

At the church, “a remembrance service with music, poetry and readings (the names of those who have died in homelessness in Bangor) will be read, and the church bell will be tolled, once, for each individual,” Jude wrote.

After the service, an opportunity for “fellowship and snacks” will be offered at the church.

Jude said that if participants wish, they can “bring warm socks, mittens or scarves” for the HSCC Warm Tree, which makes donations of those items “in the winter, to folks who are homeless.” An offering will also be taken for the Homeless Respite Care Program.

Jude explained this new PCHC program “will provide recuperative care for individuals who are in need of medical care but are not ill enough to be admitted to a hospital,” and for “those who are hospitalized and ready for discharge but have no home-family to help them recuperate, further, following serious illness, surgery or injury.”

For more information about PCHC programs, call Jude at 945-5247, ext. 405.

Marjorie Phillips wrote recently how it bothers her to read of “some puppy mill being closed down” with the result that “these rescued animals need to be cared for.

“Enter the Bangor Humane Society,” she added, suggesting readers make “a generous donation,” this holiday season, “for the year-round care” the BHS provides those animals.

Mail your contributions to BHS, 693B Mount Hope Ave., Bangor 04401.

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