Last month, in this column, Cindy Ludden issued a request for donations for a benefit auction for the Jackson Food Pantry.

Today, she is requesting you attend that fundraiser, which begins at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 5, at the Jackson Community Center.

Breakfast, lunch and beverages will be available.

Ludden especially wants you to know that absentee bids are welcome and that you can preview the items, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. today at the center.

From information Ludden supplied, it’s a sure bet you will be impressed with what you find at this auction.

Items up for bid include kitchen appliances; exercise and children’s nursery equipment; household appliances and furniture; wedding decorations; and more than $1,200 in gift certificates, including one for Camp Fair Haven, for children, valued at $225.

Ludden reminds you that the Jackson Food Pantry is looking at “a shortage of monies this year,” and that, during these difficult economic times, this organization (which assists people in need who live in Waldo, Swanville, Brooks, Jackson, Troy, Thorndike and Monroe) is receiving an increased number of requests for assistance.

Your support of this fundraiser will help many people.

If you need more information about how you can work with the Jackson Food Pantry to assist your neighbors in need, call Ludden at 722-3205.

Doris Seger e-mailed that the Friends of the Old Town Public Library will host a book sale from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday, April 5, at the library.

You will find adult and children’s books, paperbacks and videos.

More information may be obtained by calling the library at 827-3972.

Cathy Hall encourages you to dress “in your Las Vegas style, and enjoy a fun evening” when you attend the second annual Foxcroft Academy Parent Auction, Play for the Ponies, beginning with a silent auction at 5:30 p.m. and the live auction at 7 p.m. Saturday, April 5, at the Penquis Higher Education Center in Dover-Foxcroft.

Elsie Templet has prepared “mouth-watering appetizers,” and a cash bar will be available at the event.

You will be able to test your luck on a variety of Las Vegas-type games, and you will have the opportunity to take chances on prizes that include a 1.5 carat mystic topaz sterling silver pendant.

The grand prize drawing is a night for two at the Bar Harbor Inn valued at $400, but you must be present to win. Other items range from a guided turkey hunt to a hot air balloon ride, and a print by Maryanne Holt Starbird.

Admission is $10, which includes entry into the grand prize drawing, but you can also buy an “FA Cap” ticket for $50, which includes the FA cap, entry fee, 50 chances on prizes, and entry in the grand prize drawing.

Tickets may be purchased from Ron and Katie Miles or at Foxcroft Academy.

Proceeds will benefit academic programming at Foxcroft Academy.

Skowhegan-Madison Elks Lodge activities chair Louann Barnes invites you to a Longaberger Basket Bingo, with doors opening at 9 a.m. and the drawing starting at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 5, at the lodge hall, 21 Silver St., in Skowhegan.

The admission fee is $20 for 18 games plus three raffles, and all net proceeds will benefit lodge charities.

More information can be obtained by calling Barnes at 474-5391 or e-mailing barnes75@verizon.net.

Jane Pierce and the women of First Congregational Church, Brewer, invite you to what she describes as “A Wing Ding of A Fling with Irish Turkey.”

And what that is, she told me, is a corned beef and cabbage dinner, with two seatings; one at 5 p.m. and a second at 6 p.m. Saturday, April 5, at the church, 35 Church St., Brewer.

Jane admits this fundraiser is being held quite a while after St. Patrick’s Day, but that’s because Easter came early and she believes now is a more appropriate time “to have a gala.”

Proceeds from the event, which will include Celtic music “and great fun,” she wrote, will help send “our boys and girls” to Pilgrim Lodge, a religious-affiliated summer camp program.

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