Writing on behalf of her 80-year-old mother, who is in search of an old family friend, Sarah Ling of Tolpuddle in Dorset, England, is seeking information about relatives of the late Alex Thompson.

According to Ling, Thompson’s parents moved from England to Maine in the 1920s, but Thompson studied at Oxford University and later “worked as a professor at a university in Maine.”

She believes he taught history “around the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s.”

Ling wrote that Thompson’s wife was an American named Molly, whom Ling believes Thompson met “at the university he worked at in Maine.”

She understands the couple had two children, one whose name was Lucinda, and that Alex Thompson died of tuberculosis.

Ling wrote that her mother “remembers so fondly summers when Alex would stay” and that “over the years, Alex grew to be part of her family.

“She was a young teen-ager at the time,” Ling wrote of her mother. “There were summer swims, bonfires on the beach and he would walk her and her sister into the nearby town in his Oxford bags,” which Ling described as “extremely baggy trousers that were considered outrageous in those days.”

One summer Thompson brought his wife to visit his English friends.

Ling wrote that Thompson “had a cousin who was a well-known author and lived in London” whose name was A.A. Thompson.

“I hope that one or both of Alex’s daughters may still live in Maine, or their families,” Ling wrote, adding that her mother “is going to be so thrilled” if any of our readers are able to provide the English family with information about the family of Alex Thompson.

If you have information that will help Ling find the family, you can write Sarah Ling, The Cottage, 73 Main Road, Tolpuddle, Dorset DT2 7EY or e-mail tony.ling@btinternet.com.

Gleason Gray, extension educator for the Penobscot County Extension office in Bangor, has announced that the 2002 master gardener training program will concentrate on growing food crops.

The program, which costs $65 per person, will include instruction on basic soils, botany and pest management training. A reference manual will be provided.

You will have opportunities to interact with other gardeners and to work on a variety of volunteer projects. Forty hours of volunteer time is required of each master gardener trainee.

Training begins Tuesday, Feb. 5; the application deadline is Friday, Jan. 18.

You may obtain application packets by calling the Extension office at 942-7396 or (800) 287-1485.

As the new year begins, and you begin thinking about ways in which to make a contribution to your community, you might want to consider becoming a volunteer for Spruce Run Association, the domestic violence project serving Penobscot County.

This volunteer opportunity is one that, if you choose, you may perform from your own home.

Spruce Run needs hot line volunteers to help support people affected by domestic violence.

A 43-hour training program includes presentation on the dynamics of domestic violence and crisis intervention skill development. Hot line volunteers work from their homes nights and weekends, or from Spruce Run’s Resource Center during the day. Work-study and continuing education units are available for those who take this course.

Children’s worker volunteers take 30 hours of training to learn how best to support and interact with children whose mothers are affected by domestic violence. Receptionists are needed Monday through Friday to answer phones, answer the door and perform other office tasks.

Training for Spruce Run volunteers begins the middle of this month, so you should call 945-5102 as soon as possible for information and a volunteer application.

Bar Harbor Garden Club member Janet Meryweather of Salisbury Cove hopes young people home on college break will read this and apply for one of two horticulture scholarships available this year.

“Reaching the students is always the hardest part,” she wrote.

The Garden Club Federation of Maine Scholarship, which ranges between $2,500 and $3,000, will be awarded at the organization’s annual convention next June in Presque Isle.

The winning application will be submitted to the GCF National Council to compete for one of 24 scholarships of $3,500 each.

The St. Croix District annually awards the $1,000 Nell Goff Memorial Scholarship.

The deadline for both scholarship applications is Friday, March 1, and all required information must be received by that time.

Applicants for both scholarships must be residents of Maine and be juniors, seniors or graduate students.

Sophomores may also apply, since they will be entering their junior year the next fall.

The purpose of the scholarships is to encourage and financially aid students who are interested in a future major, or are majoring in, horticulture, floriculture, landscape design, conservation, forestry, botany, agronomy, plant pathology, environmental control, city planning or other gardening-related fields.

Applications for the GCFM Scholarship may be obtained by writing Pat Brandenberger, GCFM Scholarship Chairwoman, 35 Naples Road, Harrison 04040; by calling her at 583-2796; or e-mailing berger2@megalink.net.

Applications for the Nell Goff Memorial Scholarship are available by writing Shari Roopenian, P.O. Box 29, Salisbury Cove 04672-0029; calling her at 288-4580 or e-mailing SROOP@ hotmail.com.

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