Homemade snacks and coffee will be available for donations, but everyone associated with the Penquis CAP Exeter Head Start Holiday Auction hope it is good, strong bidding that will help them raise money to provide Christmas gifts for needy Head Start children, fund future field trips and purchase needed supplies for the classrooms.

Sponsored by enthusiastic and hard-working parents who constitute the Exeter Head Start Parents Group, this fund-raiser is the first of its type for these volunteers, said the program’s assistant coordinator, Kelley Watson.

The Penquis CAP Headstart Holiday Auction is 6 p.m. Saturday at Exeter Head Start, which is located in the Exeter town office building on the Stetson Road.

“This is the first time we’ve gone this route,” Watson said of the auction fund-raiser for this 6-year-old program.

“We’ve previously done things with catalogs, but this is a very ambitious group of parents,” and they have been working hard to make this one fine auction.

“We have lots of gift certificates,” Watson said, ticking off a list that includes certificates at Toys R Us, Wal-Mart, area restaurants and grocery stores and for heating oil, a massage, automobile parts and services, ski passes, bowling and pizza.

“We also have a really nice fishing pole that was donated; sweat shirts, T-shirts and hats; a Christmas wreath, 50 pounds of potatoes and craft items,” Watson added.

Since this is the parents group’s first such fund-raising effort, it is easy to understand why it hasn’t set a specific goal for this event.

“Anything we get is going to be used for the children,” Watson said.

An added plus is that a parent of one of the staff members — a professional auctioneer — has offered his services for the event, which should help in getting the most out of bidders.

If you cannot attend and participate in this auction but you want to help the Exeter Head Start Parents Group purchase holiday gifts for needy children — or simply help the progam financially — you can send a donation to the Exeter Head Start Parents Group, P.O. Box 66, Exeter 04435.

On behalf of all those associated with the Spruce Run Resource Center in Bangor, staff member Anne-Marie Tauses invites the public to an open house beginning at 5 p.m. today, followed by the organization’s annual meeting at 6:30 p.m.

You are invited to tour the facility and view its newly completed renovations as well as enjoy delicious appetizers while helping the organization thank its capital campign committee and donors for their assistance and support.

During the Spruce Run Association annual meeting, participants will approve new steering committee members, hear the annual report and highlights of the agency’s 1999 fiscal year, and welcome new staff members.

The Spruce Run Association is the domestic violence project that serves Penobscot County.

To accept the invitation to attend this meeting and open house, call 945-5102 for directions to Spruce Run.

Quite a quartet will vie for the honor of being the most successful auctioneer during the annual American Field Service Auction of Talents and Treasures beginning at 6:30 p.m. Friday at the Orono High School cafeteria.

George Gonyar, Wendall Tremblay, Hank Woodbrey and Ted Curtis will call for bids on such items as kayaking instruction, signed University of Maine hockey pucks, stained-glass ornaments, gift certificates, breakfast at Highlawn in Orono, a day of sailing or a week at a summer cottage at Bayside.

This is one of Orono’s favorite Christmas fund-raisers, and with that group of auctioneers it’s easy to understand why. All proceeds benefit Maine students’ participation in the AFS exchange program.

Refreshments will be served, and doors open for the auction preview at 6 p.m.

We’re happy to report another restaurant has joined the unique effort of Governor’s restaurant in Presque Isle to help raise funds for the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Aroostook chapter in that city.

The Mai Tai Restaurant in Presque Isle will donate 10 percent of its dining room sales between now and Dec. 12 to the Presque Isle Rotary Club’s 52nd annual Radio-TV Auction Special Project.

Proceeds from the auction — which airs through Friday on Time Warner Cable Channel 9 and Channel X radio — benefits BBBS of Aroostook, a chapter of Downeast Big Brothers Big Sisters of Bangor under the auspices of Catholic Charities Maine.

The BBBS of Aroostook program was launched this fall with nine “Bigs” and nine “Littles” meeting each Thursday after school. The PI Rotary Club hopes to raise $20,000 through this auction to benefit BBBS.

Governor’s restaurant franchise owners Tony and Sherry Sullivan set aside a special BBBS table, and 10 percent of all sales from that table, through Nov. 30, benefited BBBS.

Mai Tai owner Jackie Cheung has joined that effort by donating a portion of her restaurant’s dining room proceeds to the project.

So if you patronize the Mai Tai restaurant, you’ll not only enjoy fine dining, you’ll also enjoy the fine feeling you’ll get from helping BBBS of Aroostook.

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