For two years, Ellen Beattie has been the art instructor for the Hammond Street Senior Center in Bangor.

And while her students have shown some of their work in the past, their first really important Art Show and Sale is coming right up, and you are cordially invited to attend.

Beattie said her students will offer a “multitude of varied things” in different mediums and of differing subject matter.

“It’s just a really uplifting, interesting, impressive display of artwork,” she said. “And an awful lot of the people were just beginners, which is also great.”

Hammond Street Senior Center program coordinator Alexandra Turallo had first written me about the Hammond Street Senior Center Art Show and Sale, which will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, April 29, through Friday, May 3, at Hammond Street Senior Center, 2 Hammond St. in Bangor. The event is free and open to the public.

Turallo said the event will feature many, many works.

“It’s a very large display,” she said. “Not counting the pottery work, we have about 110 entries, and they’re still coming in. Some of them are just fantastic.”

Turallo added that, from what she has seen, “everything is quality work.”

Included in the display will be watercolors, oils, pen and ink drawings and watercolor crayons and, Turallo said, one individual will be bringing in very exquisite ceramic dolls.

And while some of the paintings, drawings and pottery pieces are for display purposes only, Turallo said “that there are prices for every pocket” among the items for sale.

Hammond Street Senior Center, which is located in the old Merrill Bank building, serves individuals who are at least 60 years old and live within a 25-mile radius of Bangor. There is no annual membership fee and no charge for activities, with the exception of the Hammond Street Senior Center university offerings.

Members gather for a variety of classes from art to computers, to play games, or to participate in other activities from storytelling to book discussions.

If you are interested in the Hammond Street Senior Center, this is a perfect time to visit. If you have questions or want more information about the Art Show and Sale, or about Hammond Street Senior Center, call 262-5532.

I am sure that we all shared the relief felt by the family of 67-year-old Annie Dunton of Bradley when she was found last week in the woods near her home after being missing for 36 hours.

Dunton, who has Alzheimer’s disease, had wandered from her home and was the focus of an intensive, two-day search that involved more than 100 volunteers and several community groups and organizations.

I spoke recently with her son Guy Smith of Eddington, who expressed his family’s deep and sincere appreciation for all the help offered them during his mother’s difficulty from which she, surprisingly, emerged only wet and cold with a few scratches.

For her safety, Dunton since has been placed in a local nursing home. Smith is correct when he points out that there are just “so many people to thank,” and I find it truly uplifting that so many people, from so many communities, took part in the effort to locate his mother. The response to this situation truly was amazing.

Dunton’s family expresses its deepest gratitude to members of the Maine Army National Guard, the Maine Warden Service, Maine Search and Rescue, Down East Emergency Medicine Institute, Hart Search and Rescue, Lincoln Search and Rescue, Katahdin Search and Rescue, Wilderness Search and Rescue, Baileyville Civil Air Patrol, Mid Maine Equestrian Search and Rescue, Dirigo Search and Rescue, Penobscot County Technical Rescue Team, Augusta Civil Air Patrol, Sundown Civil Air Patrol and Machias Civil Air Patrol.

In addition to the more than 100 “citizen volunteers” who helped with the search, the family also thanks members of Maine Search and Rescue Dogs, Pine Tree Search and Rescue, Sunrise Search and Rescue, the American Red Cross, “members of the VFW in Old Town who donated food,” Smith said, “and for the use of the Northeast Forest Experiment Station as a command post for the search.”

“We just want to say thank you, from Annie Dunton’s family, to all the people who helped in the rescue,” Smith said. “And, if we left anybody out, we apologize, and we thank you.”

It was fun catching up with Debra Gotlib who, with my son, Steve Averill, was a member of the Bangor High School Class of 1982.

Debra called to request that I ask readers this question.

“Are you a member of the BHS Class of ’82, or do you know somebody who is?”

Debra and her fellow classmates are planning their 20th reunion for Saturday, Aug. 3, at the Bangor Motor Inn.

To be honest, I can hardly believe it was 20 years ago my son and his friends graduated from high school, because it seems just yesterday I was making plans to attend my 20th high school reunion!

Members of the BHS Class of ’82 who register for the reunion before June 30 pay only $35 each to attend the event, but those who register after that date pay $40 per person.

Debra said while many of the addresses of fellow classmates are available to reunion planners, many are not, and she would like to hear from you. If you are a member of the BHS Class of ’82, or know someone who is, she requests you call her at 990-4038 or e-mail dgotlib@adelphia.net.

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