While much of early June is consumed with pupils’ thoughts of the long-awaited school vacation, youngsters at the Smith School in Winterport spent the first week of this month tying up some very important loose ends that have as much to do with community as they do with school.

Last December, the pupils participated in a nationwide reading program, Read for 2002, in which friends and family pledged pennies for each of the 2,002 seconds the pupils read.

A decision was made to earmark the money for books and items for seriously ill children at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, and, by January, when the pennies were finally all rolled, the pupils discovered they had raised $444.

Meanwhile, according to literacy specialist and project coordinator Kristina McBean, Winterport parent and Abacus The Learning Store owner Gloria Aurelio “used her buyer’s discount” to purchase the books, and added donations of her own to increase the size of the donation to the hospital.

The yearlong project involved not only buying books “for the hospital’s pediatric ward, but also items for its Treasure Box,” McBean said.

After treatment at the hospital, she explained, ill children are invited to choose an item from the Treasure Box “to make them feel better.”

Once the books arrived, the school’s Title I staff reinforced them with library tape, and Jacquie Bragdon added bookplates.

Next, small tote bags were made for children’s toys through the Time to Care Program, an after-school program of 24 fourth- and fifth-graders.

Under the supervision of Bragdon and Glenice Williams, the youngsters pinned and sewed tote bags on sewing machines.

During the Children’s’ Miracle Network Telethon on Saturday, June 1, Smith School pupils Matt Wibberly and Danika Lockhart were interviewed about the project, and then, on Friday, June 7, a Smith School delegation of pupils, teachers and Aurelio presented the books and tote bags to representatives at EMMC.

“It was a project that involved many aspects of the school, the teachers, the pupils and community members,” McBean said of what started out to be a reading project and ended up a community project.

Representing each grade of the Smith School during the presentation ceremony were pupils Patrick Later, Matthew Wilbanks, Chris Braley, Lindsey Fields, Jake Heeren, Courtney Doyon, Cera Belyea, Kayla Smith, Renee Greener, Alyssa Davidson, Danyette Dolan and Lulu Bates.

They were accompanied by staff members McBean, Bragdon, Althea Spencer and school

Principal Theolyn Staples.

McBean thanks all the teachers, pupils and community members who volunteered their time and effort to the project.

“We are a community of caring,” she said.

Linda Crane, co-founder of the Aroostook Visual Arts Coalition, reports that works by members of the AVAC are on view at the Reed Art Gallery in the Student Center on the campus of the University of Maine in Presque Isle.

The Reed Gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The show opened Monday, June 10, and runs through Thursday, July 11.

On display are paintings, sculptures and other works by artists residing in The County.

During the regular monthly meeting of the AVAC, which starts at 7 p.m. Monday, July 1, a reception will be held for those whose work is in the show, and you are invited to attend that event as well.

The open meeting and reception is also an opportunity for any local artist to learn more about the members and activities of the AVAC.

For more information about the show, or the AVAC, call Crane at 496-3650.

Bill Robertson, vice president of the Franklin Historical Society, invites you to help raise funds for the FHS by visiting its bake sale from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, June 15, at the Franklin Trading Post on Route 182.

The monthly meetings of the FHS are open to the public.

From May to October, with the exception of July, the FHS meets at 7 p.m. the first Wednesday of each month at the society’s museum building on Route 200, which is Hog Bay Road, in Franklin.

The next meeting is 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 10, at the FHS Museum Building, and features Lois Johnson of Hancock, addressing the subject of “Genealogy: Gospel and Gossip.”

For more information about the FHS, call 565-3336 or 565-2223.

Renee Reynolds of Bangor has written that she was in a “bad car accident” on Saturday, June 8, “at the intersection of Fourteenth and Union streets in Bangor.”

“I was the 17-year-old girl in the front passenger seat in the red car,” she added. “I would like to thank the man in the bluejeans and white T-shirt who pulled open my door and asked if I was OK. And I would also like to thank the older lady who told me to keep my head still.”

Reynolds extends her gratitude to “the lady paramedic who held my head straight for the longest time, and calmed me down, and made me feel better,” as well as “the paramedic in the ambulance who told me everything was OK.”

“I saw the best in people that day,” Reynolds wrote, and she sincerely appreciates the words of encouragement from everyone who told her, “You’ll be all right.”

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