Blue Hill
Horsepower Farm tour
Horsepower Farm, a working three-generation farm with a fourth coming along, will hold a farm tour at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Saturday, June 11, rain or shine. The free tour is sponsored by Local Stock Food Co-op, Blue Hill Heritage Trust, Halcyon Grange of North Blue Hill and Blue Hill Co-op Community Market and Cafe.
Horsepower Farm was founded in the 1970s by Paul and the late Mollie Birdsall. The farm has a diversified market garden that is certified organic by MOFGA, and raises sheep, pigs and chickens. Most of the field work, from plowing fields to cultivating rows of vegetables, is done with the farm’s Suffolk Punch draft horses.
The farm sells vegetables and sheepskins at the Blue Hill, Castine and Ellsworth farmers markets and to several local restaurants and stores. In the winter, the farm offers sleigh rides. Those coming to the farm tour are asked to register with Mia Strong at 359-8572.
Bucksport
Circus Band concert
The free Down East Center Ring Circus Band will perform at 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 8, at Bucksport Performing Arts Center, Bucksport Middle School, Miles Lane.
In keeping with the tradition of musical offerings up and down the coast of Maine each summer, the live concert is a musical highlight with something for everyone. Children dance with the clowns, and audience members sing along on select numbers.
The evening also serves as a benefit concert to raise money for music scholarships for music students in Hancock, Penobscot and Washington counties. While the concert is free, the hat is passed — no obligation — with all proceeds going to the scholarship fund. Conceived and produced each year by retired educator and musician E. Donald Blodgett of Orland and Milwaukee, the scholarship program has awarded $21,500 in scholarships since the first concert 15 years ago. Scholarships may be used for music lessons, music camp, musical instruments or music equipment.
Students interested in applying for 2011 scholarships should contact Martha Pedrick at mpedrick@mindspring.com or Joni Wardell, 480 Castine Road, Orland, ME 04472, for application information.
Trombone players
After more than 25 years, Don Blodgett is passing the baton for the Mostly for Fun Trombone Players.
Blodgett has announced that Jim Trembley has agreed to assume some of the administrative and communication work for the Aug. 6 concert. Trembley is principal trombonist with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, a freelancer, teacher and “all-around responsible and neat guy, who knows the in and outs of the musical circuit,” Blodgett wrote to the group recently.
The players rehearse at the historic rehearsal site at Brown Hall and hold concerts at Elm Street Congregational Church, Blodgett wrote, crediting the support of church staff the Rev. Linda Smith, Vickie Adams and Linda Lowell.
“Over the years, several thousand dollars have been raised to help support the maintenance fund for the historic C&G Organ,” Blodgett wrote. “Trombone attendance has grown from a
quintet in 1995 to nearly 50 last summer, including organ and piano accompanists.”
The group’s immediate goal is to draw more attendees to the August concert. The group includes symphony members, U.S. Army and Navy band soloists, university professors and jazz specialists, who have come from Canada and more than 20 states.
A few of the players who made unusually significant contributions to the program, Blodgett said, are Dr. Gordon Bowie, former conductor of the Bangor Band; Don Stratton, composer and arranger; Matt McGarrell, retired U.S. Navy Band soloist; and Fred Heath; formerly associated with the University of Maryland Band, former Bangor Band director, director of the Down East Winds Band, retired from the University of Maine; and Ernie Brown, Fredericton, New Brunswick, who always conducts the Canadian national anthem.
For more information, contact Jim Trembley at 866-2372 or Jimtrembley@hotmail.com.
Hermon
Benefit music night
Crocker Creations Country Music Night at Morgan Hill Event Center, featuring the Wildwoods Band, will be a benefit for the Girl Scouts of Maine. Doors open at 6 p.m., with music and dancing 7-11 p.m. Friday, June 3, at the center, Route 2.
The Wildwoods Band won the 2010 Down East Country Music Association Band and Vocal Group of the Year, and the 2011 North American Country Music Association’s Traditional Country Band of the Year.
Tickets are $8 in advance, $10 at the door. Cash bar, snacks for sale and 50-50 raffle will be available. Credit cards are accepted. Call 848-7100.
Old Town
First People
“The First People and First Landscape of the Penobscot Valley Region,” a free program on geoarchaeology — the study of past environments, climates and how they affected prehistoric humans — of the Penobscot Valley region and its history, will be presented by Rebecca Sgouros and David Sanger at 7 p.m. Saturday, June 4, at Hirundo Wildlife Refuge, Parker Reed Shelter, 15 Hudson Road, Route 43, Gate 1.
Sgouros is a recent graduate of Boston University’s archaeology department.
Sanger is professor emeritus of anthropology and quaternary studies at the University of Maine and the Climate Change Institute. He conducted the archaeological excavation of the Red Paint People village site at Hirundo Wildlife Refuge, which is listed on National Register of Historic Places.
Sgouros and Sanger will discuss several sites within the local area and the evidence they provide for the changing landscape and food practices of the past.
For more information, call 944-9259 or visit http://www.hirundomaine.org
Cello-violin program
The Old Town Museum will hold the grand opening of its program season with “Village to Village,” a cello-violin duo performing music of the Adriatic, at 2 p.m. Sunday, June 5, at the museum at 383 Main St. The program is free and refreshments will be served.
The museum is open 1-4 p.m. Friday through Sunday.
Orono
Basket-making demo at museum
Passamaquoddy basket maker Gerald “Butch” Jacobs will conduct a free public basket-making demonstration 10 a.m. Friday, June 3, in the Maine Indian Gallery at the Hudson Museum, Collins Center for the Arts, University of Maine.
Jacobs is the grandson of Angela Barnes, a member of the renowned Neptune basket-making family from Pleasant Point. He learned to make baskets from Dennis Lewey, who taught him how to make traditional Passamaquoddy fish scale baskets. Jacobs harvests brown ash, pounds it and creates a variety of work and fancy basket forms.
The program is one in a series of three events that the public, Maine school students and visitors are invited to watch. They also can interact with Maine Indian basket makers.
Participants learn about Maine Indian brown ash and sweet-grass basketry, how it has been passed down within their communities and families, and the challenges to passing on the tradition.
The program is supported by grants from the Betterment Fund, the Maine Community Foundation, and a partnership of the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance and the Hudson Museum.
Blue Star Museums
The Page Farm and Home Museum at the University of Maine is one of more than 1,300 museums across America offering free admission to military personnel and their families through Labor Day.
Blue Star Museums is a partnership among the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families and more than 1,300 museums. Leadership support has been provided by MetLife Foundation through Blue Star Families. The complete list of participating museums is available at the website, http://www.arts.gov/bluestarmuseums.
Museum Director Patty Henner said it was an honor for Page Farm and Home Museum to be included in the list of Blue Star Museums. Since the museum does not charge a fee, all active duty military personnel and their families are offered a free one-year membership to the museum, which includes a newsletter, discount in the museum gift shop and invitations to special events. To enroll, contact Patty Henner at 581-4100.
Area
Astronauts Ball
The 25th anniversary of the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, the Challenger Learning Center of Maine will hold its fourth annual Astronauts Ball 6-11 p.m. Friday, June 24, at the Hilton Garden Inn, Bangor.
Special guests will be:
• Joan Scobee Rodgers, founding chairman of the CCSSE program and widow of Challenger 51-L commander Dick Scobee. She is the author of the recent “Silver Linings: My Life Before and After Challenger 7,” and will sign copies with proceeds from sales going to the center in Bangor.
• Astronaut Rick Hauck, pilot of the Challenger shuttle mission STS-7 in June 1983. Hauck has donated the grand prize for the raffle drawing — lunch for six with Hauck, a mission party at Challenger Learning Center of Maine, a framed display of souvenirs from Hauck’s STS-7 mission including autographed photo of the crew, a mission patch, inscription and the actual cue card that was attached to the flight control panel of Challenger.
Also being raffled are two round trip tickets to Orlando, courtesy of Allegiant Air. The Astronauts Ball will feature lively music by Brian Catell and Jump City Jazz.
Tickets are $75 each at 990-2900, ext. 4, or info@clcofme.org with the subject Astro Ball. For information about Challenger Learning Center of Maine, visit www.astronaut.org.