Professional development BANGOR — The University of Maine Cooperative Extension will provide professional development for afterschool providers on consecutive 9 a.m.-noon Friday, Feb. 6 and Feb. 13, at the Penobscot County UMaine Extension office, 307 Maine Ave. The 10-hour training will highlight positive youth development concepts suitable for afterschool programs and the interactive 4-H science curriculum. The agenda includes webinar overviews of the 4-H Afterschool Academy and 4-H science resources, an e-learning course for 4-H volunteers, and two in-person training sessions on the 4-H program model and the 4-H science curriculum. Course fee is $60. CEU credits are available. Registration deadline is Friday, Dec. 19. To register go to umaine.edu/4h/youth/how-can-you-participate-in-4-h/afterschool/academy. For information or to request a disability accommodation, contact Jennifer Lobley at 255.3345, 800-287-1542 (in Maine) or jennifer.lobley@maine.edu.   Christmas Basket Project BANGOR — Saint John’s Episcopal has been operating its Christmas Basket Project for more than 20 years. As part of its mission to serve the needs of the community, the church gives a Christmas dinner and toys to 25 families in the Bangor area. The church partners with Hannaford Supermarkets and Penquis Cap in order to make the project possible. Penquis Cap provides Saint John’s with the names of 25 families that use its services and have expressed a need for a little extra help at Christmas. Saint John’s provides the families with a Christmas dinner, including a turkey, plus extra groceries to stock the cupboard for a few days.  The church also buys a gift with a $20 value for each child in the family. The funds to pay for the food and toys comes exclusively from parish donations. Hannaford Supermarkets, including the Airport Mall Hannaford, supplies the Christmas dinner and extra food. Hannaford donates the manpower to box up the Christmas food for each family and deliver it to the Venture Way Child Care Center. St. John’s has a sign-up Sunday when parishioners are asked to sign up to sponsor a family.   Parishioners return the gifts the have have purchased and wrapped to Saint John’s by Dec. 21 — delivery day. For information call Cassy Palmer at 949-9040.   Filled boot BANGOR — More than nine members of the Bangor Fire Department Local 772 raised $9,084 during the annual Fill the Boot drive on Black Friday to benefit children and adults affected by muscle disease throughout the Bangor area. To date the Bangor Fire Department has raised  $29,322 for the Muscular Dystrophy Association of Maine. Longhorn Steakhouse in Bangor held a Dining for Dollars event to help raise further funds for the Bangor Fire Department Fill the Boot program. Funds raised through 2014 Bangor Fill the Boot events will help support MDA’s programs of worldwide research, specialized health care services and day-to-day support, which includes sending children affected by muscular dystrophy and related muscle diseases to a weeklong, barrier-free MDA summer camp at Camp Agassiz in Poland.   Opera lecture BREWER — Esther Rauch will talk opera at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 14, at Brewer Public Library, Her topic will be “The Merry Widow.” The Met Live presentation of “The Merry Widow, starring Renee Fleming, will be presented Saturday, Jan. 17, at the Collins Center for the Arts. All attendees of the library presentation will be entered into a drawing for a pair of free tickets for the opera performance. Call the library at 989-7943 or email Katie at kconner@brewermaine.gov to make a reservation to hear the talk.   Fundraiser for mill families HAMPDEN — The Hampden Academy music industry class is producing a CD to raise money for the families in the community affected by the closing of the Bucksport Mill. The CD, which offers jazz, rap, singer-songwriter, acoustic and rock genres, will be released and artists from the CD will perform their music live at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 15, at the Hampden Academy Performing Arts Center. All the music on the CD is original and was  professionally recorded at Main St. Music Studios owned by Andrew Clifford. Show admission is $5, $3 student and proceeds will be donated to the mill families.   Scrapbooking fundraiser HAMPDEN — Momentum is a community support program that offers a comprehensive and adventure based program that helps people with developmental disabilities reach their personal goals and learn new skills. Some of the groups offered at Momentum include culinary, cabin cooking, life skills, photography, yearbook, Special Olympics, gun safety, art, music, movie-film, literacy and gardening. Momentum also has volunteer groups that volunteer at various nonprofit agencies such as Stillwater Health Care, Good Shepherd Food Bank, Penquis Daycare, Eastern Area Agency on Aging, Hirundo Nature Facility, Columbia Street Baptist Church, Salvation Army soup kitchen, and Ronald McDonald House. The agency also offers an outdoor adventure component that includes fishing, hiking, biking, canoeing, camping, downhill skiing, snow shoeing, sky diving, walking, swimming, bowling, dance, Zumba, tae kwon do and jiu jitsu. Momentum has approximately 40 individuals who are on one or more of the many Special Olympics teams. The athletes compete in most of the Special Olympic events and are always in need of uniforms, equipment, overnight stays and other expenses and so we have a very active fundraising team that plans monthly fundraising events to help defer these costs. To raise funds to support athletic events, Team Momentum North will sponsor a scrapbook fundraiser 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday Jan. 17, at the old Hampden Academy building, 1 Main Road North. Table rentals are $25, $15 children 15 and under, and will include breakfast, lunch and snacks. There will be door prizes and giveaways. For information or to reserve a space at the event, contact Hannah at 907-4501 or smith@momentumme.com.   Monument repair ORONO — Phase II of the restoration of Orono ’s Civil War monument ’s repair of the monument’s pedestal, is underway at Argyle Iron Works. Repair of the pedestal is under the direction of Peter Crockett, metal artisan. Contributions to support Phase II may sent to: The Orono Historical Society , P.O. Box 324, Orono ME 04473.