ELLSWORTH - It’s the holiday season and The Grand has tickets now on sale for a heartwarming tale of one family's adventures in the big city during the most wonderful time of the year entitled “Home for the Holidays: A Christmas Wish” running on Dec. 14 and 15 at 7:30 p.m. and Dec. 16 at 2 p.m.

Directed by Anne Bahr (with musical direction by Bob Bahr and choreography by David Lamon), this original production includes Drew & Jennifer Myers, Connor Wubbenhorst, Bernard Hope, Allen Fitch, Steve & Sue Gormley, Nancy Dymond, Irv Hodgkin, Will Stephenson, Shay Cobb, Erin McEldowney, Lindsay & Joe Cough, Ashley Callan, Izzy Simbari and Lillian Philbrook as well as other local performers.

Tour impacts nearly 80 communities, thousands of people statewide

HAMPDEN - "Being in the communities across Maine stimulates me to keep walking and, I am sure, stimulates the credit unions to keep raising funds," said Brenda Davis, one of the state's leading ending hunger advocates, after crossing the finish line in Hampden on Friday, Nov. 30, marking the end of the 11th Annual Maine CUs' Ending Hunger Walking Tour. The Tour is one part of the Maine Credit Unions’ Campaign for Ending Hunger, a year-round campaign that raised a record-setting $447,000 in 2011.

B. “Nick” Mills of Cumberland, a professor of journalism at Boston University’s College of Communication and an award-winning broadcast journalist, was elected president of the board of the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting at the organization’s recent annual meeting.

Founded in 2009, the Center is Maine’s is Maine’s only non-profit, non-partisan investigative news source producing stories about state government and elections. The Center publishes its stories on its website, pinetreewatchdog.org, and also provides them free of charge to 24 media partners across the state.

OLD TOWN - The Friends of Sunkhaze Meadows National Wildlife Refuge (Friends) has produced its first wall calendar, which is now available for purchase just in time for the holidays. The 8.5” x 11” 2013 calendar features full color photographs of Refuge plants, wildlife and landscapes and includes interesting facts about the Refuge. Production of the calendar was originally the idea of the Friends’ past president, Jan Beckett, who passed away a year ago after battling cancer. The production of the calendar is one of several ways the Friends has chosen to honor Jan Beckett, one of the Refuge’s most passionate advocates.

The calendars are now available and can be purchased for $12 at the upcoming Friends’ Sunkhaze Café’s or by contacting Danielle D’Auria at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 745-0676.

Indie-Doc, “Betting to Farm”, to Screen December 1st

Bangor, Maine. Bangor Greendrinks is proud to announce their first Media Sponsorship as an official State of Maine registered nonprofit. In partnership with River City Cinema, Bangor Greendrinks is excited to promote the screening of independent documentary film, “Betting the Farm” as the theatres December film.

College of the Atlantic’s Allied Whale offers conservation gifts of whale adoptions 

BAR HARBOR - Imagine a 100-foot bubble created not by humans but by whales using the most sophisticated technology available to them: blow holes. This summer, scientists from College of the Atlantic’s marine mammal research lab Allied Whale discovered one whale, Gemini, blowing a huge bubble cloud, enabling his whale pod easier access to the fish they devour. This holiday season, you can “adopt” Gemini with a photo and life history, and know that for $30 (or $40 for a whale mother and calf) you are assisting whale conservation.

AUGUSTA – As part of its commitment to supporting the state’s farm- and forest-based businesses, the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry (ACF) has established a website outlining other states’ restrictions on importing cut trees and wreaths.

Maine decorative-plant shippers who are sending Christmas trees and wreaths around the country for the holiday season can save money and lost products by noting important regulations enforced by other states.

AUGUSTA – State officials and guests had the opportunity on Thursday to visit the new ShelterMe horse program that has inmates at the Bolduc Correctional Facility in Warren rehabilitating hard-to-adopt horses – and themselves.

ShelterMe – the first program of its kind in Maine to involve horses and prisoners – is a collaborative effort between the Maine departments of Corrections and Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry (ACF) that uses inmates at the Bolduc facility to care for and work with horses that are difficult to place in adoption.

STONINGTON – The Deer Isle-Stonington Kennedy Center Partners in Education team, composed of CSD 13 and Opera House Arts, is pleased to bring Kennedy Center roster teaching artist and Maine resident Amy MacDonald to Hancock County Dec. 10-14. Ms. MacDonald will be teaching a new workshop for teachers, Writing About Diversity, on Monday, Dec. 10, from 3 to 6 p.m. She will then spend the rest of the week in demonstration teaching and classroom coaching with teachers. The workshop is aligned with the focus of many of today’s teachers to improve student literacy across the board, as well as the island’s K-8 school theme, Do the Right Thing. Participating teachers are able to obtain CEUs for this workshop.

ORONO - It is unusual to see an electric guitar included in a wind band, so it takes a little extra effort if you play electric guitar and want to audition for the University of Maine's Symphonic Band. This past summer, UMaine School of Performing Arts senior music education major and electric guitar player Blake Ford went to Symphonic Band Director Chris White and asked if there was any music written for an electric guitar solo in wind band. White was sure they could find something, so he and Ford did some research online and found a piece, “Chaos Theory 3.0 Concerto for Electric Guitar and Wind Orchestra” by composer, sound designer and guitarist Jim Bonney. The “Chaos” piece was originally commissioned by the UNLV Wind Orchestra and premiered May 30, 2000. Bonney described his concept: “In this piece, I wanted to fuse progressive hard rock intensity with classical sophistication. Because of its variety of tonal color and wide dynamic range, I believe the electric guitar has a role in contemporary concert music.”