EVENTS: Upcoming classes at Albert Church Brown Library

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Albert Church Brown Memorial Library in China Village.

Upcoming classes at Albert Church Brown Memorial Library, Main St., China Village.

Jewelry Making Class: May 7, 6:30 p.m.

Join library board president Louisa Barnhart as she teaches how to make jewelry. There is limited space available so you will need to sign up by coming into the library or emailing us at chinalibraryacb@gmail.com

Please bring or wear the outfit you want to match. Go to Michael’s or Joann’s Fabrics and buy three kinds of beads you like together. Again, wear what you want to match. If you want a long necklace, put the bead strands end to end to estimate the length of the necklace. You could measure a favorite necklace for length. If you care to match your beads exactly, you can buy a tube. Equipment will be provided for you to use.

Please let her know if you are nickle-sensitive.

You will have fun and you will wear your necklace home!

Patriotic Wreath Class: May 19, 1 – 4 p.m.

Come join while Amy Harrington (www.facebook.com/scrapnsewmom) teaches how to make some beautiful Patriotic Wreaths. Limited space available, $25 at registration, and $25 due on the day of the event. When you sign up please indicate if you would like to do traditional (red, white & blue) or primitive (dark red, navy & cream) there will be a variety of sign choices.

Payments can be dropped off at the library cash or checks made out to Amy Harrington. Online payment options Venmo and Paypal are available. If you pay online you still need to sign up with the library so they can keep count of attendees.

Venmo: Amy-Harrington-46
Paypal: scrapnsewmom@gmail.com
(send via friends not pay a bill).

EVENTS: Maine International Film Festival: passes and packages now on sale

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The Maine International Film Festival (MIFF) returns to Waterville, Maine, for its 27th edition July 12–21, 2024. Festival passes and packages are now available for preorder online at MIFF.org.

MIFF showcases the best of American and international cinema with world premieres, classic revivals, and inspiring performances and exhibitions. Every year, the festival highlights Maine and New England’s most innovative filmmakers. With 100 films shown across 10 days, festivalgoers can travel the globe while simultaneously enjoying a uniquely local Maine experience.

Two tiers of passes are available to patrons this year: the Full Festival Pass, which grants access to individual screening ticket reservations, and the 10-Pass, which gives patrons the opportunity to fully customize their experience, picking and choosing the 10 film tickets that most speak to them. When the full festival lineup is announced at the beginning of June, passholders will be given a full week of priority ticket reservations before individual tickets go on sale to the general public.

Packages are also available for those who want to make the most of their festival experience by adopting a film, securing their passes, lining up their priority reservations, procuring their MIFF27 swag, and making a tax-deductible contribution to the festival.

“MIFF marks the most exciting 10 days of film in Maine every year,” said Mike Perreault, executive director of the Maine Film Center. “Throughout the festival, we welcome people from Maine and around the world to experience world premieres, rediscover beloved classics, and celebrate made-in-Maine films and filmmakers. Package and pass holders will have the added benefit of a week of exclusive ticket reservations once the program is announced in early June.”

This year marks MIFF’s second in the Maine Film Center’s new three-theater home, the recently opened Paul J. Schupf Art Center, in downtown Waterville. Together with the Waterville Opera House, Schupf Arts will welcome thousands of movie-lovers for screenings this summer. Festivalgoers will have the opportunity to view the center’s two art galleries, enjoy live music as the Waterville Rocks series kicks off, and explore local businesses in the burgeoning downtown area.

EVENTS: Water Dance set for April 20

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Spiral Water Dancing. (photo courtesy of wetdryvac)

by Jonathan Strieff

Spiral Water Dancing organization founder Christine Little. (photo courtesy of wetdryvac)

On Saturday, April 20, the Spiral Dance Collective will perform an original work as part of the 6th Bi-annual National Water Dance, hosted at Granite City Park, 94 Water Street, in Hallowell. The event will be one of dozens of performing arts events taking place simultaneously around the country intended to celebrate and take responsibility for the protection of rivers, lakes, and bodies of water meaningful to local communities.

The performance will take place at 4 p.m., and will be preceded at 3 p.m., by a community dance workshop, in which local residents will be invited to participate in co-creating the final dance that will be live streamed across the nation.

The Spiral Dance Collective is an intergenerational dance group founded by Christine Little, of the Rive Studio, in Hallowell, to create, “site specific dances that explore our relationship to local issues people and spaces.” The group has collaborated with the Hallowell Conservation Commission, the Hallowell Climate Action Committee, and Maine Sculptors Jon Doody, Mark Herrington, and Isabel Kelley to bring their performance to Granite City Park, on the banks of the Kennebec River.

The groups participation in the National Water Dance is sponsored in part by the Hallowell Arts and Culture Committee, Vision Hallowell, and Perennial Renewables. The event is free and open to the public and the Hallowell Community Flood Recovery Fund will be present to accept free will donations. For more information, contact riverstudiohallowell332@gmail.com.

Jonathan Strieff is a freelance contributor to The Town Line.

EVENTS: Lincoln Dems to host panel on Gen Z & Millennial voters

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The Lincoln County Democratic Committee (LCDC) will hold its next meeting Thursday, April 25, with a panel discussion on engaging Gen Z and Millennial voters.

The meeting begins at 7 p.m., and will be in a hybrid format. Participants can join in person at the Newcastle Fire Station, 86 River Rd. in Newcastle, or via Zoom.
Pre-registration for the meeting is required for non-voting members who want to receive Zoom log on and/or phone-in details. Register at https://lincolncountydemocrats.com/meet before noon the day of the meeting to ensure access. However, LCDC will do its best to accommodate last-minute registrations.

More information about LCDC, its meetings, and other activities can be found at https://lincolncountydemocrats.com. Questions can be emailed to info@lincolncountydemocrats.com.

China public hearing set on apartment application

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by Mary Grow

At their April 9 meeting, China Planning Board members scheduled a May 14 public hearing on Carrol White’s application for a permit to convert the former Silver Lake Grange Hall in China Village to four two-bedroom apartments.

Board members reviewed the application at their Feb. 13 meeting and would have approved it, except that White needed a variance from the China Board of Appeals to allow four apartments in a building on a small lot.

The board of appeals unanimously granted the variance at a March 28 meeting. Planning board chairman Toni Wall said that board’s members held the required second meeting to approve the wording of their decision just before the April 9 planning board meeting.

In other business April 9, Wall proposed spending part of the next couple months’ meetings discussing amendments to Section 6 of China’s Land Use Ordinance, which covers administration. Her goal is to make it easier for applicants to understand what information they need to provide.

Planning board members canceled their second April meeting.

EVENTS: Kennebec Performing Arts Co. to present pops concert

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Kennebec Performing Arts Company will present its annual Spring Pops Concerts, on Friday, May 3, at 7 p.m., at Winthrop Performing Arts Center, 211 Rambler Road, Winthrop, and Saturday, May 4, at 7 p.m., at the William and Elsie Viles Auditorium, Cony High School, Pierce Dr. Augusta.

The performances will feature the KPAC chorus, Wind ensemble and jazz band under interim conductors Jason Giacomazzo, Dean Paquette and John Reeves. Enjoy an evening of selections performed by KPAC’s talented community members, including:

Chorus – Ordinary Miracle from Charlotte’s Web; The Gift to Be Simple – traditional Shaker Tune; Distant Land – A Prayer for Freedom, by John Rutter

Wind Ensemble – National Emblem March; Eric Clapton On Stage; Works by Eric Whitacre and Robert W. Smith

Jazz Band – Georgia on My Mind, by Hoagy Carmichael; The Jazz Police, by Gordon Goodwin; Bluebird Land, Maynard Ferguson’s theme

This free event is supported in part by a grant from the Onion Foundation.

EVENTS: Taste of Waterville taking applications for vendors

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The Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce’s 32nd Annual Taste of Waterville is planned for Wednesday, July 31, from noon to 10 p.m., at the Head of Falls, off Front Street, in downtown Waterville.

Taste of Waterville is an adult-focused, day-long event with a variety of food options from area restaurants and food trucks, vendors, live music, beer/wine gardens and brew samplings. There will be a return of the expanded cornhole tournament. This year they will feature a dunk tank with area celebrities and some additional activities to add to the excitement.

This year’s evening music will include Downeast Brass band, with additional bands and performers planned throughout the day, currently under development. Applications are now being accepted for restaurants, food trucks and food-related vendor participants. Taste of Waterville encourages participation from both Mid-Maine Chamber members and non-members throughout the region.

To reserve a spot for this year’s event, please contact Cindy@midmainechamber.com.

For more information and forms, visit www.tasteofwaterville.com.

EVENTS: Ecology Learning Center announces fundraiser

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Senior class presidents, Ada Dennison (in front, left) and Emma Wallace (back, right), opening the door for the first time with the key. (contributed photo)

The Ecology Learning Center, a public charter high school based in Unity, has announced a new fundraising campaign for the Clifford Arts & Student Center, which was gifted to the school in February. The campaign hopes to raise $150,000 by Sunday, June 30, supporting a “farm-to-cafeteria” program, in addition to covering capital and operating expenses. Every donation to our capital campaign will be doubled.

Gifted to the school on Valentine’s Day, the Clifford Arts & Student Center spans more than 8,000 square feet, featuring a theater that seats 200 people, ceramics studio with 12 pottery wheels and two kilns, classrooms, and office space. The new funds will allow the building to advance the Ecology Learning Center’s mission of deeply rooting students in Maine’s ecological and cultural landscapes, fostering authentic real-world learning while cultivating compassionate, resilient leaders who can engage in the challenges of today and tomorrow.

The Clifford Arts & Student Center is located at 42 Depot Street, in Unity. Interested donors can give money in the following ways:

Visit their website; send cash or check to “Ecology Learning Center” (230 Main Street in Unity);

Sponsor or attend a Community Program;

Donate an auction item and attend the live auction in the theater on Friday, April 26, at 5:30 p.m.

The Clifford Arts & Student Center hosted a grand re-opening last Sunday, March 10th, with The Al Corey Big Band playing music – showcasing the theme of “Some Enchanted Evening” – and the Ecology Learning Center’s student-chefs serving island fare, inspired by the South Pacific. The building was originally opened in December 2000 by Bert and Coral Clifford.

EVENTS: Shakespeare group plans 460th birthday party

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Party Like It’s 1599

What ho! Come party with Recycled Shakespeare Company for 460th birthday of the great bard William Shakespeare in Waterville, on Saturday, April 20, with the 11th annual Bard’s Birthday Bash.

Weather permitting join costumed readers and revelers to begin the Sonnet Stroll on Main Street, at the corner by Key Bank, at 9 a.m., travel up the Concourse to read sonnets and perform at Yardgoods Center and The Villager, meeting again at Waterville Public Library, at 10 a.m. Join Robert Sezack for his annual reading at Re-Books and then enjoy a sword fighting demonstration near Wild Clover Cafe, on Silver Street at 11a.m. Parade up Main Street where everyone is invited to read sonnets and sing fun Shakespearean songs as the troupe stops at businesses along the way: Incense and Peppermint, The Framemakers, Days Jewelers, Holi Cannoli, and Robin’s Nest. By 12:30 p.m., the join them at Jin Yuan Chinese Restaurant for sonnet presentations by video from friends across the nation. Local readers are also invited to join the group here, too.

At 2 p.m., the Bash continues at Selah Tea where more sonnets and entertainment will run until 5 p.m. Everyone is invited to sign up to read a sonnet or two or do a favorite Shakespearian monologue at either location. Last year every slot was filled and RSC hopes you will join in this exhilarating success.

All ages are welcome and no special talent is required. Please contact Debbie Achorn at 207-314-6160 or recycledshakespeare@gmail.com for more information or if you would like to participate. Costumes are encouraged although not required.

From 6 to 8 p.m., there is a Masquerade Ball at Greene-Block Studios, on Main Street. A few easy Elizabethan dances will be taught. It is a lot of fun and no partner is required. All ages are invited. Birthday cake will be served. The entire event is free of charge.

RSC says, “Party like it’s 1599”, so come on out, put on a mask and have some really old-fashioned fun.

EVENTS: ShineOnCass animal baby shower set for May 5 in Albion

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Photo of Cassidy Charette, who was a long-time volunteer at Hart-to-Hart Farm, in Albion.

Haddie Bickford pets one of the new baby calves at last year’s ShineOnCass Animal Baby Shower & PJ Party at Hart-to-Hart Farm in Albion.

Children dressed in their pajamas will welcome baby lambs, goats, calves and other newborn animals also wearing pajamas, on Sunday, May 5, at the ShineOnCass Animal Baby Shower & PJ Party, at Hart-to-Hart Farm & Education Center, in Albion. The annual event for children features educational stations that include learning how to milk a cow, fetching eggs from the chicken coop, spinning lamb’s wool, and participating in goat yoga. Children will be able to hold, and have photos taken with, the newborn baby animals.

Hart-to-Hart Farm & Education Center is a family-owned and operated organic dairy farm that offers spring and summer day camp educational programs for children. The ShineOnCass Animal Baby Shower is held each year in honor of Cassidy Charette, an Oakland teen who died in a hayride accident in 2014, who was a longtime summer camper at Hart-to-Hart Farm.

Families attending the free event are asked to bring food and pet items to donate to Humane Society Waterville Area in memory of Cassidy, who was also a shelter volunteer.

Sierra Veilleux snuggles a newborn goat at last year’s ShineOnCass Animal Baby Shower & PJ Party at Hart-to-Hart Farm, in Albion.

There will be two sessions offered: 10 to 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 to 2 p.m., with limited capacity of 80 children per session. Pre-registration is required at shineoncass.org or hart2hartfarm.org. For more information, email shineoncass@gmail.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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