Dear Sun Spots: You have helped so many readers. I am hoping you will be able to help me with a list of places that need volunteers.

I also need help in finding someone who services the old, black cooking Glenwood stoves. I heard there is someone in Brunswick and another up by China or that area. I do hope that you are able to find that information for me. Thank you so much. – E.L., Lewiston.

Answer: Sun Spots published a similar request on the stove in the Sept. 15 column and was unfortunately able to locate someone. Perhaps readers may be able to assist you.

In the meantime perhaps the following volunteer list will help. Sun Spots will also continue this list in Thursday’s column:

• The Oxford County bicentennial committee is looking for volunteers from Stoneham, Roxbury, Gilead, Hanover, Lincoln Plantation and Magalloway Plantation as well participants from any of the 18 unorganized townships (aside from Albany, which has already provided a volunteer) to create a bicentennial quilt. For more information, contact Barbara Swan Frost at (207) 743-8337 or drop a note to Oxford County 2005, P.O. Box 172, Norway, ME 04268.

• Montello Manor needs volunteers on Saturdays to help residents play bingo. Contact the Activity Department at (207) 783-2039.

• The Abused Women’s Advocacy Project recently partnered with The Meadows, a senior living center in Greene and SAD 52 Adult Education. Residents at The Meadows will be working with adult educators making items for the Auburn emergency shelter. They hope readers might donate: some extra yarn, nylon net, nylon thread and cotton yarn (for dishcloths) for projects. If any readers have some of these, please deliver them to the AWAP administrative offices at the Bates Mill complex or directly to The Meadows, 433 Route 202 in Greene.

• The BookReach program of the Auburn and Lewiston public libraries is looking for volunteers to share about an hour per week, morning or afternoon time, reading aloud to young children in Lewiston and Auburn. After attending a brief orientation, each volunteer reader is matched with a licensed, family child-care home where he or she reads from a different bag of books every one to two weeks. For more information, call Kathleen Demers, BookReach coordinator, at 784-0135, extension 213.

• The Androscoggin Home Care and Hospice needs volunteers to support terminally ill patients and their families at home or in long-term facilities.

Volunteers are needed in all areas of Franklin, Oxford, Androscoggin and Northern Cumberland counties. Patients are matched up with volunteers who live nearby. Training is provided.

Those needed are:

People to support and visit people recovering from illness in a variety of ways, also for the homebound (2-5 hours per week).

People interested in being grocery volunteers (1½ to 2 hours a week) – pick up groceries for those homebound.

People in the Lewiston area for office volunteering (2 to 5 hours per week).

Transportation volunteers (2 to 5 hours per week).

Bereavement volunteers (2 to 5 hours per week).

Contact Nancy Greene, volunteer coordinator, at (207) 777-7740 or at (800) 482-7412.

• St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center has openings for emergency entrance concierge and gift shop volunteers.

Volunteers assist patients needing assistance upon arrival and departure via the hospital’s emergency entrance. Both men and women volunteers are needed for the noon to 4 p.m. shifts. Qualifications include a sincere desire to help others and a valid driver’s license.

St. Mary’s Gift Shop is also seeking volunteers for morning, afternoon and evening shifts to provide cashier services.

Training is readily available. Benefits include meal privileges, recognition events, health program, gift shop discounts and educational programs. Those interested in knowing more about these volunteer opportunities and others should contact Joyce Paradis, director of Sisters of Charity Health System Volunteer Services at (207) 777-8369.

• Beacon Hospice and Palliative Care, Lewiston, (207) 784-4242, offers free 21-hour training for volunteers to work with their patients and families. Day and evening trainings are available and consist of three-hour sessions, weekly for seven weeks. Topics include hospice history, pain recognition and management, spirituality, family dynamics, communication, bereavement, and volunteer rights and responsibilities. For more information, people can contact Donna Rousseau, volunteer coordinator.

This column is for you, our readers. It is for your questions and comments. There are only two rules: You must write to the column and sign your name (we won’t use it if you ask us not to). Letters will not be returned or answered by mail, and telephone calls will not be accepted. Your letters will appear as quickly as space allows. Address them to Sun Spots, P.O. Box 4400, Lewiston, ME 04243-4400. Inquiries can also be posted at www.sunjournal.com in the Inform Us section under Press Release.

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