Holiday dinner

FALMOUTH – Maine Audubon will host a holiday potluck dinner at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 19, followed at 7 p.m. by a presentation on bird song. Several days later, at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 21, the organization will host a winter solstice celebration.

Those attending should bring a main dish, salad or dessert and a drink to the potluck dinner.

The post-dinner presentation will feature bird-song expert Donald Kroodsma, professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts and a visiting fellow at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. The dinner and presentation are free; no registration is necessary.

The solstice celebration is $8/adult and $3/child for Audubon members, $10/adult and $4/child for nonmembers. Advance registration is necessary. For more information or to register, call 781-2330 or visit www.maineaudubon.org.

Literary awards

BATH – Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance will host its first Maine Literary Awards and Evening of Appreciation on March 30.

Award nominations must be postmarked by Jan. 15. Self-nomination is encouraged. Awards will be given for fiction, nonfiction and poetry in the following categories: adult, high school/youth, as well as in several published book categories.

Detailed information and nomination forms can be accessed at www.mainewriters.org.

Scholarship

BAR HARBOR – Lucy Creevey, chairwoman of the Nell Goff Scholarship Committee of the Bar Harbor Garden Club, St. Croix District, is encouraging college students on break to take note of the availability of a scholarship of $1,000 open to legal Maine residents.

Applicants should be students majoring in, planning to major in or planning to take a graduate degree in horticulture, floriculture, landscape or urban design, conservation, forestry, botany, agronomy, plant pathology, environmental control and/or other related fields.

The scholarship will be awarded to a student entering his or her junior or senior year or graduate school in the fall of 2006.

Applications are available by writing Lucy E. Creevey, 46 Birch Bay Dr., Bar Harbor, ME 04609 or sending an e-mail to [email protected]. Completed applications are due by March 1.

Volunteers needed

FALMOUTH – Maine Audubon needs volunteers on weekdays from Jan. 11 to March 31 to lead one-and-a-half-hour nature explorations at Gilsland Farm Audubon Center.

No previous knowledge or teaching experience is necessary. Volunteers will learn teaching techniques, seasonal changes in plants and animals, and general ecology. Most programs participants are school groups.

Training will be from 9:30 a.m. to noon Friday, Jan. 6; Tuesday, Jan. 10; and Thursday, Jan. 12; and from 1 to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 17. In-depth internships are available.

For more information or to arrange training, contact Linda Woodard at 781-2330, ext. 213, or [email protected].