PORTLAND – Equality Maine Foundation will host its 21st annual awards banquet from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, March 5, at the Holiday Inn By the Bay. The evening will honor Maine’s leaders in the movement for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. The event is open to the public.

Reservations are required. Tickets can be purchased online at www.equalitymaine.org. Suggested donation is $50 a person (sliding scale of $25 to $49 available). For more information call Equality Maine at 761-3732 or e-mail [email protected].

Adoption support

PORTLAND – The Maine Adoption Placement Service will offer a support group series, an informal discussion group, to be held from 6 to 8 p.m. starting March 8 at the MAPS office, 306 Congress St.

Highlights will include healthy relationship building in the first weeks; normative stages of development during the transition period; dealing with language/communication barriers; working with a child’s teacher and easing into the school transition; attachment and bonding.

The first in the series will include a panel of adoption social workers, who also are adoptive parents. Those wanting more information or registration can call 772-3678 or e-mail [email protected].

Seeking hosts

DURHAM – World Heritage, a public benefit organization, is seeking local families to host high school students from France, Germany, Thailand, Korea, Japan, Mexico, Switzerland, Denmark and Italy.

Students are awaiting word on their host families for the 2005-06 academic school year. Host families provide room, board and guidance for a teenager living thousands of miles from home.

Students are screened and are selected based on academic performance, English proficiency, teacher recommendations and personal interviews. Couples, single parents and families with or without children at home are encouraged to apply.

The exchange students arrive from their home country shortly before school begins in the fall. Each student is insured, brings spending money and expects to bear a share of household responsibilities, as well as to be included in normal family activities and lifestyles.

For more information, call Mary Jane Peaco at 1-800-888-9040 or visit the Web at www.world-heritage.org.

Daffodil Days

LEWISTON – The American Cancer Society’s Daffodil Days during the week of March 21 provide an opportunity for residents to lend a hand in the fight against cancer. Daffodils are available in bouquets of 10 flowers for $7; a Gift of Hope, a bouquet arranged in a glass vase and given anonymously to a cancer patient in a local hospital or nursing home, is available for $20.

To order daffodils or volunteer to help pack, sort or deliver daffodils, people can call the American Cancer Society’s office at 800-464-3102, press 3.

Contributions help to keep the society’s resources in place for those in Maine communities who are or have been affected by cancer. The society provides information and services to cancer patients and their loved ones.

Harvest grants

AUGUSTA – The Harvest Fund at Maine Initiatives is accepting applications for spring grant proposals. The fund makes grants to projects promoting sustainable agriculture and food systems in Maine communities.

The fund provides $25,000 in small grants each year. It has funded advocacy, school- and youth-based programs, heirloom seed propagation, food co-ops, farm markets, educational publications, winter growing and organic dairy farming.

The application deadline is Wednesday, April 6. For an application or information people should contact Maine Initiatives, 622-6294, [email protected], or visit www.maineinitiatives.org.

Camp aid

FALMOUTH – Financial aid is available for Maine youth to attend residential sessions this summer at Hog Island Audubon Camp in Bremen and Borestone Mountain Audubon Sanctuary in Elliottsville.

Youth ages 10 to 17 who are interested in the natural world and demonstrate financial need can get an application by e-mailing [email protected] or calling 781-2330, ext. 215.

Sessions at Hog Island Audubon Camp will include youth camp and coastal kayaking for teens. Borestone Mountain Audubon Sanctuary will offer two sessions of its youth naturalist program.

Math school

LIMESTONE – The Maine School of Science and Mathematics is taking applications for Summer Camps 2005. The school will offer week-long residential camps specifically designed to provide young students who are curious about math, science and technology, with opportunities to explore the fields.

The goal is for every camper to become more confident and excited about pursuing further studies, and, ultimately, careers related to these fields. The camps will run through July.

Those wanting more information or an application should call Linda at 1-800-325-4484 or go to www.mssm.org/spec.htm.