AUGUSTA

Alliance seeks nominations

The Maine Children’s Alliance is accepting nominations for its 19th Annual Giraffe Awards.

Established in 1995, the award celebrates people who “stick their necks out for kids,” to improve the well-being of Maine children and families.

The awards recognize winners in varied categories that include outstanding individual, youth, business and organization awards.

Past winners represented individuals who work in children’s mental health, youth camps, Maine businesses, volunteers and educators.

The awards are bestowed at a Champions for Children Event, this year set for Oct. 3 at the Freeport Hilton Garden Inn.

Nomination forms can be downloaded at www.mekids.org; they must be submitted for consideration by May 31.

For more details, call 623-1868.

BRUNSWICK

Preservation awards

The Brunswick Downtown Association is seeking nominations for its 2013 Downtown Preservation Awards, which will be presented May 9.

The awards are presented annually in recognition of organizations and individuals that create tangible value in the heart of the community through the renovation or restoration of existing buildings or through new construction that restores and enhances the traditional streetscape.

Retail, residential, and institutional buildings are eligible for consideration as well as infrastructure improvements.

Projects completed since 2003 are eligible for nomination.

The nomination requests information about the location and duration of the project, the identity and description of the project, to include any special materials used and an explanation of how the project contributes to preservation in Brunswick and to the downtown area.

Submissions are due April 15.

Nomination forms are available online at the Brunswick Downtown Association’s website at www.brunswickdowntown.com, or at the BDA office.

Completed forms can be dropped off or mailed to the BDA office at 85 Maine St., Brunswick, Maine 04011.

For more details, call Patti Spencer-Yost at 729-4439.

ALNA

Juniper school wins award

Juniper Hill School, now in its second year of operation as an independant educational center, has been identified as the 2013 School of the Year by the Maine Environmental Education Association.

The school was selected as being an inspirational example of what service learning and sustainability studies in Maine schools can aspire to be. For more details, go to www.juniperhillschool.org or call 586-5711.

ALFRED

Museum seeks Bracketts

The Alfred Shaker Museum is seeking relatives of Joseph Brackett, a 19th-century Shaker and songwriter from the now-defunct Gorham Shaker community.

Brackett penned the song “Simple Gifts” in 1848 during a visit to the Alfred Shaker community.

The museum is planning a commemorative music celebration this summer to honor Brackett and hopes to find and interview some of his direct descendants, who also will be included as honored guests in the program.

For more details, call museum curator Linda Aaskov at 490-5709.

RAYMOND

Schoolgirl wins essay contest

Jordan-Small Middle School sixth-grader Sophie Sangster is the state first-place winner of the SIFMA Foundation’s InvestWrite student essay competition.

The final activity for the country’s annual Stock Market Game participants, the InvestWrite challenge asks students in fourth to 12th grade to analyze an investment scenario and write an essay offering investment advice.

In doing so, students consider real-world economic events and trends, conduct research online, develop investment recommendations and, in the process, gain the skills to prepare for their own financial future.

Sangster’s winning submission was chosen by a panel of judges, that included thousands of teachers and industry professionals who evaluated 20,000 student works and made their selections based on analysis of asset allocation, investment potential of various publicly traded stocks, the students’ overall understanding of the stock market and the manner in which they most effectively conveyed their investment ideas in essay form.

Sangster and her teacher Jack Fitch both will be recognized with prizes awarded by the SIFMA Foundation during a classroom presentation.

For more information, visit www.sifma.org.

UNION

Library gets grant for design

The Vose Library has been awarded a Rose and Samuel Rudman Library Trust grant of $1,000 for the purchase of materials to form the core of a special craftsmanship and design collection, with a second grant application pending.

Administered by the Maine Community Foundation, the collection will consist of print and electronic media relating to all aspects of craftsmanship and design, in support of, and for the enrichment of, the arts and crafts environment of inland midcoast Maine and the region. It will be composed of definitive, professional level texts of traditional and contemporary theory, design, and technique in crafts related to wood, stone, ceramics, fiber and metal.

The collection is intended to support people seeking to build a professional craftsmanship or design career, an appropriate economic development strategy for a rural area with a rich heritage of craftsmanship.

For more details, call 785-4733.