Giving Back

The dance community in our area is very connected and the studios work well together when it comes time to give back to the community. So it was no surprise when Studio for the Living Arts of Gray challenged CenterStage Performing Arts of Raymond to the Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS. After a three-hour rehearsal, students gathered together outside of the Raymond Post Office with 10 pounds of ice and their bucket of water and completed the ALS challenge. The dancers challenged Collective Motions Art Dance Company of Saco and All That Dance of Buxton. CenterStage will also making a donation to the ALS Association.

Reach out for Maine Bluegrass

Maine’s own Erica Brown will be bringing her sensational fiddle playing, soulful voice, and wonderful band; the Bluegrass Connection, to the intimate 150-seat Raymond Village Community Church, 27 Main St. in Raymond Center, Saturday, Oct. 11, starting at 7 p.m. – the latest in an ongoing series of Raymond Village Community Concerts.

Bluegrass fans in Maine know Erica Brown and the Bluegrass Connection for their musicianship, tight harmonies, and broad bluegrass repertoire. Brown’s extraordinary fiddling; the outcome of both classical violin training and more than two decades of devotion to her French-Canadian musical heritage, provides a unique and powerful addition.

Noted for its excellent acoustics, unusual trompe l’oeil decoration, and intimate feeling, the church is a great place to hear any music, especially music this good. It seems that most of the time, the better the music, the bigger the venue. But thanks to contributions from parishioners and the community, RVCC is able to bring first-class music to a setting where the majority of seats are closer to the performers than the first row in most venues.

Tickets for the concert are $12 and may be reserved by calling 939-7947. They also will be available at the door the day of the show. For further information about the concert, contact Frank Morrison by phone at 627-3351 or by e-mail at [email protected].

Seeking School Supplies for Needy

All area parents and their children (pre-K through grade 6) are cordially invited to the annual Blessing of the Backpacks during the Sunday, Sept. 14, service at the Raymond Village Community Church (UCC) in Raymond Center. The service begins at 10 a.m. and lasts about one hour.

“Each year, we conduct this blessing to acknowledge and celebrate the children of the Lakes Region and to wish them Godspeed as they return to school,” said RVCC Pastor Nancy Foran. “They truly are our future, and we want to do everything we can to help them realize just how special they are.”

The service is also an opportunity for people to donate school supplies for the education kits the church assembles to distribute to impoverished communities elsewhere in the United States and abroad. Families who attend the service are asked to buy a few extra school items and to bring them to the service, things like pencils, erasers, simple spiral-bound notebooks, rulers and blunt-nosed scissors to be collected during the service.

Children bring their donations of school supplies forward in their backpacks during the service.