Upcoming events around the region.

Saturday, Feb. 2 songwriter/musician Ted Demille will be in Dexter at Story Teller Guitars from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. to talk about his songwriting and performing his songs. Demille is well known in New England bluegrass circles for his well-crafted songs and his pleasant singing style.

The public is cordially invited to the Foxcroft Academy Winter Student Recital, to be held at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 3 at the Dover-Foxcroft Congregational Church (this recital was to have taken place on Jan. 20 but due to the snowstorm it was rescheduled).

The Center Theatre recently announced that after a hiatus of eight years, there will be a formal Valentine's Ball in the newly renovated Commons Event Center at Central Hall. The event will take place from 8-11 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 9. Very danceable music will be provided by Deb Maynard's Little Big Band. Light hors d'oeuvres, desserts, and a chocolate fountain will be on hand to keep up guests energy levels as well as a cash bar by Pat's Pizza for those who need additional lubrication to join the dance floor.

Helping Hands with Heart (HHH), in partnership with Piscataquis County Economic Development Council (PCEDC) is pleased to announce the 2019 movie schedule. These films are part of the collaborative “Maine Highlands Investment Partnership” which seeks to improve opportunities for economic and human development in our rural region.

This February let’s go beyond “Be My Valentine” and cute cupid cards. While love may be all we need, connection is arguably even more important, especially these days. The Thompson Free Library in Dover-Foxcroft is a great place to connect with people, programs, books, ideas and, yes, even computers.

Ice fishing derbies typically offer participants the chance to engage in some good-natured competition, and to perhaps take home a prize for their efforts. In Greenville, organizers are preparing for a derby that has helped reshape the fishery in the state’s largest lake.

Upcoming events around the region.

Has the loss of a loved one been weighing you down? Whether it happened recently or in the past, the death of a significant person can be traumatic. Pine Tree Hospice is here to help. Grief is a normal reaction to the death of someone important to you. It can be both powerful and painful; yet, when we pay attention to our grief and have support from others, experiencing grief can lead to healing and growth.

Maine Family Planning and Maine Access Points will sponsor “Harm Reduction 101 & Naloxone Training” from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Feb. 9 at The Commons at Central Hall. This free, engaging, community-based public health education event is open to all.

We have ice. We have fish. We have prizes, and we have the cash. We just need you. It’s time to fire up for the 12th annual Moosehead Lake Togue Derby with Ricky Craven. It should be a great time for another big derby on Maine’s largest lake. The togue are bigger and fatter than ever thanks to all those anglers that have been helping to harvest fish since the derby’s inception. So, make your plans and grab your gear.

Dexter Dover Area Towns in Transition (DDATT) has been holding regular public discussion meetings and workshops about energy, economics, environment, and agriculture since 2009, and in acknowledgment of this 10-year history will be showing the film “Power of Community” from 6-8 p.m. at the Feb. 1 First Friday in the Abbott Memorial Library.

Greenville is going to the dogs on Saturday, Feb. 2 -- sled dogs that is. It’s an exciting time of year to be here – watching enthusiastic dogs and their mushers pulling sleds through the snowy, wooded trails around Greenville in the Wilderness Sled Dog Race. Amy Dugan and John Osmond of Shirley began this event more than a dozen years ago. This is the eleventh time this event has occurred – there were a few years in between where conditions were prohibitive and the race was not held.

The Piscataquis County Soil and Water Conservation District (PCSWCD) is excited to kick off its second annual Families in the Outdoors program. The goal of this program is to provide fun, active, and interesting opportunities for families to enjoy the outdoors, together. This program is designed for youth ages 5 and up, parents, grandparents and other relatives. This year, the district will be offering seasonal sessions, each with a different nature-related theme.

On Thursday, Jan. 24 from 4-7 p.m. Tri-County Technical Center (TCTC) students from the six area high schools (Nokomis, PCHS, Dexter, Foxcroft Academy, Greenville, and Penquis Valley), will participate in the local SkillsUSA competition. Instructors from the 12 programs, along with advisory board members and practitioners in the field, will judge students’ skills based on particular national standards that are exercised in the workforce every day.

Upcoming events around the region.

The public is cordially invited to the Foxcroft Academy Winter Student Recital, to be held at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 20 at the Dover-Foxcroft Congregational Church.

Over the past few years Dexter Dover Area Towns in Transition (DDATT) has sponsored free public sharpening workshops which drew people from as far away as Skowhegan and Bangor to share skills and learn how to get small tools back into sharp condition by hand. Sandpaper on glass, water stones, oil stones, hand-powered grinding wheel, files of all kinds, honing strops, and peening jigs were among the items demonstrated to and then used by the curious and hopeful. The informal and participatory nature of the event was so successful that another sharpening workshop is planned for 5 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 29 at Dexter’s Tri-County Tech Center (TCTC -- up behind the high school).