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 Dover-Foxcroft Historical says the public is hearing about the block of ice in Westbrook becoming a worldwide sensation but in December 1926 Dr. Noonan, took this photo of a similar block of ice – 30 feet across – appearing in the Piscataquis River by the Foxcroft Bridge in Dover-Foxcroft.

A second large spinning ice disc has been discovered in a Maine river, but it’s probably not going to attract the attention drawn to the one seen in Westbrook earlier this week. Michelle Simon of Millinocket was out with her boyfriend in Township 2, Range 10 northwest of Millinocket when she came upon another spinning hunk of ice in the Penobscot River south of Abol Bridge on Jan. 13.

Recent graduates of the Hibbard Skilled Nursing & Rehabilitation Center CNA training program in Dover-Foxcroft took part in a pinning ceremony. From left are CNA's Jessica Chambers, Mary Pike, Macy Wood, instructor Wendy Pullen, CNA's Rebecca Cash and Shelby Treffethen.

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.

The Center Theatre announced recently that Ashlie McLeish, who joined the Theatre in 2016, has been promoted to Theatre operations manager. According to Patrick Myers, the Center Theatre's executive director, the new position better describes what McLeish's role in the Theatre has become during the past year.

The following births were recorded recently at Mayo Regional Hospital:

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.

Those affected by abuse and domestic violence throughout Piscataquis and Penobscot counties are able to receive a wide variety of information, support, and services from Partners for Peace. Starting next month a change in office hours for the 8 Mechanic Street location will help Partners for Peace advocates to get out and reach more people and increase the agency’s presence in the community.

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).

Following 102 words across 14 rounds for 14 participants, eighth-grader Adam Taylor stood as the last speller during the ninth annual SeDoMoCha Middle School District Spelling Bee on the evening of Jan. 10.