The Center Theatre for the Performing Arts recently announced that they updated their mission statement to more clearly reflect their community work. The theatre’s updated mission is “to make arts, culture, education, and entertainment accessible to our rural communities.”

On Sunday, Aug. 5, the Brownville Community Church honored Violet Grant for her many years of service to the church by presenting her with the title Deacon Emeritus.

Maine Gov. Paul LePage is waiving state park fees for residents as a show of appreciation. His office said that day use fees will be waived for residents at Maine State Parks and Historic Sites from Saturday, Aug. 11 through Labor Day.

The American Red Cross of Maine and the Brownville Fire Department are teaming up to make town residents safer by installing free smoke alarms in their homes and teaching them about fire safety on Saturday, Aug. 18.

Leslie Lizotte, aging and disability resource center specialist from the Eastern Area Agency on Aging, will be holding a Medicare 101 class at the Piscataquis County office building (Peaks House) located at 163 East Main Street from 10 a.m. to noon on Wednesday, Aug. 15.

In the cool and pleasant basement of the Abbott Memorial Library Friday evening (Aug. 3) for the monthly gathering of Dexter Dover Area Towns in Transition (DDATT), about two dozen area people watched the short film “A Farm for the Future” in which the foundations of modern agriculture are questioned by a young farmer trying to figure out how to make her family’s land productive and profitable.

In August of 1818, a group of 15 settlers chartered a Baptist Church in Parkman. Soon thereafter, Zenas Hall was ordained at the home of Elias Merrill and became the church’s first minister. In 1831 the meeting house where Parkman Baptist Church currently gathers was built and in 1833 a bell was installed in the belfry.

A daughter, Ivy Lynn Rideout, born on May 3, 2018 at Mayo Regional Hospital in Dover-Foxcroft to Ashley and Kyle Rideout of Dover-Foxcroft.

The Academy of General Dentistry, a professional association of more than 40,000 general dentists who are dedicated to professional excellence through the pursuit of continuing education, is pleased to announce that Daniel L. Steinke, DDS, MAGD of Steinke & Caruso Dental Care in Dover-Foxcroft has earned the 2018 Lifelong Learning and Service Recognition for his commitment to lifelong learning, volunteering his services to communities in need, mentoring associates and new dentists and participating in organized dentistry. This is the second time Dr. Steinke has received this prestigious award.

This weekend the annual Dover-Foxcroft Shiretown Homecoming and Foxcroft Academy’s 2018 Alumni Weekend together will feature a number of events on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

This summer, you could win a beautiful, handmade quilt at the Maine Red Hot Dog Festival on Saturday, Aug. 11. The Dexter Public Health Association will raffle this colorful, unique work-of-art that will add beauty to your life and comfort to your body.

At 1 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 4 the Abbot and Monson historical societies will host a dedication ceremony at the moose horns on Route 15 in Abbot. The original moose horns were placed at this location by Monson settler Joseph Bearce in 1817 to mark the path from the Abbot-Million Acre Trail to the emerging town of Monson.

There is stressful busy and there is exciting busy. We’re going for the latter this August at the Thompson Free Library and inviting you along for a fun, multidimensional, sensory-awakening ride. All ages -- families and individuals -- will find programs to make the most out of the dog days of summer.

On Thursday, Aug. 9 at 1 p.m. at Central Hall in Dover-Foxcroft, NAMI Piscataquis County will show its second offering from the Sounds True-Healing Trauma Summit called “EFT to Heal Trauma,” featuring speaker Dawson Church. This video presentation will be helpful to those experiencing intrusive memories of bad events, insomnia, nightmares and flashbacks.

Early in its existence the Dexter Historical Society received a donation of negatives and photos from Bert Lincoln Call, a photographer in Dexter from 1886 until the early 1940s. Call's stock-in-trade was portraiture of local citizens, but his passion was for the woods, lakes and rivers of northern Maine which he visited annually.

Castlebay plays at the Wayside Theatre at 7 p.m. on Saturday, July 28. Since 1986, Castlebay has been weaving together Maine's nautical and British Isles legacies transporting their audience through time and across the Atlantic. Julia Lane and Fred Gosbee’s traditional and original songs are supported with Celtic harp, 12-string guitar, fiddle and woodwinds.

The Brownville-Brownville Junction Historical Society is pleased to announce Ken Hatchette’s latest book “The Canadian Pacific Railroad in Brownville Junction, Maine 1886 to 1963” is available now at the Parish House Museum on Church Street, Simple Sacks on the Main Road and the Milo and Points North Visitors Center on the Gerrish Road.

An event-packed day for all the family will be at the 2018 Monson Summer Festival on Saturday, July 21.