Bats, Balls ?and Big Bands

Gray Parks and Recreation’s Annual Halloween Party is a free event for all ages and will be held on Sunday, Oct. 28, from 5:30-7:30 p.m., at the Gray-New Gloucester High School Gymnasium and Auxiliary Gym.

Come in costume and enjoy the fun. There will be Kids Halloween craft tables, snacks and beverages, horse-drawn hayrides, fun games for candy and prizes, costume contest, haunted house and much more. The Patriot Parents will have the Snack Shack open also.

The Gray Recreation will have an Introduction to Lacrosse Clinic on Nov. 2 (Skills & Drills) available for both boys and girls. All must register to attend this free event.

LaxPros staff along with G-NG Patriot Youth Lacrosse coaches will be on hand to instruct basic fundamentals for newcomers to the sport of lacrosse. Balls and sticks will be provided, you should bring a water bottle and be wearing sneakers. Practice will take place inside the Memorial School Gym from 6-7:15 p.m.

New England Jazz Band (formerly the Maine Jazz Band) Big Band Jazz Concert is Sunday, Nov. 4 at Newbegin Gym at 3 p.m. Admission is free. To register or for more information, go to: www.grayrec.com or call 657-2323.

Your Vote Counts

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 6. Polls are open in Gray from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. and all voting takes place at Newbegin Gymnasium at the Henry Pennell Town Hall Complex on Main Street.

Absentee voting will begin during the first week of October and continue through Nov. 1 at 6:30 p.m. at Town Hall.

Only voters with special qualifying circumstances will be able to request an absentee ballot between Nov. 1 and Nov. 6. Please visit Maine.gov for more information. For more information or to preview the ballots go to: www.graymaine.gov or the Gray Town Hall at 24 Main Street in Gray, or call 657-3339.

Rabies Clinic

On Nov. 6, Gray will sponsor a rabies clinic at the Central Firehouse on Shaker Road. Rabies shots will be available at a cost of $10. Please note that cats and other domestic pets can also get rabies shots at the clinic. Dogs can be licensed at the clinic, and pet portraits will also be offered by Tsukroff Photography for $12, with $2 donated to Caring Community and $2 donated to the Animal Refuge League.

Holiday Fair

The 8th Annual Russell Elementary School’s Holiday Craft Fair on Saturday, Nov. 3. This year’s event will run from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and will be featuring art and craft tables of all kinds, children’s activities and a food stand.

It will be held at the G-NG High School and will occupy the cafetorium, gym, lobby, common areas, kitchen, and hallways. The proceeds from the fair will still go to families in need for the holidays. If you have any questions email: mswett@securespeed.us or call 428-3694.

Gift Idea

Direct to You, a fund-raising event to support the Fiddlehead Scholarship program, will take place on Saturday, Oct. 27, from 1-4 p.m. Sponsored by local direct sales representatives like Scentsy and Thirtyone Gift, this event will be held at Fiddleheads Art and Science Center, 5 Shaker Road, Gray.

Pre-Vote Open House

For voters still pondering the Gray Public Library expansion proposal, the Trustees of the Library and the Gray Public Library Association will jointly sponsor an informational Open House at the Library on Saturday, Nov. 3, from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m.

Members of the Trustees and the GPLA will be on hand to explain what the expansion will do to make visiting the Library a more enjoyable and productive experience for everyone.

Light refreshments will be served. Donations to the project will be neither solicited nor accepted; the object of the Open House is to help voters determine whether they approve of the idea of adding 3,000 square feet to the building.

For information about the event, call Ray Clark, Chair of the Trustees, at 655-6175.

Holiday Aid

The Caring Community of GNG will begin distributing applications for Christmas Food Baskets and gifts for children 18 and under on Nov. 1. Individuals and families in Gray and New Gloucester in need of holiday assistance are asked to fill out an application and return them to a drop box by Dec. 7 at the town halls in Gray and New Gloucester, the Gray Public Library and also at the Russell, Dunn and Memorial schools. The deadline to submit Thanksgiving Food Basket applications is Nov. 1.

The CCGNG is a volunteer group organized to provide holiday assistance to individuals, including senior citizens and families within the towns in the form of Thanksgiving Food Baskets as well as Christmas Food baskets and gifts for children. Donations are so appreciated and greatly needed and can be sent to CCGNG, PO Box 1244, Gray, ME 04039. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor for a family at Thanksgiving or Christmas, please contact Christina Foster at 233-0828 or e-mail her at winkers92@yahoo.com .

Thrill the World

Gray-New Gloucester Middle School will once again be an official dance site for “Thrill the World.” For the fifth year in a row, zombies from the Gray-New Gloucester Middle School Drama Club will rise from their tombs and join in this worldwide simultaneous dance. The event will take place on Saturday, Oct. 27, at 3 p.m. at the Gray-New Gloucester Middle School.

Ines Markeljevic, the creator of Thrill the World, began this grass roots project in Toronto, Canada in 2007 as an annual worldwide simultaneous dance of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” For more information, please contact mguerard@sad15.org and/or visit the web site, thrilltheworld.com.

Author Reading

On Wednesday, Nov. 7, at 7 p.m., author Stephen Hathaway, a recent transplant to Gray, will be reading at Gray Public Library from his book, “A Kind of Re-demption.” The book is a collection of short stories dealing with the Vietnam War and its aftermath. Please join him for a reading and lively discussion. Refreshments will be served.

Students from Gray-New Gloucester Middle School carved pumpkins for the Maine Wildlife Park’s Halloween Fest. The middle school has happily supported this annual event for many years by providing these festive decorations.    
Some of you may remember the new Dollar Tree ribbon cutting ceremony Sept. 29 in Gray (seen above), it was a pretty dreary and rainy day. In spite of the weather, there was a nice turnout and activities throughout the day for kids. There’s another party in the works for Halloween. On Saturday, Oct. 27, from 1-4 p.m., there will be a costume contest for kids in kindergarten through eighth grade with a $50 Dollar Tree gift card for a grand prize. Children can register when they visit the store, and judges will be wandering throughout the store and scoring the various costumes during the three hours. The winner will be notified by phone at the end of the day.