Sports for veterans

A Veterans Adaptive Cross-Country Skiing/Snowshoeing program will be held every Wednesday from 9 a.m.-noon, Jan. 6 through March, weather and snow conditions permitting. It is free to all veterans with physical disabilities, traumatic brain injury and post traumatic stress. No experience is necessary. Ski instruction and equipment for skiing and snowshoeing are provided free of charge. All veterans who are interested in volunteering are welcome.

The program, hosted by Pineland Farms Veterans Adaptive Sports and Training (VAST), is headquartered at the Outdoor Center, 15 Farm View Drive, New Gloucester. Learn a new activity or practice your skills with Army veteran, two-time Olympic biathlete and occupational therapist, Kristina Sabasteanski. Interested veterans are asked to RSVP by Sunday of each week to kristina@pinelandfarms.org or 310-8694. For more information, visit pinelandfarms.org/VAST.

Local man elected new commander

The AmVets Department of Maine has elected its new commander who will serve at that post through 2016. Jerry DeWitt, of New Gloucester, assumed his new duties after having been elected at a Dec. 12 gathering of the executive council held at AmVets Post 6 in New Gloucester.

DeWitt also serves as the chairman for the Lewiston Auburn Veterans Council and the co-chairman of the Lewiston-Auburn Maine Military and Community Network. He is a life member of the Disabled American Veterans, Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion, Franco American War Veterans, Vietnam Veterans of America, and the American Cold War Veterans. He is employed at Tri-County Mental Health Services in Lewiston as its Veterans Outreach Project Coordinator.

Wildlife, up close and personal

Want something fun and interesting to do during Christmas vacation week? Meet Josh Sparks of Sparks’ Ark and the array of wild animals he rehabilitates. His talk is open to ages 3 and up in the Mount Washington Room of The Commons at Pineland Farms from 1-2 p.m., Monday, Dec. 28.

Buy tickets at The Market and Welcome Center, 15 Farm View Drive, New Gloucester, for $5 per person. For more information, call 650-3031 or email education@pinelandfarms.org.

Toe-tappin’ tunes

The Lunch Pail Collective includes three members of The Wicked Good Band, Maine’s infamous jug band. Members Jere DiWaters, Bill Schultz and Steve Bither will be joined by a few other musical guests playing jug, harmonica, washtub bass, string bass, snare and hi-hat, trumpet and more. They play just about everything from old-time jug band to rock ‘n’ roll with a few jokes slipped in between. There’s sure to be lots of toe-tappin’ and knee-slappin’ getting the new year off to a great start.

A post on The Wicked Good Band’s Facebook page reads, “Piano, guitars, mandolin, trumpet, harmonica, washtub bass, washboard, Cajon, jug… somehow it all works. Come hear the Lunch Pail Collective, Saturday, Jan. 2, 7:30 p.m., at the New Gloucester Village Coffeehouse. Your New Year’s Eve hangover should be gone by then.”

The Village Coffeehouse is located at the Vestry Community Room of the First Congregational Church, 19 Gloucester Hill Road, New Gloucester. Tickets will be available at the door for $10 per person. Call 653-6151 for more details.

New Gloucester’s community food pantry open

Located in a building behind the First Congregational Church, 19 Gloucester Hill Road, off Church Road, New Gloucester’s community food pantry is open for town residents on the second and fourth Saturday of every month from 8-9:30 a.m. There’s a quick annual registration, and a quick check-in procedure.

Donations of non-perishable food (within expiration dates) especially needed for upcoming distributions include cold cereal, peanut butter, crackers, dry pasta, muffin or biscuit mixes, instant potatoes (or scalloped or gratin mixes), juice in plastic containers, canned pasta, canned spaghetti sauce, jam/jelly, canned fruit, Jell-O/pudding mixes. Laundry detergent, hand soap, toiletries, and paper goods are desired, too. Note that none of the current clients can use K-cup-packaged coffee.

Volunteers, especially folks available on weekdays, are always needed. Cash donations are appreciated. Call the church office at 926-3260 for more information.

Veterans enjoy a sense of camaraderie during an intense game of wheelchair basketball at the YMCA of Southern Maine, Pineland Branch, in mid-December. This activity has become one of the most popular activities in the Pineland Farms Veterans Adaptive Sports and Training (VAST) series, which operates year round. Their next scheduled activity will be the cross-country skiing and snowshoeing program beginning on Wednesday, Jan. 6. If there’s no snow, an alternative activity will take place that day. Maybe it will be another rousing game of wheelchair basketball, if that’s the veterans’ preference.