by Ruth Leubecker

Although over 100 turned out for a vigil in community support for Calais nurses and technicians, negotiations between employees and Calais Regional Hospital persist in a stalemate.

“There are dozens of openings at the hospital right now that management cannot fill,” said Alison Monaghan, RN, after the vigil. “If there aren’t enough employees, then this hospital cannot function properly, and that’s just not acceptable for our patients.”

by Jayna Smith

The Major League Baseball Jr. Home Run Derby is back for a second year in Calais. This fun and exciting youth competition is hosted by Calais-Area Fall Baseball, under the direction of coaches Matt Vinson and Matt Dana.

This local event is a free way for all area youngsters to showcase their hitting abilities, with the opportunity of competing at the National Finals in Cleveland during MLB All-Star Week in July.

Calais Celtic Concerts will present Dave Gunning at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 2 Park St., Calais, Maine on Sunday, April 28, at 7 p.m. U.S., 8 p.m. Canadian time. The doors will open at 6 p.m. EST.

Entering its eighth season, Calais Celtic Concerts is coming off its best year last year with huge audiences and making Calais a destination with award-winning groups from Ireland, Scotland, Canada, and the USA.

Rocket ships, UFOs, aliens, pastel space paintings and more added up to an action-packed Outer Space themed April Vacation Arts Camp April 16-18 at Eastport Arts Center. Thirteen children from Eastport, Robbinston, Pembroke, Edmunds, Parsonsfield, Bangor, Scarborough and as far away as Bolivia (South America) explored their ideas of extraterrestrial life, intergalactic travel and heavenly bodies using a wide variety of media.

Eastport Arts Center will offer back-to-back wool felting workshops with Audra Christie on Saturday, April 27 and Sunday, April 28, from 12:30-4:30 pm. Wet Felted Fiber Beads will be Saturday’s offering; Wet Felted Vessels will follow on Sunday; attendees may pick one of these workshops or attend both to score a 25% discount.

A group of 13 gathered at Eastport Arts Center for two four-hour Saturday sessions, March 2 and 9, to explore block printing on fabric with Susan Lehnen, an artist and educator who lives in Perry. The first meeting included a lesson in the traditional techniques and symbolism of adinkra cloth, a hand-printed fabric developed by the Ashanti people in Ghana. Workshop participants then began developing their own symbolic stamps, cutting designs into linoleum mounted on PVC plastic plates and making their first efforts at printing the stamps.