n Frackville: The Frackville Elks Lodge, 307 S. Third St., will have a mackerel breakfast from 8 to 11:30 a.m. Sunday. Tickets are $8 each and include a full menu. For more information, call 570-874-2500.
n Orwigsburg: The Orwigsburg Lions Club will again host “one of the area’s most hilarious and fun-filled events” — the Miss America Pageant — April 1 and 2 in the Blue Mountain High School Auditorium. Doors will open at 7 p.m. and the pageant will begin at 7:30 p.m. The club holds it every five years and the contestants “are made up of male Lions members that invest months of hard work to get ‘swimsuit ready’ and perfect their various talent and dance routines to compete” for the crown, according to a Lions press release. The “beauties” in the 2016 pageant will feature “strong, glamorous talent in the 180- to 250-pound weight class.” The pageant, according to the release, is a club tradition that dates back to the 1960s and has become a Lions tradition. All money raised will go back to the Orwigsburg community. Over the last six years, the money has benefited the Veterans Memorial Building, food pantry, walking trail, library, MDA, Easter egg hunts, Albright Woods maintenance and Little League lights. Tickets in advance are $15 for adults and $12 for senior citizens 65 and older and students. Tickets at the door will be $18 each. Tickets are available from any Lions club member or at the following sites: Pottsville Provision, 415 N. Seventh St., Pottsville; Healthy Habits Natural Market, Route 61, Orwigsburg, and Market Square Coffee House, 118 W. Market St., Orwigsburg.
n Pine Grove: The sixth annual Pine Grove area “Hugs & Kisses” Chinese and bidding auction will be held beginning at 8 a.m. April 9 in the banquet room of the Pine Grove Hose, Hook & Ladder Fire Company. Food and drinks will be available. A shop-and-drop will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. April 8. Featured items include golf, museum, baseball, zoo, caverns, a wild animal park, photo studios, dinner theaters, bowling and a huge selection of restaurant gift certificates. Additionally, the event will feature a firemen’s quilt, jewelry, a homemade doll house, guns, artwork by two local artists, barbecue grill, pressure washer, child’s bike and a Toro trimmer-sweeper. Proceeds from the previous auctions, organizers said in a press release, were put back into the six communities that make up the Pine Grove Area School District. Last year’s proceeds exceeded $26,000, enabling Hugs & Kisses to give the six fire companies $2,000 each and to buy six sidewalk trash receptacles which are bolted into concrete, have special rust-proof paint and cost $600 each. The group also set aside money to build a small park on the corner of Laurel and East Pottsville streets. Missy Witherow, Hugs & Kisses president, said plans are nearly ready for submission to the borough council for approval and then forwarded to FEMA. Most of the 2016 proceeds will include the park, the fire companies and the burn building at the Schuylkill County Fire School near Frackville.
n Pottsville: The Sexual Assault Resource and Counseling Center will have a blood drive from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday at the SARCC parking lot-Donor Coach, 17 Westwood Road, to mark Sexual Assault Awareness Month. To schedule an appointment, call 570-628-2965 or visit www.GeisingerBloodCenter.org.
n Saint Clair: The Saint Clair Community and Historical Society will have a soup sale beginning at 10 a.m. April 9 at the society building, Nicholas Street. The cost is $7 per quart and $3.50 per pint. All are welcome. For more information, call 570-429-1850. The society will also sponsor a Family Fun Night at Friendly’s Family Restaurant near Fairlane Village mall, Route 61, from 5 to 8 p.m. April 25. A portion of the eatery’s dine-in and take-out proceeds will benefit the society.
n Shenandoah: To celebrate the community’s sesquicentennial this year, the borough wants to celebrate the people who have lived longest in their hometown. Residents of Shenandoah age 90 or older are asked to share their stories and photographs from the years that made “Shenandoah Strong.” Residents or people who know residents of this age are asked to contact chaikowskylavoie@hotmail.com or call 570-906-1257.