A fun-filled evening of food, drink, music, photography and just plain mingling with friends will take place Saturday, Sept. 15 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the lovely waterfront home of Louana and Ted Frois, on Westport Island. The occasion is the fourth annual "Champagne on the Sheepscot" event to raise money for the Sheepscot Valley Conservation Association to protect the Sheepscot watershed.

On August 6, a group volunteers and staffers gathered at the office in Newcastle to address invitations to the event to some 800 members and friends of the non-profit organization.

Tickets are $40 per person. For $125 you can become a patron of the event, which in addition to the food and all the festivities includes public acknowledgment of your name or business. As of August 27, 81 individuals and local businesses had agreed to be patrons. A response to the invitation is requested by September 9.

Volunteers will prepare the tasty hors d'oeuvres, and champagne and other alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages will be provided. Local students from Lincoln Academy have volunteered to serve as wait staff at the event, as an opportunity to help them fulfill their school's community service requirement.

Throughout the evening, three accomplished local student musicians will entertain the guests: keyboardist Mitch Boucher, a senior at Lincoln Academy; keyboardist Richard Kinney, a seventh-grader who is home schooled; and singer Cayleigh Hearth, a ninth-grader at Lincoln Academy. They will perform both classical and popular music in different areas of the property, including in a newly-built sunken garden designed and built by master stonemason Chris Tanguay, one of the many masonry projects he has built on the property during the past three years.

In addition, photographs of the Sheepscot watershed area will hang in the Frois' home, and guests at the event will vote to determine the three most popular. Cash prizes of $100, $50 and $25 will be awarded to the winners. The photographic entries must be received by 4 p.m. on August 31 at the Sheepscot Valley Conservation Association office at 624 Sheepscot Road in Newcastle, ME, 04553. Two entries per person are allowed – color or black and white. Each photograph, (ideally eight-by-ten-inch format), must be mounted on 9x11 foam core (black or white.) Thanks to the generosity of Art sake Framing in Damariscotta, located on 155 Main Street in the back parking lot under The River Grill, entrants may get their photos mounted and shrink wrapped for a reduced rate of $6. The title of the image and the photographer’s name, address, phone number and e-mail address must be printed legibly on back.

For more information, or if you wish to attend and have not received an invitation, contact Sheepscot Valley Conservation Association at 586-5616 or svca@sheepscot.org.