Chef Christopher McGee loads hot Italian rice balls into a cooling rack while directing Ecology Learning Center students as they made lunch in the kitchen MOFGA’s exhibition hall kitchen in Unity on Tuesday. The food was transported to the center for serving. The Ecology Learning Center is one of the few schools in Maine where students play a significant role in growing, preparing, cooking and serving food to fellow classmates and staff. Students prepared and served the meal to about 60 students and staff members at the center. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

Sledders, from left, Mark Wood and his children, Alice Wood, 9, Logan Wood, 6, and Jake Wood, 4, launch their sled Monday, Dec. 4, down a hillside at Colby College in Waterville. Mark Wood said it was one of the first times the kids have sledded since moving from Phoenix, Arizona, to Oakland. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

A great blue heron takes flight Sunday, Dec. 3, above a pond in Fairfield. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

Oceanside High wrestler Maddie Ripley grabs a tennis ball during a shuttle run at practice Wednesday in South Elementary School in Rockland. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

Santa Claus waves Saturday, Dec. 2, from the back of the Gardiner Fire Department ladder truck during the Parade of Lights in downtown Gardiner. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

Top Hat School of Dance performs while bubbles fill the air during the SKOW-Whoville Holiday Parade Friday, Dec. 1, in Skowhegan. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

Cony’s Liam Schleis-Hooyman, left, and Lincoln Academy’s Jacobi Hager wrestle in the 175-pound match during the 41st annual Steven J. Westlake Memorial Wrestling Tournament on Saturday, Dec. 2, in Bath. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

Some of the pigs at Balfour Farm in Pittsfield are seen Friday, Dec. 1. The Pittsfield farm, owned by Heather and Doug Donahue, is among five farms in Maine to have won competitive Value-Added Producer Grant funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

Holiday lights wrapped on street lamp poles and vehicle tail lights glow in this view of Water Street taken Thursday, Nov. 30, from Rines Hill Bridge in downtown Augusta. A 13-second exposure made the vehicle lights appear as streaks. The Rines Hill Bridge replacement continues and the structure is expected to reopen in 2024. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

A member of the Amish community unties his horse that’s hitched to a buggy while parked Tuesday near a charging station for electric vehicles in the parking lot of Bangor Savings Bank in Unity. The man, who was doing business at the bank, said the horse is named Little Bub and is a 5-year-old purebred Morgan stallion. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

A cross-country skier cuts through powdered snow Thursday at the North Street Recreation Area in Waterville. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel