Backyard Growers is seeking a part-time Accounting & Payroll Specialist to manage the organization’s bookkeeping and payroll using BYG’s existing software platforms, Xero and Gusto. Must be proficient in accounting for not-for-profit organizations. Apply by 9/30 for an 11/1 start.
Backyard Growers (BYG) is a grassroots community-based organization in Gloucester, MA. We are a small but mighty group of committed people who love what we do, and have fun while we work hard. Our mission is to cultivate healthy, connected, environmentally sustainable communities and to fight for food justice by teaching people how to grow their own food. We provide resources and support to establish vegetable gardens at homes, housing communities, organizations, and schools, and offer learning opportunities in growing and preparing fresh produce.
BYG serves low- to moderate-income residents and public school children in Gloucester, and shares our scalable and reproducible school program models regionally through a consulting practice to increase our impact. Our goals are to increase access to healthy, affordable foods, help support attitude and behavior changes in making healthy food choices, reactivate neglected urban spaces through food production, and to build community and self-sufficiency within diverse populations. We believe that by growing some of our own food, we are empowered, connected, and strengthened.
If interested, please fill out the information below and return it with your check for $50.00 for a 6-8 foot table. Placement is on a first paid basis. Please indicated if you would like an 8 ft table.
You must also donate one handcrafted item for a fundraising raffle. This item will be collected at set-up before table assignment.
Return form (you can print this post or send information via email) and payment promptly as space is limited. Special requests are not guaranteed. Tables will only be reserved with full payment.
For more information email: rebsly@gmail.com.
Pay via PalPal (RockportPTO@gmail.com) or Venmo (@Rockport-PTO) or make checks payable to: Rockport PTO.
Mail payment to:
Rockport PTO Holiday Fair, c/o Rebecca Sly, 8A Pleasant St., Rockport, MA 01966
Sorry, no raffles, bake sales or used items
Name:_____________________________________
Phone:_____________________________________
Address:___________________________________
Email:______________________________________
# of Tables:_________
Type of Craft:__________________________
Special Request:_________________________________________________________
On Tuesday morning, August 10 the Sawyer Free Library hosted a ribbon-cutting to commemorate their amphitheater’s new awning in memory of one of Gloucester’s preeminent and beloved public citizens, the late Janis Davidson Stelluto.
Dr. Michael Stelluto, Janis’ husband, her family, friends and colleagues, along with the Sawyer Free Library leadership, came together to mark the official opening of the Library’s now shaded expanded outdoor space. Gloucester’s Mayor Sefatia Romeo Thenken , former chair of the City Planning Board Jack Clarke, President of Library Board of Trustees Mern Sibley and Library Director Jenny Benedict offered remarks prior to the ceremonial ribbon cutting.
Through the Stelluto family’s generosity, the Library was able to bring to fruition the installation of a state-of-the-art awning over its amphitheater as a lasting tribute to their family matriarch Janis Davidson Stelluto, who dedicated herself to serving the Gloucester community for over two decades. Among many other organizations, Janis Stelluto served in leadership roles at the Sawyer Free Library for more than twenty years.
Sawyer Free Library Amphitheater Awning Dedication and Ribbon Cutting with Stelluto Family
Stelluto Family joined by Jack Clarke, Mayor Sefatia Romeo Thenken, Library Director Jenny Benedict
Shaded by the new awning, the Sawyer Free Library’s outdoor amphitheater located on Dale Avenue now serves as an inviting venue for Library programs, public performances, including theater and musical performances, art exhibits, lectures, and community activities.
“We are very grateful for the Stelluto family’s generosity,” said Mern Sibley, the Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library’s Board of Trustees’ President. “Janis made it her life’s work to find ways to improve our Gloucester community, all the while seeing beauty in the world. It only seems fitting that the awning has been installed in her memory, creating a welcoming space where people can take advantage of all that the Library offers while enjoying being outside.”
“The awning has created a welcoming outdoor gathering space for Sawyer Free Library’s summer programs which are open and free to the community,” said Library Director Jenny Benedict. “From children’s storytimes and adult book club gatherings to family concerts, we have found with the new awning, the sky’s the limit to what we can do! Stay tuned because we have big plans, and we can’t imagine Janis Stelluto would want it any other way.”
The Sawyer Free Library is open throughout the summer, Monday through Friday, 10 am to 5 pm, Thursday 12 – 7:00 pm, and Saturday 10:00 am to 1 pm and 24/7 at sawyerfreelibrary.org.
The Gloucester Area Astronomy Club is once again meeting in-person at the Lanesville Community Center, on the second Friday of every month at 8:00 pm. We have a terrific program for our Friday August 13 meeting, with astronomer Dr. Seth Gossage from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, with a great presentation on starlight and what it can tell us.
In addition to discussing what light can tell us about a star’s properties such as mass and chemistry, Dr. Gossage will review next generation stellar models built to explore the effects of stellar rotation. Stars spin, and this is also a fundamental stellar property (alongside mass and chemical composition), which helps determine the evolutionary course of a star, and its light output for the entirety of its lifetime.
GAAC members meet at the Lanesville Community Center in the Lanesville neighborhood of Gloucester MA, at 8:00 pm on the second Friday of every month, for presentations, discussions and activities related to all facets of astronomy. There is no cost. These are fun meetings, with lots of friendly people, refreshments, and great, accessible talks by knowledgeable and entertaining folks. Come see us! No special knowledge or equipment is needed to have a great time. Meetings are also streamed live on our Facebook page. For more information on the club, see our website.