Keep your tomatoes healthy so they can produce the most delicious fruit this season!
In this workshop, Backyard Growers Program Coordinator Xavier will share the most important things to take care of to ensure good tomato health, including tomato ailments and challenges to watch for. We’ll also give examples of different trellising styles and their uses to give you a range of methods to keep your tomato plants growing upright.
FREE for Backyard Growers program participants (eg 2023 Backyard Garden, Community Garden, GrowBag Garden Programs)
 $15 general admission – proceeds support Backyard Growers’ work to build healthy, connected, resilient communities by empowering people to grow their own food
Critically acclaimed local singer songwriter Hayley Reardon to perform at SFL @ 21 Main Street on Thursday evening!
Sawyer Free Library is excited to announce its Sawyer Free Folk Showcase this summer, a series spotlighting local singer-songwriters. The showcase will be held on the first Thursday of the summer months at its 21 Main Street location in downtown Gloucester. The first one is this upcoming Thursday, June 1, with Gloucester-based singer-songwriter Hayley Reardon from 6:00 to 7:00 pm.
Hayley will perform a 45-minute set of her music followed by a brief discussion about her approach to songwriting and lyrical composition. The evening is free and open to all to come and enjoy. No registration is required.
Hayley Reardon is a critically acclaimed folk-pop artist and a storyteller in the truest sense of the word. Her songs are postcards from an artist brave enough to take the road less traveled. Raised in Massachusetts, Reardon dove headfirst into music at 15 and honed her craft for over a decade, sharing the stage with acts like Lori McKenna, Rodney Crowell, and Anaïs Mitchell, among others. Her raw artistry boasts a lyrical and melodic weight far beyond her years. Her music has been described as “brilliantly moving folk/pop with a lyrical depth and soul” (Performer Magazine) and “a melancholy little masterpiece” (American Songwriter Magazine). She recently made a splash with her single, “Losing From Within,” grabbing the attention of Spotify Editorial Playlists like Fresh Folk, Folk Pop, Morning Coffee, and Today’s Singer/Songwriters. Her latest EP, In The Good Light, was recorded in Barcelona with Catalan collaborator Pau Figueres (one of Spain’s finest guitarists). Having recently made her home here in Gloucester, Hayley wowed audiences at the 2023 Singer/Songwriter Challenge at Machaca, winning first prize and making a memorable impression on the Cape Ann music scene.
The Sawyer Free Library is honored to have her perform for its first Sawyer Free Folk Showcase series.Â
Gloucester’s Public Library seeks the community’s input for its strategic plan: Our Library. Our Future.
TheSawyer Free Library is eager to engage the community and gather valuable input for its 2025-2029 Strategic Plan.
Community Conversations will be held in over Zoom on Friday, June 2, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. and Tuesday, June 13, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Click HERE for meeting zoom links! Or go to the calendar on SawyerFreeLibrary.org
Community Conversation In Person on Monday, June 5 from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at the Sawyer Free Library’s temporary space at 21 Main Street.
Gloucester Conversations will moderate these public forums, which are open to everyone to attend, and share their thoughts, ideas, and insights about how the 2025 Sawyer Free Library can best serve them and the greater community.Â
All Gloucester residents and visitors are also encouraged to fill out the Sawyer Free Library’s Community Input Survey. Regardless of how much or how little individuals use its services, everyone’s perspectives are welcome and encouraged.
The online survey is available online at www.SawyerFreeLibrary.org and will be open through July 1, 2023.Â
The Sawyer Free Library expects to analyze the results this summer and compile a summary report, which will be shared with the community when the Library Board of Trustees finalizes the new 2025-2029 Strategic Plan.
Community members can visit sawyerfreelibrary.org for more information and updates on ways to participate in the strategic planning process. The Library will also provide regular updates to keep community members informed and engaged throughout the process.
The 1st Annual GCACC NEXT GEN Cornhole Tournament is presented in partnership by the Greater Cape Ann Chamber’s NEXT GEN Cape Ann Young Professionals Committee and the American Legion Post 98.
Please join us on Sunday, June 4 for a day of fun competition! Food and beer will be available for purchase as well as raffles!
To sign up, please click here. The deadline to sign up and pay is June 1st
The SAWYER FREE LIBRARYis excited to be kicking off the community consultation for its new STRATEGIC PLAN: OUR LIBRARY. OUR FUTURE.
As part of the planning process, Sawyer Free Library wants to hear from the community and gather its valuable input. The 2025-2029 strategic planning process is especially important due to new opportunities that will be possible with the opening of the renovated, modernized and expanded 2025 Sawyer Free Library.
The Library will be hosting a series of 4 PUBLIC COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS, and an ONLINE SURVEYand wants to hear from YOU! The Library encourages individuals from all backgrounds and age groups, community organizations, local businesses, and other stakeholders, to participate and provide their unique perspectives.
Community Conversations will be held IN PERSON on:
Monday, May 22, at Cape Ann YMCA from 6:00 -7:30 p.m.
Monday, June 5, at the Sawyer Free Library’s temporary space at 21 Main Street from 2:00-3:30 p.m.
Community Conversations take place VIRTUALLY over Zoom:
Friday, June 2, from 6:00-7:30 p.m.
Tuesday, June 13, from 10-11:30 a.m.
Gloucester Conversations will moderate these public forums, which are open to everyone to attend, and share their thoughts, ideas, and insights about how the 2025 Sawyer Free Library can best serve them and the greater community.
All Gloucester residents and visitors are also encouraged to fill out the Sawyer Free Library‘s new COMMUNITY SURVEY. The online survey is available online at SawyerFreeLibrary.org and will be open through July 1, 2023.
Regardless of how much or how little individuals use its services, everyone’s perspectives are welcome and encouraged to participate! This survey is the first piece of research that will help to inform the new strategic plan and will be critical in influencing the Library’s priorities for the next five years.
The Sawyer Free Library expects to analyze the results this summer and compile a summary report, which will be shared with the community when the Library Board of Trustees finalizes the new 2025-2029 Strategic Plan. The Library’s most recent five-year strategic plan was completed in 2020, which runs through 2024.
Community members can visit sawyerfreelibrary.org for more information and updates on ways to participate in the strategic planning process. The Library will also provide regular updates to keep community members informed and engaged throughout the process.
Backyard Growers’ May Seedling Sale is open for online ordering through Wednesday, May 17, for curbside pickup and in-person shopping on Saturday, May 20. Purchase veggie seedlings including a variety of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and basil started by our pals at Cedar Rock Gardens. We sell individual plants rather than four-packs.
This sale also features other growing supplies including Neptune’s Harvest fish & seaweed fertilizer, High Mowing Organic Seeds, GrowBags, and more. All orders will be available for pickup at Backyard Growers HQ on Saturday, May 20, 11am-2pm. Plus, we’ll have extra seedlings and other goodies for in-person purchase.
Proceeds support our work building healthy, connected, resilient communities by empowering people to grow their own food. Stop by to say hello and get your veggie garden up and running for the 2023 growing season!
As a part of May’s Local Memoir Series, the Sawyer Free Library is pleased to present Virginia McKinnon as she reads from her newly released memoir, A Fisherman’s Daughter: Growing Up Sicilian-American in the Oldest Fishing Port in America. All are invited to this special evening on Thursday, May 18, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at 21 Main Street in downtown Gloucester.
At age 93, this first-time author shares short stories of her heritage growing up in Gloucester, spanning her lifetime, including her late husband’s WWII experiences in the Asiatic Pacific. Drawing on her vivid memories from throughout her life as a child when she could hop fishing boat to fishing boat during St. Peter’s Fiesta in Gloucester Harbor to the joyful celebrations of marriage and family life, to her community and public life work as a social worker, eucharistic minister, lector, and writer, Virginia’s book documents a cultural history of a way of life in Gloucester and America.
The event is free and open to the public at Sawyer Free Library at 21 Main Street, Gloucester. For more information and to register, visit, sawyerfreelibrary.org.
Join the Greater Cape Ann Chamber’s Health & Wellness Committee for the 2nd Annual WellFest: A Greater Cape Ann Community Wellness Fair. This year, we are moving to Harvey Park in Rockport!
This event will showcase the Cape Ann region’s broad range of health and wellness services. This event will provide something for people of all ages!
Food & Nutrition
Movement, Balance & Exercise
Hearing & Vision
Health in Mind, Body & Spirit
Youth Development & Lifelong Learning
Senior Readiness
Here is the list of attending vendors (* = offering free raffle):
FREE for Backyard Growers program participants (eg 2023 Backyard Garden, Community Garden, GrowBag Garden Programs)
Cape Ann Community 