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Join Sawyer Free’s Children’s Librarian MARISA for a fun morning of music, movement, fun facts, and some picture book favorites this Saturday, February 19 from 10-11am!
It’ll be a morning of Family Fun that is great for children of all agesat the Sawyer Free Librarylocated at 2 Dale Avenue in Gloucester!
For questions contact Marisa Hall at mhall@sawyerfreelibrary.org or 978-325-5505.
White sharks have been returning to the Gulf of Maine in greater numbers in response to the regional recovery of seal populations. For more than a decade, the MA Division of Marine Fisheries and collaborators have been studying the ecology, behavior, and natural history of white sharks off the easy coast of the US using state-of-the-art tagging technology. The focus of Dr. Skomal’s current research has been to gain a better understanding of where, when, and how white sharks hunt their prey. Join Dr. Skomal as he shares this research as he and his team attempt to develop a science-based strategy for mitigating potential shark and human conflicts.Q&A to be moderated by GMGI Donald G. Comb Science Director Andrea Bodnar.
Sponsored Meals Help Alleviate Hunger in Memory of Loved Ones
Dennis Acker places labels on Friday’s Community Meal which read “This meal is donated in loving memory of Charlene Acker.” (Photo Courtesy of The Open Door)
GLOUCESTER – A local family is honoring a loved one today by putting dinner on the table for those in need of a little extra help.
Friday’s Community Meal at The Open Door, a hearty ham, pineapple, vegetable stuffing, and mashed potatoes dinner, is given in loving memory of Charlene Acker by her husband Dennis Acker and daughter Maya Acker, and her father LeRoy Ross.
Charlene Acker, age 57, passed away in October 2021 from ovarian cancer. Today would have been her 58th birthday.
With her birthday approaching, Dennis Acker saw the opportunity for meals sponsorship on social media.
“The minute I saw it, I knew I had to do it. It was just perfect, and I can’t think of a better way to honor her birthday,” Acker said, adding he has a few other plans this week to honor Charlene.
The Acker roots run deep with The Open Door. Several years ago, when their daughter, Maya Acker, began looking for community service opportunities in high school, The Open Door was a natural pick as Dennis Acker had served two terms on the nonprofit’s Board of Directors, and the family had volunteered together through the years. For Maya Acker, volunteering in the kitchen to prepare dinners on Saturday night worked well with her high school schedule. Charlene Acker volunteered alongside her daughter, and it became a special activity for both of them.
The Community Meals program sponsorship opportunity is a new initiative at The Open Door, first inspired by another family’s annual tradition.
“We launched our Community Meals sponsorship opportunity as a way for anyone to sponsor a meal, whether they be a local business, community group, a family, and so on,” President and CEO Julie LaFontaine said. “To turn one’s grief into an act of kindness and to put food on the table for someone else pays tribute to the life of a loved one and makes a difference. We take this honor as a responsibility, and we are thankful to the families who choose to remember their loved ones in this way.”
The initiative is inspired by another local family who honor a loved one each year with a meal at The Open Door. For the last four years the Testaverde family has come together to honor the late Capt. John S. Testaverde by sponsoring a Community Meal, including his wife Jean Testaverde; children Nina Testaverde Goodick, Theresa Testaverde, John Testaverde, and Mary Marcantonio; and his loving grandchildren. The group bring a cake to be sent out along with the meals, sometimes flowers, and some even sign up to deliver meals.
As a lifelong fisherman with a passion for cooking for family and friends, Capt. Testaverde taught his children to always cook with love.
“It was a wonderful, positive way to honor the memory of our father,” said Goodick of a previous year’s meal. “Our whole family appreciated it, and it brought joy to us, allowing us to remember him by feeding others. He was all about the food. I’m sure my family will laugh that I said that. We know he would love this.”
While groups that once volunteered to prepare meals in-person at The Open Door kitchen are not currently able to amid the ongoing pandemic and precautions limiting the number of people in the building at a given time, The Open Door is making the Community Meals program sponsorship a formalized option for those looking to feed their neighbors in another way.
The mission of The Open Door is to alleviate the impact of hunger in our community. We use practical strategies to connect people to good food, to advocate on behalf of those in need, and to engage others in the work of building food security.
Founded in 1978, The Open Door is a 501 (c)(3) tax exempt nonprofit and community food resource center for low-income residents of Gloucester, Rockport, Manchester, Essex, Ipswich, Hamilton, Boxford, Rowley, Topsfield, and Wenham. In 2020, The Open Door helped stabilize the lives and health of 9,681 unduplicated people from 4,703 households through the distribution of 2.46 million pounds of food, amounting to 2.05 million meals.
Please join us on Thursday, January 27 at 7:30pmas we kick off the winter season of GMGI’s Science Hour with Harvard University’s Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Dr. Peter Girguis.
This is not Planet Earth: Recent findings from our work on the physiological and biochemical adaptations to life in the deep sea
The deep sea represents more then 80% of our planet’s living space, and harbors some of the Earth’s most extreme environments. Dr. Girguis and his colleagues study the microbes and animals that live in these environments using “omics-informed” physiological experiments that aim to:
Measure metabolic activity – including carbon, sulfur, and nitrogen metabolism
Examine the associated patterns of gene and protein expression
Relate their research activity to biogeochemical cycles
Studying these communities is an incredible challenge – many of these habitats are located where pressure is immensely high and temperatures range from near freezing to over 662° F! To study these organisms, Dr. Girguis and his team of scientists developed tools to maintain pressures and chemical conditions that mirror the extreme habitats of deep sea microbes and animals, allowing them to make in situ geo-referenced geochemical measurements.
During Peter’s Science Hour presentation, he will share some recent findings and future directions for his work. Moreover, he hopes to make these technologies broadly available to the scientific community with the hope they can help inform policymakers and other stakeholders who govern the fate of our ocean, and ultimately, our biosphere.
Q&A to be moderated by GMGI Donald G. Comb Science Director Andrea Bodnar.
Join National Heritage Fellow Harold Burnham, and his Apprentice KD for an update on their progress for the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship. After a hiatus for the summer sailing season Harold & KD are back working on the rehabilitation of Sylvina W. Beal, the return home of Schooner Isabella, and all manner of shipyard nonsense.
This series of events will run through the spring of 2022, kicking off on January the 25th at 7PM via Zoom.
These are free to attend, find more details at the link below:
Sawyer Free Library to present a virtual Author Talk with AVIVA CHOMSKY about her book Central America’s Forgotten Historyon Thursday, January 20, 6-7pm. Registration required to receive the link at sawyerfreelibrary.org.
Expand your understanding of Central American unrest and migration with prolific American teacher, historian, activist and author Aviva Chomsky. The author will join Zoom for this virtual discussion to discuss her recently released book, CENTRAL AMERICA’S FORGOTTEN HISTORY.
This virtual event is for anyone who wants to understand how US policies and interventions are the driving forces behind the root causes which explain mass migration from Central America since the 1980s. Centering the centuries-long intertwined histories of US expansion and Indigenous and Central American struggles against inequality and oppression, Chomsky highlights the pernicious cycle of colonial and neocolonial development policies that promote cultures of violence and forgetting without any accountability or restorative reparations. She examines the impact of losing historical memory. Only by erasing history can we claim that Central American countries created their own poverty and violence, while the United States’ enjoyment and profit from their bananas, coffee, mining, clothing, and export of arms are simply unrelated curiosities.
Aviva Chomsky is professor of history and coordinator of Latin American Studies at Salem State University, and the author of several books.
Visit the Library or call to check out the book Central America’s Forgotten History. Registration required to receive the link at sawyerfreelibrary.org. Questions contact: Beth Pocock at bpocock@sawyerfreelibrary.org or 978-325-5555.
Sawyer Free Library Virtual Author Discussion on Thursday, Jan 20 at 6pm
SeniorCare Inc. will hold its annual Valentine’s Day Breakfast Fundraiser online in 2022. Between now and February 14, donors can provide a local homebound elder with a Valentine, while providing critical financial support to the Meals on Wheels home-delivered meals program. On February 14, a special video photo montage will be posted showing images from past breakfasts held at The Gloucester House in downtown Gloucester.
SeniorCare’s Meals on Wheels program brings a daily meal to the door of homebound elders, Monday through Friday. Menus are designed by nutrition experts to meet the needs of older adults and are prepared by a professional caterer. In addition, homebound elders have a daily interaction with the delivery team—sometimes their only human contact that day. SeniorCare serves lunch to more than 700 elders each day through the home-delivered meals program. Annually, this means 182,000 meals served throughout SeniorCare’s service area of Beverly, Essex, Gloucester, Hamilton, Ipswich, Manchester by the Sea, Rockport, Topsfield, and Wenham. Since the start of the pandemic, SeniorCare has seen a 25% increase in Meals on Wheels recipients, while rising food, paper, and labor costs have significantly increased the cost of each meal delivered.
For more information about Meals on Wheels and the broad range of services offered by SeniorCare, call 978-281-1750 or visit www.seniorcareinc.org.
About SeniorCare
SeniorCare Inc. serves an area that represents more than 27,000 residents aged 60 and over. We provide services to adults with disabilities and elders in nine North Shore communities. Established in 1972, SeniorCare has approximately 100 employees and nearly 400 volunteers. The volunteers and staff work to fulfill its mission coordinating services to elders, allowing them to live independently at home or in a setting of their choice, while remaining part of their community.
North Shore Community Health Distributes Over 1,300 COVID-19 Testing Kits
NSCH Offers New Program Providing Free At-Home COVID-19 Test Kits for Vulnerable Populations
SALEM, Mass. – Jan. 7, 2021 – North Shore Community Health (NSCH) through its outreach efforts is committed to its mission to serve the North Shore community outside of its own four walls. Following a round of vaccination clinics in 2021 at community partner locations, NSCH continues to fight against the spread of COVID-19 with a new program offering the weekly distribution of at-home, rapid antigen COVID-19 testing kits that are being provided through funding from the Health Resource Services Agency (HRSA).
Area shelters and food pantries were the recipients of 1,135 tests during the first round of deliveries this week, which began on Thursday, Jan. 6. The Open Door, a food resource center based in Gloucester, received 225 tests on Thursday. Serving more than 1000 people a week, the nonprofit will stagger the COVID tests for equitable distribution beginning Monday, Jan. 10.
“It’s connections within our community, like this partnership between The Open Door and North Shore Community Health, that help bridge the gaps in access and reach some of the community’s most vulnerable people,” The Open Door President and CEO Julie LaFontaine said. “As we continue to weather this pandemic, we’re pleased to take a role in facilitating better access to at-home testing so people can stay healthy this winter.”
Kits were also made available to Lifebridge shelter and The Salem Food Pantry ; Citizen’s Inn shelter and Haven from Hunger in Peabody; Action, Inc. in Gloucester and Beverly Bootstraps Food Pantry in Beverly.
The availability of these kits has come at a critical time. Getting timely testing for COVID-19 has never been more necessary as the Omicron virus is four times as transmissible as the Delta strand, making the spread of COVID-19 escalate rapidly.
NSCH recommends members of the community seek out a COVID-19 test if:
You develop any symptoms of COVID-19, even if they are mild, or
You are a close contact of someone who has tested positive for COVID-19
Testing may also be advised if you are unvaccinated and have recently traveled out of Massachusetts, and you may consider using a self-test before joining indoor gatherings with others who are not in your household.
Since 1977, NSCH has been a primary source of healthcare for people of all ages and provides services regardless of ability to pay. The network of centers in Peabody, Salem, Gloucester and school-based health centers serves over 13,000 patients.
Cape Ann Community 