Musician Jeff Snow combines magical sounds from instruments with vocals and his love and knowledge of Celtic history.
This Saturday, March 5, 2022 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m., the Sawyer Free Library is presenting The Softer Side of Celticwith Jeff Snow who combines the music, stories and a wee bit of history from Scotland, Ireland and England. The interactive concert will have singing, laughing, clapping and foot stomping featuring music on the guitar, bouzouki and autoharp.
Fun for all ages! No registration necessary! It is taking place on the Main Floor of Sawyer Free Library located at 2 Dale Avenue, Gloucester.
LEAP for Education is running a FREE 2022 Summer Internship Program for Gloucester Teens!
Work virtually or in person on a project 9 hours per week July 11 – August 18 with a mentor/company where you will gain important workplace skills
Start to build a resume for college and future endeavors – examples of internships include; assistant teaching a Pathways for Children; assisting with youth art classes at Art Haven; project assistance at Gloucester Education Foundation; teen council/community representative for local nonprofits, teller positions at BankGloucester, internships at Appleton Farms, and many more
Receive GHS credit and a salary or $500 stipend
Attend regularly scheduled workplace skills workshops on topics such as job interviewing, searching for college/post high school options, stress management, financial literacy, and resume writing
For more information, to set up an interview to discuss your interests, or to register, please email JoAnn Leavitt, Program Coordinator, at jleavitt@leap4ed.org
MAKE GREAT USE OF YOUR TIME THIS SUMMER!APPLY NOW! ALSO, THIS IS AN 11 HOUR PER WEEK COMMITMENT, SO YOU WILL STILL HAVE PLENTY OF TIME TO HOLD ANOTHER SUMMER JOB, OR DO OTHER SUMMER ACTIVITIES!
In this online workshop, Backyard Growers will guide you through the process of starting your own vegetable seeds indoors, including a materials list, dos and don’ts, and a live Q&A.
FREE for Backyard Growers Program participants (e.g. Community Garden, Backyard Garden, GrowBag Garden Programs)
Ms. Frizzle is visiting theSawyer Free Libraryon Saturday, February 26 at 10:30am with science, stories & fun! Explore the solar system and space travel with your favorite wacky science teacher, Ms Frizzle!
Join actress & performer Carole Finn-Weidman for this very interactive program for children of all ages. It is out of this world!!!
No registration needed, however space is limited! For more information visit SawyerFreeLibrary.org or call Children’s Services at 978-325-5551.
Bring the Cape Ann Museum with you wherever you go by following us on social media! Stay up to date on upcoming events and Museum news, get a daily dose of art and history, and encounter something you’ve never seen before.
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.
