SFL presents Author Talk with Ellen Levy: The Saturday Evening Girls in Gloucester 

~ Sawyer Free Library

On Thursday, August 24, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., in a lively presentation at the Sawyer Free Library at 21 Main Street, Ellen Levy will relay the story of the Boston library group, Saturday Evening Girls, that created magnificent Arts and Crafts pottery at the turn of the last century. The story of the Saturday Evening Girls is beloved: a story of turn of the century determination and an early example of immigrant women developing useful trade skills to make a career in America. This group of women turned a reading club into the beginnings of Paul Revere Pottery.

In addition to becoming an important financier of the club, Helen Storrow would create a summer camp in Wingaersheek Beach in West Gloucester for the women, often exposing the young women to the outdoors and rural life.  

Ellen will share the data and stories she gathered for her series of historical fiction books taking place in the 1910s in Massachusetts.

Event will take place at SFL @ 21 Main Street in Gloucester. Registration not required. Questions? Contact: jtravers@sawyerfreelibrary.org

The Saturday Evening Girls

The Young Gloucester Scientist’s Club Presents: Community Scavenger Hunt – Friday 8/25

~ Sawyer Free Library

The Young Gloucester Scientist’s Club Presents:  Community Garden Scavenger Hunt on Friday, August 25 from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.

Join the Sawyer Free Library for an afternoon of garden bed exploring, scavenger hunting and a little bit of dirt-based science! In this hour long field trip to the Burnham Field Community Garden the Library’s friends at Backyard Growers will share some of the science behind growing and harvesting your own food.

This program is suitable for 4th-8th graders. Registration is required. Click HERE or go to SawyerFreeLibrary.org

You’re invited to The Great Gloucester GrowDown!

~ backyardgrowersgloucester

Join us for Backyard Growers‘ annual fall fundraiser, The Great Gloucester GrowDown. At this year’s GrowDown, Backyard Growers will share stories from our community’s 2023 growing season and toast the power of growing food together.

Enjoy a delicious farm-to-table dinner with ingredients sourced from local North Shore farms and prepared by the magicians at Short & Main, plus signature seasonal cocktails. Contribute to a live fund-a-need auction to support our work empowering people to grow their own food, and connect with your community over the joy of supporting each other and growing food together!

Tickets are selling out fast! Proceeds support Backyard Growers’ work building healthy, connected, resilient communities by empowering people to grow their own food in Gloucester and beyond.

Learn more & purchase tickets

Countdown to Kindergarten welcomes the Class of 2036!

Image ~ ~ gloucestereducationfoundation

Last night Pathways for Children, Gloucester Public Schools, Gloucester Education Foundation, and an incredible team of partners welcomed the Class of 2036 to the Gloucester Public Schools! Countdown to Kindergarten is Gloucester’s annual community celebration to welcome our newest students and their families to the Gloucester Schools. 132 new kindergarteners and more than 250 of their family members had a chance to:

Thank you to all of the partners, sponsors, and volunteers who made this event possible, to the school staff who took a break from their summer vacation to meet their new students, to Gloucester High School for stepping in to host the event this year, to the many elected officials who attended, and most of all, to the kindergarteners who were brave enough to come to this big, noisy space to launch their careers as Gloucester students! We’re so excited to watch you grow, learn, and thrive in our schools, and GEF is proud to support you on your K-12 journey.

A special thanks to Amy Larsen from Pathways for Children and Christine Castle from the Gloucester Schools for their leadership on this event.

Mass Audubon Tree Walk and Talk – Young Gloucester Scientist Club Field Trip

~ Sawyer Free Library

Tweens & Teens – – join the Sawyer Free Library Young Gloucester Scientists Club on a 2-hour nature walk in Historic Dogtown with some experts from Mass Audubon. Learn all about Cape Ann’s native plant life and the importance of trees in our ecosystem while observing and collecting data in our own YGSC nature journals! This is a great opportunity to connect with the natural world and practice vital science skills. This program is suitable for 4th-8th graders.

Registration & Permission Slips are Required. To Register Click: HERE.

For more information, visit SawyerFreeLibrary.org or email:  jllaurie@sawyerfreelibrary.org

The Young Gloucester Scientist’s Club is supported by federal funds provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and administered by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. The YGSC is a monthly club for 4th through 8th graders that introduces them to Gloucester Community members with careers across a variety of STEM fields.

Gloucester Reads: Community Conversation with Author Kiely Reid – Tuesday, August 15th

~ Sawyer Free Library

The community is invited to the final event for Gloucester Reads, a summer initiative, when best-selling author Kiely Reid will take part virtually on Tuesday, Aug. 15 at Gloucester Stage Company located at 267 East Main Street.


Doors open for the free event at 6 p.m., and starting at 6:30 p.m., Reid, author of the award-winning “Such a Fun Age, will talk about her work. There will be selected readings from her book, “Such a Fun Age,” and a panel discussion in connection with Gloucester Reads.   

The program moderator is Michea McCaffrey, co-chair of the Gloucester Racial Justice Team and member of the Gloucester Human Rights Commission. The panel includes James Cook, principal of Gloucester High School; and Doug Rich, co-owner of Susie’s Stories in Rockport, and who also is a jazz musician. Refreshments will follow. 

Reid is a New York Times bestselling author and an assistant professor at the University of Michigan. “Such A Fun Age” was her debut novel and was longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize.

Gloucester Reads Event:

Doors open at 6 pm
Author Kiley Reid speaks (virtually) from 6:30 – 7:30 pm
Community discussion and refreshments from 7:30 – 8 pm

Register Here

For more information, visit: sawyerfreelibrary.org.

Gloucester Main Street Block Party is on Saturday!

~ Greater Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce

What a line up we have for the 2nd Gloucester Main Street Block Party on this Saturday evening August 12 from 6 to 10 PM! Our headline performer is Alazakam – The Human Knot, a world famous contortionist who will amaze you with his twisting and bending, while making you laugh at the same time! In addition, the NE Revolution will be present with games for the kids, a bucket drumming act from Berkley School of Music will be striking up a beat, and everyone’s favorite Cape Ann Dance will feature their talented young dancers. Please visit the Chamber Event Calendar for a full list of entertainment, non-profits, businesses and food vendors who will be on hand to delight the young and old alike! See you there! Please share to your friends & followers! The Gloucester Main Street Block Party is presented by the Greater Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with the City of Gloucester.

SFL’s Young Gloucester Scientists Club: Field Trip to Maritime Gloucester 

~ Sawyer Free Library

Register now for a day of sea-side learning at Maritime Gloucester on Thursday, August 11th! The Sawyer Free Library Young Gloucester Scientists will help raise the sails on the Schooner Ardelle as they learn what it takes to be a sailor. Then they’ll spend some time on land learning about invasive crab species and rotate through stations all about the unassuming oyster, emphasizing its unique internal anatomy with a hands on dissection.

This program is suitable for 4th-8th graders. Registration is required for this free day long program!

All participants are asked to arrive at 32 Harbor Loop by 9:20a.m. and pick up will be at 1:30p.m. Permission slips required. All attendees should bring a bag lunch and water, no glass containers please.

For questions, visit sawyerfreelibrary.org or 978-325-5500.

The Young Gloucester Scientist’s Club is supported by federal funds provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and administered by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. The YGSC is a monthly club for 4th through 8th graders that introduces them to Gloucester Community members with careers across a variety of STEM fields.

Gloucester Area Astronomy Club Meeting, Friday, August 11: Astrophotography Night in Lanesville!

~ Michael Deneen
Image credit Phil Orbanes

Our August 11 GAAC meeting, at 8:00 pm at the Lanesville Community Center, will feature our annual, always-popular Astrophotography program, a series of presentations by our  photographers, each showing off some of their most compelling work. 

This will be an opportunity for you to experience locally-captured images of galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters in a bright, large format on our screen, with explanations of what we’re all seeing and what is important about it. 

We’ve also added an important new introduction to the program. This year our own professional explainer Dr. Bill Waller, late of Rockport High School, will tell us up front, in plain language, what some of those baffling initials the photographers use actually mean. Knowing what head-scratchers like Ha, RGB, O3, or RASA are all about can help you see more in each astronomical object, and understand more about the process of capturing its image.

We hope you can join us at the Lanesville Community Center on the 11th for a fun evening with GAAC. There’s plenty of free parking, no dues or fees, lots of great snacks and conversation and amazing presentations, and you’ll leave knowing things you don’t know now. What could be better? Doors open at 7:45.