Book Discussion with Aviva Chomsky author of Central America’s Forgotten History on 1/20 at 6pm

~ Sawyer Free Library

Sawyer Free Library to present a virtual Author Talk with AVIVA CHOMSKY about her book Central America’s Forgotten History on 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’s Annual Valentines Breakfast Fundraiser Goes Virtual

~ trixy546

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.

To donate to SeniorCare’s Meals on Wheels program, please go to www.seniorcareinc.org/2022unbreakfast.

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  

~ todtheopendoor

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Media Contact: 

Grace Chiou 

grace.chiou@nschi.org 

(978)-744‑8388 

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: 

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. 

### 

GLOUCESTER MEETINGHOUSE MLK DAY ANNUAL CELEBRATION JANUARY 17TH!

~ chasnaz

The Gloucester Meetinghouse Foundation will host it 6th annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Celebration, live on Zoom, on Monday, January 17th at 2:00pm. Please preregister at http://www.gloucestermeetinghouse.org

The Racial Climate in Gloucester, What Lies Ahead will be the focus of the 2-hour program, including including findings of a new community survey. The keynote speaker will be Brian Saltsman, Director of Student Diversity and Inclusion at Alfred University in upstate New York. He is a leading advocate of addressing community issues between dominant and marginalized racial, ethnic or economic sectors as allies, a process known as “allyship.”

The invited presenting organizations are:

  • The Gloucester Racial Justice Team, reporting on a survey that assessed how much people of color “feel like they have a sense of community and belong in the city, including how race and ethnicity play a role in their daily lives,” according to GRJT spokesperson Gail Seavey.
  • The North Shore Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) which most recently has focused on racism issues within Danvers High School athletic teams. A branch leader will discuss the North Shore branch’s activities across a region stretching from Lynn to New Hampshire.
  • The Diversity and Equity Committee of the Gloucester 400th Anniversary Celebration, which is researching narrative stories that accurately depict racial and ethnic relationships since European settlement began displacing the native, indigenous Pennacook-Abenaki peoples. This will include years of slave ownership and maritime commerce in the global slave trade.

A video of this program with be available on the Gloucester Meetinghouse Foundation’s YouTube channel afterwards. The Foundation is a nonsectarian, federally-recognized nonprofit, organized to promote the preservation and community programming of the historic 1806 Meetinghouse on Middle Street, home of the first Universalist Church in America. Tax-deductible donations are welcome and may be made on the website, or by check to “GMF” at 10 Church Street, Gloucester, MA 01930.

SAWYER FREE LIBRARY THANKS THE COMMUNITY FOR ITS SUPPORT!

~ Sawyer Free Library

Thanks to the Gloucester community’s incredible generosity, the Sawyer Free Library is excited to announce that it not only reached, but greatly exceeded, its 2021 Annual Appeal fundraising goal! 

This year the Library was thrilled to welcome many new contributors and thankful for all returning donors. No matter the amount, your support means so much! 

Your support of the Sawyer Free Library empowers individuals, strengthens families, and makes our greater Gloucester community a better place to live, for which we are deeply grateful! THANK YOU!

“Libraries are not made, they grow.” – Augustine Birrell

The Gloucester Lyceum & Sawyer Free Library Inc. serves the informational and cultural needs of Gloucester’s residents of all ages as it has for over 175 years. Today, its purpose remains to provide equal access to quality resources that serve all people’s lifelong cultural, educational, and informational needs and interests. Its guiding mission is to be a place of learning, innovation, and creativity to nurture and strengthen the community. Each year, the Library hosts hundreds of programs and serves thousands of people, all of which are free and open to the public.

To learn more, visit sawyerfreelibrary.org

Reminder: Author Ted Reinstein at the Sawyer Free Library this Saturday, 1/8 from 2-4pm

~ Sawyer Free Library

The Sawyer Free Library will host award-winning author and journalist Ted Reinstein this Saturday, January 8, from 2:00-4:00 pm. He will speak about his latest book, Before Brooklyn: The Unsung Heroes Who Helped Break Baseball’s Color Barrier, on the Main Floor of the Library located at 2 Dale Avenue in Gloucester, MA.

The event is free and open to the public. Registration is not required. Copies of the book Before Brooklyn: The Unsung Heroes Who Helped Break Baseball’s Color Barrier will be available. Face masks are mandatory for those attending. 

Saturday, January 8, 2-4pm at the Sawyer Free Library

In April of 1945, exactly two years before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball, liberal Boston City Councilman Izzy Muchnick persuaded the Red Sox to try out three black players in return for a favorable vote to allow the team to play on Sundays. The Red Sox got the councilman’s much-needed vote, but the tryout was a sham; the three players would get no closer to the major leagues. It was a lost battle in a war that was ultimately won by Robinson in 1947. This book tells the story of the little-known heroes who fought segregation in baseball, from communist newspaper reporters to the Pullman car porters who saw to it that black newspapers espousing integration in professional sports reached the homes of blacks throughout the country. It also reminds us that the first black player in professional baseball was not Jackie Robinson but Moses Fleetwood Walker in 1884, and that for a time integrated teams were not that unusual. And then, as segregation throughout the country hardened, the exclusion of blacks in baseball quietly became the norm, and the battle for integration began anew.

Ted Reinstein is an award-winning, longtime reporter for Boston’s celebrated nightly-newsmagazine, “Chronicle.” He is the author of three previous books, including New England Notebook: One Reporter, Six States, Uncommon Stories (Globe Pequot Press), selected by National Geographic Traveler in 2014 as a “Best Pick.” 

For more information about the event or other Sawyer Free Library offerings, visit sawyerfreelibrary.org or call 978-325-5500.

Sawyer Free Library’s Most Popular Books Of 2021

~ Sawyer Free Library

As the page turns on 2021, the Sawyer Free Library has compiled a list of some of the most popular books checked out this year by adults, teens, and children. Of the thousands of print, digital, and audiobooks that patrons borrowed, these were Gloucester’s favorites in 2021. 

Fiction:

Gloucester seemingly read “around the world” when it came to their top Fiction books of 2021. 

  • The top book checked out by patrons was The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah, a historical fiction set in The Dust Bowl, the drought-stricken Southern Plains region, during the Great Depression.
  • Next, the list crosses the ocean to an isolated island in West Ireland with the contemporary murder mystery novel The Guest List by Lucy Foley. 
  • Returning to the United States, the powerful novel, The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, focuses on two twin sisters and issues of racial identity and bigotry in the segregated south.
  • With the backdrop of the City of Lights, bestselling author Louise Penny tells the story of Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Quebec investigating a sinister plot in Quebec in her latest book, All the Devils Are Here.
  • Isabel Allende’s novel, A Long Petal of the Sea, follows two of the thousands of Spaniards who emigrated to Chile after Franco and the Nationalists won the Spanish Civil War.
  • Klara and the Sun, written by Japanese-born British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro is a beautiful science fiction romance set far away in a dystopian future.

Non-Fiction:

Of Gloucester’s 25 most-read titles, only two are non-fiction, revealing Gloucester’s preference for a good story. But there were still many on the Top 100 list. 

  • The most popular non-fiction title of 2021 was Caste: The Origins of our Discontent by Isabel Wilkerson. Ten years after her acclaimed non-fiction book The Warmth of Other Suns, Wilkerson spoke to the struggles of 2021 in “Caste,” dissecting the not-so-subtle American caste system and the social stratification among race and class in the U.S.
  • A Women of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy who Helped win WWII by Sonia Purnell. This compelling and well-researched biography of Virginia Goillot reveals her pivotal role in coordinating the Resistance in Europe.
  • Niksen: Embracing the Dutch Art of Doing Nothing by Olga Mecking. Based on the premise that the Dutch are the happiest people globally, this wellness guide shares how to embrace idleness and explains how doing nothing can make us happier, more productive, and more creative.
  • The final standout on the non-fiction list is Swimming to the Top of the Tide. Written by local author Patricia Hanlon, it chronicles four seasons of her daily immersion in New England’s Great Marsh.

Adults weren’t the only ones looking to learn and have a little literary fun this year. Children and young adults alike were browsing the Library’s shelves, in person and online, and to follow were some of their best-loved reads. 

Young Adult:

The Young Adult titles with the highest circulations were those on the school reading lists. These engaging books written for readers ages 12-18, include: 

The Boy who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba, Angela Duckworth’s Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance and March: Book One, the first volume in a graphic novel trilogy about and by civil and human rights leader, John Lewis with Andrew Aydin. How-to books and self-help books were also popular with the Library’s younger patrons, as was Amanda Gorman’s book of poetry, The Hill We Climb. 

Children:

Five of the top fifteen books for children of reading age were by Jeff Kinney and are titles in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series which encourages even reluctant readers to laugh at the antics of the irresistible main character Greg. Dav Pilkey’s Dog Man series fills two slots on the most popular list. Both titles of Zeeta Elliot’s magical series appeared: The Dragon Thief and Dragons in a Bag. The dragon theme continues on the island of Arcos in the popular Legends of the Sky books series by Liz Flanagan. 

For those interested, complete lists of the Sawyer Free Library’s Most Borrowed Books in 2021, including Adult Mysteries, Graphic Novels, and Teen and Children’s Nonfiction titles, can be found at sawyerfreelibrary.org. 

Anyone who resides or attends school in Gloucester can obtain a Library card for free by applying in person, online, or by mail. For more information, visit sawyerfreelibrary.org or call 978-325-5500.

Sawyer Free Library to host “Author Talk with Ted Reinstein” to discuss his new book on Saturday, Jan 8th at 2pm

~ Sawyer Free Library

The Sawyer Free Library will host award-winning author and journalist Ted Reinstein on Saturday, January 8, from 2:00-4:00 pm. He will speak about his book, Before Brooklyn: The Unsung Heroes Who Helped Break Baseball’s Color Barrier, on the Main Floor of the Library located at 2 Dale Avenue in Gloucester, MA.

The event is free and open to the public. Registration is not required. Copies of the book Before Brooklyn: The Unsung Heroes Who Helped Break Baseball’s Color Barrier will be available. Face masks are mandatory for those attending. 

In Before Brooklyn: The Unsung Heroes Who Helped Break Baseball’s Color Barrier, Ted Reinstein tells the story of the little-known heroes who fought segregation in baseball. From communist newspaper reporters to the Pullman car porters who saw that black newspapers espousing integration in professional sports reached the homes of blacks throughout the country. It also reminds us that the first black player in professional baseball was not Jackie Robinson but Moses Fleetwood Walker in 1884 and that for a time-integrated teams were not that unusual. And then, as segregation throughout the country hardened, the exclusion of blacks in baseball quietly became the norm, and the battle for integration began anew.

Before Brooklyn by Ted Reinstein

Reinstein is an award-winning, longtime reporter for Boston’s celebrated nightly-newsmagazine, “Chronicle.” He is the author of three previous books, including New England Notebook: One Reporter, Six States, Uncommon Stories (Globe Pequot Press), selected by National Geographic Traveler in 2014 as a “Best Pick.” Ted is a native of Winthrop, Massachusetts.

For more information about the event or other Sawyer Free Library offerings, visit sawyerfreelibrary.org or call 978-325-5500.

SUPPORT GMGI THIS GIVING SEASON

~ Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute

Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute had a pivotal year in 2021 and to make 2022 even better, we need your help.

Supporting GMGI means:

Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute is an ambitious organization. And yet we are just getting started.

Click here to support GMGI.

SAWYER FREE LIBRARY WELCOMES NEW CHILDREN’S LIBRARIAN TO STAFF

~ Sawyer Free Library

The Sawyer Free Library is pleased to welcome Marisa Hall as its newest Children’s Librarian.

“I am beyond pleased to welcome Marisa Hall, with her innovative thinking, boundless enthusiasm, and love of working with children, to our dedicated and talented staff at the Sawyer Free Library,” stated Jenny Benedict, the Library Director. “Marisa is so approachable and friendly. I know that our young patrons and their families will welcome her warmly.”

Marisa brings her extensive experience of creating and implementing programs and community outreach events designed to catch the attention and meet the needs of the library’s younger patrons to her new position at the Sawyer Free Library.  With expertise in STEM/STEAM concepts and practices, she will also be developing new innovative programs for children and teens of all ages.

“I’ve been so inspired by the Sawyer Free Library community and my warm welcome to Gloucester that I can’t wait to jump in and start working with the library’s young patrons,” said Marisa Hall on her new role. “I’m looking forward to getting to know even more of the community through my Saturday story-times and STEM programming in the new year.”

Marisa comes to Gloucester from New York, where she most recently served as the Senior Children’s Librarian New York Public Library’s Riverside branch for over four years. She has been recognized with numerous professional awards and certifications for her work in library services and received her M.L.I.S. with a concentration in School Media and Youth Services from Rutgers University and a Bachelor’s of Arts from the University of Delaware.  

The Children’s Room staff led by Christy Rosso.

SFL’s New Children’s Librarian