Embracing Change, a Lincoln nonprofit, is offering a four-session program focused on helping parents transition into or through the empty-nest period with ease and fun. They give parents the opportunity to connect, design, and redefine this new stage of life. Sessions are on four consecutive Wednesdays from 1–3 p.m. at the Pierce House. The program is free but the material fee is $40. Limit of 16 people due to the pandemic. Click here to register.
Wednesday, Sept. 8: “Navigating Transitions through Productive Communication with Adult Children”
Dr. Teresa Simonelli will discuss how we can positively address concerns, emotions and transitions by using productive communication skills with young adults. A “welcome tea” will precede the session from 1–1:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Sept. 15: “What’s Next: Finding Your Purpose, Designing Your Journey”
As parents adapt and adjust to life without children at home, they may reassess their personal satisfaction with how they spend their time and contemplate what might be next. You’ll leave with goals and a map to chart your own path and personal journey.
Wednesday, Sept. 22: “Expanding Your Horizons: Delving into New Activities and Careers”
Attendees will explore activities and careers and then hear from several guests who have changed careers and explored new interests after their children left home.
Wednesday, Sept. 29: “Ready, Set, Go and It’s All About Relationships”
Attendees will share tips on how to care for aging parents while taking care of themselves and their families, and will leave prepared for that sometimes awkward question, “So what are you doing now?” as career and leadership coach Patty Levy jump-starts each participant’s own distinctive elevator pitch.
“Lincoln’s Trail Use Vision” is the focus of the Conservation Coffee on Thursday, Sept. 9 from 8–9 a.m. Conservation Director Michele Grzenda will discuss Lincoln’s previous and current trail use and steps for evaluating future changes in allowed trail uses. Pre-registration is required; click here. After registering, you’ll receive an email with the meeting link. Email conservation@lincolntown.org with any questions.
Celebrate the Lincoln-based Food Project in an online event on Thursday, Sept. 9 from 7–8 p.m. Each year, the Big Shindig welcomes supporters, parents, neighbors and young workers to celebrate the food grown, the communities supported, and the youth empowered as the organization worked together through a pandemic that provided a stark reminder of the importance of its work towards food justice and equality. Click here to register for the free event. Additionally, bidding is now open for the Food Project’s silent auction.
By Ursula Nowak and Karen Salvucci
The Society of St Vincent de Paul of Lincoln and Weston is devoted to assisting individuals and families in our communities who live in dire need due to unemployment, health issues, hunger, and the inability to meet even basic expenses. Over the past two years, more neighbors than ever before have reached out for our help, and the number of food pantry clients has almost doubled. Past support for our mission has enabled us to respond to these requests, but we now need your help to continue this vital work.
On Saturday, Sept. 25 at 9 a.m., SVdP is hosting an Every Mile Counts Walk to kick off our fundraising effort. This is an opportunity to walk together to show our commitment to our community and help us reach our goal of $40,000. Please join us by walking and/or donating to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul of Lincoln and Weston. We are neighbors helping neighbors.
To register for the Every Mile Counts Walk (followed by an ice cream social), click here. There is a suggested donation of $10 per person or $25 per family. To donate directly to SVdP of Lincoln and Weston, click here or mail your check (payable to St. Vincent de Paul) to SVdP, PO Box 324, Lincoln, MA 01773. Thank you!
Nowak is president and Salvucci is president-elect of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul of Lincoln and Weston.
“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.
Area-wide hazardous waste collection days will take place at the Minuteman Household Hazardous Product Collection Facility (60 Hartwell Ave., Lexington) from 9 a.m.–2 p.m on the following dates:
- Saturday, July 17
- Saturday, Aug. 21
- Sunday, Sept. 19
- Saturday, Oct. 16
- Saturday, Nov. 6
Open to all residents of Arlington, Bedford, Belmont, Concord, Lexington, Lincoln, Waltham, and Watertown. All residents must pre-register online by clicking here. Pick a date, time slot, and estimated amount of waste you plan to bring, and submit. When you go, you’ll need to show your license or a bill as proof of Lincoln residency.
The Scarecrow Classic 5K, an annual event that benefits the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust, will hold an in-person run and a virtual option. The in-person race is Sunday, Oct. 17 at 9:30 a.m. Anyone wishing to run the race virtually can run a 5K anywhere and any time in the week leading up to race day. Register by Friday, Oct. 4 to have your Scarecrow Classic shirt waiting for you on race day. New this year, the LLCT will offer packet pickup for those who preregistered on October 16 from 2–4 p.m. at Lincoln Station. Registration closes on October 15 at midnight, and there will be limited same-day registration starting at 8 a.m. on race day. Learn more at scarecrowclassic5k.com and click here to register.
On Thursday, Sept. 23 from 7–9 p.m., the RJA presents a screening of Professor Jill Lepore’s video talk about King Philip’s War in Massachusetts. The Zoom link can be found on the First Parish in Lincoln’s Racial Justice Advocates web page
The Society of St Vincent de Paul of Lincoln and Weston is devoted to assisting individuals and families in our communities who live in dire need due to unemployment, health issues, hunger, and the inability to meet even basic expenses. Over the past two years, more neighbors than ever before have reached out for our help, and the number of food pantry clients has almost doubled. Past support for our mission has enabled us to respond to these requests, but we now need your help to continue this vital work.
On Saturday, Sept. 25 at 9 a.m., SVdP is hosting an Every Mile Counts Walk to kick off our fundraising effort. This is an opportunity to walk together to show our commitment to our community and help us reach our goal of $40,000. Please join us by walking and/or donating to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul of Lincoln and Weston. We are neighbors helping neighbors.
To register for the Every Mile Counts Walk (followed by an ice cream social), click here. There is a suggested donation of $10 per person or $25 per family. To donate directly to SVdP of Lincoln and Weston, click here or mail your check (payable to St. Vincent de Paul) to SVdP, PO Box 324, Lincoln, MA 01773.
Following the lead of the United Nations, earlier this year the Sudbury Select Board voted to proclaim March 2021 as “Shadow Pandemic Awareness Month.” Over the past 18 months, pandemic conditions have created significant additional concerns for survivors of abuse. While a number of media outlets have noted the increased risk of physical harm, abuse survivors’ experiences with emotional and financial abuse have received less attention.
Join the Sudbury-Wayland-Lincoln Domestic Violence Roundtable via Zoom on Tuesday, Oct. 12 at 3 p.m. to learn more about domestic abuse and ways we can offer help and support to people here in our community. Registration is required and can be completed at www.domesticviolenceroundtable.org.
Following a short video, program participants will talk more about the subtle and not-so-subtle signs of abuse and how we as a community might respond. In addition to highlighting things that individuals can do to raise awareness and support survivors, Roundtable members will talk about the different initiatives and opportunities – ranging from one-time efforts to ongoing projects – that community members can get involved with. Attendees are welcome to participate in the conversation or come to listen.
We especially encourage people connected with local civic, religious, business, political, education-related and social organizations to come and learn more about how your group might get involved with the Roundtable’s efforts to reach out to survivors and prevent abuse in our community.
All are invited to join a Zoom panel presentation led by Lincoln School faculty member Claudia Fox-Tree to explore what we can do to challenge racism against Indigenous peoples. Missing information and misinformation about the First Nations people of the Americas makes it challenging to understand current Indigenous challenges. The journey of un-erasing Indigenous voices and learning what we were not taught, or mis-taught, starts with accurate information about the past and present. It continues by having conversations with families, friends, community members, and our own children. Join Claudia and her allies on a panel as they discuss how United States history is connected to present Indigenous cultural erasure and genocide, and what we can do to challenge racism against Indigenous people.
Click here for the Zoom link. The program is sponsored by the Lincoln METCO Parent’s Group.
Lincoln School is on the territory of the Pawtucket and Massa-adchu-es-et.
Area-wide hazardous waste collection days will take place at the Minuteman Household Hazardous Product Collection Facility (60 Hartwell Ave., Lexington) from 9 a.m.–2 p.m on the following dates:
- Saturday, July 17
- Saturday, Aug. 21
- Sunday, Sept. 19
- Saturday, Oct. 16
- Saturday, Nov. 6
Open to all residents of Arlington, Bedford, Belmont, Concord, Lexington, Lincoln, Waltham, and Watertown. All residents must pre-register online by clicking here. Pick a date, time slot, and estimated amount of waste you plan to bring, and submit. When you go, you’ll need to show your license or a bill as proof of Lincoln residency.
Political candidates and Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School alumni Brian Worrell (L-S ’01) and Jared Nicholson (L-S ’04) are teaming up for a joint Lincoln-Sudbury community fundraiser, seeking the support of their classmates, teachers, administrators, and the Lincoln-Sudbury community at large. Worrell, a candidate for Boston City Council District 4, and Nicholson, a candidate for mayor of Lynn, had decisive wins in preliminary elections in September and will advance to runoff elections on November 2.
The virtual fundraiser on Friday, Oct. 15 at 6 p.m. will feature special guest speakers including retired L-S history teacher Bill Schechter and will offer a unique insight into the candidates, their respective campaigns, and their time at Lincoln-Sudbury. All donations will directly benefit the candidacies of Brian and Jared, and all are welcome to attend.
“I am forever grateful for the education that I got at L-S and have been thrilled to be part of the public education team in the Lynn Public Schools as a member of the School Committee. I’m hoping to build on that work as mayor and excited to partner with Brian on this great way to connect with the L-S family,” said Jared Nicholson.
“I owe my many successes to the foundational education I received from L-S through the METCO program, and I have been deeply impacted by the experience,” Worrell said. “The shared community at L-S and my positive experience at the school has prepared me for leadership and I intend to take with me the many values I learned at the school to city hall.”
Purchase tickets for the virtual fundraiser or donate by clicking here. For more information, email Monique_worrell@yahoo.com or krushfirth@gmail.com.
Come learn about:
- The new Zero Waste Campaign and Zero Waste Lincoln Committee
- Mothers Out Front’s “Clean Heat, Clean Air” campaign
- Healthy soils and nature-based solutions to reverse global warming
Drop in or come for the whole time. We want to hear how you’ve been and what is on your mind. Let’s share our joys and concerns and support one another. Bring friends! Please RSVP to emhaslett@gmail.com so we can contact you in case it rains.
Ray Anthony Shepard — educator, writer and First Parish in Lincoln member — will speak via Zoom on “How Do We Talk About Race in a Time of Critical Race Theory Pushback?” on Thursday, Oct. 21 at 7 p.m. Following his talk, he’ll participate in a wide-ranging discussion of his work as historian and interpreter of African-American experiences in his award-winning 2017 Now or Never! 54th Massachusetts Infantry’s War to End Slavery and his 2021 poetic retelling for young readers of the story of a woman enslaved by the Washington family in Runaway: The Daring Escape of Ona Judge. “I write for readers who understand the universal need for fairness” and “to tell a fuller story of our country’s history,” Ray explains on his web page.
The session will also provide room for reflection on themes related to Ray’s work, as they appear in the film Harriet and in books included in our suggested-reading syllabus: Erica Armstrong Dunbar’s Never Caught: The Washington’s’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave Ona Judge; biographies of Harriet Tubman by Kate Clifford Larson and others; William Still’s The Underground Railroad Records; and fictional recreations of the experience of fugitives from bondage by Colson Whitehead and Ta-Nehisi Coates.
To get the link to this Zoom meeting, go to fplincoln.org/calendar and click on October 21 and Ray’s talk. Hosted by FPL’s Racial Justice Journey Steering Committee.
Last spring, we began to explore Lincoln’s past as a town that included enslaved people with a talk by Elise Lemire (co-sponsored by the Lincoln Historical Society and the Bemis Free Lecture Series) on “Slavery in Lincoln, Massachusetts: Reckoning with Our Past, Planning for a More Honest and Inclusive Future” (click here to watch video). We’ll dig deeper on Thursday, Oct. 28 at 7 p.m. with a talk on “Entangled Lives, Black and White: Lincoln and Its African American Residents in the 18th Century” by LHS board member Donald Hafner, a retired vice provost and professor of political science at Boston College. Click here for the Zoom link (meeting ID: 936 3276 0035, passcode: 177417).
The event is co-sponsored by the First Parish in Lincoln’s Racial Justice Journey, which began this fall with a focus on national, local, and church history and the ways in which that history has involved us in questions of race. The aim is to offer access to a variety of sources of information and perspectives that will let participants reconsider these questions together, in preparation for the next stages of the journey, focused on issues (winter) and action (spring). Every Thursday evening at 7 p.m. this fall, there will be Zoom meetings with talks, documentaries, book discussions, or movies. Field trips are also offered as part of the program. Everyone is invited. To learn more, contact Mary Helen Lorenz at mhelen808385@gmail.com.
Area-wide hazardous waste collection days will take place at the Minuteman Household Hazardous Product Collection Facility (60 Hartwell Ave., Lexington) from 9 a.m.–2 p.m on the following dates:
- Saturday, July 17
- Saturday, Aug. 21
- Sunday, Sept. 19
- Saturday, Oct. 16
- Saturday, Nov. 6
Open to all residents of Arlington, Bedford, Belmont, Concord, Lexington, Lincoln, Waltham, and Watertown. All residents must pre-register online by clicking here. Pick a date, time slot, and estimated amount of waste you plan to bring, and submit. When you go, you’ll need to show your license or a bill as proof of Lincoln residency.
Holschuh is a resident of Wantastegok (Brattleboro, Vt.) and an independent historic and cultural researcher. He has served on the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs and is a public liaison and tribal historic preservation officer for the Elnu Abenaki Tribe, members of the contemporary Indigenous community in Vermont. Rich is founder and director of the Atowi Project. His work draws on indigenous history, linguistics, geography, and culture to share beneficial ways of seeing and being in relationship with place.
The Lincoln Land Conservation Trust invites everyone to attend a Zoom meeting with state Sen. Mike Barrett on Monday, Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. In “We Got a Climate Bill for Massachusetts. Now What?” he’ll talk about the far-reaching climate bill that became law in Massachusetts this spring, what needs to be done to make sure it is fully implemented, and what concerned citizens in Lincoln can do to help. There will be time for Q&A. Click here to register for the Zoom link.
The LLCT’s mission includes helping Lincolnites learn more about climate change and what they can do about it. This presentation is co-sponsored by the First Parish in Lincoln Green Committee, St. Anne’s Climate Justice Ministry, and Lincoln Mothers Out Front.
At a MetroWest Climate Solutions panel discussion via Zoom on Tuesday, Nov. 16 at 7 p.m., three local residents will share their personal experiences on creating more climate-efficient homes efforts that extend well beyond adding basic insulation and programmable thermostats. Speakers include Bill Churchill of Lincoln, Sarah Maas Scheuplein of Weston, and Roger Wiegand of Wayland. Register at tinyurl.com/Retrofit2021.
MetroWest Climate Solutions is a growing partnership between First Parish in Wayland, First Parish Church in Weston, First Parish in Lincoln, the Congregational Church of Weston, Sustainable Weston Action Group, and other communities and individuals. Our mission is to share strategies for moving towards a low- and no-carbon-based society and economy and to suggest activities that enable individuals to help bring about solutions.