Come to 10 Meadowdam Rd. in Lincoln on Friday, Dec. 16 from 10 a.m.–noon to purchase beautiful cloth napkins and meet Omnia and William, South Sudanese Americans who are part of the South Sudanese Enrichment for Families‘ sewing project. All proceeds go to SSEF’s Women’s Program.
Civil War historian and Lincoln resident Megan Kate Nelson will give a talk about her new book, Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Preservation in Reconstruction America (Scribner, 2022) at the Concord Museum on Tuesday, Jan. 24 at 7 p.m. at the Concord Museum. It tells the vivid story of how, 150 years ago, Yellowstone became the world’s first national park amid the nationwide turmoil and racial violence of the Reconstruction era. A narrative of adventure and exploration, the creation of Yellowstone is also a story of Indigenous resistance and the struggles of Black southerners during a turning point in the nation’s history. Nelson was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 2020 for The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West (read this Lincoln Squirrel profile of her). Click here to register.
All residents, especially parents and grandparents who are watching children during school vacation week, are invited to an intergenerational event on maple tree taping. Learn about how indigenous peoples in our area collected and boiled sap, sample some of Will and Abigail’s syrup, and then go outside to tap the sugar maples next to Bemis Hal with Nancy Bergen from Matlock Farm. Dress for outdoor weather. Sponsored by the Council on Aging and Human Services.
Gov. Maura Healey will join the crowd when Ms. G, the official groundhog of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, makes her annual prediction at the Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary in Lincoln for Groundhog Day on Thursday, Feb. 2. Families and children attend the popular event each year, eager to watch Ms. G emerge from hibernation and explore her special enclosure, which includes groundhog treats like fresh veggies.
Beginning at 9:30 a.m., attendees can learn how animals, including Drumlin Farm’s sheep, keep themselves warm and healthy in cold weather. Ms. G will make her appearance at 10 a.m., with Mass Audubon President David J. O’Neill and State Sen. Michael Barrett, a leading voice for climate change and renewable energy on Beacon Hill, welcoming the governor and attendees. Participants will then be encouraged to enjoy other event-related programs from making groundhog crafts to meeting live animal ambassadors and learning how they adapt to winter as the climate changes.
“The impacts of climate change and loss of biodiversity in New England are already clear,” O’Neill said. “They can only strengthen our resolve to find policy- and nature-based solutions to the major environmental challenges of our times.”
Free with admission. To learn more, visit massaudubon.org/groundhogday.
The Friends of Modern Architecture/Lincoln Film Series presents “The Oyler House: Richard Neutra’s Desert Retreat,” a first-run feature film release directed by Michael Dorsey, on Thursday, Feb. 2 at 6 p.m. in the Lincoln Public Library as part of the 2023 Lincoln Winter Carnival. There will be a reception after the screening.
The Oyler house was designed for Richard Oyler in 1959 by Neutra in Lone Pine, Calif. The design resonates with Lincoln’s Modern architecture, where careful attention to specific site qualities has enabled architects to celebrate and enrich the experience of living with the land in modest homes. The film highlights a place that remains a valuable example of how Modern principles and sensibilities continue to resonate and enrich our lives today.
On Wednesday, Feb. 8 at 7 p.m., join Emily Levine of Longfellow House–Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site for “Freedom’s Cause: Historical Black Communities and George Washington’s Cambridge Camp,” a discussion of how free and enslaved Black members of Washington’s war camp interacted with one another, members of the local community, and the general himself. For example, Washington corresponded with poet Phillis Wheatley; he segregated the Continental Army, then reversed the decision. The family of Tony and Cuba Vassall, formerly enslaved by the first owner of the Cambridge house (which Lincoln’s Pierce House was designed to emulate), lived in freedom next to people enslaved by the Washingtons.
This event is hosted by the Wellesley Free Library. Click here to register.
The Friends of Minute Man National Park will host their winter lecture, “Minutemen Revisited: Rethinking Concord’s Role in the Revolution: A Conversation with Robert Gross and Friends,” on Sunday, Feb. 26 at 2 p.m. via Zoom. Gross will discuss his revised and expanded edition of The Minutemen and Their World in conversation with Joel Bohy, J.L. Bell, and Jim Hollister. Free; click here to register. The lecture is co-sponsored by the Friends of Minute Man and Minute Man National Historical Park and is also supported in part by a grant from the Concord Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.
Join Lincoln Conservation Ranger Will Leona to visit different trails in Lincoln on the first Saturday of each month (March 4, April 1, and May 6) from 9:30–11 a.m. Walks are generally two miles long and are appropriate for all ages. Click here for registration, which is required to keep group size under 15 people and to ensure we can contact you in case of cancellation due to weather.
The Friends of Modern Architecture/Lincoln invite you to a presentation, panel discussion, and reception celebrating the revitalization of the Lincoln School on Thursday, March 16 from 6:30–8 p.m. in the school’s Learning Commons. Lincoln Modern architects Lawrence B. Anderson and Henry B. Hoover, who designed the original school buildings beginning in the 1940s, saw the power of Modernism to reimagine how architecture could assist the school community to think and learn in new and inclusive ways. With the generous support of the town, the School Building Committee and the project architects have again reimagined the transformative power of architecture. The project team has realized an ambitious, first-in-the-state net-zero renovation that centers on teachers and students while preserving Anderson’s and Hoover’s original design intent of creating close connections to nature and using natural light to create calm energy throughout the building.
Codman Estate researcher and lead guide Camille Arbogast will present “A Tale of Two Chauffeurs: True Crime in the Age of Early Motoring” on Wednesday, March 22 at 7 p.m. via Zoom. One morning in June 1914 the Codman family awoke at their country estate in Lincoln to discover their prized new Peerless motorcar — as well as their chauffeur — were missing. This mystery, full of colorful characters and misadventures at the edge of the law, winds its way from the Lincoln station to Rutland, Vt., with detours across New England. Click here to register.
The final session in the “On Belonging in Outdoor Spaces” will take place via Zoom on Wednesday, March 29 at 7 p.m. José G. González, founder of Latino Outdoors and co-founder of the Outdoorist Oath, will speak on “Wayfinding and Belonging in the Outdoors.” As a Partner in the Avarna Group and through his own consulting, his work focuses on equity and inclusion frameworks and practices in the environmental, outdoor, and conservation fields. The series is organized by the Walden Woods Project, Mass Audubon, Farrington Nature Linc, The Food Project, the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, and the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust. Click here to register.
Join Lincoln Conservation Ranger Will Leona to visit different trails in Lincoln on the first Saturday of each month (March 4, April 1, and May 6) from 9:30–11 a.m. Walks are generally two miles long and are appropriate for all ages. Click here for registration, which is required to keep group size under 15 people and to ensure we can contact you in case of cancellation due to weather.
There will be a blood drive in memory of Zach Wall at the Lovelane Special Needs Horseback Riding Program (40 Baker Bridge Rd.) aboard the Dana Farber Cancer Institute/Brigham and Women’s Hospital Bloodmobile on Wednesday, April 5 from 9 a.m.– 3 p.m. Click here to make an appointment (must be at least 17). As a special thank-you, all successful donors will receive a Target gift card from the Kraft Family Blood Donor Center. Contact Eliza at eliza@lovelane.org with questions.
When we think about Abraham Lincoln’s origins, we don’t usually think of Massachusetts, but he had a compelling connection to the state. Lincoln addressed a Whig convention in Worcester where he so impressed party leaders that he was invited to dinner the next evening at Gov. Levi Lincoln’s home. Justice Dennis J. Curran (ret.), a Massachusetts trial judge for 15 years, will explore how one seminal event spurred Lincoln’s emotional and political growth, and how Lincoln’s family heritage provided a backdrop for what was to come. Click here to register.
Don’t miss the First Parish in Lincoln’s famous May Market Trash and Treasures sale on Saturday, April 8 at the First Parish Stone Church from 9 a.m.–noon. This is the first time it’s been held since 2018, so we now have five years’ worth of treasures including fine and casual furniture, fabulous jewelry, antiques/collectibles, gardening items, artwork, toys, and housewares of all sorts. We’re holding May Market in April this year because May weekends are just too lovely to be spent at an indoor sale. All items are priced to sell, and you will find treasures from every decade.
First Parish held the first May Market Trash and Treasures sale in 1981. It takes more than 70 people to collect, sort, clean, mark, stage, sell, and clean up. At the end of day, another huge effort begins to donate every single remaining item to local charitable organizations. In 2018, we donated $8,000 worth of furniture and housewares to Household Goods Recycling in Acton and sent four full pickup trucks to Sudbury to go to Nigeria by container ship. Another three truckloads went to the swap table and two full SUVs to Savers (a thrift store in Natick). This end-of-day effort is all part of First Parish’s commitment to helping others as well as keeping as much out of our landfills as possible.
All proceeds from May Market (one of the church’s very few fundraisers) are used for special projects at First Parish.
Meet some real owls on Monday, April 17 at 1 p.m. when Farrington Nature Linc hosts naturalist Marcia Wilson from Eyes on Owls. She’ll introduce the audience to owls found in New England and other parts of the world and imitate the owls’ calls herself before bringing out six rehabilitated owls on at a time (each owl has a permanent disability which prevents them from surviving on their own in the wild). There’ll be plenty of time for close-up views, photos, and questions. Click here to register. you can also share a coupon code “SPRING” that will provide a 15% discount.
The Sudbury-Wayland-Lincoln Domestic Violence Roundtable invites the public to a free wine and beer tasting to support its annual Shower for Shelters on Friday, April 21 at 7 p.m. at Spirits of Maynard (4 Digital Way, Suite 3, Maynard). There will be light refreshments provided by the Roundtable and a short presentation by a survivor. Please bring a new, unwrapped housewarming gift to the event. These donations will be collected and given to the clients of Reach Beyond Domestic Violence, The Second Step, and Voices Against Violence.
Requested items include bedding (twin-size sheets, pillowcases, blankets, comforters, and pillows), crib sheets, bath towels and face cloths, unscented cleaning products and laundry detergent, laundry baskets, kitchen utensils, flatware, dishes, drinking glasses, and small kitchen appliances. Supermarket and departments store gift cards are also welcome.
The Lincoln Public Library invites children in grades 4-6 to a natural treasure hunt with author and educator Clare Walker Leslie on Thursday, April 27 at 4 p.m. Learn how to observe and preserve your thoughts about the natural world by creating a beautiful journal that integrates science, art, math, and writing. Clare’s nature journaling method inspires students to draw conclusions and make observations that instill a respect for the natural world around us and promote conservation into the future. This program will include classroom instruction and a low intensity outdoor walk, weather permitting. Leslie’s books will be available to purchase at the event. Space is limited; please email sfeather@minlib.net to register. The program is funded thanks to a partnership between the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust and the Friends of the Lincoln Library.
Join Lincoln Conservation Ranger Will Leona to visit different trails in Lincoln on the first Saturday of each month (March 4, April 1, and May 6) from 9:30–11 a.m. Walks are generally two miles long and are appropriate for all ages. Click here for registration, which is required to keep group size under 15 people and to ensure we can contact you in case of cancellation due to weather.
Learn more about Operation Desert Storm from U.S. Army veteran Robert Lewis on Friday, May 12 at 3 p.m. in Bemis Hall. He’ll examine how deception played a key role and show actual leaflets used during one of the shortest and least costly of America’s military victories. Sponsored by the Lincoln Council on Aging & Human Services.