The Lincoln Squirrel – News, features and photos from Lincoln, Mass.

seniors

Financial help is available for fuel bills and more

billsDo you need help paying your winter fuel bill? Call the Lincoln Council on Aging, which can help you apply for funds from the Massachusetts Fuel Assistance Program.

The program provides a cash benefit, payable to an authorized fuel provider, for both home owners and renters with eligible incomes. How much you receive depends on your household income, how many people you have in your household, and your heating costs.

Regardless of age, residents must apply for Fuel Assistance Program aid through the Council on Aging (COA), whose staff will help with filling out forms. To apply, call Pam Alberts at 781-259-8811 to set up an appointment. The Southern Middlesex Opportunity Council will review the application to determine whether you are eligible.

Even if you’re not sure whether you qualify for the Fuel Assistance Program, “give us a call anyway, because even if you’re not eligible, there are other programs that we may be able to hook you up with,” said Carolyn Bottum, director of the COA. These other state programs offer heating system repairs, discount utility rates, and Citizens Energy heat assistance, and weatherization services.

Lincoln assistance also available

For other types of unforeseen financial emergencies, the Lincoln Emergency Assistance Fund and the Small Necessities Project can help.  The Lincoln Emergency Assistance Fund, which is funded entirely by donations, provides assistance of up to $500 per lifetime for Lincoln residents in situations when that amount will allow someone to stay in our community.

The Small Necessities Project can provide immediate help if a resident has no food in the house, needs emergency medication, needs a night or two of lodging due to a fire or flood, or has a similar problem. This Project is funded by the Ogden Codman Trust and donations.

For more information or to ask for assistance from any of these programs,call Pam Alberts at the COA at 781-259-8811.

Lincoln Winter Carnival schedule is here!

WinterCarnivalPoster2013The 2013 Lincoln Winter Carnival kicks off Friday, February 1 with community bingo and a concert by the U.S. Air Force band of LIberty Jazz Ensemble. Other events that weekend include:

  • Girl Scout breakfast
  • Groundhog Day at Drumlin Farm
  • Snowshoe tours at deCordova
  • Vermont PuppeTree performs “Caps for Sale”
  • Community skating
  • Lincoln Family Association Energy Blaster
  • Acoustic coffee house
  • Loveland Special Needs Horseback Riding Program open house
  • Concert by the Boston Classical Trio

Click here for the full schedule.

How do you make a blog?

Blogs are a great way to share your news, thoughts, ideas, writings, photos, artwork, and more—and blogging is easier than you might think. The Lincoln Council on Aging invites you this Friday to come hear Alice Waugh, editor/reporter/publisher of the Lincoln Squirrel, explain how you can easily start your own blog for free—whether it’s just a page of text or featuring pictures, videos and links. Even if you’re not sure whether blogging is for you, come on down and see what it’s all about!

When: Friday, January 16 at 10:00 a.m.

Where: Bemis Hall

Lincoln welcomes the new year at First Day

Lincolnites had a great time socializing and enjoying the music of Weston’s Ancient Mariners at the annual First Day celebration hosted by the Pierce House Committee on the afternoon of January 1, 2013. Harold McAleer took photos and created this slide show on YouTube — see how many people you can recognize…

Here’s a video of the band doing “Flat Foot“…

Harold also stepped up to the mike to sing “Million-Dollar Baby” and “It Had to Be You.” Go to his YouTube channel to browse his full collection.

CoA speaker explains what hospice is—and isn’t

erinBy Alice Waugh

The vast majority of people with a terminal medical condition want to die peacefully at home rather than in a hospital, but many seniors don’t know that Medicare will cover hospice care with no out-of-pocket expenses, a hospice representative said at a Council on Aging talk.

Erin Sanford, a patient transition representative from AseraCare Hospice, explained what hospice offers and how Medicare covers it while also dispelling some misconceptions at the November 16 session in Bemis Hall.

The word hospice is related to hospitality, or “providing a place of shelter for weary travelers,” Sanford said. The first hospice was founded in 1967 in London by Dame Cicely Saunders, who felt that end-of life care should provide pain relief, preserve the patient’s dignity, and help the patent and family with the psychological and spiritual pain of death. Medicare added a hospice benefit in 1983. Medicaid, MassHealth and most private insurance plans also have a hospice benefit.

[Read more…] about CoA speaker explains what hospice is—and isn’t

Tabla music and pizza this Sunday

Sandeep Das

The Birches School and Lincoln Nursery School are hosting a concert featuring tabla master Sandeep Das from Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble on Sunday, Dec. 2 at 3:30 p.m. A children’s singalong led by music teachers Mark Weltner and Abby Zocher will follow Sandeep Das’ performance. Families are invited to a pizza party after the concert at the Birches School (14 Bedford Road, Stone Church across from Bemis Hall).

Tickets are $15 for adults, $5 for children, $30 for families and $10 for seniors. Please pay online at www.birchesschool.org or with cash or check at the door. For more information, call Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis at 781-728-5438.

deCordova scraps art classes for adults

For the first time in decades, adults looking for hands-on art instruction at the deCordova won’t see any offerings.

(This article originally appeared in the Lincoln Journal on September 7, 2012.)

By Alice Waugh

This fall, for the first time in decades, there will be no semester-based art classes at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum. DeCordova has scrapped its school in favor of a greater focus on sculpture and family-based programs. The Lincoln Nursery School, which has rented one of the art-class studios for the past two years, is moving its entire operation into the vacated studios.

The museum school closure, which faculty members were told about last November, has engendered a feeling of loss in many students and longtime deCordova faculty members.

[Read more…] about deCordova scraps art classes for adults

Oldies but goodies at antique auto show

(This article was originally published in the Lincoln Journal on July 20, 2012.)

By Alice Waugh

Strolling the landscaped grounds of the Codman Estate on Sunday, visitors could take in dozens of antique cars ranging from a Ford Model T to a 1960s Dodge Dart.

The annual antique car show was sponsored at Codman for the 28th year by Historic New England as a fundraiser and a way to attract people to the estate who might not otherwise visit. Some of the cars and owners, including John Bartley of Watertown, have been coming to the show since it began 28 years ago.

Bartley’s car, a 1937 Ford Touring Deluxe, is unusual because it’s only had two owners—Bartley and his late mother. Because of rationing during World War II, she was unable to get a new tire to replace one that was damaged, so she sold the car to her son for $2 in 1943, and he’s owned it ever since. In the glove compartment, Bartley still keeps the notebook in which he jotted down the expenses incurred on a road trip to Canada on his honeymoon in 1951 ($8 for a hotel room, $3.85 for supper, $2.02 for 8.1 gallons of gas).

Bartley’s car is also unusual in that it’s had very little work done on it, since he’s taken good care of it over the years.

“I’m not into restoration. I like ’em clean,” he said.

Another car at the show that’s stayed in the family for a while was the 1975 baby-blue Volkswagen Beetle owned by Laurence and Nancy Zuelke of Lincoln. Because the odometer wasn’t working for a while, they’re not sure exactly how many miles they’ve put on it, though Nancy estimates it at “two-hundred-something thousand.”

Next to the Zuelkes’ car was another 1957 Beetle, this one in metallic gold. Some have asked owner John Henry of Dunstable, if that’s really the original color. He explained that VW offered gold Bugs for two years in honor of the one-millionth Beetle that rolled off the assembly line in Wolfsburg, Germany in 1955. For the show, Henry added a period touch with some musty old suitcases tied to a 1950s VW roof rack with twine (though he used more reliable modern bungee cords for the drive down to Lincoln).

Perhaps the most unusual customization on view was the paint job on a black 1962 Cadillac convertible. Owner John Dunton of Waltham did the painting himself, with advice from an artist friend. Radiating along the sides are subtle red “ghost flames”; because of the technique he used, the flames sparkle in bright sun but almost completely disappear in low light. Dunton even removed the door handles and other appendages from the sides of his 18-foot-long car to enhance the sleek effect.

Click on pictures to see larger versions: