The Lincoln Squirrel

News, features and photos from Lincoln, Mass.

sports & recreation

News acorns

L-S Mutual Aid Network webinar on Tuesday

The Lincoln-Sudbury Mutual Aid Network, which helps facilitate community connections between neighbors to provide and receive support, will host a webinar on Tuesday, July 28 from 6–7 p.m. On the call, participants will talk about some of the work that’s been done, get to know each other, and think towards the future. All those with suggestions or interest in getting involved are welcome. Click here to register to get the Zoom link.

Food truck picnic on Friday

The food truck picnic at the Pierce House has been rescheduled for Friday, July 31 from 4–8 p.m. On the menu will be food from Moyzilla (Asian food), the Bacon Truck, and the Shuck Truck (fresh local seafood). Please bring your own blanket. There will be sanitizing stations throughout the grounds, and all staff and guests are required to maintain social distancing and wear masks when not eating. A restroom inside the Pierce House will be available. Entry is free; click here to register. Upon arrival, a Pierce House staff member will check you in — just show your EventBrite invitation and you will be told where to park.

Drive-in movie: “Twister”

“Twister” will be shown in the Lincoln mall parking lot as a drive-in movie with car-side meal delivery from Real on Sunday, Aug. 2. Parking for dinner opens at 7:45 p.m. and the movie starts at 8:45 p.m. The cost is $25 per vehicle plus food. Pre-registration is required (click here), and dinner must be pre-ordered from Real by Thursday, July 30 (click here to order). Registration closes on August 2 at noon, or when capacity (35 cars) is reached. Sponsored by the Parks and Recreation Department and the Rural Land Foundation.

Voting information for upcoming primary

In response to recent legislation passed, the state has mailed a vote-by-mail application form to all registered voters. If you did not receive a vote-by-mail postcard application and would like one, please call the Town Clerk’s office at 781 259-2607. You can also call if you have already submitted a vote-by-mail application and would like to confirm they have it on file.

A completed vote-by-mail postcard can either be mailed or dropped in the front entrance mailbox at Town Hall. If you are an independent/unenrolled voter, please select the party ballot you would like to receive for the September 1 primary.

Early voting in person for the September 1 primary will be offered from Saturday, Aug. 22 to Friday, August 28 at Town Hall. Details will be posted on the town website when confirmed. The deadline to register to vote in the primary is August 22. Applications to vote by mail must be received by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 26.

COA now loaning medical equipment

The Lincoln Council on Aging has restarted its medical equipment loan program. The COA is are accepting returned equipment and loaning sanitized equipment by appointment only, Monday to Thursday from 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Please call the COA at 781-259-8811.

Items currently available to for loan include but are not limited to automated pill dispensers, canes, wheelchairs, walkers, crutches, shower benches, seats, and stools, bed rails, grabbers, grab bars, leg braces, shoe horns, rollators, CAPTCHA telephones, commodes, commode liners, hearing aid cleaners, and portable voice amplifiers.

News acorns

Pop-up testing sites for Covid-19

The state Department of Public Health is offering free Covid-19 testing at various locations on June 17 and 18 for people who have recently been in a large group setting such as a protest. Click here for more information and locations. The sites closest to Lincoln are in Cambridge and Somerville (call the listed number to check availability), as well as the CVS store at 800 Lexington St. in Waltham (click here to make an appointment online). Results come back in 2–4 days.

“Duathlon” for kids this weekend

In place of Lincoln’s traditional Splash-Mash-Dash kids’ triathlon, the Parks and Rec Department and triathlon organizers invite kids to do their own “duathlon” (run, bike, run) this weekend (June 20-210. Children age 5-14 can complete the suggested distance (see below) and submit their time and/or photos here — no need to sign up or register anywhere beforehand. This can be done around the school ballfield (only on the weekend when there is no construction traffic) or any other route where you can measure out one-third of a mile. Watch this video for tips on how to set up and execute your race.

  • Ages 5-6: 3 mile run, 1 mile bike ride, 0.3 mile run (on Ballfield Road this would be 1 lap, 3 laps, 1 lap)
  • Ages 7-10: 3 mile run, 2 mile bike ride, 0.6 mile run (1 lap, 6 laps, 2 laps)
  • Ages 11-14: 6 mile run, 3 mile bike ride, 1 mile run (2 laps, 9 laps, 3 laps)

Since the roads will not be closed to traffic as they are during the regular triathlon, make sure your kids ride and run safely by following the rules of the road, wearing helmets, watching carefully for hazards, and (when necessary) participating with them. If your child is able to complete the challenge, bring them to the Hartwell parking lot on Ballfield Road on Monday, June 22 between 4 and 6 p.m. to get a free Lincoln Kids Triathlon shirt (choose the color you like from a previous year’s race) plus a certificate to reward them for their efforts.

State face mask order supersedes Lincoln’s

Lincoln will adopt Gov. Charlie Baker’s May 1 order to wear face masks in public, superseding a rule passed by the town’s Board of Health on April 29. Meanwhile, officials are keeping a close eye on trail traffic in town and are mulling steps to take if they get too crowded with walkers as the weather warms.

Starting on May 6, everyone in Massachusetts is required to wear a cloth face mask when in public spaces both indoors and outdoors. The state order applies to everyone over the age of 2, whereas Lincoln’s earlier order specified age 5, and the governor’s version is more specific as to fines for violating the rule (up to $300). In any case, businesses may bar entry to anyone not wearing a mask. The order is in effect until the governor rescinds it or until the state of emergency is lifted. The stay-at-home order is currently set to expire on May 18.

As of May 4, Lincoln has had a total of 29 cases of Covid-9. All five deaths have involved residents of The Commons in Lincoln who had “serious health co-morbidities,” Public Health Nurse Tricia McGean said.

The Commons is working with Mt. Auburn and Emerson Hospitals to test all staff and residents starting with the assisted-living and memory care cohorts and doing the independent-living residents after that. The process is ongoing as they experience “peaks and valleys” in inventories of supplies, she said.

McGean also cautioned that anyone who’s gotten tested for Covid-19 is not exempt from continuing precautions. “It’s nice to get a negative test, but we still have to practice all the measures that have been drilled into us,” she said. “It’s how you are today, not how you are the next day or the next.”

The mask requirement extends to people walking on trails when they pass within six feet of another person. Many residents from Lincoln and elsewhere have flocked to the trail system for recreation since the pandemic began.

If walkers don’t cooperate enough in terms of social distancing, Lincoln may consider closing trails to non-residents (a step recently take by Sudbury), closing the parking lots, and/or limiting on-street parking near trailheads. Drumlin Farm trails have been closed since late March.

News acorns

Virtual Carnival: resource for Lincoln online activities

Lincoln now has its own Virtual Carnival with links to online programs designed to stimulate, educate, support and motivate residents of all ages. The programs by town organizations include:

  • Home-based exercise classes and children’s activities offered by the Parks and Recreation Department
  • Active Aging, Stretch and Flex, and Line Dancing classes for seniors from the Council on Aging
  • Online read-alouds, personalized reading recommendations, and other activities for children and teens from the Lincoln Public Library. Kids who fill out the library’s Book Match form will receive customized lists of books (e-book, audio, and print format) suggestions from the children’s librarians.

Library activities and offerings

  • In lieu of the previously planned six-part seminar about Walt Whitman at the Lincoln Public Library, actor Stephen Collins has made available his one-man show, “Unlaunche’d Voices, an Evening with Walt Whitman,” via online video — click here to watch. Funding provided by the Friends of the Lincoln Council on Aging and The Friends of the Lincoln Public Library.
  • Residents can borrow virtual magazines from the library’s large online collection with hundreds of titles. Browse or search magazines on Overdrive by title, topic, or date added.
  • The library will hold its Friday Morning Book Group via Zoom on Friday, May 8 at 9:30 a.m. Participants will discuss Dutch Girl: Audrey Hepburn and World War II by Robert Matzen. Hepburn participated in the Dutch Resistance, working as a doctor’s assistant during the “Bridge Too Far” Battle of Arnhem, the brutal execution of her uncle, and the ordeal of the Hunger Winter of 1944. Copies of the books are available for download in eBook or audiobook formats. Email lincoln@minlib.netfor assistance and an invitation to the Zoom meeting.

Nature Naturalist Online classes from Drumlin Farm

Drumlin Farm is offering a series of Nature Naturalist Online classes as well as a session on “Learning Bird Song Online” on Thursday, April 30 from 7–9 p.m. Each of the six Nature Naturalist Online program features a Wednesday evening online presentation along with questions and discussion; a week to complete guided outside exploration, observations, gather data, and develop questions; and a second online session for feedback, questions, and discussion. Fees are $25 per program for Mass Audubon members ($30 for nonmembers) or $125 for members for all six programs ($150 for nonmembers).

Program titles and dates are below. To learn more and register, click on one of the session titles, email dfeducation@massaudubon.org, or call 781-259-2220.

Council on Aging newsletter now online

Click here for the May COA newsletter, which includes:

  • Information on Town Meeting and the town elections
  • Greetings and reminders from Tricia McGean, Lincoln’s Public Health Nurse
  • Greetings from the food pantry
  • A Lincoln history trivia quiz by Jack MacLean
  • Practicing self-care
  • Benefits for veterans who are unemployed due to the pandemic
  • Information from the Fire Department on Knox Boxes and for those with special medical needs
  • Hosting virtual family get-togethers
  • News from the Conservation Department

Social distancing, socially (Lincoln Through the Lens)

Residents in the Beaver Pond Road neighborhood who put together a mailing list to keep in touch during the Covid-19 emergency came up with the idea of a “socially distant walkabout.” The first walk on March 20 featured chalk art in the street and celebratory decorations courtesy of Susan Demchak and Nancy Fincke. After one of the walks, Kip and Kallie Kumler handed out bottles of their Turtle Creek wine to those who completed the loop. The Beaver Pond Loopers now walk every day at 5 p.m. Resident Allen Vander Meulen reported that there were at east 30 people participating on Saturday, March 21.

The Beaver Pond Loopers hit the road with colorful pink streamers.

The Beaver Pond Loopers hit the road with colorful pink streamers.

Leading the way on the first Beaver Pond Loopers walk is AJ Vander Meulen on his pony Pete, followed by his mother, Stephanie Smart, leading their miniature horse Zeus. (Photos by Allen Vander Meulen)

Spacing it out

Residents line up at a safe distance to make purchases at Codman Community Farms. (Photo by Susan Welsh)

Selectmen to meet next week; playgrounds closed

Here’s the latest news about Lincoln’s response to the Covid-19 epidemic.

Zoom meeting open to all

Lincoln resident Andy Payne has set up another online meeting for any interested Lincolnites to learn more about using the popular free meeting app Zoom and chat about whatever is on their minds on Friday, March 20 at 1 p.m. Just go to https://zoom.us/j/494878673 to join the meeting. Anyone needing help in getting Zoom set up before the meeting can email Payne at andy@payne.org.

Board of Selectmen to meet online

The Board of Selectmen will meet online on Monday, March 23 at 6:30 p.m. via Zoom. Though most of Lincoln’s boards and commissions are no longer meeting due to the epidemic, selectmen and some other officials will meet online since Gov. Baker last week relaxed aspects of the Open Meeting Law to allow this, as long as the public can see and hear the meetings in real time.

Residents who want to watch the meeting can do so by going to https://zoom.us/j/437201565 and entering this meeting ID: 437 201 565. If there are insoluble technical issues that prevent public access during the meeting, selectmen will post an audio or video recording, transcript, or other comprehensive record of proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the Town of Lincoln website.

The meeting will cover updates on the public health emergency response and potential votes to clarify or confer certain emergency authorities. Click here for the agenda.

Playgrounds closed

As part of the ongoing efforts to help prevent the spread of Covid-19, Lincoln’s playgrounds and play structures will be closed until further notice. Athletic fields are closed to group gatherings and sporting activities/events. Town parks will remain open and residents are encouraged to continue using public, open spaces while practicing the CDC guidelines for social distancing and hygiene.

Council on Aging offers volunteer updates

The COA is providing periodic updates to the groups who are organizing volunteers to let everyone know what everyone else is providing, assist in sharing resources, give information about best practices, pass on news about benefits available to residents in need, offer links to potential sources of funding, and more. If you or your organization would like to be on the list to receive these updates, please contact Carolyn Bottum, COA director, at bottumc@lincolntown.org.

For those making deliveries to residents, the COA and Tricia McGean, Lincoln’s public health nurse, have developed a protocol to help ensure the safety of both the volunteer and the person receiving the items. This is based on CDC guidelines as well as other protocols in use by area organizations.

  1. Have disposable gloves, disinfectant wipes and a plastic trash bag with you.
  2. Call the person in advance to tell them when you will arrive, and arrange for a place where you can leave the items.
  3. Wipe down the items you will be delivering (if applicable) and use gloves to handle them. You do not want to contaminate the items with the virus before you give it to the person.
  4. When you arrive, call the person to let them know you will be leaving the items in the pre-arranged place.
  5. Leave the items in the pre-arranged place and leave. Do not enter the person’s house, have an in-person conversation, etc. Again, you are risking infecting both yourself and the person you are serving.
  6. Throw away your gloves in the plastic trash bag after delivery, use hand sanitizer if available, and dispose of the bag.  

As a reminder, during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Council on Aging is still providing:

  • Social work and other social services, including information and referral, case management, crisis intervention, and phone check-ins with residents who are at special risk due to COVID-19.
  • Telephone reassurance with volunteers by phone.
  • Coordination of delivery of food, medication, and supplies to residents in need.
  • Emergency financial assistance to residents who have received eviction or utility shut-off notices.

By next week they hope to have online fitness classes, but this is still a work in progress.

Lincoln getting ready for Winter Carnival

Lincoln’s annual Winter Carnival sponsored by the Parks and Recreation Department kicks off on Thursday, Jan. 30. The weekend is designed to foster a sense of community throughout the Town of Lincoln. All events are sponsored by local organizations.

Ongoing

Build your snow sculpture when snow arrives, then snap a photo with you in it and send it to David Sequeira at Parks & Rec at dsequeira@lincnet.org. Submit as many sculptures as you like. Submissions accepted until 5 p.m. on Sunday, Feb 2. Winners will be announced on Friday, Feb. 7.

Thursday, January 30

FoMA Film: “Visual Acoustics”
6:30–9 p.m., Lincoln Public Library
Friends of Modern Architecture/Lincoln is pleased to present this documentary about the charming and productive life of Julius Shulman, widely regarded as the greatest architectural photographer of the 20th century who played a significant role in bringing to light the architectural Modernist movement. Beautifully crafted by director Eric Bricker (2009). Film begins at 7.

Friday, January 31

Intergenerational sing-along
3:45–5:30 p.m., Bemis Hall
The LEAP after-school program, the Council on Aging, and the Magic Garden Children’s Center invite residents of all ages to enjoy a multigenerational sing-along. Groups from each of the three organizations will sing favorite folk songs, children songs, and more.

LPTO Bingo Night
5:30–7:30 p.m., Brooks Gym
Come celebrate Family Bingo Night with even more chances to win. Prizes awarded for each winning bingo board, plus raffle prizes. Pizza sales start at 5:30 p.m., with additional snacks and drinks available for purchase. Free admission. Bingo cards $5 (15 game multipack); raffle tickets 1/$1; 6/$5; 15/$10 suggested donation.

Saturday, February 1

Girl Scout community pancake breakfast
8–11 a.m., First Parish Church
Start the Saturday slate of Winter Carnival activities with delicious pancakes and real maple syrup! Plain, blueberry, chocolate chip, and gluten-free pancakes along with coffee, tea, orange juice, and fruit. This event is great for everyone from the very young to the young at heart. Meet friends, catch up with neighbors, and enjoy crafts for kids. Girl Scout cookies will be on sale. Tickets: $5 for children under 12, $10 for those 12 and older ($30 family maximum)

Farrington Nature Linc family animal tracking
10 a.m.–noon, Farrington Nature Linc (291 Cambridge Turnpike)
Join us for a family-friendly morning of animal tracking activities on our trails and in our barn! We will head outdoors to look for signs of local wildlife–using snow, mud, dirt, trees, scat, and more–then return inside for tracking-themed craft-making and movement, plus hot chocolate. Free but registration required; click here.

Winter fun at Magic Garden
11 a.m.–1 p.m., Ballfield Road
Come visit with friends and neighbors at Magic Garden. Enjoy carnival games, arts and crafts, story time, and indoor “ice skating” in your socks. This event is best suited for children ages 5 months to 5 years. Free.

4th Annual Lincoln Holistic Wellness Fair
11 a.m.–4 p.m., Pierce House
Join local area Holistic Wellness professionals for the 4th Annual Holistic Wellness Fair as they bring their healing skills and talents to share with the community. The Fair is a rare opportunity for all to experience a varied representation of wellness services from A (acupuncture) to Z (zero Balancing), and many modalities in between. Meet the practitioners who help fill a gap in health care today and find effective solutions to chronic and acute health concerns. Hot beverages and delicious, healthy snacks round out the offerings ensuring a rejuvenating oasis for the senses. Free.

Community skating and bonfire
1–3 p.m., Cemetery Pond
Enjoy skating, hot chocolate, and toasted marshmallows by the campfire. Bring your own skates and stay tuned to www.LincolnRec.com for weather updates.

LFA energy blaster
3–5 p.m., Brooks Gym
Jump in a bounce house, run through an obstacle course, climb, and slide. The gym will be filled with fun ways to let out some energy! Free for 2020 LFA members (join or renew on the spot at www.lincfam.org for $50/year); $10 per child for non-members.

Acoustic Coffeehouse 2020
7–10:30 p.m., Bemis Hall
Our annual night to showcase local musicians and performers! We have a diverse roster of performers — some returning, some new — ready to play for you, and there’s a good chance you know some of them! Coffee/tea and desserts will be served. Doors open at 7pm. General Admission is $10. Table of 8 is $160. Online registration is recommended at www.LincolnRec.com. General admission seats also sold at the door on a space available basis.

Sunday, February 2

Make your own elf/fairy garden
10:30 a.m.–12 p.m., Lincoln Nursery School (deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum)
Create your own garden using natural materials such as moss, acorns, and pine cones. Feel free to bring along anything you would like to add to your garden. Hot chocolate will be served. Free.

Puppy Bowl
12–1:30 p.m., First Parish Church
Let the tailgating and tail wagging begin! Everyone is invited to join First Parish for lunch and the screening of Animal Planet’s 2019 Puppy Bowl. Bring your own lunch or enjoy hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, drink, and cookie $5 for lunch (admission is free). Meet and greet actual tail-waggers. Optional: please bring a pet supply to donate to Buddy Dog.

Awesome Robb magic show
2–3 p.m., Lincoln Public Library
Celebrate Winter Carnival with Awesome Robb and his interactive comedy/magic show. Best for ages 4 and up, but all are welcome.

Family life In Lincoln at the time of the Revolution
2–4 p.m., Bemis Hall
Experience life for parents and children in 18th-century Lincoln. Every man had to have a soldier’s equipment and skills. Every woman had to feed, clothe, and cure the illnesses of her family. Children learned school lessons with quill pens and still had time for games. We debated the important issues of the day and made our own music for entertainment. Come join the Minute Men to talk about life in 1775 Lincoln and try your hand at the tasks, skills, and amusements of the time. Hands- on activities for all. Patriots preferred; redcoats and loyalists welcome. Free.

News acorns

Rhapsody piano recital on Sunday

On Sunday, Oct. 27 at 3 p.m., the piano group Rhapsody will offer a piano recital in Bemis Hall. Featured on the program will be selections from Bach, Chopin, Guastavino, Handel, Liszt, and Mendelssohn. The performance is free and open to the public, and all are welcome to attend. Rhapsody was formed in 2003 by amateur pianists including Lincoln resident Ken Hurd who sought a venue in which to perform for each other, both to grow musically and to share their musical journey with others. Now an annual event, this will be their tenth public performance on the beautifully restored Steinway in Bemis Hall.

Climate change film looks at Anthropocene epoch

There will be a screening of the 2018 documentary film, “Anthropocene: the Human Epoch” on Tuesday, Oct. 29 starting at 7 p.m. (light supper served at 6:30) at St. Anne’s Episcopal Church. The film is the third in a trilogy that includes “Manufactured Landscapes” (2006) and “Watermark” (2013). It follows the research of an international body of scientists, the Anthropocene Working Group who are arguing that the Holocene epoch gave way to the Anthropocene epoch in the mid-twentieth century because of profound and lasting human changes to the Earth.

This is the fifth season of St. Anne’s  Climate Justice Film Series. For more information, contact Alex Chatfield at adchat@aol.com or 781-697-0140.

Seminar on India and Britain

The India Discovery Center will host a seminar on India’s British history on Saturday, Nov. 2 from 9 a.m.–4 p.m. in Bemis Hall. Lecture topics of lectures include a personal story about the partition of India and the birth of Pakistan. Presenters will include Lincoln resident Bijoy Misra on science and technology. Register here (the $25 registration fee is waived for Lincoln residents).

Ferrante plays at next LOMA

Marylou Ferrante

Marylou Ferrante is the featured performer at the next LOMA (Lincoln Open-Mike Acoustic) night on Monday, Nov. 18 in the Lincoln Public Library’s Tarbell Room. The event runs from 7–10 p.m., and Ferrante will perform a half-hour set starting around 8:30. She is at home on vocals, guitar, mandolin or banjo while performing blues, old time, country, and folk music. Between songs, she’ll recount stories, arrangements and the history behind the music, and often the difficult circumstances these struggling musicians endured. She covers Blind Boy Fuller’s “Walking My Blues Away” in this video.

Admission is free and refreshments are provided. Performers can sign up at the event or email Rich Eilbert at loma3re@gmail.com for a slot. There is a sound system with mikes and instrumental pickups suitable for individuals or small groups.

“Watershed” opens Nov. 9 at deCordova

Andy Goldsworthy, Watershed (detail), 2019. Granite, Corten steel, spruce pine wood, 156 x 223 x 144 inches, installation at deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum. © Andy Goldsworthy, Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co.

The site-specific permanent installation “Watershed” opens on Saturday, Nov. 9 at the deCordova Sculpture Park. The 9×15-foot stone shelter is semi-embedded in the slope of deCordova’s pond-side hill. In times of heavy rain, water that flows across deCordova’s paved upper lot will be collected and channeled underground to pour from the outlet in the work’s rear wall, giving form to the usually unremarked course of groundwater across hard surfaces and allowing people to see and hear the work come to life. The work will serve to illustrate both the impermanence and the lasting effects of water through the growth of residues like mineral deposits, moss, and patina.

Thanksgiving contradance

Lincoln’s annual Thanksgiving Night Contradance will take place on Thursday, Nov. 28 from 7–10 p.m. at the Smith School featuring Caller Chris Ricciotti, Larry Unger on guitar, and Carol Bittenson on fiddle.  All ages and abilities are welcome. Tickets (sliding scale) are $6–10 for adults and students, $4–5 for children 10 and under. Sponsored by the First Parish in Lincoln. For more information, email kwinchell@comcast.net.

News acorns

Flu shots for seniors next week

Lincoln residents 65 and over are invited to get a free flu shot at to the Board of Health/COA clinic at Bemis Hall on Tuesday, Oct. 22 from 10 a.m.–noon. The clinic will have only the regular, quadrivalent form of the vaccine; the high-dose vaccine is back-ordered from the manufacturer.

The Centers for Disease Control CDC recommends that everyone 6 months of age and older get the vaccine, with no preference expressed for any one vaccine over another. If you would like the high dose, please sign up with the COA by calling 781-259-8811, and if the public health nurse is able to get the high-dose vaccine, she will contact you to arrange for your vaccination, which could be as late as mid to late November.

There is no out-of-pocket charge, but please bring your insurance card and wear a short-sleeved shirt. Services provided by Emerson Hospital Home Care.

Codman’s annual Harvest Feast coming up

The centerpiece of Codman Community Farms’ annual dinner in the barn on Saturday, November 2 from 5–9 p.m. will be (for the first time in a very long time) a pig roast! Codman’s own slow-roasted, pasture-raised pork will be served with with cornbread, potatoes, salad and apple desserts. Dinner will be followed by a raffle and a barn dance for all ages, with bluegrass music from the Splinters. Tickets are limited, click here to buy in advance.

Event features racial justice author

Author and racial justice educator Debby Irving, in conversation with the Lincoln School’s Claudia Fox Tree and Sharon Hobbs, will present “I’m a Good Person, Isn’t That Enough?” on Wednesday, Nov. 13 from 6:30–8:30 p.m. in the Brooks auditorium. The event is free, but registration is required — click here to register.

Irving, author of “Five Years Later: Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race,” utilizes stories from her life to explore systemic racism that goes largely unnoticed but feeds long-held racialized belief systems. By sharing her struggle to understand racism and racial tensions, she offers a fresh perspective of bias, stereotypes, manners, and tolerance. As she unpacks her own long-held beliefs about color blindness, being a good person, and wanting to help people of color, she reveals how each of these well-intentioned mindsets actually perpetuated her ill-conceived ideas about race. She also explains why and  how she’s changed the way she talks about racism, works in racially mixed groups, and understands the racial justice movement as a whole. Funded by the Lincoln School Foundation.

Weekend of music, poetry and theater in November

The Delvena Theatre Company presents “The Dickens You Say” on Saturday, Nov. 16 at 1 p.m., and Lincoln residents Evelyn Harris and Mary Crowe present “An Afternoon of Poetry and Music” on Sunday, Nov. 17 at 3 p.m. Both events take place in Bemis Hall and are sponsored by the Lincoln Public Library and the Lincoln Council on Aging.

Through the use of monologues and scenes, the Delvena actors will embody the ridiculous, the romantic and the frightening characters that Charles Dickens created. There’s a bit of scandal and a lot of worship for the writer who loved Boston profoundly. After the show, the cast will lead a lively discussion. Appropriate for patrons 16 and up.

On November 17, Crowe will offer selected readings of poems by Agee, Joyce, Yeats, Dickinson and others, followed by musical settings of these poems by 20th-century computers Copland, Barber, and Hermann played by Harris. The pair will explore how the settings of each piece influence the poetry and vice versa.

Magic Garden open house for infants and toddlers

Magic Garden’s Infant & Toddler Center at 14 Bedford Rd. will host an open house on Tuesday, Nov. 12 from 5–7 p.m. The center has a new playground surrounded in nature for its two groups of children: Little Ducklings (2–15 months) and Little Explorers (15–24 months). The core program hours are Monday through Friday 8 a.m.–3 p.m., with early arrival starting at 7:30 a.m. and latest pick up at 6 p.m. Flexible schedules are available; sign up for two to five days per week.

L-S alumni soccer game

The 27th annual Lincoln-Sudbury Alumni Soccer Game will kick off Saturday, Nov. 30 at noon. Everyone has fun regardless of what shape they’re in – it’s a casual game for alumni from any era. Spread the word and RSVP by posting on this Facebook page and posting there. Questions? Contact Tim Mangini at tim_mangini@wgbh.org.

News acorns

Property tax forum on Tuesday

The Property Tax Study Committee will hold its second public forum on Tuesday, Oct. 15 from 7–8:30 p.m. in Town Hall. The group was formed in reaction to concerns about the large tax increase required for the $93 million school project. At its first forum in June, the group presented two possible measures: a means-tested circuit breaker program and a residential exemption for certain properties.

Family fun at Walden Woods Farm

The Lincoln-based Walden Woods Project offers a day of fall-themed family activities at its organic Farm at Walden Woods (1047 Concord Turnpike/Rt. 2 eastbound, Concord) on Saturday, Oct. 19 from 10 a.m.–2 p.m. There will be an interactive full-size model of Thoreau’s Walden Pond house, packets of milkweed seeds to plant at home for monarch butterfly habitat, free apple cider and a ”solitude” selfie station. The event is part of the Concord Festival of Authors.

Scarecrow Classic 5K on Oct. 20

The seventh annual Annual Scarecrow Classic on Sunday, Oct. 20 starts at 9:30 a.m. on Codman Road by the fire station and runs along Lincoln’s scenic roads, fields, and trails. Proceeds from this event support the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust (LLCT). After the race, there will be a raffle with prizes, live music, cider donuts, seasonal soup, and prizes for the top three runners in each age category. Raffle tickets can be purchased in advance at the LLCT offices, from LLCT trustees, or on October 14 before the race. Register online or at the event starting at 8 a.m. Visit scarecrowclassic5k.com for the route map and online registration.

Tales from the Night at Drumlin Farm

Put on your favorite costume, grab a flashlight, and join us for Tales of the Night — the silliest, spookiest, and most family-friendly Halloween tradition on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 25 and 26 at Drumlin Farm, from 6:30–9p.m. Costumes are encouraged. Visitors will have the chance to:

  • Explore the farm at night lit by our display of over 100 jack-o-lanterns
  • Meet some of the nocturnal wildlife of Massachusetts
  • Enjoy spooky treats, spider cider, and witch’s brew at the ghoulish graveyard
  • Step into a story on our Nursery Rhyme Trail to meet your favorite characters
  • Get a festive face painting at the Crossroads Barn
  • Venture out into the fields for a haunted hayride full of spooky surprises for the brave at heart (7–8:30 p.m.)

Tickets are available via advance purchase only — admission cannot be purchased at the gate. Mass Audubon members: $15. Nonmembers: $17. Free for children under age 2. Register early, as this event often sells out.