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Calendar… August 13,2014

SEE Lower Village  Traffic Plans
The Town of Stow Planning Department will be holding a public meeting to view final traffic design plans for the Lower Village Business District on August 13, 7pm, in Stow Town Hall. Transportation engineers with Howard/Stein – Hudson will discuss the solutions chosen to mitigate traffic congestion, circulation issues, and safety. Planning Department staff will share the results of this past year’s Visual Preference survey to discuss how new zoning and design efforts can boost economic potential in Lower Village. Light refreshments will be served.

UPCOMING EVENTS AT THE RANDALL LIBRARY
Exploring the Worcester Art Museum, 18th to 21st Century Collections – Thursday August 14,  7pm. The Randall Library is proud to have Martha Chiarchiaro teaching a three-part series of lectures on the great works of art at the Worcester Art Museum. Come to the third of these informative and beautiful discussions of the treasures at this marvelous museum. Passes to the museum are available, thanks to the Randall Library Friends Assn.

Preschool Story Times –  Join our Youth Services Librarian, Christine Morrison, for a fun story time with a craft after the readings.All Prechool Story Times are on Fridays at 10:30am.     Some special events: August 15 – Come meet Sweet Pea the baby goat! August 22 – Focused on learning more about horses, we will even be making a hobby horse that you can take home to ride! August 29 – Continuing in our “farm-to-family” theme for the month, we will be doing a story-time all about sheep. Come make a wonderful little sheep craft you will love to play with and display around your home.

Sensei Pat’s Karate Demonstration, Tuesday, August 19, 2-3pm. Continuing in our fizz, boom, read science for summer fun, local karate expert Sensei Pat will demonstrate the physics of martial arts. Come learn more about how karate works.
Sharon Luttrell, author of Weekends with Daisy – Thursday, August 28, 7pm. The Randall Library is proud to have journalist and author Sharon Luttrell appear to speak about her wonderful book Weekends with Daisy. In this heartfelt and charming book Ms Luttrell writes about her experiences  fostering and training a sweet puppy named Dais,y in conjunction with a prison inmate by the name of Keith, in order to prepare the dog for future work as part of the National Education for Assistance Dog Services (NEADS) program.  Come meet Sharon and learn more about the fantastic work being done by NEADS volunteers and how the NEADS program is changing people’s lives across America.

Wings & Wheels: Cruise-In/Fly-In to Minute Man Air Field
Head to Minute Man Air Field (302 Boxboro Rd.) every Thursday night this summer 5pm – 8pm, through August 28. There are featured cars each week, but all cars are welcome. This event features great food including wood-fired pizzas, burgers, and dogs from Nancy’s Air Field Cafe. Plenty of show parking and separate public parking. Suggested donation of $5 to benefit local and international service projects. For more information, visit www.WingsandWheelsMA.com or www.Facebook.com/WingsandWheelsMA.

August 15 – Ann’s Friendship Community Dinner at  Union Church
Please join us from 5 to 6pm. There’s no reason to eat alone when you can join us for friendly company. Whether you are new in town or have been here a while, you are invited. Come alone or bring your family. Although there is no charge, donations are accepted. Dinners take place on the third Friday of each month. The Union Church with the blue doors is at 317 Great Rd. (Rt 117). To learn more please visit us at www.unionchurchofstow.org.

Service: “A Mid-Summer’s Night’s Dream”
On Sunday, August 17, at 10am, the First Parish Church of Stow and Acton will explore aspects of dreaming from both Eastern and Western perspectives. Everyone dreams, whether or not we remember our dreams in the morning. What do we make of this experience of dreaming? Come hear some different ways of interpreting dreams. Service will be led by guest Minister the Rev. Judith Wright in the church Fellowship Hall, and childcare will be provided. All are welcome to attend.

Rev. Wright trained as a child psychologist, and worked in the field for 25 years before turning to full-time ministry. She has meditated for over 30 years and is a UU Tibetan Buddhist, with teachers including His Holiness, The Dalai Lama and Lama Migmar, the Buddhist chaplain at Harvard University. She is the current President of the Unitarian Universalist Buddhist Fellowship.

The church is located at 353 Great Rd., at the intersection of Routes 117 and 62. For more information, you may contact our church office at 978-897-8149 or visit our website at www.fpc-stow-acton.org.

Stow Fall Soccer – Pre-K and Kindergarten
Fall soccer registration is now open for Stow boys and girls born between 9/1/08 and 4/1/10. Munchkins (Pre-K) and Transitions (K) will meet on Saturday mornings, with an emphasis on fun and teamwork. Please visit www.stowsoccer.org for additional information and online registration through August 15. For additional question contact Ellen Fagan ([email protected], 978-897-9214) or Art McDonald ([email protected]).

Public Invited: Lake Boon Water Carnival
The Annual Water Carnival Weekend, sponsored by the Lake Boon Association, will be held from Friday evening, August 22 to Sunday afternoon, August 24. Activities are held at the Town Beach/Pine Bluffs Recreation Area off Sudbury Road in Stow. All events are open and free of charge to Stow and Hudson residents. The Association wants to show appreciation for the many friends who support the organization’s environmental, educational, and civic programs all year.

UPCOMING ARTISANS FAIR & LOCAL ARTISANS WANTED
The Lake Boon Association is hosting its annual “Lake Boon Artisans Fair” on Sat., August  23, 10am-3:30pm, at the beautiful Pine Bluffs Recreation Area, as part of the fun-filled 2014 Water Carnival weekend. Shoppers, mark your calendars to come support your talented neighbors by buying wonderful hand-crafted items! We are also looking for additional local artisans to sell, and are asking for a nominal donation from each artisan ($10 for Lake Boon Assoc. members, $15 for non-members) to reserve a space. Artisans will need to provide their own table/display for selling. Space is limited so please contact us soon for more information. Call or email Kris (978-430-4109, [email protected] ) or Lynne (978-212-5269, [email protected] ).

Farm to Table Pot Luck
Save the Date: August 23 from 6 to 9 p.m. Visit a local farm, farmers market or your own garden in the morning, then bring something amazing to share on Saturday night!  This gathering is being sponsored by the Stow Conservation Trust and hosted by Applefield Farm to celebrate the farms that keep Stow a special place.

Please register by emailing [email protected]. Space is limited.

To help guarantee a variety of food, we are asking people to bring dishes according to their last names. Of course if you find something at the farm that you want to use in a dish and it doesn’t fit the list, feel free to bring what you wish.

A-D      Appetizer

E – H    Salad

I – L     Side Dish

M – S   Main Course

T – Z    Dessert

Applefield Farm is located at 722 Great Road (Route 117). Directions can be found on their web site at http://www.applefieldfarm.com/#!directions/czz1. More Details to Follow at http://www.stowconservationtrust.org. More details to follow at www.stowconservationtrust.org.

STOW BIKE FOR THE WOODS
The 13th annual Stow Bike for the Woods is taking place Sunday, August 24. This is a family-friendly road-bike ride in support of the Stow Conservation Trust. Registration starts at 8:30am, ride at 9am. The ride starts in front of the Randall Librar,  at the junction of Routes 117 and 62. You can register for the ride and get more information at http://bikeforthewoods.org  We will have food and drink including fresh peaches, cider donuts, and our famous mid-ride lemonade stand.

Choose from a variety of ride lengths including 5, 14, 28, 35, 48 and a 65-mile metric century. All ages and abilities are welcome. The routes are well marked and cue sheets are provided. The routes take you by some of the conservation property in the area. See up close why Stow and surrounding towns are considered biking central by those in the know. The Stow Conservation Trust aims to preserve open space for future generations. All proceeds from the ride go to the Trust.

Sing Bach with Sounds of Stow Chorus
The Sounds of Stow Chorus and Orchestra welcomes singers to join us in performing our fall concert. Rehearsals are Monday evenings from 7:30pm to 9:30pm in the hall of the First Parish Church, 353 Great Road. First rehearsal is Monday, August 25.

The fall concert will be held Sunday afternoon, November 23, in Stow. Artistic Director and Conductor Barbara Jones will lead us in preparing selections from Bach’s joyful “Christmas Oratorio” cantatas. It has been said that while Handel’s “Messiah” is generally accepted as the Christmas soundtrack in America, it is Bach’s Oratorio “that rings through concert halls throughout Europe” during the holiday season (Brian McCreath). Its wonderful choruses, arias, and chorales will be performed with full orchestral accompaniment and four accomplished vocal soloists.

Participation in the 4-part SATB chorus is open to all – no auditions required – and offers the opportunity to learn exciting and challenging music in a friendly, fun, and supportive atmosphere. The first three rehearsals – on August 25, September 1 and 8 – are open, where interested singers are welcome to come and see what we are all about. Contact Ms. Jones (978-562-2620) or Martha Pfeiffer (978-562-0302) with questions, visit www.soundsofstow.com for more information, or simply attend rehearsals for the opportunity to learn about this inspiring music and participate in the concert.
Sounds of Stow is supported in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council as administered by the Stow, Acton-Boxborough, Bolton and Hudson Cultural Councils.

WEST SCHOOL EVENTS
Visit Stow’s 1825 one room schoolhouse and learn about its history and schooling in the 19th century.
Sunday, September 7, will be the School’s Back to School program, and Sunday, October 5, Storyteller Todd Goodwin’s will offer his Stories of New England.

All events begin at 3pm and are run jointly by the Stow Historical Commission and the Stow Historical Society. The Stow West School is located on Harvard Road at the intersection with Hiley Brook Road. Convenient parking is across the road. These programs are sponsored in part by a grant from the Stow Cultural Council which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.

Publishing Networking Group Meeting
On Saturday, September 13, 10:30am, at the Randall Library, guest speaker Linda Spencer will talk about her recently published book, Writing Well in the 21st Century: The Five Essentials. The book provides students, career-builders, and anyone who writes with the basic elements needed for writing in the 21st century. It fully explains and links the five essentials of good writing: punctuation, grammar, fact-checking, style, and voice. Linda Spencer is a freelance writer and editor of textbooks in social studies and language arts. She has taught editing classes in continuing education programs for over 15 years at various schools including Middlesex Community College. This is her third book.

The meeting is open to EFA members and non-members, freelancers, and anyone interested in publishing. For more information, send email to [email protected] or call Eileen Kramer at 978-897-4121.

~Outside of Stow~

Assabet Village Food Co-op Information Meeting
Are you interested in food? Is healthy food access important to you? Do you like to support local businesses? Then come learn more about the Assabet Village Food Cooperative. The Assabet Village Food Co-op will hold an open meeting to provide more information about this initiative, how a co-op will support the local economy and community, and how you can get involved!  Come hear about what we’ve done so far, what comes next, and more.   The meeting is on Thursday, August 14, at 7pm, at the Maynard Library (77 Nason St.), first floor. Questions preceding the event, please email [email protected] or go to http://assabetvillagecoop.com.

Worcester County Sheriff to Host Annual Senior Picnic
Worcester County Sheriff Lew Evangelidis has announced the Sheriff’s Annual Senior Picnic will be held at SAC Park in Shrewsbury on Saturday, August 16, from 11am to 3pm. Admission is free for all seniors. In addition to a traditional BBQ menu, the Sheriff’s Picnic will include a fun afternoon of complimentary bingo games, raffle prizes, and music entertainment. Attendees are encouraged to bring lawn chairs, as space is limited in the pavilion area.   For more information, please contact the Worcester CountyReserve Deputy Sheriff’s Association at 508-796-0344 or visit www.worcestercountysheriff.com.

FAMILY WELLNESS FAIR
The 3rd annual Family Wellness Fair will be held on Saturday, August 16, on the Lancaster Town Green, from 10am-2pm. This year’s event features dozens of local businesses and groups offering family health and wellness services. The event will kick off at 10am with a 1/2 mile family fun walk. Safety tips from the Lancaster firefighters and police officers. Explore a fire truck and police car!  The 4-H will demonstrate animal care with local farm animals! Face painting, Zumba demo, RAD kids self defense demo, healthy foods demo, and more will be offered throughout the day! Huge raffle display and enter to win fabulous health related products and services! This Family Wellness Fair is hosted by Corrective Chiropractic and will benefit Karen’s Closet, a nonprofit organization that provides coats, clothing, and other necessities to local schools for students in need. Free admission!

WINDOWS ON EARTH: Astronauts Photograph the Earth
Gallery Seven presents Windows on Earth, a series of 20 images photographed by astronauts from the International Space Station and fine tuned by Stow artist Dan Barstow. We are accustomed to seeing photographs of the earth from space, and they look like what they are, images taken for scientific or military purposes. In the case of these photographs,the astronauts are working as artists. Barstow worked with the digital file in order to fine tune color and tonality, to help capture what the astronauts might have seen and felt as they clicked the shutter.
The exhibition runs from August 19 to September 27. Opening Reception: Saturday, September 6, 7-9 p.m. For more information about Gallery Seven and upcoming exhibitions please call 978-897-9777, or visit us at www.gallerysevenmaynard.com.

Emerson Hospital Hosts Driver Safety Program
Cars have changed, along with traffic rules and driving conditions since many of us learned to drive decades ago. To help drivers stay safe, the Emerson Hospital Center for Sports Rehabilitation and Specialty Services is hosting an AARP Driver Safety Program on Thursday, September 4, from 10am to 3pm, at its Health and Wellness Center, 310 Baker Ave. Extension, Concord.

Hosted by Emerson Hospital and led by an AARP consultant, this five-hour classroom refresher course encourages drivers to review the rules of the road, better understand the updated technology in new vehicles, and learn strategies to compensate for age-related changes in vision, hearing and response time.

Materials, including a textbook, cost $15 for AARP members or $20 for non-members, with coffee and light lunch included. Some car insurance programs give a discount for people who take the class; you can inquire with your insurance agent. Parking is free at the Health and Wellness Center, which is located at 310 Baker Ave. Extension, Concord. For more information and to register, call Michele Dolan at (978) 287-8244.