Weekly Suggested Events
for the week of
Oct 19th-26th, 2012 | | Friday, Oct 19th
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If you have any additional events, camps or classes to suggest, please feel encouraged to share on these free bulletin boards, or find out more about our enhanced publicity options.
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HILLTOWN FAMILIES SPONSORED EVENTS
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Ongoing Columns
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| HILLTOWN FAMILIES SPONSORS | |
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| Serving Western Massachusetts since 2005, Hilltown Families supports development and enhancement of our local economy and community! Local businesses, individuals, schools and non-profits are invited to Sponsor and Advertise with Hilltown Families. Let us help get the word out about your class, event, camp, workshop, fundraiser, business or announcement. Deliver your message to thousands of families living throughout Western Massachusetts while supporting the work of Hilltown Families. Email hilltownfamilies@gmail.com for more information, or click here.
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HILLTOWN FAMILIES
eNEWSLETTER
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22 Community Highlights: Mask-Making to Costume Design. Historic Harvest to Historic Trades.
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Shoe Making to Top-Secret Technology. Mask-Making to Costume Design. Film Studies to Outdoor Adventuress.... These are just a few of the learning highlights we're featuring this week!
 This Saturday, the Franklin Land Trust invites the community to a Fall Festival at Guyette Farm in Plainfield from 12noon-7pm. Highlights of the event include a scarecrow making workshop with artist Michael Melle (takes place from 12noon-4pm), hayrides, an evening bonfire, and lots of fun fall-themed activities for the whole family. BYO instrument for a jam around the fire! This free community event is proudly co-sponsored by Hilltown Families.
Scroll down to see our other highlights, or select a day of the week to your left, and plan on getting out into your community, learning while you play! Be sure to also check out our posts, Halloween in Western MA for a comprehensive list of Halloween activities in the region, and our biweekly column, Berkshire Family Fun for highlights in Berkshire County through early November!
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BULLETIN BOARD
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Where is Myra and who shot Charley? Find out at The Williston Northampton School's fall theater production of Neil Simon's classic farce, Rumors. Opening night is Thursday, October 18th running October 18th-20th & 25th-27th. All performances begin at 7:30pm, with the Saturday, October 26th performance beginning at 8pm. The Williston Theatre is located at 18 Payson Avenue in Easthampton. Seats can be reserved in advance at www.williston.com/theaterproductions or by calling the Williston box office at 413-529-3434. Tickets are $7 students/seniors and $10 adults.
Westfield Theatre Group presents The Odd Couple - Female Version on Oct. 12, 13, 19 & 20 at 8pm, & Oct. 20 at 2pm in Westfield for a fun parents' night out. Recently divorced Olive Madison and friends play a friendly game of Trivial Pursuit. Then arrives Florence Unger, whose husband just left her. Thinking she is on the verge of suicide, she is barely able to go to the bathroom alone. Olive the slob and Florence the neat freak decide to live together with hilarious results. Directed by Theresa Allie. Produced by Linda Buzzee. Come see Linda Slozak, Nancy Colby, Winnie Legere, Kathy Leary, Kate Hebert, Larry Chiz, Paul Rothenberg & Sue Davis in Neil Simon's hilarious contemporary classic. Tix: $10-$12. 413-572-6838. westfieldtheatregroup.com.
Paint & Pixel Festival showcases Western New England's amazing comic artists, book illustrators, and cartoonists! This year features 60+ artists, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle co-creator Peter Laird, Vertigo Comics Fables artist Shawn McManus, DC Comics Batman inker Jack Purcell, Conan the Barbarian and Goosebumps artist Greg Ruth, and underground cartoonist Gary Hallgren. Saturday, October 20, at the Northampton Center for the Arts, 10AM to 6PM. Paint & Pixel offers a free Children's Comics Workshop every Thursday in October, 4-5PM at Modern Myths, and is looking for a few schools who would like a comic book artist to visit their students. For details on the festival, comics workshop, and school outreach, visit www.paintandpixelfestival.com.
In celebration of the 10th Anniversary of the Eric Carle Museum, the Academy of Music in Northampton is presenting Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia's much anticipated new production of Eric Carle stories on October 26, 2012 at 6:30pm. Featuring evocative music, stunning visual effects, innovative puppetry, the triple bill shares Eric Carle's most beloved stories: A Hungry Caterpillar, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, and Papa, Please Get The Moon For Me. Immediately following the performance will be a question & answer period focused on how special effects were accomplished. Running time is sixty minutes. For ticket information please visit the AOM website, www.academyofmusictheatre.com, or phone the Box Office at 413-584-9032 x105.
 The Montessori School of Northampton's annual Children's Fall Fair and Open House will be held on Saturday, October 27 from 11am-3pm on the school's campus at 51 Bates Street, Northampton. The full day of fun for families will include children's games, arts and crafts, pony rides, a petting zoo, a bounce house, and more. Entertainment will be provided by percussionist Tony Vacca, and singer-songwriters Chris Scanlon and Burchie Green & Tom Knight. Food and beverages will be available for purchase. General admission is free; participation in some activities requires purchase of activity tickets at a minimal charge. Admissions information and tours of the school will also be available. 413-586-4538 or www.northamptonmontessori.org.
 Family Felting for all ages on Sunday, Oct 28 from 1-3pm at Crimson & Clover Farm (part of Northampton Community Farm) in Florence, MA. Come explore the world of fiber craft and learn about the animals that provide us with fiber. There will be an Angora rabbit and Shetland sheep for participants to meet, and learning stations for wet and needle felting. Create and take home a woolcraft. All levels welcome. $20-25/family (sliding scale). Spaces are limited! Financial Aid is available for all programs. Email farmeducationcollaborative@gmail.com for scholarship application. For more info & to register online, visit www.thefarmeducationcollaborative.org.
 Chandler's Restaurant in South Deerfield is hosting their annual Witches Ball on Halloween Night, Wednesday, Oct. 31st! Come dressed in your Halloween costumes and enjoy a buffet including oozing zombie zits, lumberjack fingers, shredded mummy guts, vampire eyeballs and more. The fun doesn't end with the food- Cloud 9 Productions will be at the Witches Ball for kid's karaoke, there will be pumpkin decorating, and Teaching Creatures will be bringing some creepy crawly creatures to learn about, some of them you can even touch! Seatings for this event, are at 4pm and 5:30pm. Be sure to make your reservations soon by calling 413-665-1277. For more information visit chandlers.yankeecandle.com.
 ADVERTISE YOUR FALL/HOLIDAY EVENT: Reach thousands of families in Western MA while supporting the community development work of Hilltown Families! See your fall festival, holiday event, afterschool class, homeschool program, community celebration, workshop, school, or business featured here in the bulletin board section of our list of Weekly Suggested Events and eNewsletter, reaching thousands of families living throughout the four counties of Western MA! Find out more about our enhanced publicity packages and options and how we can help with your online marketing by emailing us at hilltownfamilies@gmail.com.
JOIN OUR TEAM OF CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Interested in becoming a Contributing or Guest Writer for Hilltown Families? We welcome writings that reflect the community building and educational efforts parents, teens, teachers, artists, activists and community leaders work towards and accomplish and how that affects, supports and empowers our families. All writing styles welcomed, including local reviews, DIY posts, seasonal cooking/local food, and community-based educational & community service learning opportunities/resources. Send your query to hilltownfamilies@gmail.com
COATS FOR KIDS: Did you recently drag out your family's winter gear, only to discover that your kids have outgrown most of it? Once your kids have been outfitted with new warm coats, donate your old ones to the Salvation Army's Coats for Kids drive! Sponsored by Berkshire Bank, the drive collects new and gently-used kid-sized winter jackets in order to distribute them to local kids who might otherwise find themselves without proper outerwear for the cold, windy New England winter. Each jacket is cleaned before it is distributed, but families are asked to please only donate items that are without many obvious signs of wear and tear. There are donation sites all over western Massachusetts, including at any Berkshire Bank branch. Coats can be donated through October 26th. For more information, visit www.salvationarmycoatsforkids.com
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FAMILY VOLUNTEERING
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Volunteering with your family in your community is an excellent way to encourage civic engagement while cultivating compassion and gratitude in your children. This weekend there are a least four ways families can volunteer together in tasks that include park clean-ups, gleaning food, and a 5K Run/Walk. On Saturday morning, Oct. 20th in Amherst, families can volunteer to help glean leftover unharvested produce from local farms! All harvested food will be donated to a local food pantry - Not Bread Alone. By participating, kids can learn how to harvest foods, and will be contributing to the survival of their community. Also on Saturday, Oct. 20th, the West Springfield Friends of Parks and Recreation will be working to clean up the Rotary Pavillion at Mittineague Park and welcome volunteers to help maintain the park, a valuable community resource! Helpers of all ages are welcome - there are tasks both big and small. Then on Sunday morning, Oct. 21st, Stanley Park in Westfield will be hosting the first ever WGBY Community Champions 5k Race/Walk. Participants can choose to do either a race, or to walk the course as a family. The race is a benefit for the station and its valuable programming. In the afternoon on Sunday, Oct. 21st, the Greenfield Energy Park, which serves as concert venue, meeting place, and green space for the community, welcomed families to volunteer in their seasonal clean up of the park before winter comes. There are jobs both big and small for people of all ages, sizes, and abilities. |
ANIMAL & NATURE STUDIES
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Have you ever seen a Witch's Hat growing in the ground? They can be found in the woods all over Western MA! Join Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary in Easthampton on Saturday morning, Oct. 20th to learn where to find these interesting plants, then see how many you can spot. Then in the afternoon on Saturday, families can visit the Great Falls Discovery Center in Turners Falls to learn all about raptors with representatives from the VT Institute of Natural Science who will share a live raptor with visitors, and discuss where they live, what they eat, and their behavior. This information will be used to help kids grasp the basic concepts of food chains, predator-prey relationships, and the interdependence of nature. Once the sun sets there will be stargazing Saturday night with Arunah Hill at Notchview in Windsor. Families can learn to identify stars and constellations, and locate planets.
Bats rely on their echolocation in order to navigate the air and find food during the nighttime. Developed areas create a lot of white noise - which interferes with the bats' echolocation. Learn about how the phenomenon is affecting bat populations across the US, and learn about efforts that are being made to help preserve bat populations at Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary in Easthampton on Thursday evening, Oct. 25th. Best for older students, this event supports studies of the effects of humans on the environment.
Creatures can be hard to find sometimes, since they're so well camouflaged! On Friday morning Oct. 26th, the Great Falls Discovery Center in Turners Falls host, "Where in the Wild?" - a program where kids will be able to learn about the animals who are the best at hiding, and why!
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HISTORY
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Old Sturbridge Village's Fall Harvest Days take place this weekend, Oct. 20th & 21st. Visit the village to celebrate fall - 1800s style! Visitors can help out with the village's harvest of potatoes, corn, and root veggies; tour orchards, taste numerous varieties of heirloom apples, and watch an ox-powered cider press in operation; and learn skills for preserving the harvest, like bean shelling and corn shucking, learn about root cellar storage, churning butter, and more!
Learn about historic trades at Historic Deerfield on Saturday, Oct. 20th with sewing and shoe-making demonstrations! Linda Oakley will show visitors useful types of stitches and will demonstrate sewing projects that would have been done by early residents of Deerfield, while Peter Oakley will demonstrate shoemaking, creating the style of shoe worn by New England settlers.
Franklin County has produced lots of important inventions and innovations, including the tap-and-die and some of the top-secret technology that helped to win World War II! Wistariahurst Museum in Holyoke hosts a lecture Monday evening, Oct. 22nd on inventions and innovations that have come from the area. Albert Shane, curator of the Museum of Our Industrial Heritage, will share lots of interesting information about the industrial history of Franklin County. Older students can put studies of American history and engineering into a local context by learning about big local ideas!
On Thursday afternoon, Oct. 25th, tour the Stockbridge Cemetery to see the graves of notable former residents (like Norman Rockwell and the Sedgwick family) at Luminaries: Exploring Stockbridge Cemetery! Participants can learn about the history of many famous and prolific people whose final resting place is the cemetery.
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ART, THEATER & FILM STUDIES
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With Halloween on everyone's mind, masks and costumes are a great way to discover art and theater. Learn how to make masks with the Royal Frog Ballet Performance Collective at a Mask-Making Workshop for all ages on Saturday afternoon, Oct. 20th in Montague, and on Wednesday afternoon, Oct 24th, learn how gory costumes are made for stage productions with Williams College's costume director, Deb Brothers in Williamstown. Then on Thursday, Oct. 25th, the Williams College Museum of Art hosts "Ghouls in the Galleries: Exploring the Monsters of WCMA's Collection." Monsters in the museum will be rooted out by Deena Bak ('13) and she will aid participants in understanding what these monsters reveal about the nature of fear from a variety of cultural perspectives. Best for older students interested in art and cultural studies. Also on Thursday, Oct. 25th, the Berkshire Museum's Little Cinema in Pittsfield is screening part 3+4 of, "The Story of Film: An Odyssey." Great for cinephiles of all ages!
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OUTDOOR ADVENTURES
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With the last of the autumn leaves falling from the trees, this is a great time to get out in nature on a hike with the family (or without), discovering both local and natural history before the snow flies. On Saturday, Oct. 20th, explore the High Ledges Wildlife Sanctuary by hiking the Wolf Den Trail in Shelburne, and experience the sanctuary's 400+ species of hardwood plants, and the many diverse habitats that it encompasses. The same day in Colrain, explore historic Catamount Hill and learn about the fascinating history of the forest and the hill's "ghost town," or explore North Adams from a different perspective - the riverbank! The Hoosic River Revival Coalition will offer a guided riverwalk through town, stopping to observe and learn about historic locations, as well as the natural history of the river.
Later in the week on Wednesday, Oct. 24th, what better way to spend a crisp weekday morning than to hike the Hoosac Range after dropping the kids off at school, or with your older homeschool kids! Enjoy beautiful views overlooking North Adams. And on Friday, Oct. 26th, hike under the stars at the Alford Springs Reserve with your teens, BFF and/or sweet honey!
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HILLTOWN FAMILY VARIETY SHOW: HALLOWEEN EPISODE
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Next Saturday, Oct 27th, award-winning family music recording artist/performer, Andy Z will be our guest DJ. Listen along as Andy Z takes you on a musical tour of all things All Hallow's Eve. Andy's special set will include both classic and unexpected Halloween and Halloween-friendly tunes, including a few from his new Halloween-themed album, "The Grand Scream Of Things". Don't miss this Grand opportunity to gear up for the big holiday!
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This Saturday, Oct. 20th from 9-10am we're rebroadcasting our Halloween Episode, filled with fun spooky music for the season!
Check out our archives to listen anytime, or tune in this weekend to hear our Summer Essential Episode. Families have several ways to tune in to the Hilltown Family Variety Show:
Streaming Audio: Surf on over to ValleyFreeRadio.org on Saturday (9-10am) & Sunday (7-8am) mornings and listen to us live via streaming audio.
On Your FM Dial: Tune in to WXOJ 103.3FM if you live near Northampton, MA.
Podcast: Listen to the most recent episodes of the Hilltown Family Variety Show anytime you wish! Click here to see our current select of episodes, and be sure to subscribe to our podcast too!
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 | Hilltown Families' Blog was voted as Best Local Blog in the Valley Advocate Best of the Valley Readers' Poll for the past two years in a row! Thank you for your support!
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Hilltown Families is an online grassroots communication network serving thousands of families living in the four counties of Western MA. Through an award winning web site, social networking, listserv, radio show/podcast, online bulletin boards, and collaborations with civic and nonprofit groups, Hilltown Families connects people and organizations in the widespread communities of Western MA. With your support, we help area residents to share ideas, organize activities, support their children's education and increase participation in community life. We welcome your participation and feedback at anytime.
Warm regards, |
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