WENDELL — Town Coordinator Glenn Johnson-Mussad plans to attend the Massachusetts Select Board Association’s Western Massachusetts Municipal Conference in Easthampton on April 9. The Selectboard opted this week to cover the $35 attendance fee and reimburse Johnson-Mussad $32 for the drive from his Greenfield home to the conference.
“All of you should consider attending as well,” Johnson-Mussad told Selectboard Chair Dan Keller and members Gillian Budine and Laurie DiDonato. “It looks like it’s going to be a great day.”
According to the Massachusetts Municipal Association’s website, the event will bring together regional stakeholders, including municipal officials, planning agencies and legislators from Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire and Berkshire counties, to address challenges the region is facing, with the goals of promoting sustainable cross-governmental partnerships across western Massachusetts, sharing best practices for the adaptation to and mitigation of challenges facing the four counties, and advocating more effectively for the region.
The conference is slated to open with a legislative panel that features state Rep. Natalie Blais, D-Sunderland, and state Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton. It is co-sponsored by the Franklin Regional Council of Governments, Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, Pioneer Valley Planning Commission and Rural Policy Advisory Commission.
ORANGE — Girl Scouts of Central & Western Massachusetts invites Orange girls and their guardians to a free “Launch into Girl Scouts” event at Wheeler Memorial Library from 6 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 14.
The event is for girls in preschool and kindergarten who are not yet Girl Scout members. Girls will earn their first patch while building and launching their own rockets.
RSVP and register by April 10 at bit.ly/GSorange. For more information, contact Monica at mbaldyga@gscwm.org or 413-727-5741.
ORANGE — Sisters Sally Howe and Kathy Kramer-Howe are scheduled to read poems by Kramer-Howe and Dorothy Johnson at Stage on Main on April 3.
The two will read selections from Kramer-Howe’s recent poetry collection, “Lake Mattawa 2020: A Pandemic, a Small Cemetery and a Month Alone” and from Johnson’s recent poetry collection, “My Heart Remembers,” both published by Haley’s of Athol.
Kramer-Howe reportedly wrote a poem each day during her August 2020 stay at the family’s Lake Mattawa cottage during COVID-19 lockdown. Johnson frequently wrote poetry during the pandemic until her death on Feb. 22 of this year.
Kramer-Howe’s poetry has won prizes in Wheeler Memorial Library’s annual Robert P. Collén Poetry Competition. Johnson is the former proprietor of the Common Reader Bookshop in New Salem and wrote and directed community musicals as fundraisers for New Salem’s 1794 Meetinghouse.
Books by both poets will be on sale after the reading.
ORANGE — Organized by fiddler and violist Myra MacLeod, Alley Music is scheduled to meet the public and play at Stage on Main at 2 p.m. on April 24.
For this event, the group will be made up of Petersham cellist Mary Carfagna, Holden vocalist and guitarist Alan Wolcott, and Orange resident Doug Feeney on mandolin. MacLeod lives in Athol.
Masks will be required. Admission is free and light refreshments will be served.
Residents can learn more about MacLeod and Alley Music at myramac.com.
For more information, call 1-513-633-4302 or visit “Stage on Main” on Facebook
NEW SALEM — The New Salem Public Library plans to present “Climate Change in Your Backyard” via Zoom with Toni Lyn Morelli at 7 p.m. on April 11.
Morelli is a research ecologist in the Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center. She will examine ways that climate change may already affect home gardening and local wildlife. She plans to open the talk with a brief overview of climate change before addressing specifics related to local impacts.
To register, contact the New Salem Public Library at 978-544-6334 or n_salem@cwmars.org.
Village Neighbors, the nonprofit that helps senior citizens in Wendell, New Salem, Leverett and Shutesbury, plans to offer a free memoir-writing class via Zoom from 10 a.m. to noon on Tuesdays from April 19 through May 24.
This class, aimed at helping people discover the inspiration and tools to effectively begin writing their life story, is open to fledgling writers as well as experienced scribes.
The method includes instruction, discussion, reading memoir samples, and impromptu writing exercises with feedback. There will also be an online forum with writing resources and a platform to post stories.
For more information or to register, contact Ruth Flohr at 978-544-6534 or ruthwwrww@gmail.com. Flohr will send a Zoom link to the class after registration, which is required. The class is limited to 10 participants.
“Writing to Remember” is sponsored by Cultural Council grants from Leverett, Shutesbury, Wendell and New Salem.