Greenfield student named to St. Lawrence dean’s list
CANTON, N.Y. — Greenfield resident Paige V. Bernier, in her senior year at St. Lawrence University, was named to the dean’s list for the fall semester. The communications major is the daughter of Kerry Larabee and the late Marc Bernier.
Feb. 19: ‘What Can We Learn From Beavers?’
GREENFIELD — Greening Greenfield will present the second session in its 2026 Winter Series on Thursday, Feb. 19, at 6:30 p.m., at the Second Congregational Church on Court Square. Christine Hatch, an Extension professor of water resources and climate change at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, will discuss “What Can We Learn From Beavers?”
Hatch’s interest in beavers began when she explored a Belchertown road washout caused by flooding in 2021. She found that the beaver dams upstream had helped to slow the floodwaters, but the magnitude of the storm was too much for a too-small culvert. She concluded that beavers, and humans, both need to adapt to a changing climate.
Many of beavers’ landscape alterations result in ecosystem enhancement, rather than degradation, with Hatch noting that the work of beavers is easy to appreciate when restoring floodplains. In her presentation, Hatch will explore what humans can learn from beavers through ecology, engineering and infrastructure, and being a good neighbor.
Hatch serves on many environmental stewardship and water conservation boards, and she works with the Eureka! program that seeks to motivate girls to enter science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields.
For a recording of the first talk in Greening Greenfield’s Water and Our Climate series, titled “Regenerating the Pioneer Valley’s Soil Sponge and Living Climate,” go to GreeningGreenfieldMA.org and click on the “Events” tab.
Storyteller to present ‘Postcards From the Promised Land’
GREENFIELD — The LAVA Center at 324 Main St. will present an evening with poet and storyteller Marlon Carey, who will perform his original show, “Postcards From the Promised Land,” on Saturday, Feb. 28, at 7 p.m.
“Postcards From the Promised Land” is a poetic journey through memory, migration and becoming. The performance weaves spoken word and song to trace the immigration story of a young Jamaican boy who was sent to America. Instructed by his great-grandmother to send postcards and letters back, he chronicles his new world in snapshots. The postcards evolve over time — at first full of wonder, then edged with questions and eventually grounded in hard-earned truth. Through rhythm, storytelling and music, “Postcards From the Promised Land” explores identity, family legacy and the meaning of “promise.”
Carey is a storyteller, hip-hop artist, slam poet, actor and educator with Rhode Island Black Storytellers. For more than eight years, he has woven narratives that spark empathy, humor and community. He blends music, poetry and performance to engage audiences of all ages, and his commissioned stories and collaborations — including “The Shakespeare Time-Traveling Speakeasy” and his album “High Value Target” — reflect his desire to use storytelling as a bridge between people and possibility.
The pay-what-you-can event has a $20 suggested donation. For more information, visit thelavacenter.org/events/marlon-carey.