AMHERST — Four buildings in Amherst will be part of a zero energy buildings tour Saturday.
The public is welcome to the free guided visits at the four sites. The tour was arranged after the town adopted a zero-energy bylaw for new municipal buildings, and large-scale renovations.
All of the buildings have significant solar panel capacity to produce as much energy as they use.
The event begins at 9 a.m. at Crotty Hall, 411-417 North Pleasant St., which is part of the University of Massachusetts campus.
At 10:30 a.m., the tour continues at the Hitchcock Center for the Environment, 845 West St. The tour moves to the Kern Center on the Hampshire College campus at 893 West St. at noon. At 2 p.m., the final visit begins at the South Congregational Church, 1066 South East St.
For more information, go to zeroenergyamherst.weebly.com.
The event is sponsored by Amherst Mothers Out Front, Climate Action Now and Sustaining Amherst.
AMHERST — A Race Amity Day celebration takes place at the Unitarian Universalist Society, 121 North Pleasant St., Sunday from 2-4 p.m.
The event will include stories, fellowship, music and dance and as a way to celebrate the town’s cultural, ethnic and racial diversity.
The Select Board earlier issued a proclamation to mark the day.
For more information about the event, contact Ray Elliott at 253-9842 or email rayandmaryelliott@gmail.com.
NORTHAMPTON — The Northampton Public School System will be hosting a local Unified Special Olympics School Day Games on Monday from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Northampton High School. Students from eight local districts will participate in accessible and modified activities including throwing, jumping, races and yard games.
This year’s games are a little different from years past, as these will be “unified,” meaning that students with disabilities will be participating alongside their peers without disabilities.
Pamela Plumer, director of student services for Northampton Public Schools, said that it is important that this year’s event be unified. Plumer said that the event shows the “district’s commitment to inclusion.”
Over 25 students from Northampton High School are volunteering to run stations at the Games and over 200 students, both with and without disabilities, will participate as athletes.
Plumer said a challenge when organizing the event is modifying the games so that students with disabilities can participate, but the process leads to some creative innovation. For example, the woodshop department at Northampton High School is providing a catapult for students who cannot throw balls, allowing them to participate in the activity.
According to Plumer, the event is just as important to teach students without disabilities that people with disabilities are just as capable as anyone.
HOLYOKE — The second annual Western Massachusetts Homelessness Resource Fair will be held Thursday from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Kittredge Center at Holyoke Community College.
The fair will bring together approximately 200 participants from across four counties as well as local organizations and state officials and legislatures. Participants will have the opportunity to attend eight workshops on various issues which affect homelessness, including the opioid epidemic, domestic violence, and youth homelessness.
According to the Western Massachusetts Network to End Homelessness, the fair is “an important opportunity to advance the work of preventing and ending homelessness in the entire Western Massachusetts Region.
NORTHAMPTON — Northampton and Williamsburg are hosting a “Meet the Installer” educational workshop, meant to generate awareness around the Hampshire Council of Governments Solarize Hot Water Western Massachusetts program.
The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center awarded the HCG the first pilot grant to help Western Massachusetts residents to install solar-powered water heaters on their homes. The event will be held Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence.
HADLEY — Nine Girl Scouts from Hampshire County will be given awards for their community service on Tuesday at the Hadley Farms Meeting House.
Eight of the Girl Scouts, will be receiving the Silver Award, the highest award a Girl Scout Cadette can achieve. One Scout, Adele Elizabeth of Amherst, will be awarded with the Gold Award, which the Girl Scouts of Central and Western Massachusetts says is “one of the most prestigious awards in the world for girls.”
Elizabeth received the award for spreading awareness about Hearing Advocacy in Sports. The other award recipients worked on a number of projects including establishing a pet food pantry, holding clothing drives, and raising the local bat population, which had been diminished by an invasive fungal disease.
The nine Scouts receiving awards from Hampshire County are part of a group of 23 Girl Scouts from Central and Western Massachusetts who also received awards. In total, there were four Gold Award and 19 Silver Award recipients.