Sabadosa to host Recovery Center fundraiser
NORTHAMPTON — State Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa, D-Northampton, will host a fundraiser for the Northampton Recovery Center on Thursday, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the R. Michelson Galleries.
The Northampton Recovery Center is a peer-driven community that provides an environment for people on all pathways and in all stages of recovery from addiction. It provides services for people with direct experience of substance abuse along with family and friends of those who have substance-use disorders.
The event’s host committee includes state Rep. Dan Carey, D-Easthampton, state Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, Northampton Mayor David Narkewicz, Easthampton Mayor Nicole LaChapelle, Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse and others.
NORTHAMPTON — An interactive and free health expo for parents and other adults will be presented at the Northampton Center for the Arts on Wednesday from 6:30 to 9 p.m.
At the expo will be two displays titled “Hidden in Plain Sight” and “Weeding Through the Mist,” which are mock bedrooms strung with everyday items that attempt to educate parents about what drug paraphernalia looks like today. Other stations will display various vaping devices, marijuana dab pens and edibles.
Local youth organizations will have tables with literature and other information. Visitors can also enter to win prizes and giveaways such as a membership to the Hampshire Regional YMCA, a season pass to Look Park and passes to Puzzled Escape Room and the Central Rock Gym. The event is organized by the Northampton Prevention Coalition.
NORTHAMPTON – Two survivors of the Greensboro Massacre will speak Sunday at Edwards Church as part of a nationwide commemoration of the anti-Ku Klux Klan protest where five people were shot and killed by white supremacists in November 1979. The public address by Dr. Joyce and the Rev. Nelson Johnson runs from 2 to 3:30 p.m., followed by a reception in the basement of the church.
For more than two decades, the Johnsons have built and directed the Beloved Community Center, a Greensboro nonprofit dedicated to racial and economic justice. They also helped establish the country’s first Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was responsible for identifying some Greensboro police as benefactors to the shooters. Dr. Michael Nathan, the 32-year-old husband of Northampton physician Marty Nathan, was one of the five people murdered.
In August, Northampton City Council declared Sunday, Oct. 6, a day of commemoration of the massacre, which marks its 40th anniversary this year.
During their stay, the Johnsons will visit classes at Smith College and the University of Massachusetts. In addition, the film “Greensboro: Closer to the Truth” will be shown at Forbes Library on Wednesday, Oct. 9, at 6:30 p.m. as part of the Resistance Film Series. The Oct 6. forum and film showing are free, open to the public and handicapped-accessible.
HOLYOKE — Community members are invited to attend a lecture about the historical hand-made headstones in city cemeteries at the Wistariahurst Museum, Oct. 15, from 6 to 7 p.m.
The lecture, called “Handwrought Gravestones in Holyoke and vicinity, c.1720 to 1840: An Introduction to Some of the Men Who Made Them,” will be given by Bob Drinkwater, a historical archaeologist who has done extensive research on gravestones in western Mass.
According to a statement released by Wistariahurst, in the 18th and early 19th centuries, most of the gravestones in Holyoke were made by stonecutting shops in surrounding towns. The upcoming presentation will describe some of the stonecutters who worked in the area prior to the Industrial Revolution.
Drinkwater’s lecture is part of a wider series of talks at Wistariahurst called “People, Places, Food, & Sport.” A $5 donation is suggested.