Friday, October 3, 2008

Upcoming Community Events

Please note that these events are not sponsored by Parent Council. ABC Fall Foliage Walk, October 18th. This year the 40th Annual ABC Walk will feature a free concert with Charles Neville, a barbecue, a community art project, and other activities on the Town Common. It is ABC's 40th Anniversary, and for nearly all of those years we have been presenting the Walk. At the ABC House on North Prospect Street we board eight young men of color who come from inner city neighborhoods in the northeast, while they attend ARHS. Over a hundred young men have graduated through the program. ABC has come to stand for educational equity, academic excellence, and community service. In recent years the walk has attracted 300-400 participants who walked along 12 miles of wonderful trails in Amherst, Leverett and Shutesbury. Peter Lambdin and former Ft. River teacher Sandy McNiven (now retired) have been champions of the ABC Walk for decades, leading their classes on the walk year after year. This year, to celebrate our 40th, the walk will be much shorter (5k) along a paved route that families can enjoy. It will begin at 10:00 am on the Common. The concert with the Charles Neville Quartet will begin around 12:30. Charles, one of the Neville Brothers, is a renowned jazz saxophonist, and his local band plays jazz standards, and New Orleans-flavored blues and funk. The event will be catered by The Pub. This is a chance to celebrate the diversity of our community while enjoying a walk under the canopy of diverse colors, and to enjoy good music and food with our neighbors. Register for the walk online at www.amherstabetterchance.org. This Halloween, Join the Reverse Trick-or-Treat! Trick-or-treaters can give chocolate BACK to adults this Halloween...Fair Trade chocolate, attached to a card with thanks and information on how Fair Trade certified chocolate presents a solution to problems faced by cocoa-growing communities, such as poverty, child labor and environmental degradation. The kits are free to participating individuals, schools, congregations, and youth groups, who pay only postage. This new tradition is a wonderful way for trick-or-treaters to give back to their communities...and the world...bringing important meaning to the holiday. Deadline to order kits: Monday, October 13. Reverse Trick-or-Treating is organized by the human rights and environmental organization Global Exchange. To order kits or for more information, please visit http://www.reversetrickortreating.org. Also visit this website to find excellent educational resources for families and teachers on the subject of fair trade cocoa. Please contact the Amherst Fair Trade Partnership at amherstfairtrade@earthlink.net if you participate so you can be added to their count! Spice up your fall with an art class at Amherst Community Arts Center! Registration Going On NOW! Classes for children, teens & adults begin September 22nd. Classes include: drawing, painting, pottery & handbuilding, jewelry fabrication, mixed media, mask & puppet making, and much more. Great for any age or ability! Look for our class listings in the Amherst Leisure Times or visit http://www.lsse.org/. For further questions please call LSSE at (413) 259-3065 or ACAC at (413) 253-9265.
A note from Parent Council. We will publish information about non-Parent Council sponsored events with the following conditions: 1. The event should be of interest to Fort River families. 2. The information should be sent to Ann McLaughlin at damclaughlin@comcast.net in the form of a short description. 3. Contact information (website or name, telephone and/or email address) must be included. We add new information to the blog every Friday during the school year. Please note that we do not accept announcements of items or services for sale (with the exceptions of children's classes/lessons). Inclusion in this section does not imply any guarantees or endorsements by Fort River Parent Council or Fort River School.