Friday, May 1, 2009

Upcoming Community Events

Please note that these events are not sponsored by Parent Council. There's lots of stuff to do this weekend in town! 18th Annual Amherst Ultimate Invitational Tournament, May 2-3, 2009. Hosted by Amherst Regional High School (ARHS). The Tournament will be held at the Ultimate fields at ARHS and Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. Thirty high school teams from New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Connecticut, and Massachusetts will compete in one of the largest and most prestigious Ultimate tournaments in the country. On Saturday, games will be played from 9:45am to 5pm at both venues; on Sunday, games will run from 8am to 4:30pm at ARHS. Combining the non-stop movement and athletic endurance of soccer with the aerial passing skills of football, a game of Ultimate is played by two seven-player squads with a high-tech plastic disc on a field similar to football. Amherst is steeped in the history of Ultimate, acknowledged to be to be the birthplace of the sport by an Amherst College student in 1967. Ultimate has grown precipitously over the following 40 years to over 4.9 million competitive Ultimate players around the world (2008). Amherst coaches Tiina Booth and Jim Pistrang formed some of the first competitive teams in the country in the 1970s. ARHS last won the national Ultimate championship in 2004. For schedules, times, locations, and much more information on the tournament, see: http://www.amherstultimate.org/ai/2009. The 62nd annual book sale of the League of Women Voters of Amherst opens on the Amherst Town Common at 9 a.m. Friday morning, May 1, and runs until Sunday, May 3. The hours are 9 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Sunday. The sale attracts book lovers from all over New England, and bargain hunters can find thousands of books under the big tent at the area's largest and oldest book sale. League members and friends spend hundreds of hours processing the more than 30,000 donated books. The books are sorted into over 40 categories, and the wide variety assures that there will be books that appeal to all tastes and interests, from children’s books to books for scholars, homemakers, poets and all manner of light and literary reading. In addition to serving as a major effort in recycling affordable books for readers of all ages, the sale is the League’s primary fund raiser and helps to support projects and publications that encourage informed voting and citizen participation in government. For more information, call 253–0633. Award Winning author Jane Yolen reads “My Uncle Emily,” Saturday, May 2, 10 a.m, at the Emily Dickinson Museum. Join us for a reading and booksigning to celebrate Jane Yolen's new book, My Uncle Emily, a children's story based on the relationship between Emily Dickinson and her young nephew Gilbert. Light refreshments will be served. The event is free and open to the public. http://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/. Details of many other Emily Dickinson-related events in May here. JOIN MULTI-ARTS INTERACTIVE ARTS FESTIVAL. Performances & Workshops, Music – Dance – Art – Mime – Creative Writing. Where: Barnes and Noble, Hadley, When: Saturday, May 2nd. 11:00-12:00 for Little Ones, 3:00-6:00 for everyone. Music: Bring your instrument and join us in the performance of Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" and Haydn's "Toy Symphony." Art: Design & make your own 3-D cardboard dog. Dance: Watch "Las Chicas", a Flamenco dance show. Have a taste of Flamenco in a ten-minutes workshop. Try Funk and Break dance extravaganza. For little ones: Paint your face, learn basic juggling, Entertainment by clowns, mimes, and story tellers. Don’t miss it. See you there! Some Fort River first graders will have their writings read by WFCR's John Montanari! Click here for more information. May 2 - 7, Conversations with the Past. The West Cemetery Walk. Founded in 1737 West Cemetery was placed on the National Historic Register in the year 2000. As part of Amherst's 250th anniversary, walk along the avenues and boulevards of West Cemetery and explore Amherst's past. Come meet fourteen residents spanning three centuries who will come to life to tell their stories and answer your questions. The West Cemetery Walk is planned for the following dates and times:
  • Saturday May 2, 10am - 1pm
  • Sunday May 3, 1pm - 4pm
  • Tuesday May 5, 9am - noon
  • Wednesday May 6, noon - 2:30pm
  • Thursday, May 7, 5 - 7pm.
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.