Author: Joey Ciaramitaro

What’s Happening at GHS 9/22/14

We just finished Spirit week, from the 15th to the 19th and all would be surprised at how our students perceived their grandparents dress. We saw lots of canes, a few walkers and lots of polyester, buts lots of fun had by all. The week culminated with the Pep Rally on Friday

The PSAT’s will be offered at GHS on October 15, 2014 for all juniors and any sophomores who may be interested. This practice opportunity for the SAT’s is a wonderful time to begin thinking about the entire college application and acceptance process. To register for the PSAT, a payment of $22 (cash only) may be deposited with Mrs. Mondello before school, during lunch or after school.

Gloucester U will be offering Credit Recovery options for any students that may need to recover any credits to ensure their graduation within a four year timeline. Any interested students or parents may contact the Guidance Department for further registration information, or register at the GHS homepage under the Gloucester U heading or directly to the website at  http://gloucesteru.weebly.com/

Hard to believe but Progress Reports will be coming home October 3, 2014. Time is flying by already! Parents may register on the Gloucester High School Website Homepage for access to their Iparent accounts.

The Health Fair will be in the Field House on Thursday October 2, for all of our students to attend

and learn about the latest medical information and services available within the community.

A complete listing of all the GHS clubs and  Sports is available on the GHS website but a few of our most popular include Human Rights Initiative, the Comic Book Club, Anime, Drama Club, Chess Club, Interact, Environmental Club, Film Club, Model UN, Photo Club and Robotics. Club meetings are slowly getting started and will be announced daily, check the announcements and join your friends after school.

The Guidance Counselors will begin meeting with all seniors within the next few weeks to ensure all of the planning and preparation of last year is progressing on target and make any changes or modifications to their college and career plans.

Guidance Department 978-281-9874
– Option #8
Laura Heinzinger      x 14012
Carl Sacco              x 14008
Laura Carlson            x 14011
Matt Duncan               x 14010
Ellen Clarke                   x 14009

Temple Ahavat Achim has just recently installed custom-made Eternal Lights aka “Nir Tamids”. The artist who created them is Claude Riedel.

Temple Ahavat Achim has just recently installed custom-made Eternal Lights VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

The installation has happened just in time for the High Holy Days.
We invite the community to join us for the Rosh Hashanah services this week on the following days to enjoy the services and to marvel at our new Eternal Lights:

– Wednesday, September 24th at 7 pm (Erev Rosh Hashanah)

– Thursday, September 25th at 9 am (First Day of Rosh Hashanah)

– Friday, September 26th at 9 am (Second Day of Rosh Hashanah)

Our services are open to all. TAA has never issued tickets and we proudly continue our open door policy. Unaffiliated individuals and families are encouraged to attend any of our services. Our congregation is truly a “Jewel of the North Shore”. Please invite your friends and neighbors to pray and study with us, to share our work of Tikkun Olam (“Healing the World”) and to help TAA continue to be a strong vibrant center of Jewish Life.

And here is the story that Claude Riedel wrote about the Lights:
I am inspired by the Kabbalistic description of the source of light (G-d) as radiating from a “primary mystic center”  in ever expanding layers of radiant translucence.  I feel comforted by the permanence of the “source” and inspired by the ever expanding facets of that light as it shines on and fills us all.  In the telling of the 16th century Kabbalist, Isaac Luria, god created the world : “By forming vessels of light to hold the Divine Light.  But as G-d poured the Light into the vessels, they catastrophically shattered, tumbling down toward the realm of matter.  Thus, our world consists of countless shards of the original vessels entrapping sparks of the Divine Light.” Tikkun Olam releases that energy into our world.
My own history resonates with these images as my Grandfather was taken away to Buchenwald on the Night of Broken Glass – Kristalnacht – and my work is an effort to take some of those shards and make them into something whole and holy.
This community  has been sustained and devastated  by  the water of the sea.   Your shul has been  shattered  by fire and and now rejuvenated.  The Nir Tamids I have  have been blessed to offer you are of that spirit. 
In your prayers and meditation let the comfort of the eternal light remind and inspire you to light  and tend to the Nir Tamid in your own heart from generation to generation:
bringing light to darkness, openness instead of concealment, to study rather than blind faith, to clarity versus mystery.  May each of us be in touch with our own internal Devine light and share it with the world in peace. 
Sincerely,
Claude Riedel

Celebrating 25 Years of success in the fight against HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C on the North Shore

North Shore Health Project’s 25^th Anniversary Gala and Concert

The North Shore Health Project is celebrating its 25^th year as a leading agency on the North Shore dedicated to helping people infected with, and affected by, HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C with a fundraiser featuring an unforgettable evening of music and more at the Shalin Liu Music Performance Center in Rockport, MA on Friday, October 17^th  at 8PM. Featuring nationally renowned contemporary folk singers Antje Duvekot and Meg Hutchinson as well as local singer/songwriters including Allen Estes, Brian Alex (Entrain), Marina Evans and a special surprise guest, it is sure to be a stellar night of entertainment and celebration.

Founded in 1988 by a group of Cape Ann citizens concerned by the devastating effects of the growing AIDS crisis, the Health Project’s services expanded in 2005 to include Hepatitis C, a direct response to that growing epidemic. Located in Gloucester, it offers medical case management, holistic support services, nutritional programming, peer support and more to over 130 residents from all over Essex County.  It remains an independent grassroots agency dedicated to helping people with HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C get the medical attention they need, as well as offering other supportive services to ensure that they are well equipped to manage their overall health while living with a chronic disease.

“The North Shore Health Project has offered a broad range of services to residents of Cape Ann and beyond for 25 years. Its services are tailored to meet the needs of each individual client with an emphasis on holistic supports which, combined with strong physician collaboration, ensure that clients are empowered to maintain optimal health,” says Board President Donald Maier, MD. “This important milestone is a perfect time to celebrate the great success of the Health Project.”

Tickets are $75(VIP) and $50(GA) and are available at www.shalinliu/north-shore-health-project. The VIP tickets include preferred seating, a champagne reception beginning at 6PM with hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar as well as a special raffle. There are also sponsorship opportunities available.  Please call or email Susan Gould Coviello at 978-283-0101, scoviello@healthproject.org for more information about the celebration, as well as information about the Health Project.

Seacoast News October 2014

Thanks to the Friends of Seacoast the residents at Seacoast Nursing and Rehabilitation Center enjoy marvelous entertainment and events.
The Friends of Seacoast enhance the resident’s lives at the Seacoast Nursing and Rehabilitation Center with hours of enjoyment by providing the finances needed for the special entertainment, holiday gifts, supplies and community outings.

We are looking forward to many events with the support of the Friends of Seacoast including The Magnificent Mummy Musical by the Big Smile Entertainment Company, weekly Musical Entertainment by outstanding performers including the Honky Tonk Women, Dinner Theater with catered foods from local restaurants, Community Outings and more…

The Friends of Seacoast are grateful for the donations and the gifts received in honor of loved ones.

The Friends of Seacoast Holiday Fair is scheduled for Saturday November 22nd,
9:00AM-1:00 PM. This special event will include professional vendors, a cookie walk, white elephant sales and a raffle. Vendor space is available $25 per table. Anyone interested in participating in this event please contact Alison Cox @ 978-283-0300.

The next Friends of Seacoast meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, October 14, 2014 at 6:00 PM.

Our next scheduled events with the Cape Ann Museam CAM connection program will be a Art tour and painting session at the North Shore Art Association and a tour of the newly renovated Cape Ann Museam.

VOTE 2014 MA State Election
Information Registration and Voting Dates
October 17th Last Day to Register General Election
November 6th General Election
Voter registration forms and absentee ballot application are located in the main lobby
   
Residents in need of assistance please see Alison Cox, Activity Director

The Taste of Cape Ann Returns to Cruiseport Gloucester on October 9th

The most delicious fundraiser of the year is nearly here – it’s time to get your ticket. Last year’s event included nearly three dozen food and beverage purveyors and nearly 300 guests!

The Cape Ann YMCA’s 6th Annual “Taste of Cape Ann” returns to Cruiseport Gloucester  on Thursday, October 9, 2014 from 6-9PM. The event features the best of Cape Ann eateries offering food, wine and spirits for one $25 ticket price with the proceeds of ticket sales going to support Cape Ann YMCA Teen Service Trips to New Orleans, Navajo Nation and Nicaragua. 

The service trips empower local youth to spend a week working in communities hit by environmental and economic devastation.  Teens participate in learning modules before and after traveling on school break to offer hands-on aid in areas of great need.  The New Orleans Mission, now in its 4th year, originated as a Cape Ann trip but has generated enough interest to cause its expansion to include youth throughout the North Shore YMCA system two years ago and prompted the addition of the Nicaragua trip in 2013, and the Navajo Nation trip in 2014.

TICKET INFO:
October 9, 2014 at 6:00pm
Taste of Cape Ann
Cruiseport Gloucester, MA

Link for Tickets: https://northshoreymca.ejoinme.org/?tabid=483002

For information on Teen Programming at the Cape Ann YMCA contact Rick Doucette at doucetter@northshoreymca.org or 978-283-0470

There will be a reception for local artist, Anita Johnson, on Saturday, September 27, at  BankGloucester at 160 Main Street, Gloucester.  You can meet the artist in the bank’s lobby between 11:00 and 1:00, and enjoy light refreshments. Anita’s paintings include scenes of New England and Italy, still-life’s, and portraits.  Her work will be on view until Nov. 8^th.

Gloucester maritime culture to be featured at New Bedford ’s Working Waterfront Festival

Master boat builder Harold Burnham to bring Pinky Schooner Ardelle

Gloucester ’s maritime culture will be well represented at New Bedford ’s 2014 Working Waterfront Festival. A celebration of the commercial fishing industry, the free festival takes place on the working piers of New Bedford ’ historic waterfront on Saturday, September 27 and Sunday, September 28. 

The Pinky Schooner Ardelle, designed and built by master shipwright Harold Burnham, will be at the event on Sunday.  Pinky Schooners were a common type of fishing vessel that sailed out of Cape Ann harbors from the early eighteenth century through the early twentieth century. Burnham bears a family name that is virtually synonymous with Essex , the birthplace of approximately 4,000 schooners. He is the 28^th Burnham to operate a shipyard in Essex since 1819. Growing up in a family of shipbuilders in a town where shipbuilding is a tradition handed down over the generations, Harold has learned the traditional techniques of his forebears, carving out a place in history as a master designer, shipwright, and sailmaker.  He twice has been a recipient of a Traditional Artist Fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and was the 2012 recipient of a National Heritage Award, the highest honor bestowed on traditional artists.

Gloucester based author JoeAnn Hart will be signing copies of Float at the Festival Bookstore on Saturday from 1:30-2:00. The novel is a wry tale of financial desperation, conceptual art, insanity, infertility, seagulls, marital crisis, jellyfish, organized crime, and the plight of a plastic-filled ocean.  Essex based musician and children’s author Daisy Nell will read from her latest book Moxie and the Whale aboard Schooner Ernestina on Sunday at 11:30. Ernestina was originally the Effie M. Morrissey, a Gloucester built Grand Banks fishing schooner.  She will also read The Stowaway Mouse on the deck of the Schooner Ardelle from 2:30-3:00 about a mouse who sneaks on board as the Burnham Boatyard launches a new schooner.

Angela Sanfilippo, President of the Gloucester Fisherman’s Wives Association will represent the Port of Gloucester as a cook in the Seafood Throwdown which takes place on Sunday at 3:30.  She will compete against Vera Carvalho, representing the Port of New Bedford . The two cooks will compete to create a winning seafood dish using a surprise local seafood ingredient which is revealed to them at the event.  The Seafood Throwdown is a collaboration between the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance and the Working Waterfront Festival.

The Working Waterfront Festival is a project of the Community Economic Development Center of Southeastern MA, a non-profit organization. The FREE festival, a family friendly, educational celebration of New England’s commercial fishing industry, features live maritime and ethnic music, fishermen’s contests, fresh seafood, vessel tours, films, author readings, cooking demonstrations, kid’s activities and more.  It all takes place on working piers and waterfront parks in New Bedford , MA , America ‘s #1 fishing port, on the last full weekend in September.  Navigate to us at www.workingwaterfrontfestival.org.

Laura Orleans, Director

Working Waterfront Festival