Beautiful day at Good Harbor Beach with a pretty kite flying.
Who’s Watching Dropkick Murphy’s Live Streaming Show Tonight For St Patrick’s Day?
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NOT COVID News…..In Case You Needed It
Spring is set to arrive Thursday March 19, for an early equinox! The earliest spring in 100 years is what I am seeing. Isn’t that good news??? Here’s a link for more information: https://www.almanac.com/content/first-day-spring-vernal-equinox
Here are a couple of small signs of spring around town. Pussy willows and early tulips blooming. A feast for the eyes and heart.
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COVID-19 UNEMPLOYMENT MESSAGE FROM REPRESENTATIVE ANN MARGARET FERRANTE
If you have found yourself out of work due to restrictions in place because of COVID-19, you should apply for unemployment insurance even if you are unsure if your situation fits normal unemployment insurance guidelines.
The House and Senate are working on emergency legislation that will allow new claims to be paid more quickly by waiving the one week waiting period for unemployment benefits and Governor Baker’s administration is developing emergency regulations that will allow people impacted by COVID-19 to collect unemployment insurance in the certain circumstances.
To learn how to apply for unemployment, visit https://www.mass.gov/guides/what-to-do-if-youve-become-unemployed-in-massachusetts
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COVID-19 LOAN FUND MESSAGE FROM REPRESENTATIVE ANN MARGARET FERRANTE
Today, the Baker-Polito Administration announced economic support for small businesses with a $10 million loan fund to provide financial relief to those that have been affected by COVID-19.
The $10 million Small Business Recovery Loan Fund will provide emergency capital up to $75,000 to Massachusetts-based businesses impacted by COVID-19 with under 50 full- and part-time employees, including nonprofits. Loans are immediately available to eligible businesses with no payments due for the first 6 months.
To apply, please complete the application found at https://www.empoweringsmallbusiness.org/. Completed applications can be sent via email to mgcc@massgcc.com with the subject line “2020 Small Business Recovery Loan Fund.”
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FRIENDS- THE OPEN DOOR NEEDS OUR HELP!
We don’t need to remind our readers what a truly amazing organization is the Open Door, and how they have fed, supported, and uplifted countless members of our community. The Open Door really needs our financial help. Nicole Duckworth shares that the food pantry is already serving more people. The Open Door has lost 40 percent of its revenue due to the Second Glance temporarily closing. And they cannot at this time take food donations because of corvid-19.
Please consider donating money to the Open Door. You can either write a check or click through to Network for Good:
Financial Contributions by Check:
If you would like to help us feed hungry families here on Cape Ann, please send a check, made payable to The Open Door:
The Open Door, 28 Emerson Avenue
Gloucester, MA 01930
Donate here through Network for Good
NEW WAY TO PICK UP FOOD AT THE OPEN DOOR
Beginning Wednesday, March 18: We will move to curbside pick-up; clients are asked not to enter the building. Pull up to the front of our building on Emerson Ave., and a volunteer or staff member will bring you food prepacked for your household size.
If you work during this time, or are quarantined and unable to pick up groceries, please call 978-283-6776 or email gethelp@foodpantry.org.
This change will help to keep our staff and volunteers healthy and able to serve our clients. These measures are, of course, temporary during the COVID-19 coronavirus crisis, and we look forward to returning to our full-service, full-choice model as soon as it is safe to do so.
Thank you for your cooperation and support.
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Bookstore of Gloucester
Happy to ship or deliver books for the Bookstore! This is a hard time for small businesses and any support is appreciated!
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GHS Announcement Of Change Of Lunch Sites
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DO YOU NEED HELP PUTTING FOOD ON YOUR TABLE DURING THE COVID-19 OUTBREAK? MESSAGE FROM BACKYARD GROWERS
COVID-19 is having a direct impact on many families and seniors in our community. We’ve put together a list of resources available to those experiencing food insecurity and hunger at this challenging time. We’re all in this together. For assistance, please see below:
🥕 Project Bread – Food Source Hotline: The toll-free Hotline responds to more than 28,000 calls a year from people across Massachusetts struggling to feed their families. FoodSource Hotline counselors refer callers to food resources in their community as well as provides them with information about school meals, summer meal sites for kids, elder meals programs, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps.
🥕 The Open Door – The Food Pantry at The Open Door provides emergency groceries to those in need. Community Meals offer free, nutritious meals to those in need of food.
🥕 Gloucester School Food Service Department – The City has established a lunch “Pick-Up Station” at O’Maley Middle School at 312 Cherry St., Monday-Friday, 11 a.m. – noon. All children ages 18 and under, regardless of their Free/Reduced/Full Pay status will receive a FREE complete nutritious bagged lunch daily. The meals are prepared under the same strict nutrition and food safety guidelines that are followed every day in our school kitchens. Meals may not be consumed at the “Pick-Up Station” limiting participants’ interaction and proximity to other participants.
🥕 The Office of the Mayor of the City of Gloucester – If you are self-quarantining or under mandatory quarantine (none as of 3/16) and need food assistance, please contact the Mayor of the City of Gloucester at mayor@gloucester-ma.gov. The City has runners and will drop off a food package to you.
🥕 Backyard Growers will soon be launching a program to make container gardening materials and resources available to our community – putting the power to grow your own food on more doorsteps, patios, back stairs, and backyards throughout the region, in a variety of shapes and sizes. Watch this space.
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SHORT AND MAIN COVID-19 UPDATE
Dear Short & Main customers,
Obviously things are moving pretty fast. Before Governor Baker’s announcement we had decided to close our dining room and switch to takeout service only. We are ready to continue serving you in a safe and responsible way.
Place your order over the phone with a credit card and we will deliver to your car on Short Street. No cash, no signatures, no door handles.
We are of the belief that we can’t be too cautious or too clean. It’s for that reason that we will not be doing delivery at this time as it adds an extra link in the chain that we’re unable to control. We hope that you trust us to be diligent and mindful during this time. That trust feels personal to us and we’d like to keep it at all costs.
We will be opening an hour early; 4pm to 9pm for now.
Our public events are obviously canceled but we will still be serving burgers and fried chicken on the first and last Wednesdays of the month. You can pre-order via phone or email if you’re worried about our popular specials running out.
Let’s FLATTEN THE CURVE together!
-sincerely Short & Main
Wednesday March 25th Burger Night
Friday March 27th Steve Lacey Record Release
Saturday March 28th GIRL lbgtq dance party
Wednesday April 1st Fried Chicken from Green Circle Farm
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CORVID-19 UPDATE FROM CAKE ANN
This has been an unprecedented week and its only Tuesday! After a lot of thought and consulting our team we decided to open and serve our community as long as we are able.
At Cake Ann we have:
– Stepped up hand washing and continue to use all good health practices for safe food handling
– Removed our small seating and waiting area
– Clean the Point of sale after every customer interaction.
– Sanitize all surfaces and equipment on a continuous basis
– Serve coffee to limit cross contamination of equipment
We ask you to:
– You not travel if you and or your family is not well
– Please do not help yourself – we will help you.
– Be patient and realize that we are working in extraordinary times.
– Support your local businesses as you can
– Reschedule – not cancel your existing event.
I am working on online ordering and starting today we will accept prepaid orders that we will be delivered within a window of 4-6 PM in Rockport and Gloucester. We will continue to update you as more information becomes available.
Thank you very much –
Our team at Cake Ann
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Please help our small businesses, shop local
I know we are stuck in the house but please try to shop local when going out. We need our local businesses to survive. If you do not want to go out, call and order gift cards.
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Nancy Anne
The Nancy Anne is ready for action up in the railways
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Live GloucesterCast 388 Chris and Connor McCarthy, Pat & Jimmy Dalpiaz and Joey Ciaramitaro Taped 3/17/20
GloucesterCast 388 Chris and Connor McCarthy, Pat & Jimmy Dalpiaz and Joey Ciaramitaro Taped 3/17/20
Press play to listen-
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Topics Include:
Been Nice Getting Outside Doing Yard Work- Seeing Kids Outside Playing
Shopping experiences
City Of Gloucester Coronvirus Information Page click here
Where will Tom Brady Take His First Football Snap Next Year?
List of Restaurants offering Takeout-
Mom’s Kitchen, Sugar Mags, The Farm Bar and Grill, 525, Sherry’s Corner, Yellow Sub, Cove Cafe, Duckworth’s working on it, Cafe Bishco will also do curbside and delivery, Zeke’s Place, George’s coffee shop, Willow Rest,Charlie’s Place, Oliver’s Harbor, Rhumb Line, Hooks, Destinos, Two sister’s Tacos Lupita, Hale Street, 15 Walnut, The Spot andMaggie’s Farm will remain open for takeout only, starting Wednesday March 18th., Machaca, Causeway, Essex Seafood, The Mill, Windward Grille, Cape Ann Pizza, Woodman’s of Essex, C.K. pearl *currently closed for kitchen reno until end of week/stay tuned, Great Marsh Brewing *growlers only, no food, Village Market, Chebacco Market, Essex Pizza, Blue Marlin Grille.
Baby Boomlet coming up “Quarantines” thirteen years from now
Kim’s Butterfly movie premiere has been postponed
Drinking On St Patrick’s Day While Everyone Is Working From Home
Connor McCarthy (the silent assasin) has a dating app
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A Gloucester Irish Story for St. Patrick’s Day 2020
Mary Ryan Brotherton 1866 – 1943
I was tickled to find a picture from the Gloucester Daily Times (Oct 6 1943) to accompany this obituary for Mary (Ryan) Brotherton. It seems appropriate to share her story today especially since many of you have a little extra time to do some reading these days!
Mary was my Irish immigrant Timothy Ryan’s daughter–she was born in 1866 and died 1943. Her story is a very typical one of my Gloucester Irish fishing families. She lived her whole life in Gloucester, Massachusetts. This Mary appears to have been named after a sister Mary who died when she was 2 a few years before this Mary was born. It may also have been a tribute to her mother Mary Squires Ryan. This picture was obviously from later in her life but I see a little resemblance here to her brother William, my direct Ryan ancestor.
I recently obtained some new information about Mary after one of those “dope-slap” moments that often occur in life. The Massachusetts Catholic Order of Foresters was originally based in Boston after its founding in 1879 by Irish immigrants to provide life insurance for its members. It soon spread to other cities, so Gloucester Irish were among its target demographic. In the past, I have found a couple of our ancestor’s files in this collection (now being housed at the University of Massachusetts). Their applications for membership have been scanned and made available. They are several pages long and provide intimate details of their lives at the time of the application. They are especially helpful because applications were often made in a range of life span that often lacks detail in normal research. Often, the applicants are heads of young families with living siblings and parents. These details are extraordinarily helpful in pinning down the lives of the applicant as well as the life of their families.
And I made the CLASSIC mistake of only seeking the males in these files. Since the files were recently transferred to UMass, more have become available and it finally dawned on me that I should look for some of the females (cue the dope-slap). And Mary was my first discovery!
This is one page of the file showing the status of Mary’s parents and siblings as of 1913 when this application was made. This helps establish her life circumstance in a period that is sometimes hard to research: “mid” life. These policies paid $1000 upon the death of the member. Mary’s Foresters file contains 16 pages all together and they are extraordinarily valuable and interesting. You can bet I’ll be looking for others.
Special St. Patrick’s Day wishes to other Gloucester Irish families on this special day for remembrance.
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Gloucester UK Adventure With Adventureman, Don, Rabbit and Chris Nyland
What a great time. What great people. Gloucester UK very similar to our Gloucester. Lots of texture. A bit gritty in all the right ways. From humble gin joints to posh dining and everything in between. Regular folk just like here. 🙂
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@FishermenGHS: Spring sports start date is now April 27th. Please continue to practice social distancing and note that all GHS athletic facilities are closed until further notice
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Get a Garden and Give a Garden with Backyard Growers & Black Earth Compost
We’ve partnered with the crew at Black Earth Compost, a local company with a mission to collect food waste, process it into nutrient-rich raised bed soil, and return it to the community. Through this partnership and our Get-a-Garden, Give-a-Garden program, you get a garden of your own and give a garden to a local low- to moderate-income family or senior in need.
As our joint thank you, in addition to a raised bed full of powerful soil, you will receive a Garden Welcome Pack, access to Backyard Growers’ garden resources, and reduced price workshops, all while providing the same benefits to a local family or senior in need. Backyard Growers will acknowledge your tax deductible $500 donation.
Click here for more information and to order a garden for you AND a family or senior in need.
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TWO UNRELATED BUT JOYFUL SIGNS OF SPRING!
I look forward to the appearance of these beautiful lavender crocus, a patch that blooms without fail every spring. It has naturalized from a garden probably planted long ago and now springs up along the road’s edge at Niles Pond.
And we had our first sighting of plovers, not Piping Plovers mind you, but Kildeers!
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DUCKWORTH’S GIFT CARDS- HERE’S AN EXAMPLE OF A WAY TO HELP OUR LOCAL BUSINESSES
Many share our worries in regard to local small businesses. Our restaurants and the friends who work in these establishments, downtown Main Street retail shops, Cape Ann’s fishermen and lobstermen, the nonprofits that serve our community, artists, writers, photographers, musicians, designers, the list goes on and on. We are all going to be hit hard by this devastating turn of events.
One way in which we can help each other stay afloat is to buy gift cards. It may sound inconsequential, but every purchase will help. Our friends at Duckworth’s have a link to purchase gift cards and it is a great example of one small way we can help. Duckworth’s Gift Cards
Any local business that wants to communicate with their customers and the public about special offerings during these extremely challenging times please feel free to email me (kimsmithdesigns@hotmail.com) or email any of our contributors and we will post here. Thank you!
Good Morning Gloucester 