April news from the Friends of the Sawyer Free Library:

Friends of the Sawyer Free Library book nook, Gloucester Lyceum & Sawyer Free Public Library Dale Avenue Gloucester, MA
My View of Life on the Dock
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Please consider helping this beautiful, kind lady. Thank you ❤
In October of 2018 Josephine Taormina was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). Her team of doctors swiftly and aggressively started treatment with chemotherapy. After 70 days in the hospital, Josephine was released knowing that she would receive a stem cell transplant over the next few months from her daughter.
The stem cell transplant was considered a success and everyone thought Josephine was on her road to recovery.
Her first relapse happened in September 2019. She was back in the hospital which was becoming an all to familiar place for her and her family. During her hospitalizations, Josephine acquired many side effects both common and rare.
Josephine (right) and Friends
She was found lying in the woods, barely breathing with her helpless baby clinging to her. We believe she was hit by a car. She had severe head trauma, extreme hypothermia and was very thin and dehydrated. We brought her into our facility, warmed her up and started an IV. We honestly didn’t think she would make it, but we had to try – for her sake and for her baby.
We were so thankful that she slowly began to responded to our care. Every day she became more and more lively. After about three weeks of treatment she was able to be released. Knowing this mama Opossum and her baby had a second chance at life made all the effort worthwhile.
If you would like to support our efforts, we could really use the community’s help with some much needed supplies.
Wildlife Amazon Wish List https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3SGHHZJ5OBGN0?ref_=wl_share
Thank you to Roseanne Cody, Rosalie Nicastro, and all the volunteers for organizing the wonderfully fun family breakfast held at the Rose Baker Senior Center on Sunday morning. The center was packed with children eagerly anticipating the arrival of Santa and Friends. Santa did not disappoint and individual photos were taken with all the kids. Rosalie shares that 100 percent of the tickets and raffle sales benefit the Senior Center!
My friend Nicole Duckworth is part of the Open Door’s Turkey Team, a group of individuals collectively raising funds for the Open Door’s Thanksgiving drive. Nicole has raised $250.00 towards her $500.00 goal. Please help Nicole help local families. Thirty dollars buys a family a turkey dinner, complete with all the fixings. You can donate by clicking here. Thank you!
Nicole writes:
“Join me making a real difference.
Even a small donation will go a long way to helping me meet my fundraising goal for The Open Door — and we’ll be making the holidays so much brighter for our neighbors in need. Every $30 provides a basket, so whether you give $10 or $100, we’ll be helping local families set their holiday tables.
Thank you!”
There are more people than ever this year who need our community’s help with Thanksgiving. Working with all the Turkey Team members, the Open Door’s goal is to raise $10,000.00. Read more about how you can help here:
We’re asking a few of our key partners to rally their friends, family, and networks to help us provide Holiday Meal Baskets to families who struggle to make ends meet.
We invite you to help us collectively raise $10,000 for Holiday Meal Baskets this season. Set your own fundraising goal to help us get there. When you join The Open Door’s Turkey Team, you can help these families uphold their own family traditions by preparing their own home-cooked holiday dinners — and you’ll help your friends feel good about doing good!
Starting a meal-basket fundraiser is easy to do — and it’s fun. We’ll give you all the tools you’ll need. With your help, we’ll be able to make the holidays so much brighter for our neighbors in need.
Looks like Saturday, October 5, 2019 is going to be an amazing beautiful fall day. A great to day to visit Marshall’s Farm and Craft Fair Fundraiser. Also come and say hi to the cute Alpacas such as Rocky, Buttercup, little Hoppy and of course the goats, Ben and Jerry.
Friends, please consider donating to my friend Nicole Duckworth’s fundraiser. She is running the NEDS Falmouth Road Race on Sunday, August 18th, to raise money and awareness of the need for organ donations. NEDS is an acronym for New England Donor Services. She had a wonderfully successful bake sale to raise funds and any additional donation would be tremendously appreciated. Thank you so much! Please donate here.
Erica is here thanks to her organ donor. Learn more and register online at Register Here
This venue is fun to come and shop and to be able to wander in a historic Marine Railway.
For More information on the this historic Railways please follow the link below:
http://www.gloucestermarinerailways.com/index.htm
What’s on the set list and the tasting menu for this great pairing? Mark your calendars for the GHS Docksiders Wine Tasting booster at The Gloucester House on Saturday, March 17, at 6:30PM.
Enjoy an evening with the GHS Docksiders: Listen to great music, sip fine wine, shop & support local music. Special Guest auctioneer, Senator Bruce Tarr. Tickets are $25 at the door or from a GHS Docksiders member or…
You can buy a ticket or donate at Alexandra’s Bread, 265 Main Street, Gloucester
#GivingTuesday is a global day of giving. Everyone, anywhere can participate! By supporting the documentary Beauty on the Wing, your fully tax deductible gift directly enables us to create a final cut, contributes to the music and map rights, to the cost of festival submissions, promotion, and publicity. It’s easy to make a donation, just click the link above, which will take you to the Filmmakers Collaborative, my film’s fiscal sponsor.
Why does a documentary need a fiscal sponsor? A fiscal sponsor, in this case, the Filmmakers Collaborative, is a non-profit entity that enables a documentary filmmaker to raise funds and operate through an exempt sponsor. The sponsor manages the project’s money and reports to funders and tax agencies. Most importantly, contributors to the film can see how their gifts are being utilized towards the creation of the film.
Your voice is powerful. If you are unable to give this Giving Tuesday, please help support Beauty on the Wing by spreading the word through a Facebook share or a retweet.
For more information, visit the film’s website here: Monarch Butterfly Film
For an overview of the film’s budget, please go here: Budget
Thank you!
With gratitude,
The Monarch last to eclose departed on Wednesday, November 15th. Although the air temperature was only in the low 40s when I left for work, the sun was shining. Our front porch faces southwest so it wasn’t long before his wings were warmed by the sun’s rays and away he flew. The forecast for parts further south along the east coast, the next leg of his journey–Westport, Long Island, and the New Jersey shore– looked promisingly mild. Thank you to my friend Patti Papows for the gift of this last little trooper.
We in the Northeast aren’t alone; I am reading reports about late comers from all around the United States, and even as far north as Toronto, Canada. So few Atlantic coast Monarchs were seen last year, do the great numbers this year portend of a permanent population increase? Bare in mind that the Monarchs were formerly counted in the billions when first discovered in the late 1970s, and now, forty years later, only millions.
A cold New England spring was offset by an unseasonably warm fall and that certainly helped the Monarchs (and myriad species of Lepidoptera). In response to the vast areas of farm acreage that no longer supports butterflies and bees, due to the use of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready genetically modified seeds of corn, soybean, and sorghum, people all across the U.S. are planting milkweed, creating pollinator habitats, and finding alternatives to pesticides and herbicides.
Monarchs Eastern Point Lighthouse Daybreak
With Thanksgiving only a few days away I am writing with the deepest appreciation and gratitude to my community for your tremendous contributions to Beauty on the Wing. From donations of $5.00 to $10,000.00, from over 70 donors, to date we have raised $24,710.00. We are well on our way to reaching our goal! Your kind words, contributions, and friendships mean the world. We are going to make an outstanding, thoughtful and thought-provoking film about the Monarchs that along the way, through storytelling and cinematography, shines a beautiful light on Cape Ann.
Too cold for the last of our intrepid Monarchs to fly away today.
Our last little Monarch to emerge struggled to gain the warmth needed for takeoff. What is the minimum air temperature needed to allow Monarchs to fly? When at Cape May several weeks ago and witnessing a large overnight roost of butterflies, the air temperature the following morning was the same as Gloucester’s temperature this morning–low forties–but the sun was shining. No sunshine today, combined with the low temperature, made flying impossible. Monarchs cluster together in overnight roosts for warmth. Our little guy was all alone on an isolated branch and with temperatures expected to dip into the mid thirties, I brought him indoors for the night.
Why the late season stragglers? Warmer than usual fall temperatures allowed eggs and caterpillars to reach maturity when in colder years, freezing temperatures would have prevented development
Some Monarchs begin migrating southward as early as August. And as we have seen, during the warm fall season of 2017 in particular, as late as November. The Monarch migration continues until halted by freezing temperatures. This staggered migration is yet another chapter in the survival strategy of the Monarch’s life story. If all Monarchs began migrating at exactly the same time, a powerful storm or hurricane, such as Harvey or Irma, could have devastating consequences on a great many Monarchs.