■Early deadline this week: please submit your Penacook news by Monday at 5 p.m. for publication in next Sunday’s paper.
CHERYL STINSON
news03303@aol.com
■I would like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year in 2020!
■Churches will be celebrating the First Sunday after Christmas today in preparation for epiphany Jan. 7.
■Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, 180 Loudon Road, will have a 7 p.m. Mass on Tuesday for New Year’s Eve.
■There will be free pizza and bowling for altar servers on Jan. 11 at Boutwell’s Bowling on North State Street at 5:30 p.m. Pizza and soda will be served as well as glow bowliing from 6 to 7 p.m. The Concord Knights of Columbus will pay for pizza, soda, shoes and bowling for all.
■The African community will have a Sunday Mass on Jan. 5 at 1 p.m. with Fr. Maurice officiating.
■WICX 102.7 FM Catholic Radio is in need of donations to continue bringing the message of Christ to the Concord area. Think about becoming a sustaining “Donor Angel” by contributing $5, $10 or $20 a month. Please send any donation amount to WICX, P.O. Box 42, Bradford, N.H. 03221. You can also visit wicxradio.org or email nhcatholicradio@gmail.com.
■Sunshine wishes are continued for Beverly Edwards who is recuperating at Pleasant View.
■Caution: Please be very careful if you are thinking about going on the ice at Turtle Town Pond in East Concord. Call the Fish and Game if you have questions about safety.
■I would like to extend deepest sympathies to Clarence “Sonny” Nelson and his family on the passing of his wife, Beverly. They have lived in East Concord for many years.
■I would also like to extend deepest sympathies to the family of the late Kevin Stevens, who passed away.
RICHARD PATTEN
496-2917
dickpatten7@gmail.com
■Celebrate the New Year at the Concord Public Library on Tuesday starting at 11 a.m. The children will enjoy hats, noise makers, a photo booth, music and a treat before the 12 p.m. balloon drop. Please register by calling 225-8670.
■There will be no trash and recycling collected Wednesday (New Year’s Day) due to the holiday. Monday and Tuesday will be collected as usual and all others will be moved one day forward to conclude on Saturday with Friday’s route.
■Concord Hospital’s Center for Health Promotion is offering a Parent Preview class this Jan. 7 with openings at 5 p.m. This is an informational program designed to update you on maternity services and programs and what to expect during your hospital stay. A guided tour of The Family Place, the birthing unit of Concord Hospital, is included. There is no cost but registration is required. For more information or to register, call 227-7000, ext. 3228
■Put on your blue suede shoes, hop into a big yellow taxi, and come bob-bob, bobbin’ along to the Suncook Valley Chorale’s winter concert “Primary Colors in Song.” Join them at Wesley United Methodist Church, 79 Clinton St., as they sing of beautiful blue skies, yellow birds, and rainbow connections and, in a nod to New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation status, they will celebrate the primary season with “Stars & Stripes Forever,” the “Star Spangled Banner,” and more. Performances are Jan. 17 at 7 p.m. and Jan. 18 at 3 p.m. Tickets are available at the door: general admission $18, seniors and students, $15. For more information, email publicrelations@svcnh.org.
■Concord’s quarterly property taxes are due on or before Thursday!
LYNDA PLANTE
717-1632
soxpatscats@gmail.com
■January 2020 brings soul-soothing Mozart to the Music School, 23 Wall St., during the Jan. 9 Bach’s Lunch Lecture. The Bach’s Lunch Concert on Jan. 16 also features Mozart, plus works by Beethoven and Frank Bridge.
■On Jan. 4 at 2 p.m. at Gibson’s Bookstore, 45 S. Main St., Randy Pierce will share his uplifting personal account of his journey through adversity to accomplishment, with See You At the Summit: My Blind Journey from the Depth of Loss to the Heights of Achievement. Pierce was on top of the world, 22 years old, fresh out of college and thriving at an excellent job. His promising future seemed certain. Then, in just two short and devastating weeks, an unexpected neurological disorder plunged him into blindness. Believing his future had vanished in the blink of an eye, wondered, “How can my life have meaning now?” Born and raised in New Hampshire, Pierce spent his early years fully sighted. His passion for experience encouraged him to use adversity as a positive catalyst for growth and opportunity, resulting in amazing adventures including martial arts, mountain hiking and marathon running. In 2010, Randy and his wife Tracy founded a 501(c)3 charity called 2020 Vision Quest, which funds crucial services for the visually impaired. The Pierce’s proceeds from their book See You at the Summit will be donated to this organization.
■On Jan. 8 at 6 p.m. at Gibson’s Bookstore, author Christine Duffy Zerillo visits to offer a reading and book signing of her new historical fiction novel Still Here. Hear the alternating voices of Mary Rowlandson, a minister’s wife captured in an Indian raid in Lancaster, Massachusetts, and her captor, Sachem Weetamoo of the Pocasset Wampanoags as they recount their travels across Massachusetts and into Western New Hampshire during King Philip’s War in 1676.
■January 2–12. [title of show] From Thursday. January to Sunday, January 12, go to the Hatbox in the Steeplegate Mall for [title of show]. A new musical theatre festival deadline is just three weeks away. Jeff and Hunter dive into the task of writing a musical. With the help of a few friends the group works tirelessly to create a musical about creating an musical. A creative journey of self-expression ends them with a 90-minute musical that dives into lessons of collaboration, love, and theater. A production with failed dream sequences, sketchy dialogue, and axed sentimental ballads will find a way into the heart of any theatergoer. Come see how the magic is made! This production contains adult language and situations. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.; Sundays at 2 p.m. Yes! That is the name of the show!
■Discovering Magic with Andrew Pinard is also at the Hatbox on Wednesday, January 8. This “mind-numbing, jaw-dropping, eye-opening” experience takes audiences on a guided tour of the impossible and the absurd. Using only the most ordinary of objects, accomplished actor, conjuror, puppeteer, storyteller, and award-winning performer Pinard brings the ordinary to life with the most surprising results.
■I love when they drop the ball in Times Square. – It’s a nice reminder of what I did all year. My friend asked me where I see myself in the new year – How would I know? I don’t have 2020 vision. The year 2020 is going to be filled with so many puns about perfect vision – I can’t wait to see them all. My resolution was to read more – so I put the subtitles on my TV. I was going to quit all my bad habits for the new year – but then I remembered that nobody likes a quitter. At the beginning of this year I made a New Year’s resolution to lose 10 pounds – Only 15 more to go! What is a New Year’s resolution? – Something that goes in one year and out the other. Let’s celebrate New Year’s Eve – by making many pour decisions! I’ll drink to that! A glorious, healthy and happy New Year to you and yours from me and mine!
JEAN VER HOEVEN
856-304-5830
jeanann@voicenet.com