Have you spent more time watching birds since the pandemic started? Would you like to learn more about birdwatching and birds in general? Join Hopkinton resident and former Audubon naturalist Linden Rayton at Elm Brook State Park for a socially distanced, safe and fun morning of birding. Enjoy nature, the birds and even your fellow humans. Bring a set of binoculars, a mask, and dress to be warm while walking and stopping. Come for just one Saturday morning (Sept. 26, 7:30 to 9 a.m.), or four Mondays (Sept. 28 to Oct. 19, 7:30 to 9 a.m.) and see the wildlife change with the season. Terrain will be mostly asphalt with occasional off-roads onto the trails. Please register at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeanYIj8lRw1kH_ Fw3Ls7ncffbeshBrNIZWzxqBGXGs2XWKmg/viewform. Cost is $12 for the Saturday or $40 for the four Mondays. Limited to 10 people each. Meet at the Elm Brook parking lot. Email lrayton13@yahoo.com with questions.
As thousands of asylum seekers and other immigrants are detained in for-profit, taxpayer-funded detention centers across the United States, more than 60 concerned activists and artists have joined forces to create a mighty quilt that will illustrate the sheer enormity of this travesty. Participants in the project, called the 45,000 Quilt, hail from 12 states and from Oaxaca, Mexico. Many are members of immigrant justice organizations.
“The inspiration for the project was the number 45,000,” said project founder, Glen Ring. “That was the amount of people detained by ICE on an average day in 2019. I thought that a huge quilt with a mark for each detained person would capture viewers’ attention.” Ring is a member of the Human Rights Group of the Kent St. Coalition, which is sponsoring the quilt’s creation.Together, participants are crafting 45 panels, each containing 1,000 marks representing 1,000 people in detention. When the quilt is completed, it will have 45 panels and 45,000 marks. Each panel is 34 by 34 inches. When the quilt is completed, it will be 45 feet long. Contributions are sent to Ring and sewn together by a team of four women in the Concord area.
Panels have been painted, stamped, quilted, embroidered or a combination of methods. Many of the contributors have compelling reasons for joining the project. Julie Swift from New Mexico collaborated with her sister to make a quilt square with 1,000 lines on it.
“It was comforting to be able to contribute to this project and help bring awareness to the plight of those who are needlessly incarcerated for the act of escaping the violence and poverty of their homelands in hopes of finding refuge in our ‘land of opportunity.’ Each mark on the panel represents an imprisoned asylum seeker, but also the shame of our nation for denying them their right to seek asylum,” Swift said. Her activism for immigrants started in 2016, when DACA was threatened after the election. She has traveled to both Tornillo, Texas, and Homestead, Fla., to protest child detention and to Brownsville, Texas and Matamoros, Mexico, to witness the Remain in Mexico policy.
Elisa O’Callaghan from Dallas, Texas, describes her square this way: “My square is a symbolic representation of the 1,000 children behind bars. The bars are made with long strips of fabric. The bars symbolize the detention centers where the migrant children are kept. All the orange butterflies that are set free regained their light and spirit. The black butterflies lost their color because we have taken their light, their soul, their spirit and their childhood from them.” O’Callaghan began working with a group called Team Brownsville who cross from Brownsville, Texas, to Matamoros, Mexico, to serve meals and teach English and art in the encampment. She also founded a grassroots group called CALM (Creating A Loving Memory). This organization brings dolls to migrant children, helping them remember that they are still children.
Though the quilt will not be completed until October, panels of the quilt will be displayed at an event in Concord on Sept. 12. People are invited to hear speakers and view the quilt in Eagle Square at 10 a.m. September is the first day of Welcoming Week and between Sept. 12 to 20, quilt sections will be displayed in shops downtown.
The Walker Lecture Series invites you to join in on Zoom for “Fascinating Facts about our Presidents” with Richard Lederer on Sept. 30 at 7:30 p.m. Lederer is the author of more than 40 books about language, history, and humor, including his Anguished English series. Dr. Lederer describes himself as a fly-by-the-roof-of-the-mouth, user-friendly English teacher, Wizard of Idiom, Attila the Pun, and Conan the Grammarian. Logins to the event begin at 7 p.m. It is free to watch. For a Zoom invitation, join the mailing list at walkerlecture.org
The Squam Lake Association is hosting a virtual 8th annual Squam Ridge Race this year. Runners and hikers can choose to participate competitively (or for fun) between 6 a.m. Sept. 19 and 6 p.m. Oct. 4. The 12-mile course will be the same as previous years. A map of the course can be viewed at squamlakes.org/events/squam-ridge-race-2020. In addition to awarding prizes to the overall top three times for the male and female categories and age groups in the 12-mile race, we are also awarding prizes for the top three photos taken while running or hiking either the 3-mile or 12-mile course. Registration is $25 for both the 12-mile and 3-mile race and can be paid online starting Sept. 10 or at the starting line from Sept. 19 to Oct. 4 using the QR code on the posted sign. With registration, you will receive a 2020 Squam Ridge Race sticker and a copy of the 2019 updated SLA trail guide and map. These materials must be picked up in-person from the SLA headquarters at 534 Route 3 in Holderness. Please call 968-7336 in advance to schedule a pick-up time. All proceeds from the Squam Ridge Race go back into maintaining the trails in the Squam Lakes Watershed. If you are running the course competitively you will need to use the Strava phone application. Only times reported through Strava will be considered. For those unfamiliar with Strava, instructions will be posted on our website prior to the race. You must be registered for the race to participate in the photo contest. You can submit a maximum of three photos per registrant. Please only submit photos that are taken on the race course while you are running or hiking the race. Email the photograph(s) and your name to ridgerace2020@squamlakes.org.