The Merrimack Valley School District will be sponsoring a free Childfind Clinic to the residents of Boscawen, Loudon, Penacook, Webster, Salisbury and Andover on Jan. 25 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Penacook Elementary School, 60 Village St. Children up to age five will be screened for possible educational disabilities. If you suspect that your child may have difficulty with speech, hearing, vision, coordination, social adjustments or a learning disability, these clinics will help answer your questions. Appointments are required and can be made by calling the special education department at 753-4891 on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Scouts BSA Troop 75 is once again picking up Christmas trees for donations. Donations will support scouting in New Hampshire. We are limited to picking up trees in Bow only this year due to COVID. Please sign up at https://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080f44abac2fa4fe3-christmas and place your Christmas tree at the roadside by your mailbox by noon on Jan. 9. They will pick up trees Saturday afternoon or Sunday. You can attach your donation to the tree or mail them to Troop 75, 11 Rosewood Drive, Bow, NH, 03301.
The Belmont Library is trying something a little different for storytime this winter. There’s a month long themed display – January’s is snow —take one or two books and a craft/STEM kit. Wednesday mornings they will post a short video (about 2 minutes) on the library’s Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. January’s take-and-make project is a faux agate coaster set. You can also choose to create your own snowstorm with instructions to create your unique snowflakes from library-supplied paper. The non-fiction book group reads One Day: the Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary 24 Hours in America by Gene Weingarten. On New Year’s Day 2013, two-time Pulitzer Prize – winner Gene Weingarten asked three strangers to, literally, pluck a day, month, and year from a hat. That day — chosen completely at random — turned out to be Sunday, Dec. 28, 1986, by any conventional measure a most ordinary day. Weingarten spent the next six years proving that there is no such thing. The group will meet online on Jan. 14 at 1 p.m. Ebooks and audiobooks are available through nh.overdrive.com with your library card; physical copies are available at the library. Contact the library for meeting information. Our Friday Fiction book group meets remotely on Jan. 15 at 10:30 a.m. to discuss News of the World by Paulette Jiles. In the aftermath of the Civil War, an aging itinerant news reader agrees to transport a young captive of the Kiowa back to her people in this exquisitely rendered, morally complex, multilayered novel of historical fiction from the author of Enemy Women that explores the boundaries of family, responsibility, honor, and trust. Now a major motion picture starring Tom Hanks. Ebooks and audiobooks are available through nh.overdrive.com with your library card; physical copies are available at the library. Contact the library for meeting information. The library will be closed Jan. 1 and Jan. 18. The Belmont Public Library is open six days a week and any time at belmontpubliclibrary.org, serving the community with books, digital resources, and cultural programming.
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