Category: Portsmouth

Cornerstone VNA Offers Virtual Holiday Grief Support Group

Cornerstone VNA Offers Virtual Holiday Grief Support Group

 

Rochester, NH: Cornerstone VNA will be hosting a 4-week Virtual Holiday Grief Support Group for adults. The goal of the group is to help individuals cope with feelings of grief, loss, and sadness, which can be especially challenging during the holiday season. The Holiday Grief Support Group will take place on Wednesdays, beginning December 1, from 3:00 pm until 4:30 pm and will continue to meet on Dec 8, 15, and 22.

According to Rev. Maureen E. Steer, MDiv, Holistic Disciplines Coordinator, “As we continue to navigate the COVID-19 world of loss and change, it is more important than ever to gather to support one another.” Any grieving individual can join the support group from a computer, tablet, or smartphone at https://www.gotomeet.me/MaureenSteer. For more information contact 603-994-6976.

Cornerstone VNA currently serves Rockingham, Strafford, Belknap and Carroll Counties in New Hampshire and York County in Maine. The team at Cornerstone VNA provides award-winning care and support through five distinct programs: Home Care, Hospice Care, Palliative Care, Life Care-Private Duty and Community Care. For 108 years, Cornerstone VNA has been committed to bringing services to people of all ages so that families can stay together at home, even when facing the challenges of aging, surgical recovery, chronic or life-threatening illnesses or end-of-life care. To learn more about Cornerstone VNA, visit www.cornerstonevna.org or call 800-691-1133

A NEW ENGLAND CHRISTMAS 2021

A NEW ENGLAND CHRISTMAS 2021

Featuring Stories by Alice Brown & Kate Douglas Wiggin 

and a Musical Interlude by New Hampshire’s Dudley Laufman

Live Shows — November 26 – 28

Online Shows via Zoom — December 3 – 5

 

PORTSMOUTH NH:  November 26 through December 5, Pontine Theatre presents, A New England Christmas, an annual event featuring the work of favorite regional authors.  This year the program includes two seasonal stories:  Honey & Myrrh (1898) by Hampton Falls’ Alice Brown and The Old Peabody Pew (1905) by Buxton, Maine’s Kate Douglas Wiggin.  The cast for Pontine Theatre’s original adaptations are bunraku style puppets created by Pontine Co-Director, Greg Gathers.  The puppets are voiced and animated by Gathers and Pontine Co-Director, Marguerite Mathews.  Between the two stories audiences will enjoy a musical interlude by Dudley Laufman featuring seasonal songs. Live performances will be offered the weekend of November 26-28 at Pontine’s 1845 Plains Schoolhouse Theatre located on Plains Avenue in Portsmouth.  The following weekend, December 3-5, Pontine offers online performances via the Zoom platform. Tickets are available at Pontine’s website — www.pontine.org  

            This production is underwritten by Piscataqua Savings Bank.  Pontine’s 2021-22 Season is supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts.

            Honey & Myrrh explores the lives of Miss Susan Peavy and her widowed brother-in-law, Solon Slade, residents of Tiverton Hollow, a little New Hampshire town thought to be based on the author’s hometown, Hampton Falls.  The town’s young schoolmaster,  a boarder at Susan’s house, witnesses her capable support of friends and neighbors.  He sympathizes with her desire to provide the rich treasures of life on those she cares for.  They share a fantasy of bestowing the riches and sweetness of heaven to those who surround them.

            The Old Peabody Pew  is set in the old Orthodox Meeting House in Buxton, Maine.  When the Dorcas Society — A Ladies Aid Society — decides to clean and decorate the pews in the Old Meeting House for the Christmas holidays, each member agrees to take charge of her own family’s pew and that of surrounding pews. So it is that it falls to the middle-aged teacher, Nancy Wentworth, to clean the Peabody family’s pew, stirring memories of her almost romance, many years before with Justin Peabody, who went out west to seek his fortune, taking her heart with him.

            Alice Brown (1857-1948) was born in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire. She graduated from the Robinson Seminary in Exeter in 1876 and  taught school for several years while contributing short stories to various magazines. Her success as a writer allowed her to give up teaching and move to Boston in 1884. She was well-known for her local-colour dialect tales of New Hampshire country folk. 

          Kate Douglas Wiggin (1856-1912) was an author primarily of children’s books, including the well-known Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm( 1903), based on people, places and events from her childhood in Hollis and Buxton, Maine.  She was educated at the Abbott Academy in Andover, Massachusetts  The Old Peabody Pew is based on events in Buxton Maine, and her autobiography, My Garden of Memory (1923). 

            Dudley Laufman is still fully engaged in a 70-year career as a dance caller for local country dances throughout New England.  He plays melodeon, harmonica and sometimes, when his fingers allow, his fiddle in old town halls, farmers’ markets, folk festivals, barn dances, kitchen junkets and for the Canterbury morris dance team.  In 2001 he received the New Hampshire Governor’s Arts Award in Folk Heritage and in 2009 he was named National Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts.  

 

            Since 1977, Portsmouth’s Pontine Theatre has developed a sterling reputation for high quality performances and educational programs.  With an impressive repertoire of innovative, original productions, the company serves both its home town, Portsmouth, New Hampshire and neighboring states.  Pontine has created a group of critically acclaimed productions which reflect the history and culture of New England. These plays have been performed in venues throughout the region, including Canterbury Shaker Village, Currier Museum, Decordova Museum, Enfield Shaker Village, Museum of Fine Art-Boston, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Penobscot Marine Museum, and Strawbery Banke Museum.  

 

 

Puppets for Alice Brown’s Honey & Myrrh created by Pontine Co-Director, Greg Gathers

Dustbusters 13th Annual Toy Drive

Dustbusters 13th Annual Toy Drive on Saturday, December 11th beginning at 6pm at the Navy Yard Pub, Kittery. A seacoast based group of motorcyclists join with local business for families in need. All toy donations will be distributed by Operation Blessing. Everyone welcome. Bring your presents and enjoy a live band, food and fun.

Annual Angel Tree

Annual Angel Tree collecting gift card donations at Arete Chiropractic supporting Annie’s Angels Organization and their continuous efforts to help local families. Donations accepted Thanksgiving thru December 17th. Arete Chiropractic is at 875 Greenland rd ste A-2 in Portsmouth. For more info call 603-380-9918.

Lights of Love to Shine at Cornerstone VNA

Lights of Love to Shine at Cornerstone VNA

 

Rochester, NH:  Cornerstone VNA, a local nonprofit provider of high-quality, skilled care at home, is pleased to announce that the 35th annual Lights of Love event will be held on Wednesday, December 1, 2021, at 4:30pm in a virtual format. For over three decades, Lights of Love has thrived as an important community event due to the work and vision of Jane Cooper Fall. Jane Cooper Fall was the driving force behind Lights of Love, as a way for community members to pay tribute to those who had touched their lives in a positive manner. Although Jane passed away in October 2018, her legacy is continued with pride and honor by the Cornerstone VNA team alongside volunteers from the former Frisbie Hospital Auxiliary Board. According to Cornerstone VNA President/CEO Julie Reynolds, RN, MS, “We are honored to run the event in accordance with Jane’s wishes for many years to come, thus providing a legacy to Jane’s goodwill.”

 

Community members are welcome to participate in this annual holiday tradition to honor, remember and celebrate those who have had a special impact on their lives. With each $5 donation, a tribute name will be added to a holiday light at Cornerstone VNA and will be a part of a virtual celebration. The virtual Lights of Love event will be available for viewing at cornerstonevna.org/lightsoflove starting at 4:30pm on December 1st and can be viewed and shared throughout the holiday season.

 

Hundreds of lights will shine on each tribute name, and community members are welcome to visit the Lights of Love display at 178 Farmington Road in Rochester, NH, starting on December 2nd. Visit cornerstonevna.org/lightsoflove for more information on reserving lights and to sign up to receive special event notifications. Please submit your Lights of Love order by November 15. If your order is received after the 15th, your tributes’ names will be added after the event has started.

Cornerstone VNA currently serves Rockingham, Strafford, Belknap and Carroll Counties in New Hampshire and York County in Maine. The team at Cornerstone VNA provides award-winning care and support through five distinct programs: Home Care, Hospice Care, Palliative Care, Life Care-Private Duty and Community Care. For 108 years, Cornerstone VNA has been committed to bringing services to people of all ages so that families can stay together at home, even when facing the challenges of aging, surgical recovery, chronic or life-threatening illnesses or end-of-life care. To learn more about Cornerstone VNA, visit www.cornerstonevna.org or call 800-691-1133.

 

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