Community Service, Gardening, Culture & History Highlights: May 5th & 6th, 2012

Anyone planning on gardening with their kids this summer? Planting a garden with your children can motivate them to eat more fruits and vegetables. Because a variety of fruits and veggies have lots of health benefits, nutrition educators make a simple suggestion: Eat a rainbow! Grow a rainbow! Planting a garden full of different colored fruits and vegetables will motivate your kids to eat servings of every hue! (Photo credit: Sienna Wildfield)

Families can volunteer, gather plants to support family gardening, and discover more about different cultures and history this weekend:

FAMILY VOLUNTEERING

If teens are looking for a chance to volunteer for their community, the Friends of the Westhampton Public Library will be hosting a gently used clothing sale to benefit the library and have opportunities for teen volunteers to help sorting and organizing. Other community service projects happening this Saturday, May 5th, that families can participate in include a community clean up & recycling day in Easthampton, outdoor clean up at the Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary in Lenox, and help cleaning up damage caused by Hurricane Irene at Starseed Sanctuary in Savoy.  — Then on Sunday, May 6th, families can help out the Rattlesnake Gutter Trust in Leverett by clearing debris and helping prep trails for the season’s use.

FAMILY GARDEN

With the approach of May comes the plant sale season!  Planting a garden with your children full of different colored fruits and vegetables can motivate them to eat more healthy foods. Read our post, Grow a Rainbow with Your Kids! for inspiration!  This Saturday, May 5th there are a few opportunities to buy or swap plants for your family garden.  The Grace Hall Memorial Library in Montgomery will have a plant and book sale at the Little Red School House, the Greenfield Public Library is holding it’s annual plant sale on their front lawn, and the Meekins Library in Williamsburg will hold a plant swap.  If you can’t make these events, there will be plenty more sales and swaps happening  through the spring that we will share with you here on Hilltown Families.

CULTURE & HISTORY

There are several events this Saturday, May 5th that support cultural and historical studies. The Twasa Monks from Gaden Jangtse Monastery, located in southern India, will create a sand mandala, a traditional tool for enlightenment, at Hart Yoga in Shelburne Falls. In Shutesbury, families can learn all about fandango, a traditional flamenco dance, at Shutesbury Elementary School.

Also on Saturday, May 5th, it’s Northfield’s History Day, a day to learn about the history of Northfield businesses and about how the local community was shaped.  In Holyoke, families can enjoy a traditional Victorian tea and learn about etiquette at the Wistariahurst Museum. And in honor of National Preservation Month, Historic Deerfield is hosting tours focused on the architecture of the buildings that make up the museum in Deerfield, paired with a discussion of the buildings’ locations and important history.

Then on Sunday, May 6th, the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, families can see art telling the story of the experiences of players in the segregated negro baseball league in a tour of the exhibit, “We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball.”

BEST BETS & MORE

Find out more on these events, our Best Bets, a look ahead, and over 50 other suggested events for this weekend on our list of Weekly Suggested Events!