Plympton-Halifax-Kingston Express

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Local dancers shine in “The Nutcracker”

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Join South Shore Ballet Theatre (SSBT) this holiday season for its annual production of The Nutcracker!

Based on E.T.A Hoffman’s “The Nutcracker and the King of Mice”, and set to Tchaikovsky’s beloved musical score, SSBT’s The Nutcracker celebrates the magic of the holidays through the joy of dance.

Come watch as Clara explores a world of magic from her family’s living room on Christmas Eve, through an enchanted forest of dancing snowflakes, and into the magical Land of The Sweets led by the Sugar Plum Fairy.

SSBT’s exciting, family-friendly production features 90 student dancers from its ballet training programs, representing communities on the south shore from Plymouth to Quincy.

SSBT provides quality dance training and inclusive performance opportunities to students of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds.

After 11 successful years of operation in Hanover, SSBT has relocated its studios to a new, state-of-the-art facility in Hingham, conveniently located adjacent to the Derby Street Shoppes. Under the direction of founder Marthavan McKeon, SSBT’s new facility in Hingham has anchored the studio’s role as the South Shore’s premier ballet studio.

All are welcome to celebrate the holidays with SSBT’s timeless production of The Nutcracker.  Performances will take place at Thayer Academy in Braintree on Saturday, Dec. 14, at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. and on Sunday, Dec. 15, at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m.

To purchase tickets and learn more, please visit the web site www.southshoreballettheatre.com or email them at [email protected].

There are four dancersfrom Plympton and one from Halifax among those performing in the 2019 production.

Sofia Mendez, 16 years old, currently in 11th grade at Silver Lake High School, will dance Snow, Spanish, Demi Soloist and Dew Drop in Waltz of the Flowers.

Emma Christensen, 13 years old, in the 8th grade at Silver Lake Middle School, will dance Snow, Arabian, Lead Marzipan and as Demi Soloist and Dew Drop in Waltz of the Flowers.

Sofia Christensen, 10 years old, is in 5th grade at Dennett Elementary School in Plympton. Sofia will perform as Palace Fairy and Trepak.

Olivia Christensen, 9 years old, is currently in 4th grade at Dennett Elementary. She will perform as Party Child and Polichinelle

Enya Teran, 7 years old, is a student in the 2nd grade at Dennett Elementary. She will perform as Doll After the Tree Grows and Angel.

Bud’s Goods and Provisions community information forum

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The Halifax Board of Selectmen will host a community forum/public hearing for Bud’s Goods and Provisions proposal to build an outdoor cultivation facility on River Street on Wednesday, December 4 at 7 p.m. in the Great Hall in the Halifax Town Hall.

The forum will include a presentation and an opportunity for residents and other interested parties to ask questions, make suggestions, and voice their views on the proposed facility.

In preparation for the community forum, attendees are welcome to read the proposed Host Community Agreement (http://www.halifax-ma.org/board-selectmen/files/buds-goods-proposed-host-community-agreement) and Bud’s Goods and Provisions’ presentation (http://www.halifax-ma.org/board-selectmen/files/buds-goods-original-presentation)before the Board of Selectmen.

LaNatra named Legislator of Year

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State Representative Kathy LaNatra (D-Kingston) has been named Legislator of the Year at the 33rd annual MaMHCA (Massachusetts Mental Health Counselors Association), where she also delivered the keynote speech at their conference, held November 2 at the Crowne Plaza in Woburn.

 Representative LaNatra, who is a fierce advocate for mental health issues on Beacon Hill, joined Mental Health Counselors from across the state for their annual convention. Topics covered at the convention included: (1) working with domestic violence; (2) opioid overdose; (3) emergency services/critical incident stress management; (4) developing programs for veterans; and (5) taking mental health out of the criminal justice system.

MaMHCA is a state-wide professional association dedicated to providing essential professional information to Licensed Mental Health Counselors (LMHCs), mental health counseling students, mental health counselor educators and other related professionals. The organization also provides a multi-faceted program of ongoing education and training for LMHCs and mental health counselors. For the past 35 years, MaMHCA has been advocating for the advancement of the highest quality mental health services and the mental health counseling profession through public policy initiatives for both mental health professionals and consumers of mental health services.

“I am deeply honored by the award I received, and the opportunity to deliver remarks to this outstanding group of professionals,” said Representative LaNatra. She added, “The passion in this room was infectious. We thank (past president) Joe Weeks and all the licensed mental health counselors for all they do, and I look forward to working closely with them to advance legislative issues that affect mental health services.”

Representative LaNatra’s district includes all residents of Halifax, Kingston and Plympton, as well as residents of Precincts 1, 11 and 13 in Plymouth; Precinct 1 in Middleboro; and Precinct 1 in Duxbury.  She maintains regular office hours throughout the district.

For additional information, please contact Chris Jean, [email protected]. Meetings can also be arranged by appointment.

Halifax seeks volunteers for board vacancies

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The Halifax Board of Selectmen is seeking volunteers to serve on a number of boards and committees including the Finance Committee and the Wage and Personnel Board.

These committees and boards need volunteers in order to function and provide services to the residents of Halifax. For instance, a full seven-person Finance Committee ensures that a wider variety of residents help make recommendations to Town Meeting about the Town’s annual and operating budgets than if the Committee has a minimum quorum of four residents.

Residents interested in serving on these and other boards and committees can download a talent bank form [http://www.halifax-ma.org/board-selectmen/files/talent-bank-form-2019] and submit it to the Board of Selectmen, 499 Plymouth Street, Halifax, MA 02338 or contact the Selectmen’s Office at 781-294-1316 to obtain
one.

A current list of vacancies is also available at http://www.halifax-ma.org/board-selectmen/pages/board-committee-vacancies.

Plympton Girl Scouts Party

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Plympton Girl Scouts let their fun sides show at their Hallowe’en Party Sunday night at the Soule Homestead Education Center at the Plympton/Middleboro town line. Pictured above are the costume winners and the judges for the event.  Prettiest :Anna Fraser as a Royal Princess; Scariest: Haley Petersas a scary clown; Most Original: Taylor Hempel the black angel; Funniest: Charlotte Medas the cupcake; Cutest: Carmella Boccalini the monster; Most Halloween Spirit: Avery Lorenz the witch.  Judges were the Senior Girl Scouts from Troop 80210,  Jilian Hart, Jenny Winslow, Sydney Adams. Other party helpers were Lilly and Ally Foye.

Stop & Shop Communnity Bag Program

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Stop & Shop has chosen the Monponsett Watershed Association to be part of the Stop & Shop Community Bag Program, designed to make it easy for customers to contribute to their local community while supporting the environment.

For the month of November, each time a $2.50 reusable Community Bag is purchased at the Stop & Shop located in Halifax, $1 will be donated to the MWA.

It is a great way to raise awareness, suppport the environment, and fundraise for the cause.

The bags will be available at various registers at the Halifax Stop & Shop, and at the reusable bag rack.  If you are having trouble finding the bags, ask the store manager where the Community Bags are and he will be happy to show you.

Spread the word about the Community Bag Program and help fund the work of the Monponsett Watershed Association.

Nature is inspiration for this local artist

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Ronald Aakjar, Jr., of Botany Bear Art in Plympton will finish a two-month run at the end of October at the Plympton Public Library where he has displayed his work.  Stop in and see his unusually beautiful snippets from nature.

“Having grown up in a small town in Northwest Connecticut in a family of four, I’ve always had a love of nature and an enjoyment of the quiet places.   As kids growing up, my brother and I didn’t have all the electronics kids have today.  Our time was spent outdoors exploring the woods, lakes, and streams around our home.

“After graduating high school and spending several years in the military, I started my college journey and ended up going in a direction I hadn’t thought of going.  I earned my degree in Biology with an emphasis on Plant Biology.”

Aakjar finished his Bachelor of Arts in Biology and went on to earn a Master’s degree in Botany.  As a student, he learned to press plants in order to place them into an herbarium for preservation and it was through this process and seeing how artistic the plants looked after being pressed and dried that he decided to turn this inot an artful adventure.

It wasn’t until he was in my 30s that he met a local artist who was using her press in a different manner, using her press to flatten the plants but not dry them out.   She was making it so she could use the leaves and other plant parts for Nature Printing.  She used the various parts and printer’s ink to make beautiful relief prints.  Aakjar was instantly enamored with the process.

After spending several years working as a horticulturist at a private estate in Bridgewater, CT, and working as an adjunct professor in Botany at Naugatuck Valley Community College in Waterbury, CT, he found the full time job teaching biology labs for majors at Bridgewater State University in Bridgewater, MA, going from Bridgewater, CT to Bridgewater, MA.  He has been teaching at BSU for eight years now and plans to retire from there.

District schools “locked down”

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Schools in the Silver Lake District experienced a “modified lockdown” Wednesday in response to the active shooter situation in Plymouth.

Plympton Chief of Police Matthew Clancy told The Express the directive came  in late Wednesday morning from Superintendent of Schools Joy Blackwood who was acting in “an abundance of caution.”

In Plympton, an officer and a cruiser were assigned to the school for the remainder of th school day.

Most students were likely not aware of the situation, Clancy said, and the only real change to their day was that there was no outside recess.  At the end of the school day, students were dismissed and sent home in the usual manner.

Blackwood communicated to the schools and the towns’ police departments that with the uncertainty of the Plymouth shooters, keeping Silver Lake District students contained in a safe place seemed to be in their best interest.

It looks like a good harvest this year!

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There’s no comparison of the color of brilliant cranberries surrounded by a boom, to the color swatches claiming to be “cranberry.”  We are so fortunate to have this amazing sight every autumn.  It takes your breath away!

Susan Basile took these harvesting photos of the bog  out in back of her home on Thompson Street, Halifax.  At the left, berries that have been agitated from their vines float to the top of the flooded bogs, where they are rounded up with floating booms, bringing the berries to the vacuum where they are sucked up to be deposited onto the back of a waiting trailer truck.