Category: Q&A

Nashua presents a new downtown event

Kathleen Palmer, Communications & Events Specialist for the Office of the Mayor in Nashua, spoke about the Summer Stroll in Nashua scheduled for Saturday, July 27, from 3 to 8 p.m. The event is presented in partnership with Positive Street Art and funded by local sponsors. A two-block section of Main Street will be closed off from 2 to 9 p.m. Check out Nashua Summer Stroll on Facebook.

How did the Summer Stroll get started?

Great American Downtown has manned, if you will, a winter holiday stroll for over 20 years now. One of the kind of half-jokes that people make after the event is ‘boy, I wish we had a summer one,’ because it would be, you know, better weather. The City of Nashua has a new director of economic development. Her name is Liz Hannum and she proposed last summer, ‘Well, why don’t we look into creating a city-run summer stroll component?’ A similar but different event. That’s what we are doing … to see if people are interested in coming down and walking around and checking out the offerings that we have this first year… This is a brand new event and we could not do it without the sponsorship money we received, because people do worry if this is going to be taxpayer money and it’s important for everybody to know we sought out sponsors.

How has the partnership with Positive Street Art affected the event?

The city partnered with Positive Street Art, which is a decade-long nonprofit here based in Nashua who does public art as well as classes and all sorts of art-related programming. About more than a decade ago they used to have an art festival on Water Street at Renaissance Park. However, this summer Renaissance Park is getting a beautiful and exciting overhaul in the riverfront project that Mayor Donchess has initiated, so the park is unavailable to lots of programming that used to happen there. So Positive Street Art asked if they could partner with us and make the Nashua Summer Stroll an event that’s focused on artists and local creators of different kinds.

What kinds of vendors will be at the Summer Stroll?

The majority of the vendors that will be having tents on Main Street will be artists, photographers, jewelry makers, crafters as well as home decor. I believe there’s a home baker that will be there.

What types of activities can participants expect to find?

Positive Street Art will have a lot of things going on. They will have live art battles where they have artists set up easels and they give them 90 minutes to create something and it’s really, actually very exciting to watch. They have a car that was donated by Best Ford of Nashua and painted for free by Precision Collision with this chalk paint so kids can draw on the car and kind of make it into a little standing art exhibit if you will. Positive Street Art is also doing a mural project that everyone can participate in. I believe it’s going to be cut-outs of hands and you can decorate them and then PSA will assemble them…. They’re going to have a paint splatter tent, which, I’m not exactly sure what that is but it’s a self-enclosed paint fun event for kids to do. There’s a whole bunch of art stuff…. We’re going to have a whole kids zone, which we’re spelling ‘kidzone’ all shoved together. We’re going to have a mobile gaming van. … It’s basically a giant van that has TV screens in it and kids can go in and play 20 minutes a game if they want to get out of the sun. There’s going to be other games, basketball, games of skill where they can get little prizes. There’s going to be several food trucks.

What type of live entertainment?

For entertainment, the City Main Stage is getting dropped right in the street at the intersection of the Pearls … and that’s going to have three live bands throughout the day. The first one is Latin Logic Salsa Band. Before and during their performance we have hired Theo Martinez from HTM Dance to teach people free little dance moves so they can have fun watching the band and they can do a little dancing in the street. The other two bands are classic rock bands with huge local followings…. Aces and Eights is the name of the band and they’ve been around for decades. The other band is called 4 R Souls. After the live music is done at 8, PSA has rented out the upstairs and the downstairs of Martha’s to have a DJ dance party, so the music is going to go on inside after that. So there’s stuff for pretty much every age group at the event and we’re hoping people will at least stop by and check everything out.

Where is the Nashua Summer Stroll?

The footprint of the event is from East and West Pearl to the intersection of Factory and Temple, so two blocks of Main Street and the two blocks of Main Street includes High Street, which is the street that Scontsas Jewelry is on, the corner of on Main Street, and that piece of High Street is going to be the kidzone.

—Zachary Lewis

Nashua Summer Stroll
When: Saturday, July 27, from 3 to 8 p.m.
Where: Nashua’s Main Street between East and West Pearl and Factory and Temple. Road will be closed from 2 to 9 p.m.
Admission: free
What About Your Friends – Throwback Party
Presented by Positive Street Art and One 603 Entertainment on Saturday, July 27, 8:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. at 185 Main St., Nashua; $25 with other ticket packages available; shorturl.at/R66gV.

Featured image: Nashua Summer Stroll.

OWNER OF SEWOHVA

Rachel Ovaginian creates reusable plastic-wrap alternatives with beeswax and cotton fabrics in a myriad of print styles through her business, Sewohva. Find her on Facebook @Sewohva

Explain your job and what it entails.

I make beeswax wraps, which are an eco-friendly plastic wrap alternative. I am also a stay-at-home mom, so I started making wraps because I was looking for a reusable, sustainable option.

How long have you had this job?

About three years that I’ve been actually selling to people outside of friends and family

What led you to this career field and your current job?

I think my day job has been a stay-at-home mom. I’ve been a stay-at-home mom for seven and a half years now. Looking to be able to help financially with our household. We are pretty eco-friendly in my house … I just kind of looked around to see what was out there … and realized I could do that and started making them.

What kind of education or training did you need?

Really, none. I do have my master’s in mental health counseling, but I’m not practicing as … It was a lot of trial and error to get the formula right and find the right type of fabrics to use but no special education needed to be able to do it.

What is your typical at-work uniform or attire?

Because it is hot wax, usually it’s shorts and T-shirts but then I have an apron to try and keep my clothes from getting wax all over them.

What is the most challenging thing about your work, and how do you deal with it?

I would say work/life balance because I am home with my kids while I’m making them. It’s something that I’m able to do one step of the process here and then help them with whatever it is they might need before to be able to go back and finish what I’m working on, so I think that is probably the most challenging aspect, but also trying to find patterns and prints and fabric that I think the masses will like and not just something that I personally like.

What do you wish you had known at the beginning of your career?

That it’s OK to have setbacks as long as you continue to make forward progression.

What do you wish other people knew about your job?

That is really fulfilling to have other people say that they really like my wraps, they use my wraps frequently, they tell people about them. And I like that my kids are seeing me do something that I’m passionate about — even though I am home with them, I am still able to do something that I really love doing.

What was your first job?

I worked at a Staples as a cashier.

—Zachary Lewis

Five favorites
Favorite book: I like fantasy books.
Favorite movie: The Princess Bride
Favorite music: Country
Favorite food: Grilled cheese
Favorite thing about NH: The outdoors … generally being able to experience the outdoors at all seasons.

Featured photo: Rachel Ovaginian. Courtesy photo.

Meet the NH Mycological Society

Christine Gagnon, founder of the newly formed New Hampshire Mycological Society and owner of the Uncanoonuc Foraging Co., shares her expertise on mushrooms. The New Hampshire Mycological Society will host an urban foraging walk in Manchester at Stark Park (550 River Road) on Saturday, July 27, from 1 to 3 p.m. Their mission statement is as follows:“Fostering knowledge, inclusivity, and enthusiasm for fungi, the New Hampshire Mycological Society unites a community passionate about mushrooms. Through education, exploration, and advocacy, we promote sustainable practices, deepen understanding, and inspire a profound connection to the mushroom kingdom and its ecology.” Visit uncforaging.com or the New Hampshire Mycological Society’s Facebook page for more information.

What is Uncanoonuc Foraging Co.?

I live in Goffstown close to the [Uncanoonuc] mountains so I just decided to use that as the name of my company. I basically started that company to teach others about mushrooms and about foraging. I lead a lot of walks, I give a lot of talks and presentations to different groups like the Boy Scouts or garden clubs, conservation boards, things like that.

What types of edible mushrooms can you find in the area?

In the hundreds, three digits. Quite a lot. But … as time goes on and you learn more, the numbers increase … for the easy ones, it’s easily 10 or 20 for people who are just out foraging for edible stuff. There are things like oyster mushrooms, or black trumpets, or chanterelles, or hen of the woods, or chicken of the woods, or Black Standing Polypore different milk caps. There’s just tons of different edible mushrooms … all kinds of yummy goodness in the woods.

What are some good safety tips when foraging mushrooms?

Don’t eat something unless you 100 percent feel confident that you are able to identify it on your own. That’s the No. 1 rule. Just don’t eat something because you think you know what it is. Eat something because you know what it is and you know that it’s safe.

Can you expand on what the New Hampshire Mycological Society is and any upcoming foraging events?

It’s very newly formed. Right now we’re working on deciding on board members and what the job descriptions, so to speak, would be for each … and then from there we will start filling out all the paperwork to apply for a nonprofit status so that we can continue to grow and offer events in different places…. There are two other small mushroom groups in New Hampshire. One is out in the Monadnock region and one is in Sunapee. We kind of felt a need to form a group that might reach out to different parts of the state and one of the things that’s important to us too is spreading the word and including people in cities who might not necessarily have access to trails out in the country, because there is a lot of foraging that can be done in urban centers. So for our first walk we decided to go ahead and plan one in Manchester in the park so people in the city can get a different point of view … to say, ‘Hey look, these things are out here in your city and you probably weren’t even aware.’ Just to bring that knowledge and that love of mushrooms and fungi to people who can’t always get out of the city. I think we want to expand that at some point and we may do some in Nashua and some other big cities as well and not always focus just out in the country, out in the suburbs.

What are your top two or three favorite mushrooms?

Chicken of the woods. I’m just going to give you common names. Chanterelles, oh goodness, can I give you four? Hen of the woods and black trumpets. Then there’s more, though, because I also like hedgehogs and I also like the milk caps.

— Zachary Lewis

Urban mushroom foraging walk
Hosted by New Hampshire Mycological Society
When: Saturday, July 27, from 1 to 3 p.m.
Where: Stark Park (550 River Road, Manchester)
Free and limited to 30 people ages 10+; advance registration is required.
Register at uncforaging.com.

Featured image: Photo by Christine Gagnon.