Category: Quality Of Life

Quality of Life 20/07/09

Bummer about baseball
The Fisher Cats announced last week that Minor League Baseball has officially canceled the 2020 season. According to a message on the team’s website, Fisher Cats season ticket holders, mini-plan holders and fans who booked groups, suites and other hospitality nights for the 2020 season will receive a 125-percent credit on their deposit to be used toward the 2021 season, and single-game tickets can be used at any Fisher Cats home game in 2021. “We’ve remained optimistic throughout this process and done everything we can to prepare for the 2020 season, so [this] news is difficult to hear,” Fisher Cats President Mike Ramshaw said in the release. “But fan safety is our top priority, and we’ve already begun hosting safe, socially distanced events to make Delta Dental Stadium available to our community this summer.”
Score: -2
Comment: This will be the first time in 17 years that the Fisher Cats won’t play ball in New Hampshire, according to the message. In that time, the team has won three Eastern League Championships and sent 125 players to the majors.

Volunteers for the win
Civic involvement and engaging youth volunteers were a couple of the topics covered in the three-day 2020 Governor’s Conference on Volunteerism, held recently via Zoom, according to a press release. The keynote address, “​The Power of Giving Power Away: Finding Fit to Maximize Volunteer and Organization Impact​,” was given by Bryan Bessette, president and director of the Freedom Café in Durham, which is a nonprofit that works to end human trafficking.
Score: +1
Comment: It’s never too late to start volunteering. “[Covid-19] has made people kind of reevaluate a little bit where they’re going on their path in life, and that’s what Volunteer NH is all about,” Gov. Chris Sununu said at the conference. “That’s what these service organizations are all about — finding something that can be a new path for you to find your service, whatever it might be.”

Dry conditions mean higher risk of wildfires
The risk of wildfires due to abnormally dry or moderate drought conditions throughout the state has prompted the New Hampshire Forest Protection Bureau and the New Hampshire Fire Marshal’s Office to ask that residents and visitors use extra caution when having campfires, cooking outdoors or using fireworks. According to a press release, 90 percent of wildfires in New Hampshire are caused by human factors, and the state experiences 200 wildfires on average each year. “A single ember from a campfire or an errant spark from fireworks landing on dried grass, leaves or other combustible items can ignite and become a wildfire that results in property damage, personal injury or even loss of life,” the press release reads.
Score: -1
Comment: Fire permits are required for all open outdoor burning, which includes debris fires, campfires and bonfires; seasonal permits are available to individuals or businesses that have recurring fires, such as home fire pits and campgrounds. Permits are available at nhfirepermit.com.

Local food at your fingertips
Wondering where to get fresh dairy, produce and specialty foods in Merrimack County? A town-by-town food guide, created by the Merrimack County Conservation District, lists farms in the area as well as local farmers markets, according to a press release. This is the 10th year the district has created this guide, which also features short articles about local farms. The purpose of the guide, according to the release, is to let residents and visitors know about the agricultural diversity in Merrimack County and how to find a variety of products.
Score: +1
Comment:You can download a copy at merrimackccd.org, or request a physical copy by calling 223-6020 or emailing info@merrimackccd.org.

QOL score: 52
Net change: -1
QOL this week: 51

What’s affecting your Quality of Life here in New Hampshire? Let us know at news@hippopress.com.

Quality of Life 20/06/25

Happy campers

The New Hampshire Division of Parks and Recreation announced in a press release that existing campsite reservations for the remainder of the 2020 season will be honored at the following campgrounds: Bear Brook State Park, Franconia Notch State Park-Cannon Mountain RV Park, Crawford Notch State Park-Dry River Campground, Ellacoya State Park, Greenfield State Park, Hampton Beach State Park (South), Jericho Mountain State Park, Franconia Notch State Park-Lafayette Place Campground, Lake Francis State Park, Monadnock State Park-Gilson Pond, Moose Brook State Park, Pawtuckaway State Park, Pillsbury State Park and White Lake State Park. The department will continue to evaluate whether to open additional reservations and campgrounds as the season progresses, but there are plenty of private campgrounds that have opened as well.

Comment: QOL headed up to the White Mountains for two nights at a campground last weekend and found the brief retreat to be very relaxing — and easy enough to maintain social distancing.

Let the games begin

The Nashua Silver Knights, part of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League, will begin regular season play on Thursday, July 2, the league announced Monday. The league includes five other teams (four based in Massachusetts and one from Connecticut). The Silver Knights will host 21 of its 39 games at home in Holman Stadium, starting with three days of games July 2, July 3 and July 5. The regular season will conclude on Aug. 19 and will be followed by a best-of-three series to determine this season’s league champion. Visit nashuasilverknights.com.

Comment: This league features a “Home Run Derby Wins It” tiebreaker — if a game is still tied after one extra inning, the teams each get three minutes to hit as many home runs as possible, and the winner of the shootout-style derby wins the game.

Watch your water

As of June 18, the entirestate of New Hampshire has been categorized as abnormally dry, according to a press release from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, and drought development is likely in the state’s southern counties, including Merrimack, Rockingham and Hillsborough counties, which had received 50 to 75 percent less precipitation than normal over the past 60 days. Because of these conditions, the department is urging those with private wells to start conserving water now to avoid the need for well improvements or new wells. Suggestions include limiting outdoor water use and staggering water use for things like doing laundry and showering to allow the well time to recharge. For more suggestions, visit des.nh.gov, click on “A-Z list” and scroll down to Drought Management.

Comment: For those who have city or town water, municipalities and water utilities will likely impose outdoor water use restrictions as dry conditions continue, according to the release, and the department is asking the public to “be conservation-minded and abide by restrictions.”

Celebrate seafood all summer long

The 31st annual Hampton Beach Seafood Festival has been canceled, the Hampton Area Chamber of Commerce announced in a press release last week. The Chamber decided to cancel the event, which typically draws more than 100,000 people throughout its three days, “in the best interest of the public safety and public health,” according to the release.

Comment: It’s not all bad news for seafood lovers: The Chamber is creating the “Summer Long Hampton Beach Seafood Celebration Guidebook,” which will direct people to the businesses that normally participate in the festival. The free guidebooks will be available at businesses along the coast and at the Chamber’s beach office on Ocean Boulevard starting July 6.

QOL score: 63 (the score is temporarily suspended, but QOL will still be keeping tabs on New Hampshire’s well-being each week)

What’s affecting your Quality of Life here in New Hampshire? Let us know at news@hippopress.com.

Quality of Life 20/6/18

Free face masks for Manchester

The Queen City Rotary Club will be handing out free reusable face masks as part of the Mask Up NH project, a collaboration between The Common Man Family restaurants and rotary clubs around New Hampshire to provide free masks to local communities to help prevent the spread of Covid-19. According to a press release, the masks will be available for contactless, drive-through pickup at three locations in Manchester, St. George’s Greek Church (650 Hanover St.), Blake’s Restaurant (353 S. Main St.) and Manchester Police Athletic League (409 Beech St.), on Friday, June 19, from 4 to 7 p.m., and Saturday, June 20, from 9 a.m. to noon. Visit maskupnh.com and queencityrotary.org.

Comment: For more information about the Mask Up NH project, visit maskupnh.com.

NH really Gives

At NH Gives, a 24-hour giving event hosted by the New Hampshire Center for Nonprofits, a record-breaking $3,256,784 was raised, including $1 million within the first eight minutes, according to a press release. The total funds raised between 6 p.m. on Tuesday, June 9, and 6 p.m. on Wednesday, June 10, is more than double the total funds raised at the events from the last four years combined, which was $1.5 million. This year’s NH Gives also broke its record number of participating New Hampshire nonprofits, with 488, and donors, with 13,428. Visit nhgives.org to find local nonprofits and causes to support.

Comment: “I looked at the totals in the first 10 minutes of the event and I actually shouted with joy,” said Dick Ober, president and CEO of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, which has been the lead sponsor of NH Gives since 2016. “This continues to be a really, really challenging time for nonprofits, who are having to adapt and work under extremely challenging conditions to continue to deliver on their critical missions. And the people of New Hampshire were saying: ‘We get it! Thank you for what you do! We are here for you.’”

Delicious donations

Girl Scouts weren’t able to sell their Girl Scout cookies this year due to the Covid-19 stay-at-home orders, but they found another way to distribute the cookies. As part of their Gift of Caring campaign, the Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains, which includes more than 10,000 girls in New Hampshire and Vermont, donated 30,000 packages of cookies to the military and front-line workers fighting the pandemic, plus 12,000 packages to the New Hampshire Food Bank and 1,200 packages to the staff at Elliot Health System and Catholic Medical Center to thank them for their service during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a press release.

Comment: Eileen Liponis, executive director of the New Hampshire Food Bank, said in the release that while the food bank always tries to have nutritious foods available, “everybody loves a Girl Scout cookie. In this time, it’s great to have a little uplifting treat.”

A city that reads together…

The Nashua Public Library will announce the featured book for its 2020 Nashua Reads: One City, One Book program on Friday, June 26, according to a press release. Library cardholders can reserve the book and check it out through curbside pickup at the library, or they can download the book as an audiobook or e-book. Local book clubs will also be able to reserve multiple copies of the book for their members. The program was created for Nashua residents to read the same book at the same time, then discuss the book with others in the community. A virtual event with the author of this year’s selected book will take place on Sunday, Oct. 11. Visit nashualibrary.org or the library’s Facebook page to see the announcement.

Comment: To find out what the book title is, subscribe to “This week @ your library,” the library’s e-newsletter, by going to nashualibrary.org and clicking Subscribe to our eNewsletter on the Connect menu, or follow the library on Facebook.

QOL score: 63 (the score is temporarily suspended, but QOL will still be keeping tabs on New Hampshire’s well-being each week)

What’s affecting your Quality of Life here in New Hampshire? Let us know at news@hippopress.com.

Quality of Life 20/6/11

Gala success

The Humane Society for Greater Nashua moved its annual fundraising gala online and surpassed its goal by raising more than $105,000 during the May 31 event, according to a press release. The livestream production featured an auction as well as entertainment, and more than 2,000 viewers tuned in. The Humane Society also delivered 82 Party Boxes that were ordered ahead of time to people in the Greater Nashua community. Those people got to enjoy a 1920s themed box with a meal from Mcnulty and Foley Catering and a bottle of wine from Incredibrew, plus treats for the humans and their pets.

Comment: “I thought this was the best event I have experienced in all of my years in nonprofit management,” President and CEO of the Humane Society for Greater Nashua Doug Barry said in the press release.

No city fireworks

Both Manchester and Nashua have canceled their fireworks this year due to concerns about large gatherings and social distancing, according to WMUR. Manchester’s fireworks, which are usually held July 3 at Arms Park, were canceled by the Manchester aldermen at a meeting June 2, with the initial vote tied 7-7 and Mayor Joyce Craig breaking the tie. Nashua voted June 4 to cancel its show, according to WMUR, and other towns like Andover and Portsmouth have canceled theirs as well.

Comment: There is still hope — as of June 9, Merrimack had canceled its Fourth of July parade but not its fireworks show, according to the town’s parks and recreation webpage, and no official announcement has been made to cancel Concord’s fireworks, or fireworks at Hampton Beach.

Know & Tell

The Granite State Children’s Alliance is getting support from local celebrity Seth Meyers, who appears in a new video for its Know & Tell program, which urges people to know the signs of abuse and tell authorities when they see it, according to a press release from the alliance. The video also features clips from local health care workers, Gov. Chris Sununu, Senators Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen, and kids of all ages urging adults to help keep kids safe by knowing that anyone over the age of 18 is required by law to report suspicions of abuse and neglect.

Comments: Find the Know & Tell video on YouTube at youtu.be/hcnJkiGX95o.

QOL score: 63 (the score is temporarily suspended, but QOL will still be keeping tabs on New Hampshire’s well-being each week)

What’s affecting your Quality of Life here in New Hampshire? Let us know at news@hippopress.com.

Quality of Life 6/4/2020

Hooray for history

The Hopkinton Historical Society’s Putney Hill Cemetery Walk has been honored by the American Association for State and Local History with an Award of Excellence, “the most prestigious recognition for achievement in the preservation and interpretation of state and local history,” according to a press release from the association. The Putney Hill Cemetery Walk, performed last October, is a theatrical production about the people who were — and were not — buried in the town’s earliest cemetery. It featured local actors who portrayed 26 former Hopkinton residents, telling a story of Hopkinton’s past. DVD copies of the cemetery walk are available from the society.

Comment: In more good news for the Hopkinton Historical Society, it has received a $10,000 grant as part of the CARES Act. “Given the pandemic, …. we have been unable to open our summer exhibit and hold its associated programs, or hold our regular fundraisers,” Executive Director Heather Mitchell said in a press release. “This grant will help us rework our traditional summer exhibit into a driving tour and also help mitigate some of the losses from our fundraisers.”

All aboard for even more history!

Seven railroad depots in Warner will be featured in the first online presentation in a new series called All Aboard! Economic, Social and Environmental Change During New Hampshire’s Railroad Era, according to a press release from the Warner Historical Society. The discussion will focus on the politics behind the depots’ locations, as well as the people who laid the tracks and worked at the stations. The free presentation will be held on Zoom on Thursday, June 11, at 7 p.m. and will offer the opportunity to ask questions and chat with the presenters, who are from the Warner Historical Society. To register and receive instructions for how to join the presentation, email info@warnerhistorica.org.

Comment: All Aboard! Economic, Social and Environmental Change During New Hampshire’s Railroad Era is a free series that explores the impact of the railroad on rural New Hampshire towns, with support from the New Hampshire Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit nhmuse.org.

Just plane fun

The Aviation Museum of New Hampshire’s Around the World Flight Adventure received national recognition recently when it was featured in Newsweek magazine, according to a press release from the museum. The online education program is a virtual flight that took off from New Hampshire on May 1 and is circling the globe, flying over landmarks like Stonehenge, Buckingham Palace and the Eiffel Tower. Newsweek featured the flight as one of five ways to celebrate Memorial Day via livestream, as the C-47 transport plane simulator — a vintage 1930s aircraft — flew over the beaches at Normandy, where the D-Day landings took place in 1944. The program was recently awarded a $5,000 CARES grant from New Hampshire Humanities, which will help it continue the flight into the summer. According to the release, the museum is expected to open later this summer, at which time the plane will return. Visit aviationmuseumofnh.org for all archived and future flights.

Comment: Nearly 1,000 people watched the Memorial Day livestream; according to the press release, one viewer commented that it was “the best way to honor the men and women on Memorial Day that I have ever spent. I am privileged to fly along.”

Staying safe

New Hampshire has been named the eighth safest state in America in 2020, according to a WalletHub study. The rankings were released June 2 as part of National Safety Month. The study looked at data that ranged from assaults per capita to coronavirus support. The Granite State ranked second in assaults per capita, third in murders and non-negligent manslaughters per capita, eighth in loss amounts from climate disasters per capita, 13th in share of uninsured population and 19th in job security, according to the study.

Comment: All six New England states made it into the Top 10, with Maine and Vermont at No. 1 and No. 2, respectively.

QOL score: 63 (the score is temporarily suspended, but QOL will still be keeping tabs on New Hampshire’s well-being each week)

What’s affecting your Quality of Life here in New Hampshire? Let us know at news@hippopress.com.

Stay in the loop!

Get FREE weekly briefs on local food, music,

arts, and more across southern New Hampshire!