Category: Quality Of Life

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 [email protected].

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 [email protected].

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 [email protected].

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 [email protected].