AMHERST — Individuals and organizations enriching the Amherst region through their work in education, business and civic engagement will be honored with awards from the Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce this fall.
Through Sept. 9, nominations for recognition at the 19th Annual A+ Awards Celebration, to be held Nov. 17 in the Student Union Ballroom at the University of Massachusetts, can be submitted to the chamber. The theme for the event is “This Is What’s Next.”
Categories include Lifetime Achievement/Legacy, Leader in Innovation, Leader in Sustainability, Young Professional, Community Service and Chamber MVP.
Nominations are open to anyone from Amherst, Belchertown, Hadley, Leverett, Pelham, Shutesbury and Sunderland and should be made through the website, amherstarea.com. No nominations will be accepted via email.
A new mural at the entrance to Fort River School greeted students, teachers and staff as they returned to school Aug. 25.
The mural was funded by an Amherst Cultural Council grant provided to Katie Richardson, coordinator of the English Language Learners and dual-language programs at the school; first graders came up with the design last year.
With assistance from artist Fitzcarmel Lamarre, work groups painted the mural off site over the summer, and the colorful panels, including the words Eligimos El Amor on one side and We Choose Love on the other, were then installed.
A $222,076.00 Institute of Museum and Library Services matching grant is going to The Hitchcock Center for the Environment to do extensive outreach to the Springfield public schools.
The grant from the Museums for America will fund the SEEDS program, also known as Schools Exploring Engineering, Design and Sustainability.
SEEDS is a new Hitchcock Center program that focuses on using an engineering design challenge approach to build STEM capacity for third graders.
“The Hitchcock Center for the Environment’s SEEDS program is opening doors to STEM education for children in our Commonwealth, preparing them for a bright, green, net-zero future,” Massachusetts U.S. Senator Ed Markey said in a statement. “These young people will inherit the responsibility of protecting our planet someday soon, and thanks to the Hitchcock Center and its supporters, they will have the curiosity, knowledge and drive to do so.”
Project activities will include developing and implementing experiential learning in classrooms through school-based design challenges, and creating professional training and mentoring support for each teacher participating in the program. There will also be field trips to the Hitchcock Center campus.
The University of Massachusetts Amherst’s College of Engineering is celebrating its 75th anniversary with an exhibit and a series of events and lectures this fall.
“Engineering @75” will be on display from Sept. 1 through December 2022 and features a curated collection of archival documents and photographs of events, research, everyday moments and the people who helped shape the college. The exhibit is located in the Science and Engineering Library at the Lederle Graduate Research Center, with a formal reception for the exhibit on Oct. 26 from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.
“The grit and passion that formed our college’s foundation continues to drive our success as the number one public college of engineering in New England and as a top engineering program nationally,” Sanjay Raman, dean of the College of Engineering, said in a statement.
Although a site for a new South Amherst fire station is not yet known, Town Manager Paul Bockelman informed the Town Council in a recent weekly written report that he is considering working with the UMass Department of Architecture on preliminary plans.
One idea being considered is collaborating with former District 4 Councilor Stephen Schreiber, who chairs the department, and graduate students who will already be working on a competition to design a fire station.
That competition is sponsored by the Metal Building Manufacturers Association, so might produce concepts for a metal building.
“There is an actual program, which may be slightly different than Amherst’s ambitions,” Bockelman wrote.
WEDNESDAY: Planning Board, 6:30 p.m.