AMHERST — Helping high school students cope with mental health and medical issues through therapeutic horiticulture, yoga and mindfulness, and combating sexual harassment at the middle school, are among programs being supported by the Amherst Education Foundation in the coming school year.
The foundation, through its Excellence Grants, is providing $29,317 to Amherst and Pelham schoolteachers and staff.
The “Bridge to Resilient Youth in Transition” is a mindful gardening project aimed at helping students who have experienced significant disruptions from school.
Karen Peters, with community partner Sara Coblyn, will help students build new habits and healthy coping strategies. The idea is to positively impact their academic, social and emotional goals and development.
At the middle school, Celia Maysles and Kerrita Mayfield will be working to educate students, families and staff about sexual harassment, focusing on how to prevent it, how to report it, and how students and staff can intervene when they witness instances of it. Data will be collected on the amount of sexual harassment students experience while in school, allowing the effectiveness of intervention to be tracked.
Other projects being funded are at the elementary schools. At Fort River School, Zac Early will be obtaining a stream table and providing professional development to design project-based and phenomena-based learning opportunities for topics related to streams, erosion and other water- and land-related science matter.
First through fifth grade teachers at the school will be able to access hands-on learning opportunities for students, ranging from weathering and erosion to the effects of humans on natural habitats.
Finally, “Protect the Investment” is the name of the project in which Lincoln Smith, Heather Samson and Ariel Templeton will handle musical instrument repairs, replacements and professional development for teachers, with the idea of revitalizing instrumental education at the four elementary schools in Amherst and Pelham. For more than 40 years, the district has offered the opportunity to learn band and orchestral instruments through the use of free or low-cost instruments.
With more than 30 boards and committees supporting Amherst town government, Town Manager Paul Bockelman is seeking volunteers for a number of panels.
Among boards and committees with potential vacancies are the Affordable Housing Trust, the Community Safety and Social Justice Committee, the Conservation Commission, the Design Review Board, the Energy and Climate Action Committee, the Human Rights Commission, the Local Historic District Commission and the Recreation Commission.
People with relevant expertise or experience and from diverse backgrounds are encouraged to apply.
To learn more, fill out a Community Activity Form at amherstma.gov/caf or send email to getinvolved@amherstma.gov.
A drop-in writing group at the Jones Library will take place in the Amherst Room on Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to noon beginning Aug. 9.
Facilitated by local author Nita Abbott, the group will encourage people who love to write, whether it be poetry, blogs, tweets, or scripts for TikToks. The series runs until Sept. 27
For more information, contact Janet Ryan, head of programming and outreach, at 259-3223.
A ground-mounted solar project that will take up about 45 acres of wooded land on Shutesbury Road will be the subject of a Zoning Board of Appeals hearing Aug. 24 at 6 p.m.
The virtual hearing is for a project proposed by PureSky Energy on land owned by W.D. Cowls Inc.
People for Ethical Treatment of Animals recently gave new University of Massachusetts Chancellor Javier Reyes a package containing a plush doll marmoset dubbed “Anakin” and other items as part of the organization’s continued campaign to stop on-campus experiments on monkeys.
PETA Vice President Alka Chandna contends that monkeys have been tied into restraints and cut open to study menopause.
“PETA is calling on Chancellor Reyes to use the ‘uncommon vision’ with which he is credited to end the pointless torment of marmosets at UMass and embrace modern, animal-free research that is actually relevant to humans,” Chandna said in a statement.
The university has defended the practice of animal research, emphasizing that medical advances from the work happening in laboratories can improve and save lives of people and animals.
MONDAY: Town Council, 6:30 p.m.
TUESDAY: Disability Access Advisory Committee, 11:30 a.m., and Cultural Council, 6 p.m.
THURSDAY: Historical Commission, 6:35 p.m., to consider shed demolition at 29 Mill Lane.