Community Videos are Proudly Underwritten by
The Institution for Savings.

Our fabulous auction is held in partnership with Comcast and will be broadcast live on Saturday, February 25^th from noon – 9 PM on Comcast Cable TV stations in West Newbury, Merrimac, Newburyport, Newbury, Amesbury, Haverhill, Salisbury, Rowley, Ipswich, and South Hampton, NH. The auction will extend to even more communities as www.portmedia.org streams the broadcast to your laptop or PC.

Check out the items live and get a head start on your bidding!  You can view the items and offer pre-bids on Thursday, February 23, 5 – 8:30 pm, during Pre-View Night at the Nock Middle School, 70 Low Street, Newburyport. There is no admission fee. Our own local station, WNBP Radio 1450 AM ‘The Legends’ will be broadcasting live on Pre-View Night!

Watch the auction action on Saturday, February 25 to make sure you are the highest bidder on your favorite items! Winning bidders will be called the day of the auction to confirm their win(s). Items should be picked up and paid for on Sunday, February 26, noon – 3 pm, at the Nock Middle School.

Auctioneers this year include Congressman John Tierney, Mayor Donna Holaday, Richie Eaton, Senator Steve Baddour and other new and familiar faces.

We want to thank the very generous sponsors of our 28^th Annual Lend-a-Hand Auction. Premier Sponsors – The Newburyport Five Cents Savings Bank and the Institution for Savings. We also thank our Corporate Sponsors – Rochester Electronics, Mersen, and Eastern Bank, as well as the many other sponsors, volunteers, and donors, who are all a part of empowering people with disabilities and changing lives!

You are invited to actively participate in changing the lives of people with disabilities by bidding on the exciting items at the auction. Opportunity Works is a non-profit agency headquartered in Newburyport, with a satellite facility in Haverhill that provides exemplary and innovative employment, specialized day habilitation, community, and recreation services for people with developmental disabilities.

For more information please call or email Deborah Andrews, Director of Development 978-462-6144 or deborah.andrews@opportunityworks.org

Newburyport-Today.com

Listen to our Promo on WNBP
Download a One Page Copy of These Events

A MARDI GRAS CELEBRATION – STEVE RILEY AND THE MAMOU PLAYBOYS
Friday, February 17, 8.00pm – 11.00pm
Belleville Congregational Church, 300 High St.
A Mardi Gras Celebration, featuring 2012 Grammy nominated Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys. Join us for a Cajun dinner before the music at 6pm.

THE ACTOR’S STUDIO OF NEWBURYPORT – LAST SUMMER AT BLUEFISH COVE
Friday, February 10, 8.00pm
Saturday, February 11, 8.00pm
Sunday, February 12, 5.00pm
The Actor’s Studio – The Tannery Marketplace
Last Summer at Bluefish Cove is a funny, witty, touching, and moving drama, first produced in 1980. Written by the late Jane Chambers, the play provides a tight, truthful script and an intelligent, appealing, very human ensemble of female characters. This historic and groundbreaking lesbian theater piece explores the universal search for love, commitment and personal fulfillment.

THE WONDER AND THE WOW: BALD EAGLES ALONG THE MERRIMACK RIVER
Saturday, February 18, 1.00pm-3.30pm
Joppa Flats Education Center, One Plum Island Turnpike
An adults only outside to discover the wonderful world of bald eagles.

OWLS OF THE SALT MARSHES AND FORESTS
Saturday, February 18, 4.30pm – 10.30pm
Joppa Flats Education Center, One Plum Island Turnpike
Search for diurnal and nocturnal owls in the Newbury/Rowley area, with a dinner and lecture break between afternoon and evening. For more information on this and many other programs from Mass Audubon’s Joppa Flat’s Education Center, please visit our calendar.

NEWBURYPORT FARMERS’ MARKET
Sunday, February 19, 10.00am-2.00pm
Tannery Market Place Event Tent
Come shop for local produce, free-range meats, baked goods, cheeses, crafts.

CARDIO AND FITNESS CLASS
Tuesday, February 21, 6.30 – 7.30pm
First Religious Society, Lower meetinghouse – 26 Pleasant Street
A free class of cardio exercise followed by luxurious stretching. We will explore the High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workouts in Turbo Fire with low-impact version of all moves.

WII FOR SENIORS AT NEWBURYPORT PUBLIC LIBRARY
Wednesday, February 22, 10am-11am
Newburyport Public Library, 94 State Street
Seniors are invited to “play” various sports, dancing and competitive-style interactive games using the big screen television. All skill levels, including beginners, welcome.

MOVIE MATINEES AT NEWBURYPORT PUBLIC LIBRARY
Wednesday, February 22, 2.30pm-4.30pm
Newburyport Public Library, 94 State Street
Come and enjoy the theatre-like screen and sound system with fellow film buffs.

For much more information on these events and additional greater Newburyport area information go to our web site www.newburyportchamber.org

Spent too much over the holidays? Are you looking for a little extra cash? It is that time again when we start selling our famous “Chamber Big Win” raffle tickets. Take your chance on winning $10,000 in cold hard cash! For more information Click HERE!

I would like to make special mention of another great service that we offer to chamber members. We offer a weekly Member2Member email program in which chamber members can directly communicate via email with other chamber members. These very popular Member2Member emails can be shared with anyone. Often times the information is a banking service offer, a new restaurant menu or announcement of a special event. So here is a sample of this week’s offerings.

A Night of Sinatra at Seaglass 

We hope that you continue to check out our new web site www.newburyportchamber.org . Same web site address, just a different look! We are very excited to share it with all of you and the community at large. There is so much valuable information to be found on the web site and we hope that you will bookmark it on your computers so you can refer to it for all things “greater Newburyport!” Please visit the site and use the business directory for all your needs related to work, home and life!

And as always there are so many options for those that may want to shop, dine, rest, stroll, bike, sing, dance, visit and explore. For a complete list of chamber members go to our business directory http://business.newburyportchamber.org/list

And as always, don’t’ forget to follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn. So get out there and enjoy all that the greater Newburyport area has to offer.

For more information just go to www.newburyportchamber.org. Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy the greater Newburyport area!

After signing The Boy up for swimming at the YWCA one Saturday morning I hit Abraham’s and Zac & Ani’s for a little breakfast fare for the family back home.

As I walked up Liberty Street I eyed a few ladies holding petitions.

Uh oh.

I figured it was the Local Historic District. For or against, the only thing that’s going to get someone up early on a Saturday morning is the LHD.

That and signing their kid up for swimming lessons at the Y.

Anyway, I’m firmly in favor of the LHD. Said so right here on my blog. I’m open to having a discussion, I suppose, but not at 8:30 am on a Saturday morning, not when I haven’t even had breakfast yet.

Photo Credit: http://www.newburyporthistoricdistrict.org/Washington%20Street%20District.pdf

As I entered Abraham’s one of the woman asked if I’d be interested in signing the petition. I said no thank you as I favored the LHD. She tried handing me a flyer while telling me the local reports were biased and incomplete. (I found that funny, btw, because I’ve heard the same uttered from the Pro-LHD saide.)

I again said no thank you and told her to save her paper. I turned again to step through the door when she kept at it, asking if I favored the $500 daily fines. I wasn’t sure what she was talking about, but I might support them under the right circumstances, but I didn’t have the information to make a cogent argument. So I said I did because I’ve found the early proposal to be a reasonable document. But, to be frank, I was hungry but I didn’t feel like getting lectured on Liberty Street without the benefit of breakfast. Wouldn’t end well.

So I gracefully told her no thank you and withdrew inside Abraham’s to get my one egg and one plain bagel. Then scooted past the petitioners to Zac & Ani’s to grab a few scones.

With a bag full of scones in hand, I opened the door to Zac & Ani’s only to see a very large greyhound-like dog tied to a lamp post. The dog’s brown color, thin frame and long legs bore a strong resemblance to a deer, and, like a deer, the dog clearly was frightened by my opening the door.

One of the petitioners and I moved closer to calm the frightened pooch. We spoke only of the dog and not of LHD and then I went on my way.

By now you’re wondering what the heck is my point.

Okay here it is. Let’s do this LHD fight right.

Let’s all just assume each side has legitimate points to make. Let’s also assume that each side has the best interest of the city in heart.

Let’s not suggest anyone is evil or an agent of some nefarious government plot. Let’s not accuse the other side of being a dupe or an agent of some nefarious plot by developers.

But let’s all do this right. Let’s handle this with the same grace that we’ve employed with the IBEW protests. We don’t need to roll in the mud.

I truly believe we’d be better off with some reasonable protections in place. (Again, read here for my why and visit the blogs of Mary Baker and the P. Preservationist for more information.) From my viewpoint, the Local Historict District Study Committee has been quite reasonable and measured in what they’re proposing. But others see things differently. Let’s hear them out as well.

We don’t need to board the crazy train to reach a reasonable consensus. We don’t need to introduce conspiracies as Ed Cameron and Mary Baker write. This stuff isn’t necessary.

What is necessary is an informed and engaged public. Yes, it’s fine to get information from someone with a pen and petition (or a blog and a column) but the real answers lie in your own research. (For more on the flyer’s inaccuracies read Mary Baker’s column here. She actually took one.)

Just take some time and Google, “Newburyport Historic District”. You’ll find plenty on the subject including the city-sponsored page put out by the Local Historic District Study Committee. Bookmark this. Read it. Read it closely, especially when the final draft of the proposal comes out (next month I think, when the hearing restart.) That’s an important fact, we’re just looking at a draft right now. It’s worth going over, no doubt, but it’s not the final word.

In fact, the study committee just last week made a significant change, dropping a requirement that howeowners with slate roofs need to replace them with slate.

The good news for those who feel they don’t have the time is you won’t have to do a thing. The City Council will ultimately vote on whether or not Newburyport will adopt a broader historic district. (We already have a small one covering the upper leg of Fruit Street.) So if you, dear apathetic reader, don’t care than just sit back and let the councillors do what they will do.

But if you do care – and frankly if you’ve read this far than you probably do – take the time. Read the proposals. Read the paper. And yes, talk to people in the street, especially those that disagree with you. You just might want to let everyone have breakfast first.

But above all else, let’s be a community. And Stay Classy, Newburyport.

After years of hemming and hawing, we finally got our butts down to Bradford Ski,  where much to my kids’ amazement, there is a ton of snow. The folks are Bradford work hard to make snow and groom the trails, and for my kids, it was thrilling to see so much of the white stuff. And just a short drive from home!

We opted for the one-hour group lesson with rentals for the kids’ first exposure to skiing, skis, ski boots and ski helmets, with a cost of $65 per child. Not cheap but we considered it an investment in living life fully in New England. About 10 other kids also showed up for the group lesson at the “learning area,” and classes were formed by age. Skiing immediately clicked for Hannah, 7, who soon moved up to the towrope from the small magic carpet, and then onto the bigger magic carpet. Once she mastered stopping, her confidence soared and she continually went up and down the bunny trails for an hour after her lesson ended.

Alex, 4, on the other hand, became interested in eating the snow about 35 minutes into his lesson. I shutter to think of the chemicals used to both make and freeze snow. He mastered the small magic carpet but couldn’t quite get the hang of grabbing onto the towrope to pull him up the hill without falling down. Father and son beelined to the lodge for some much-needed fuel. We later joined them and had a delicious lunch of Cheerios and chicken fingers.

All in all, it was a very successful first experience. Next stop, Mount Sunapee in New Hampshire, where I will use a Groupon for my first ski lesson EVER, and the kids will go to a 2-hour ski school. Let’s hope Alex spends most of his time on top of the snow rather than ingesting it.

The girls loved roller skating and roller blading at Skateland.

The next new athletic adventure happened at Skateland, also in Bradford. About 200 Girl Scouts including a sweet troop of 15 first graders from the Breshanan School gathered early on a Saturday night and donned roller skates or roller blades. This mommy tied on roller skates for the first time in at least 20 years and glided the night away, holding the hands of little girls in various unsteady stages of falling down and being pulled along. Hannah and her friend Eliza much preferred roller blades to roller skates; apparently blades are easier to get the hang of and are more like ice skates. Once the girls had roller blades on they loved it and had a blast. Pizza, hot dogs and lemonade topped off the night and I’m sure everyone slept well.

Our final cardio endeavor of late landed us at MetroRock in Newburyport’s Industrial Park. Both kids had each attended a birthday there, but wanted to have another chance to climb. I called on a Saturday to book a $25 one-hour private belaying session for Hannah on Sunday. She was set up with a harness and her own certified belayer, Holly, who spotted her and gave her basic guidance on foot and hand placement, and how to repel down the myriad of routes the center has. Alex, who wasn’t into wearing the harness at the party he attended, spent his time “bouldering” on the side wall with mom and dad, price tag $10. There were about 25 other people at Metro Rock that hour, with about half climbing and half bouldering. Alex soon found a friend with an iPad, and the two boys played Angry Birds side-by-side amidst the climbers and belayers.

Alex bouldering at MetroRock.

Hannah easily scaled the beginner walls and even tackled some of the more challenging routes. Repelling down was a little tricky at times but she was smiling the whole time. MetroRock offers afternoon programs and camps for school-aged children as well as certification for adults to become belayers. Holly recommend that I become certified so that we can take advantage of MetroRock’s family night on Thursdays, where kids only have to pay their age to climb.

Another new (for us) and local activity on our list of winter fun that we haven’t hit yet is tubing at Amesbury Sports Park. We won a gift certificate for two through our local synagogue that expires at the end of the season, so it’s a must do. Driving on Rte. 495, the snow-covered run is visible and the line of people climbing the steps always looks long. But from what I’ve heard it’s not to be missed!

Jill Oestreicher Gross, reachable at jillalexandra@yahoo.com, is enjoying learning new things this winter alongside her two fearless children.

“Whiny Wednesdays” is a recurring series that focuses on giving caregivers fun ideas to do locally. The result being that Whiny Days are no more!

The Belleville Roots Music Concert Series announces a Mardi Gras Celebration, featuring 2012 Grammy nominated Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys to be held on Friday, February 17, at 8 pm. Belleville Congregational Church, 300 High Street. Concert tickets are $20 in advance/$25 day of show/ children 12 and under, $10. Group sales are available. A Cajun dinner will be held from 6:00-7:30PM. Dinner tickets are priced at $15 and it is catered by Karen Kelly Dardinski of Newburyport. Advance purchase of dinner tickets is required. Additional beverages and desserts will also, be available. For more information, email: bellevilleconcerts@gmail.com or visit: www.bellevillechurch.org/concerts.php

Steve Riley of Mamou, Louisiana is a widely acknowledged master of the Cajun accordion. That, combined with his  emotional vocals, songwriting, soulful fiddling and onstage front man charisma have led many to refer to the band simply as “Steve Riley”. But for this band, and its devoted fans, there’s much, much more. Kevin Wimmer brings a Creole influence as exhibited by his unique fiddle repertoire and his powerful vocals. Sam Broussard generates a cyclone of guitar. On acoustic, electric and electric slide, he carries the music of his ancestry farther than its ever gone. Kevin Dugas on drums and Brazos Huval on bass are a Cadillac V-8 of a rhythm section.

TICKETS
Tickets to the concert/dance are $20 ($25 day of show) and $10 for children 12 and under. Advance tickets are available at: Belleville Congregational Church Office, 300 High Street, Tues, Thurs and Friday 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Belleville Thrift Shop, Wed and Sat 9-12; Dyno Records, 1 Middle Street, Newburyport; and online at www.bellevillechurch.org/concerts or www.mktix.com/bc. If available, tickets for the concert will be sold at the door the day of the event.

About Belleville Roots
This is the fourth show in the second season of the Belleville Roots Concert Series. This season, the von Trapp Children, Country Rain, and Della Mae, and Bill Kirchen have performed and brought quality music and hundreds of guests to Belleville. Upcoming concerts: 3/15 Green Week Event with Traditional Irish GroupTéada; 4/21An Evening with Carrie Newcomer. Belleville Congregational Church has longstanding roots in the Newburyport community as a gathering place and supporter of local service organizations. The Belleville Roots Music Series, founded in December of 2010, has two important missions:  First, the series brings a variety of high quality Roots Music concerts to the Newburyport area for all to enjoy. The series celebrates music ranging from a cappella to zydeco and includes a diverse range of blues, bluegrass, Cajun, Celtic, country, folk, gospel, Irish, jazz and world music. The second mission of the Roots Music Series is to raise funds to restore and maintain the historic 1867 Belleville Meeting House and adjacent Fiske Chapel complex at 300 High Street in Newburyport. The objective is that the Meeting House and adjacent complex will continue to serve as a gathering place for many generations to come.

For more information, visit www.bellevillechurch.org/concerts.  Join the Belleville Roots mailing list and stay informed about upcoming concerts by sending an email to bellevilleconcerts@gmail.com.

Belleville Roots Music Concert Series, 300 High St., Newburyport, MA, (978) 465-7734, Email: bellevilleconcerts@gmail.com; www.bellevillechurch.org/concerts

By Kathleen Downey

“Nancy McCarthy has one of those ‘shiny souls,’” says an admirer of the local “celebrity” fitness trainer and maven. Trim and athletic with an exuberance for life, McCarthy has been inspiring  and leading Newburyporters to get moving and get healthy since 2001, when she and her husband settled here. She “enriches the life of everyone she meets,” her admirer adds.

McCarthy brought the first fitness boot camp to the Port. She continues today, with natural ease, encouraging groggy residents at 6:00 a.m. to complete loops around the Bartlett Mall, coaching some through their first push up, and guiding her students through abdominal crunches to strengthen their inner core.

“It’s become an annual rite of spring,” McCarthy says of the calendar’s upcoming March boot camp. Up to 60 people typically participate in these fitness camps, with the location varying between the Mall and Cashman Park.

McCarthy’s latest outdoor fitness venture is the Couch to 5K program, a national movement geared to first-time runners to get them up and off the couch and running their first 5K race.

The toned sexagenarian jokes that she has a method to her madness. “The people I train eventually end up being faster than me, so I am always training new runners so I can make new running friends!”

“I’ve turned a lot of people into runners,” McCarthy says with a smile. The opportunity to make a healthy difference in the lives of others is what drives McCarthy.  Grounded in humility, McCarthy says, “I feel that I’ve been given a gift that enables me to let people believe in themselves and in their own abilities.”

“I am genuine with myself,” McCarthy states. She explains her realization and acceptance that each decade brings with it a level of importance. “When I turned 50, I had to accept that I wasn’t as fast as I once was. But that’s okay,” McCarthy, who’s been running for 35 years, asserts. “Our bodies change, but we can still be the best we can. We are given this one life, this one body that is a vehicle for our soul, our spirit, and our physical health. So we need to take good care of our bodies.” McCarthy brings this philosophy to her fitness training.

“It’s so rewarding for me to help people understand the value of a healthy, physically fit body,” McCarthy says.

McCarthy credits Jacki Sorenson, legendary aerobic dance icon, with putting her on the path to fitness. “I took a Jacki Sorenson ‘fit camp’ in the early ‘80s and fell in love with the program,” McCarthy recalls.  After two months, McCarthy became an instructor and began traveling the country, teaching others the aerobic dance moves that Sorenson founded more than 40 years ago. “Aerobic dancing gives a person a euphoric feeling,” McCarthy affirms.

Opening her own fitness studio had been “just a daydream,” McCarthy remembers. “I was speaking with David Hall [owner of The Tannery Marketplace] one day and shared with him my dream. ‘Dreams are good!’ he advised. It felt good to have someone else believe in me.”

As it happens, Kim Marttila, whom McCarthy knew through a local gym, was also looking for studio space. The two women paired up in 2004 to open Natural High Fitness, housed in Mill No. 4 of the Tannery complex. “We’re not bells and whistles,” McCarthy says. “We have no TVs. It’s a neighborhood gym where members can work out, listen to music, and have a conversation with one another if they wish.”

Overlooking Water Street with panoramic views of Newburyport harbor and Plum Island as its vista, the studio’s name is apt for its altitude (and rooftop deck) and for the euphoric feeling that McCarthy wishes members to know through physical exercise. Spin, Pilates, Cardio/CORE training, yoga, TRX® (a Navy Seal-designed suspension training system that incorporates gravity and body weight) and fit camp are some of the studio’s offerings.

In addition to fitness boot camp and Couch to 5K, Nordic Walk is an off-site offering held at one of McCarthy’s favorite places in Newburyport: Maudslay State Park.  McCarthy, who grew up in Hudson, MA, discovered the bucolic park with her husband, prior to moving here.

McCarthy met her husband through the Greater Lowell Roadrunners, a competitive running club. “We were friends, first,” McCarthy shares, “running alongside one another.” She jokes, “I like to tell people that we met during heavy breathing.”

One day, running together through Maudslay during one of the couple’s visits to the Port, McCarthy recalls, “We said to each other, ‘Imagine being able to run here every day!’” Their love of the outdoors also led them to Sandy Point. They were captivated by the Port’s outdoor charms.

“We also found Abraham’s Bagels and the Nutcracker Bakery,” McCarthy says. “And that was it! We decided that we had to live here!” The couple left Maryland, where they had been living for nine years, and settled in the Port in 2001.

Within the community that she fell so in love with, McCarthy has been instrumental in creating a sub-community of runners and a friendly neighborhood community at Natural High Fitness.

When asked what quality she most values, McCarthy thoughtfully answers, “Kindness.” Cultivating kindness, she believes, is every bit as important as sculpting bodies and helping people to develop strong physical cores. It is with kindness, compassion, and her genuine spirit that McCarthy seeks to inspire others.

“I have such gratitude for being allowed to make a difference in people’s lives,” McCarthy says.

Kathleen Downey is the Features Editor for Newburyport Today. If you are a townie or a citizen who would like to be profiled (or to suggest someone to profile), please email: Kathleen@Newburyport-Today.com.

Inspired by a desire to highlight and raise awareness of both pressing environmental issues and the important role of community media, PortMedia and Transition Newburyport announce the Earth Port Film Festival to be held at the Firehouse Center for the Arts in Newburyport, Massachusetts on May 12, 2012. Guided by the 2012 Earth Day theme “Mobilize the Earth™,” the Earth Port Film Festival will feature short films by independent filmmakers. Entries will focus on building the environmental movement and engaging new activists inventing, discovering, inspiring, catalyzing, or documenting environmental action through the media of film and video.

Film submissions will be accepted from filmmakers of all ages (see www.EarthPortFilm.org for details). All submissions must be received by March 15, 2012. The winning films in each category will be announced on Earth Day, April 22, 2012. Winning films and other selected entries will be screened during two showings at the Earth Port Film Festival on May 12, 2012 at the beautiful Firehouse Center for the Arts in Newburyport, Massachusetts (www.firehouse.org). Newburyport is an historic New England seaport community of 17,000 people with a strong tradition of independent journalism, support for the arts, and a commitment to the environment, having recently been named a Commonwealth Green Community. The Firehouse Center for the Arts is a vibrant, waterfront theater and cultural center in downtown Newburyport. Proceeds from the Earth Port Film Festival will be used to support the work of PortMedia, Newburyport’s community media center, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides independent and original public affairs, arts, education, and government programming to Newburyport and the surrounding area..

Further information is available at the festival website, www.EarthPortFilm.org. For additional questions please contact PortMedia’s Director of Development, Joe DiBiase at joe@EarthPortFilm.org or (617) 701-7678. “Mobilize the Earth” is a trademark of the Earth Day Network.