128 Main Street and 5 High Street, Acton
The Iron Work Farm continues its series of “4th Sunday” events with museum open houses at Jones Tavern (128 Main St., 1 to 3 p.m.) and the Jones-Faulkner Homestead (5 High St., 3 to 5 p.m.)

In this important anniversary year, come visit the homes of two families closely involved with the American Revolution, and Acton’s oldest standing tavern.  At the Faulkner House, participate in textile production techniques and learn about the important process of “fulling” woolen cloth.

No charge;  parking on site or nearby. Check www.ironworkfarm.org for details.

*Cold-stunned turtles treated at New England Aquarium's Sea Turtle Hospital*
BOSTON, MASS. (July 16, 2026) – The New England Aquarium released eight more sea turtles off Cape Cod, Mass., on Thursday morning. Among the turtles were seven Kemp’s ridleys and one loggerhead.
For the past seven months, staff at the Aquarium’s Sea Turtle Hospital in Quincy, Mass., treated the hypothermic turtles for a variety of life-threatening medical conditions, including pneumonia, dehydration, and trauma. Staff veterinarians cleared the sea turtles to return to Nantucket
Sound from West Dennis Beach.
“Each turtle that goes back to the ocean represents months of care from our whole team,” said Linda Lory, Rescue and Rehabilitation Manager at the New England Aquarium. “There’s a lot that goes into getting an animal from stranded to strong enough to survive out there again. Every sea turtle
release is a win for the species as a whole.”
Under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, loggerhead and Kemp’s ridley sea turtles are threatened or endangered, facing threats including climate change, ocean pollution, and degradation of their habitats. Rescue and rehabilitation efforts help to conserve these species.
Scientists from the Aquarium’s research arm, the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life worked with the Rescue team to tag the turtles for post-release monitoring. The tags collect information about the turtles’ behavior, habitat use, and survivorship, which helps inform sea turtle conservation and protection efforts, especially in New England where little is known about these species. This season, the team is using a combination of satellite tags for real-time data and acoustic tags for longer-term tracking; some of the turtles will be added to the Aquarium’s Sea Turtle Tracker for the public to follow their journey. This sea turtle work is permitted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service through Permit Number ES69328.
Aquarium staff, volunteers, and interns have a tradition of naming the turtles receiving long-term care, with this year’s theme being font-inspired names. Turtles released this past week include Roboto, Chowderhead, and Baskerville.
During the 2025 cold-stunning season, the Aquarium treated nearly 500 live sea turtles that were rescued from the shores of Cape Cod from November to December by staff and volunteers with Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. Getting these turtles back to full health requires a collaborative effort between biologists, veterinarians and researchers. There are 11 turtles remaining at the Aquarium’s Quincy facility, which will be released off Cape Cod this summer once medically cleared by Aquarium veterinarians.

Join Jasmine Wang, ParentChild+ Coordinator, former television host, and mother of a bilingual child, for a practical and encouraging conversation about raising children in a bilingual environment. Drawing from both professional experience and her own family's journey, Jasmine will share how her son overcame early language delays and developed strong, fluent communication skills in both English and Chinese. Families will learn strategies for supporting language development, maintaining a home language, and building confidence in bilingual children. This free live webinar will be held on Thursday, July 30 at 8:00 p.m. To register, please email First Connections for the Zoom link: lmatthews@jri.org. This program is funded by the Mass. Dept. of Early Education and Care's CFCE grant program and is open to all families

This summer, the Chelmsford Community Band continues its decades-long tradition of providing live musical performances on Chelmsford Town Common.  Bring your folding chairs and your blankets and set yourself up on the grass as the summer heat switches over to the cool of evening, the stars come out, and local volunteer musicians share with the community their love of music.
The Concert Band, under the direction of Eric Linsner, will kick off the season with its traditional capstone on the Independence Day Festival on Friday, July 3, just after 7pm.  This performance is sponsored by a generous grant from Rockland Trust.
After the kickoff, the band’s 7pm Tuesday series starts on July 14 with the Jazz Ensemble, directed by Art Bakopolus, and they will also perform on July 28 and August 11.  On the alternating Tuesdays, you will be able to hear the Concert Band performing on July 21, August 4, and August 18.  This summer series has been made possible with a grant from the Chelmsford Cultural Council.
The Chelmsford Community Band is a 501(c)3 nonprofit and has a 75-piece concert band and a 20-piece jazz ensemble made of dedicated volunteer musicians with a proud tradition of bringing live musical performances to this community since 1972.  They depend on grants from local businesses, arts organizations such as the Chelmsford Cultural Council, and your donations.  Follow them on Facebook, Instagram, or BlueSky, and find them online at www.chelmsfordcommunityband.com.

LOWELL, Mass. – Bestselling author Ann Patchett will join acclaimed writer and UMass Lowell English Professor Andre Dubus III next month for a free program offered to UMass Lowell alumni, students, staff and faculty, as well as members of the community.
The second Andre Dubus III UMass Lowell Alumni Book Club event, to be held online Thursday, July 16 at 4 p.m., will feature Patchett sharing insights into her work and creative process, including a discussion of her latest novel, “Whistler.” The book club series is sponsored by the university’s Office of Alumni Relations.
“Ann Patchett is one our country’s finest writers, and we are thrilled that she has agreed to join our book club for the discussion of her beautifully written and deeply moving new novel, ‘Whistler.’ She’s also a good friend, and I’m very much looking forward to our conversation on July 16,” Dubus said.
The conversation between Patchett and Dubus will be the second installment of the Book Club, which last October featured writer Stephen King talking about his 2023 crime novel, “Holly.” The virtual event is open to the public.
Individuals who would like to attend the Zoom session should visit alumni.uml.edu to register, as space is limited. Attendees may also submit their questions to Patchett as part of the discussion.
“UMass Lowell launched the book club last year with Professor Dubus to share the works of celebrated authors with our alumni network and the public. We’re excited to feature Ann Patchett and we’re grateful to Professor Dubus, an esteemed author himself, for his work in creating this program,” said Scott Conway, executive director of alumni relations.
Patchett’s books have been named both New York Times Notable Books and New York Times bestsellers, and her work has been translated into more than 30 languages. She is the author of 10 novels: “Whistler,” “The Patron Saint of Liars,” “Taft,” “The Magician’s Assistant,” “Bel Canto,” “Run,” “State of Wonder,” “Commonwealth,” “Tom Lake” and “The Dutch House,” for which she was a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

She has written five nonfiction books, “Truth & Beauty,” “What now?,” “This is the Story of a Happy Marriage,” “Nashville: Scenes from the New American South,” and “These Precious Days,” along with three children’s books with illustrator Robin Preiss Glasser, “Lambslide,” “Escape Goat,” and “The Verts.” She was also a guest editor of the 2006 edition of the anthology series, “Best American Short Stories.”

The recipient of a National Humanities Medal and the PEN/Faulkner Award, Patchett was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She often contributes to The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine and The New York Times.

A champion of independent booksellers, in 2011, she opened Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee.

Dubus’ books include the New York Times’ bestsellers “House of Sand and Fog,” which was adapted into a film by the same name; “The Garden of Last Days;” and his memoir of growing up in Haverhill, Massachusetts, “Townie.” His novel “Such Kindness” appeared on Amazon’s “Best Books of 2023” list, and a collection of personal essays, “Ghost Dogs: On Killers and Kin,” received praise for its unvarnished honesty. He has been a finalist for the National Book Award, and has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, The National Magazine Award for Fiction, three Pushcart Prizes, and is a recipient of an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature.

Turtles equipped with satellite and acoustic tags for post-release monitoring
BOSTON, MASS. (June 24, 2026) – After months undergoing rehabilitative care for life-threatening injuries at the New England Aquarium’s Sea Turtle Hospital, 12 sea turtles were released Tuesday evening back into the waters off Cape Cod, Mass. The five Kemp’s ridleys, four loggerheads, and three green sea turtles were the first group of rehabilitated sea turtles released by the Aquarium this summer.
For the past seven months, staff at the Aquarium’s Sea Turtle Hospital in Quincy, Mass., treated the hypothermic turtles for a variety of life-threatening medical conditions, including pneumonia, dehydration, and trauma. Staff veterinarians cleared the sea turtles to return to Nantucket Sound from West Dennis Beach, where the water temperature recently crossed the 65-degree threshold for the turtles to reacclimate in the ocean.
Loggerhead and Kemp’s ridley sea turtles are threatened or endangered species, facing threats including climate change, ocean pollution, and degradation of their habitats. Rescue and rehabilitation efforts help to conserve these species.
“As we complete the first sea turtle release of the season, I’m reminded what this rescue and rehabilitation work makes possible,” said Adam Kennedy, Director of Rescue and Rehabilitation at the New England Aquarium. “We dedicate months to the turtles' recovery, and seeing them return to their ocean home off Cape Cod is the goal. This work is critical to the long-term survival of these species.”
Scientists from the Aquarium’s research arm, the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life, worked with the Rescue team to tag the turtles for post-release monitoring. The tags collect information about the turtles’ behavior, habitat use, and survivorship, which helps inform sea turtle conservation and protection efforts, especially in New England where little is known about these species. This season, the team is using a combination of satellite tags for real-time data and acoustic tags for longer-term tracking; some of the turtles will be added to the Aquarium’s Sea Turtle Tracker for the public to follow their journey. This sea turtle work is permitted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service through Permit Number ES69328.
Aquarium staff, volunteers, and interns have a tradition of naming the turtles receiving long-term care, with this year’s theme being font-inspired names. Turtles released this past week include Helvetica, Pretty Pretty Princess, Rage Italic, and Verdana. (More details below.)
During the 2025 cold-stunning season, the Aquarium treated nearly 500 live sea turtles that were rescued from the shores of Cape Cod from November to December by staff and volunteers with Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. Getting these turtles back to full health requires a collaborative effort between biologists, veterinarians and researchers. There are 29 turtles remaining at the Aquarium’s Quincy facility, which will be released off Cape Cod this summer once medically cleared by Aquarium veterinarians.

SOSÚA, Dominican Republic – When entering a dark room, most people turn on a light without thinking twice, but for 730 million people worldwide, access to electricity is scarce.
“People deserve to have these basic necessities. It shouldn’t be something they have to fight for,” said Jacob Hoffman, a rising junior mechanical engineering major at UMass Lowell.
Hoffman and seven other UMass Lowell students completed a mechanical engineering directed study during the spring semester, which included a one-week trip to Sosúa, Dominican Republic, where they installed solar panels for residents without reliable electricity. The trip was sponsored by UMass Lowell’s Center for Energy Innovation (CEI) and the Energy Access Foundation, whose mission is to accelerate access to sustainable energy in developing countries.
Working alongside representatives of the Energy Access Foundation, the students installed solar panels at a school in the Bella Vista neighborhood of Sosúa. They then presented to the school about solar power and how it will help their educational experience.
“We were all very touched by how much this means for the community and how this will help them keep the school up and running when they have power outages,” said Nuala Rodgers, a rising junior climate change and sustainability major.
The students also installed solar power systems at three homes in the area. They designed the systems before the trip, after researching quality, cost-effective solar components and studying how much sun Sosúa receives.
The students learned a valuable lesson during the trip: Not everything goes as planned. They faced multiple challenges, including tin roofs being too sharp to wrap wires around and screw holes from mounting brackets posing leak hazards. However, they got creative and found solutions for each issue that appeared.
“Designing a system in the classroom, everything is working under ideal conditions, but when we actually got down there, we had to have backup plans to adapt our system,” said Jackson DeMello, a rising junior electrical engineering major. “You need to have that hands-on experience to actually understand how something will work.”
While in the Dominican Republic, the students immersed themselves in the culture. They tried local cuisine, participated in activities like surfing and explored the nearby city of Puerto Plata.
The students are getting updates from the Energy Access Foundation on how their solar power systems are performing.
“An important part of installing these projects, both at a larger scale at the school and smaller ones at the homes, is that our mission wasn’t just to install and forget about it. It’s about sustained community impact,” Rodgers said. “In the case of the school, we heard that they had an all-day power outage recently, but with the power generated from our solar panels, they were able to keep school in session all day.”