Cranston Chatter

Posted 4/26/17

By MERI R. KENNEDY Need help accessing or getting food? Everyone needs a little help from time to time. If you, or someone you know, needs nutritional assistance, CCAP's Food Bank can help. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA),

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Cranston Chatter

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Need help accessing or getting food?

Everyone needs a little help from time to time. If you, or someone you know, needs nutritional assistance, CCAP’s Food Bank can help.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), 12 percent of Rhode Islanders, 51,000 households, are food insecure, meaning they are often unsure where their next meal will come from due to lack of resources. The most severe conditions associated with hunger are reported by 4.7 percent of our state’s residents, 20,000 households.

Call CCAP today to learn more about CCAP’s Food Bank which is located at 311 Doric Ave. (lower level). Food Bank Hours: Mon - Fri, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and on Wednesdays 4 to 6 p.m. For more information, please call 467-7013.

Summer jobs

The Parks and Recreation Department will make summer job applications available in the office and online from now to May 5. Completed applications can be delivered to the Recreation Office, 1090 Cranston Street, 2nd Floor, during normal business hours. Applicants must be 16 years old at the time of employment and be a Cranston resident. Positions available include playground counselor, lifeguard, pool attendant, and pool maintenance.

Touch a Truck

The Cranston Rotary will hold a Touch a Truck event in Garden City around the Gazebo on May 7 from 9 a.m. to noon. A $5 donation per family is suggested. All proceeds will benefit the Cranston Area High School Scholarship Program.

Bring your children so they can explore and even climb the inventory of trucks which will include big trucks and vehicles including police, fire, military and more. There will also be face painting and arts and crafts.

Calling young gardeners

The Cranston Public Library has announced that it will provide three Learning Gardens to youth and families this summer. Supported by a grant from the New England Grassroots Environment Fund, and donations from the William Hall Library Board of Trustees and the Cranston Public Library Teen Team, gardens at the Central Library, William Hall Library, and Oak Lawn Branch will be built throughout the month of May.

The Oak Lawn Branch will welcome two raised bed herb gardens to their property, while the Central Library and William Hall Library will support one vegetable garden each. The gardens will be built by teens and families on separate Saturdays through May, then maintained by teen volunteers throughout the summer.

The raised beds will be built at the following locations and times: Oak Lawn Branch, Saturday, May 6 held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Central Library, Saturday, May 13 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and at the William Hall Library on Saturday, May 20 at 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Helpers and volunteers are encouraged to sport sunscreen and bring water! No sign-up or registration is required to help build the gardens; however, teens interested in signing up to care for the gardens and earn volunteer hours are encouraged to contact the host library location for details and times. (Garden maintenance training will be provided!)

More information, including garden plans and how-to tips are available online at cranstonlibrary.org/learning-gardens.

"Let Freedom Ring"

The West Bay Chorale will be holding their annual Spring Concert on May 7 at 3 p.m. at the Edgewood Congregational Church, 1788 Broad St. Come and enjoy some Patriotic music along with some American Classics.

Admission: Adults $12 and Children 12 and under are $6. Children 5 and under are free of charge. For more information please visit westbaychorale.org.

Art Sale

United Cerebral Palsy of RI Adaptive Arts Program will hold an Art Sale on May 5 at Arnold Conference Center, 3 Regan Ct. off 111 Howard Ave., Cranston from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Select from fine art originals and prints of landscapes, florals and still life. All sales benefit the artists and program.

RI Dream Center 5K Walk/Run

The RI Dream Center will be having a 5K Walk/Run 4 Hope on May 13 at Cranston High School West. Please come out and enjoy a day of family fun while helping those in need in our community. There will be free food, entertainment, paint facing and much more. $15 per person pre-registration before May 1, or $20 per person after May 1.

Registration is held from 7 to 8 a.m. with the 5K starting at 8 a.m. Registration includes a free t-shirt and refreshments.

Visit www.ridreamcenter.com/run-4-hope-.html for more details.

At the Senior Center

Take a chance with the Cranston Department of Senior Services’ RSVP Division’s Annual 15 Week Club Fundraiser. Tickets are $15 with 18 chances to win. There will be $25 prize drawn each week for 15 weeks. The Grand Prizes will be drawn on week 15 with the first-place prize of $250; second place prize of $175 and third place prize of $100. Tickets available at the Cranston Senior Enrichment Center, 1070 Cranston St. from 9 am to noon. Proceeds to help the Cranston RSVP Programs.

May Breakfast at the Cranston Senior Enrichment Center will be held on May 1 at 11:30 a.m. with a suggested donation of $3 per person. Bring a friend and come celebrate “May Day” with the Center. Their chefs will be preparing a special breakfast to mark the occasion. Call for your reservation now at 780-6134.

Diabetes Support Group: “Diabetes Self-Management” will be held on May 3 at 10 a.m. with facilitator CVS Pharmacist Mario Casinelli. The guest speaker will be Kelsey Ryan, Coastal Medical Clinical Pharmacist & Diabetes Educator. This will be a review of the self-monitoring of blood sugar and how to best interpret your readings. You will also learn how and why exercise or illness may affect your readings.

The 2017 Prime Time Senior Living Expo will be held at the Warwick Mall on May 4 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. This event will include entertainment, Preventative Health Information, Nutrition & Fitness Information as well as Travel and Housing Information.

Basic Computer Classes will be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays, May 9 to May 25 at 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. There is a fee of $25 per person. Now is your time to join the “technology” generation. Never too late to learn something new. Call 780-6216 for more information.

Reminiscence Group: “Remembering the Past” will be held on May 12 and June 9 at 9:30 a.m. Join with facilitator Jennifer Kevorkian for this new program at the Center. Reminiscence is “a free-flowing process of thinking and talking about our experiences in order to reflect on and recapture events of our lifetime.” Are their benefits to reminiscing?  Experts on aging say that our outlook improves when our past is reviewed. Remembering the past can bring a great deal of satisfaction and fun to everyone. We all live in the present, yet we continue to carry our ‘past” so join in on the second Friday of each month so you can reminisce a bit. What are the topics…whatever you want…first jobs, favorite games as kids, first TV, places we lived, holiday traditions, where were you when a major event took place; the topics are endless.

There will be free art classes on May 22 and May 23 from 9 to 11 a.m. provided by The New Hope Art Gallery. The Cranston Department of Senior Services’ RSVP Advisory Board is sponsoring free art classes at the center. Artists with The New Hope Art Gallery will offer these classes. Space is limited!  Register now by calling 780-6000.

May Breakfast for Defenders of Animals

Defenders of Animals will hold a May Breakfast on May 7 at 10 a.m. at the Governor Sprague Mansion on Cranston St. Tickets are $25 per person and the event is by reservations only by calling 461-1922.

Book Sale at William Hall Library

The Cranston Public Library Association will hold a book sale, benefiting Cranston Public Library, at the William Hall Library on May 6 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The sale will feature gently-used books, movies and CDs.

The Cranston Public Library Association (CPLA) is the nonprofit fundraising arm of the Cranston Public Library. CPLA assists the library in providing programs and services that exceed the level of tax-based funding. CPLA is recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)3, making all contributions fully tax deductible. The William Hall Library is located at 1825 Broad St., Cranston.

Ocean State Toastmasters

The Ocean State Toastmasters will hold its next meeting on May 2 from 7 to 9 p.m. at Warwick City Hall, 3275 Post Rd. Regular meetings are held on the first and third Tuesdays of each month.

The club is one of some 13,500 in Toastmasters International, a nonprofit, educational organization devoted to the development of public speaking and leadership skills. The organization has approximately 280,000 members in 116 countries.

Founded in 1963, Ocean State Toastmasters is one of the oldest clubs in Rhode Island. For more information, contact Robert Rogers, vice president of membership, at 782-7637 or Robert_Rogers@acm.org.

May Breakfast at the Kelley-Gazzerro VFW Post 2812

The Kelley-Gazzerro VFW Post 2812 will hold their May Breakfast on May 7 at 1418 Plainfield St. Cranston. The breakfast will take place on May 7 from 9:30 to 11 a.m. and will include fruit salad, juice, scrambled eggs, ham, bacon, sausage, bagels, muffins, toast and coffee.

Donation: Adults $10 and children under 12, $5. Tickets on sale at the bar and will be sold at the door.

Did You Know?

Many states have bean suppers, pancake breakfasts and strawberry festivals, but only Rhode Island has May breakfasts. The May Breakfast tradition began in 1867 at the Old Quaker Meeting House, the first church in Cranston. Mrs. Ruby King Wilbur, president of the Searle's Corner Benevolent Society, originated the event to raise funds for a new building, borrowing the idea from the English May Day celebration. Four-hundred and sixty-six people attended the first May Breakfast, helping to raise $155.50.

Quakers built the Friends Meeting House at Searle's Corner (now known as Oak Lawn) in western Cranston in 1729. The Quaker population dwindled over the years until finally, in 1866, Lodowick Brayton bought the building and donated it for use as a Sunday school. Two years later, the church affiliated with the Baptists. The current building was constructed in 1879, and the old Quaker Meeting House was moved and attached to the back of the new building. Now all that's left from the first structure are a wall and several beams.

This year the Oak Lawn Baptist Church will be celebrating their 150th May Breakfast on May 1. (Source: Michael Bell)

To submit your news from the community, e-mail Meri R. Kennedy at CranstonChatter@aol.com.

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