The Community Preservation Committee’s agenda includes discussing a pre-proposal from the Riverside Greenway Working group for funding to design a trail along the Charles River between Riverside and Auburndale.

The full agenda and pre-proposal are on the program website at www.newtonma.gov/cpa.

June 11th, 7:00 pm, Newton City Hall, Room 204

Artists and community members will celebrate Linda Plaut’s long time devotion to Newton arts and culture with performances and presentations at a special tribute. If your family ever participated in Time for Partners, Kids FEST, Heartbreak Hill Races, Newton Youth Players, Newton Spelling Bee, 4th of July Festivities, the Halloween Window Painting Contest, or the Mayor’s New Year’s Day Open House, then your lives were touched by Linda Plaut. These events are just a very small list of the hundreds of events she developed over 40 years of service to Newton.

Please come pay your respects to Linda’s enduring legacy of arts, culture, and most of all, community. Light refreshments will be served.  Any questions, please call Paula Gannon: 617-796-1540.

June 16th, 3:00 –  5:00 pm
The Newton Cultural Center in Memorial Auditorium at Newton City Hall

The Newton LigerBots are hosting a First Lego League (FLL) and Junior FLL Robotics programs Info Night. At FLL Info Night, parents can learn more about the FLL program and students can participate in fun activities.

FLL is the FIRST LEGO robotics competition for fourth through eighth graders. In addition to building and programming LEGO robots, each year’s themed FLL challenge includes a project for which team members brainstorm and present creative solutions to real life problems. This event is aimed at parents and students. Junior FLL is a project based program for grades K-3.

Current LigerBots students and coaches who have participated in FLL in the past will lead a presentation with general information on FLL as well as on how to start your own team. There will be demonstrations of EV3 robots, hands-on STEM activities for kids, demonstrations by the Newton Day Dragons FLL team, and people to answer any questions you may have. Email fll@ligerbots.com for more information, or visit  https://ligerbots.org/fll or FIRST at https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/fll.

June 17th, 7:00 – 9:00 pm at the Newton North High School, 457 Walnut Street
Film Lecture Hall (just off the front entrance at Tiger Drive)

With the recent spate of school shootings, many people are asking, “What can I do?” In Massachusetts, we are lucky to have some of the strongest gun laws in the country, corresponding to relatively low rates of gun ownership and gun violence.

Yet, even here in Newton, guns have a significant presence.  On June 15th, Newton is providing a concrete, practical way to help reduce the risk of gun violence right here in our community. The Newton Police Department, Middlesex Sheriff’s Office, and the Newton Interfaith Clergy Association will team up to hold the first gun buyback in Newton in over 10 years.

Gun buybacks provide a safe way for residents to anonymously remove firearms from their homes, no questions asked, in exchange for grocery store gift cards. People participate for many reasons, including wanting to protect their children, ridding their homes of inherited or unwanted guns, or simply in response to tragedies in the news.

We believe that if we can help facilitate the removal of even one gun from our community that might be used in a teen suicide, or stolen from someone’s home to be used in a crime, then we believe it is our obligation to do so.

You can be a part of this effort. Donations in the form of a $25.00 gift cards from Wegmans, Whole Foods, or Stop & Shop (or checks from individuals or businesses to purchase gift cards) can be mailed to The Second Church, 60 Highland St., Newton, MA 02465. Thank you for making a difference!