On December 1st, local officials met at the meetinghouse to greet the residents of Framingham's District 1 and answer their questions.  Present were:  Maria Robinson, State Representative; Dr. Yvonne Spicer, Framingham Mayor; Christine Long, District 1 City Councilor; Cesar Stewart-Morales, District 2 City Councilor; Adam Steiner, District 3 City Councilor; Margareth Basilio Shepard, District 7 City Councilor; Janet Leombruno, At-Large City Councilor; and Beverly Hugo, District 1 School Committee Member.

Framingham Friends Meeting’s donation to support the construction of Irving Street Park is noted on a sign posted at the construction site.  This pocket park was funded by donations from community members, with matching funds from the federal government, and will be built on the site of an old gravel parking lot.  This park will provide welcome green space in a low income neighborhood in walking distance of two senior apartment buildings, and is scheduled to open in the fall of 2020.

On October 19-20, the First Day School held it's annual fall campout, except that we did a "camp-in" instead.  The evening started with a pasta and meatball dinner cooked by Doug and Isabelle.  Besides 12 children of various ages, including some visitors, there were parents and other meeting adults.  We then played games, worked on a "haunted house" from refrigerator boxes, helped set up a tent indoors, and just had fun together.  Five children and four adults slept over - all five children in a very cramped tent!  Kristin cooked breakfast with her delicious sour cream pancakes, fruit salad

Local children from the Open Spirit summer program (https://www.openspiritcenter.org/) had a wonderful time exploring the woods on and near our Meetinghouse grounds.  We welcome members of the Greater Framingham community to share the beauty of the space we are blessed to have.

An injury to an undocumented worker can spell disaster.  The worker may not be able to pay for medical care or get worker's compensation, yet have little legal recourse.  The worker's family may have no income while the worker is unable to work.  Framingham Friends Meeting has set up a fund to contribute to expenses for injured workers through the Metrowest Worker Center in Framingham (http://www.mwc-casa.org/), If you would like to contribute to the fund, you can mail a check to Framingham Friends Meeting Treasurer, 841 Edmands Rd, Framingham, MA 0170

Jean’s Schnell is a member of Framingham Friends Meeting and an emerging artist in fine art photography.  Her Quaker meetinghouse photographs have been featured in the Friends Journal.  They accompanied her article called “Framing the Light: Quaker Meetinghouses as space and Spirit.”

We usually have a shared meal of soup plus sides that people bring on the first Sunday of each month ("First First Day" in old Quaker terms).  This month, Doug Lippincott and Melissa Foster presented an eclectic array of music.  Both Doug and Melissa sang, while Melissa also played flute, button accordian, and shaker, and Doug played at least 2 types of ukelele.  "Would you like to wish on a star" was a big hit with Amelia, whose favorite Messier object is M60.  About 30 people enjoyed the show after having soup and sides.

On First Day, March 17, the First Day School children heard the story of Esther and her courage in asking the king of Persia to save the Jews from the villain Haman.  As is traditional, the children used noisemakers called "grokkers" and boo'd whenever Haman's name was mentioned in the story.  They made "hamantaschen" (Haman's pockets), cookies that look like pockets with gold and jewels inside, and learned about old-style "pockets" that were just folds of cloth tied to one's belt.  Then they learned about William Penn, who similarly showed courage asking the king of England to save the Qua