Mount Grace hike set for May 13

WARWICK — The 22nd annual Pioneer Valley Regional School District Ned Green Scholarship Hike up Mount Grace will be held Saturday, May 13, from 10 a.m. to noon.

Participants are advised to meet at the Oscar Ohlson Field parking lot across from Garage Road on Route 78 in Warwick.

Contributions may be made, but are not required, payable to PVRSD Ned Green Fund, the day of the event or mailed directly to PVRSD Treasurer, 97 F. Sumner Turner Drive, Northfield, MA 01360. Graduating Pioneer seniors may apply for a scholarship by filling out an application at the Guidance Office.

Hikers are advised to bring water, snacks, sturdy footwear and insect repellent. The hike will be canceled in the event of heavy rain. Contact Clare Green at 978-544-7421 with any questions.

UMass professor to give book talk as part of 350th

NORTHFIELD — Scholar Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina will detail the lives of two enslaved people, whose personal stories span both Northfield and Deerfield, during an informational talk planned as part of Northfield’s 350 anniversary activities.

The talk will take place at 6 p.m. at the Trinitarian Congregational Church, 147 Main St.

Holbrook Gerzina, who is the Paul Murray Kendall chair in biography and professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, will speak on her book “Mr. and Mrs. Prince,” the story of Abijah Prince, who was enslaved in Northfield, and Lucy Terry, who was held in Deerfield until their marriage.

Born in Connecticut in the early 1700s, Abijah Prince was taken to Northfield when he was about 12 years old by the Rev. Benjamin Doolittle, Northfield’s first minister. He remained enslaved there until he was in his 50s. Then, through his own efforts, he became free and completely changed his life. He has gone down in the record books as a self-made man, property owner and the husband of Lucy Terry Prince of Deerfield, who is regarded as the first published Black poet.

Holbrook Gerzina’s talk is funded in part by a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Additional support for Northfield’s 350th anniversary events comes from: the town of Northfield, Greenfield Savings Bank, Sen. Jo Comerford’s office, the Greenfield Recorder, Northfield Mount Hermon School, Thomas Aquinas College, Northeast Paving/Cold River Materials, FirstLight Hydro Generating Co., family donors, WHAI-FM, Greenfield Cooperative Bank, Cohn & Company and the New England Grassroots Fund.

For more information about this year’s events, visit northfield350.org.

Falltown String Band performing at brewery

BERNARDSTON — The Falltown String Band will perform at The Brewery at Four Star Farms on Saturday, April 29, from 2:30 to 5 p.m.

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