Let’s enjoy the beauty of nature and get together for an easy fall hike at Noon Hill Reservation in Medfield, MA on Sunday, October 17th starting at 3:00 pm. We’ll meet at the Noon Hill Road parking lot and go for an approximately two-mile hike. After that, we will head over to Nosh and Grog in Medfield and have some appetizers and drinks. Please note that parking is free but limited to 15 cars.
 
The trail map can be found here: https://thetrustees.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/NoonHill_Shattuck_MedfieldRhododendron_TrailMap_2020.pdf.
Directions to Noon Hill Reservation: https://thetrustees.org/place/noon-hill/
 
Please RSVP to Timea:at: timusch@yahoo.com

We hope you will join us on Wednesday, October 20 at 7:30 pm when we will meet up, catch up, and discuss this month’s book, The Storyteller’s Secret by Sejal Badani. BYO beverage and snacks and join us on Zoom! Registration will be required to receive the meeting link, so please check out the book club Facebook page or email one of the club co-chairs (see below).
 
Looking ahead, we will be reading The Four Winds by Kristen Hannah in November and will take our usual break in December. As always, HNN club members will find titles on reserve at the Holliston library about one month before the meeting. Look in the book club section or ask the librarian for help in finding them.


“From the bestselling author of Trail of Broken Wings comes an epic story of the unrelenting force of love, the power of healing, and the invincible desire to dream. Nothing prepares Jaya, a New York journalist, for the heartbreak of her third miscarriage and the slow unraveling of her marriage in its wake. Desperate to assuage her deep anguish, she decides to go to India to uncover answers to her family's past. Intoxicated by the sights, smells, and sounds she experiences, Jaya becomes an eager student of the culture. But it is Ravi--her grandmother's former servant and trusted confidant--who reveals the resilience, struggles, secret love, and tragic fall of Jaya's pioneering grandmother during the British occupation. Through her courageous grandmother's arrestingly romantic and heart-wrenching story, Jaya discovers the legacy bequeathed to her and a strength that, until now, she never knew was possible.”  Summary by Syndetics.com 

Cindy and Sue
Book Club Co-Chairs 
Cindy Carr   carr.cynthiad@gmail.com
Sue Hatton   hncbookclub@outlook.com

We had great fun at Celebrate Holliston this year! Central Street was filled with people, and many came to our booth to find out more about HNN and gave their emails for more information. Thanks to all who volunteered to help at the booth. 

There are many newcomers to Holliston, so if you have a new neighbor - say Hi and let them know what a great organization we have!

For membership questions - please email 2ndVP.HollistonNewcomers@gmail.com

Welcome to a new membership year for HNN.
 
Hope everyone had a great summer and are ready to get back into the swing of things. We anticipate this year to still be a little unique but certainly more open than the past year has been. HNN even ventured out this summer at the Summer Concerts - it felt good to be amongst our community again.
 
And yes - I’m back for Year #3 (per Bylaws 2021) as President. Here’s a little background for those new to HNN. My husband Craig and I moved to Holliston from Natick in 1992 with our two boys Matthew & Patrick (who are now 34 & 30  - yikes!). I worked as a software engineer in a few high tech companies throughout my career. While I was working, I volunteered with Holliston Historical Society and was a Boy Scout Merit Badge counselor. When I retired from EMC in 2014, I started looking for different volunteer opportunities starting with Project Just Because in Hopkinton (still volunteering) and then joined Holliston Newcomers & Neighbors in 2016. After volunteering at events and joining a couple of committees, I became Membership VP followed by President. So as you can see, our motto of ‘You don’t have to be new to be a newcomer” is true.
 
Hope you are looking forward to our new year of fun as much as I am.
 
Debbie Colburn
President
president.hnn@gmail.com

Our first Ladies Escape is next weekend!

Want to join us?

On Sunday, Sept. 26, 2021, join the Ladies of HNN on another escape to https://lacantinawinery.com/!  We'll sip some Italian wines outside and relax together with light snacks and conversation.  Our tentative meet-up time will be 1:00 p.m., but we can adjust based on a general consensus. 

Please RSVP to hncladiesescape@gmail.com
 
Cheers!
Jennifer and Timea
Ladies Escape Co-Chairs

Please save the date for our ‘Welcome Back’, first meeting of the year on Wednesday, September 15 at 7:30pm when we will meet up, catch up, and discuss this month’s book, The Vanishing Half, by Brit Bennett. BYO beverage and snacks and join us on zoom! Registration will be required to receive the meeting link so please check out the book club Facebook page or email one of the club co-chairs (see below).
 
At our June meeting we selected titles to read for the fall and look forward to adding more titles to our reading list for 2022. Currently in our que are, The Story Tellers Secret by Sejal Badani, for October, and The Four Winds by Kristen Hannah in November. As always, HNN club members will find titles on reserve at the Holliston library about one month before the meeting Look in the book club section or ask the librarian for help in finding them.

"The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Ten years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation when their own daughters' storylines intersect? Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing."--Provided by publisher.
 
Cindy and Sue, Book Club Co-Chairs
Cindy Carr  carr.cynthiad@gmail.com
Sue Hatton  hncbookclub@outlook.com

As our membership year comes to a close and we look back on a unique year, I can certainly say how proud I am to be part of such a great organization filled with fun and caring members.  With all the uncertainty swirling around us, we still came together and fulfilled our civic, social, and community mission.
 
We successfully coordinated a donation drive for both Thanksgiving Baskets and Easter Baskets supporting Holliston Pantry Shelf patrons as well as Thanksgiving Meals for Seniors supporting the Holliston Senior Center. We stayed in touch through our Book Club and Ladies Escapes including our annual holiday party with a no-contact yankee swap, a cross-fit training session, an instructional baking night for Valentine’s Day (those brownies were decadent), and a tea tasting with instruction given from Hawaii! And the children of our membership even enjoyed a number of virtual get-togethers with a show-and-tell your favorite toy as well as a Halloween costume event. I want to thank our Executive Board and the Committee Members who made all this possible.
 
Hope to see you at our last activities of the year coming up in June. There may be some opportunities to get out into the community this summer, but look for HNN to ramp back up in the fall!
 
I hope the summer brings you lots of fun in the sun!

Debbie
President
Debbie Colburn   president.hnn@gmail.com

Our elections took place recently, and we are happy to report that all candidates were elected to their respective positions! Thank you to all members who took the time to vote!

As you know we had no candidates for the First VP and President positions. At our last meeting and in accordance with our Bylaws, the Executive Board unanimously voted to allow our current First VP and our current President to remain in their respective roles for one extra year. This means that the positions of Secretary and of Membership VP are now open. Any member interested in filling one of the two positions can contact me for further details.
 
The 2021-2022 Executive Board is as follows:
 
          President: Debbie Colburn
          First VP: Julianne Catlin
          Treasurer: Stephen Wang
          Membership VP: Open
          Secretary: Open
 
Thank you!

Katrine
Parliamentarian
Katrine Giroux   katrinegiroux@gmail.com

Please join us on Wednesday, June 16 at 7:30 pm when we meet virtually to discuss this month’s book, Anxious People by Fredrik Backman. Copies of the book are reserved at the Holliston library for HNN club members.
 
We hope to see you as we wrap up another year of reading together. Let us know if you plan to come by submitting an RSVP to the upcoming Facebook event invite, or by email to Cindy or Sue at addresses below.
 

Taken hostage by a failed bank robber while attending an open house, eight anxiety-prone strangers--including a redemption-seeking bank director, two couples who would fix their marriages, and a plucky octogenarian--discover their unexpected common traits.
 
See you on June 16!

Cindy and Sue
Book Club Co-Chairs 
Cindy Carr   carr.cynthiad@gmail.com
Sue Hatton   hncbookclub@outlook.com

Now that Spring has arrived, it seems like time is flying by - it’s May already! 
 
First, I would like to thank all those who attended our April General Meeting. We had a few ‘new’ Newcomers attending. One so new that she hasn’t even moved here yet! But the bigger news is that we discussed and voted in Bylaws 2021! This has brought us up to date with the changing membership, community and technology that has occurred over the years.
 
This is the newsletter where we usually look back on the fun we had at our Princess & Superhero Party and are in the middle of planning our Touch-A-Truck event. But even though this isn’t a ‘usual’ kind of year, things are looking up and we look forward to fundraising in the fall. In the meantime, PLEASE support the 2021 HNN Community Grant Fund by purchasing calendars from our ‘A PRIZE A DAY FOR THE MONTH OF MAY’ fundraiser - May 1 is the last day to purchase calendars.
 
As you can see - even in this not-so-usual year - there still is work to be done behind the scenes. Bylaws, Executive Board elections, general position recruitment for Fundraiser Chair and Newsletter Editor are all progressing as usual thanks to Katrine Giroux, our Parliamentarian. All part of the fun of coordinating an organization. And yes - I did say our work is fun. All thanks to the great group of member volunteers we have running our civic, social, and fundraising events.
 
Hope to see you at future events!

Debbie
President
Debbie Colburn   president.hnn@gmail.com