New Year, New Friends

We’re excited for our beloved children’s playgroups to start up in January. There will be two playgroups - one that will occur on a weekday and one that will occur on a weekend.

The weekday playgroup will be on Wednesday, January 24th. Please RSVP to Michelle to receive the location.

The weekend playgroup will be on Saturday, January 27th. Please RSVP to Jackie to receive the location.

Dear Members,

HNN had a fabulous year of social events, civic activities and fundraisers thanks to its amazing members and dedicated Board & Committee Leaders! But before I reveal all of our successes, I want to give a BIG shout-out to Cheap Laughs Inc., Paul Gillespie and his hilarious comics who helped host and donated to HNN's first-ever Comedy Night at Anthony's on the Green. We had a blast, so please check-out Cheap Laughs Inc. on Facebook, sign-up for their newsletter and go to their next show on Dec. 6th at Prezo in Milford. And of course, visit our Club and Event Sponsor businesses listed on this newsletter!

Now take a look at the fun and success we had this year:

• 6 Social Events, including dinner gatherings at local restaurants, poker night and a Kentucky Derby Party.

• Recurring monthly activities, including Book Club and a restart of our playgroups in 2024.

• 4 Civic Activities that included delivering Thanksgiving meals to Holliston Senior and raising $7K for the Holliston Pantry Shelf and other organizations that serve local families & children in need!

• 4 super fun fundraisers that resulted in $8K of Community Grant Funds for us to share with Holliston organizations, services & departments!

Our organization is small, but mighty. Our Community Grant Fund supports the Holliston Summer Concert Series organized by the town's Parks & Rec. Dept., purchases MA museum passes for the town library to give its patrons, has purchased equipment for the police & fire departments, and funded the flowers planted throughout town by the Marigold Project. So, join us for some more laughs, fun and community spirit in 2024. Don't miss out!

Best,

Jennifer Mott

President

Happy Holidays from Book Club! We take the month of December off but hope you will join us in the new year. We meet the third Wednesday of each month. Our books for the coming year are listed below.

The Holliston Public Library reserves several copies of each book for us—they can be found (typically about a month ahead of each meeting) on the shelves along the windows on the right as you enter the library.

Please contact Debbie at cd.mp@verizon.net if you are interested in hosting any of our future meetings.

January 17—The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab

February 21—One Book One Holliston choice (we will be reading the book chosen as the town-wide read; there will likely be other non-HNN events related to the book held at the library)

March 20—Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

April 17—How to Be a Good Creature by Sy Montgomery

May 15—Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

June 19—Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog by Lisa Scottoline

Robin & Debbie

Book Club Co-Chairs

Dear Members,

November is upon us and the season for cozy nights in or festive nights out is upon us. We say goodbye to the October sunshine, bright colored leaves and close-out another great month of HNN activities. Thank you for the good times at the Adults-only Halloween Party at Casey's, thank you to all those who volunteered and brought your kids to the Pumpkin Rail Trial Fundraiser and thanks to the elderly residents of Mission Springs, who let our member kids do a "warm-up" or "trial-run" of trick or treating before Halloween.

But HNN is not ready to hibernate, we have more to do as the holiday season approaches! Need I say our COMEDY NIGHT Fundraiser on Nov. 3rd at Anthony's on the Green, hosted by Holliston's own Paul Gillespie is SOLD OUT! Thanks to all that bought tickets as we laugh the night away and support our Holliston Community Grant Fund at the same time!  Next up is our annual Thanksgiving Basket Drive. Your donation to the Thanksgiving Basket Drive helps to provide grocery gift cards to patrons of the Holliston Pantry Shelf. And finally, our Thanksgiving Meals for Seniors. If you're available to volunteer to help assemble and distribute meals, before the Thanksgiving holiday, look for Amy Forman’s signup genius coming out soon. We'd love to continue this important civic activity with our members' support! Lastly, see you at COMEDY NIGHT!

Best, 

Jennifer Mott

President

Holiday Gift Exchange Party with a twist - Friday, December 1st, 2023 at 7 pm

This year we decided to combine two fun events (Holiday Ornament Making from Quilt and Holiday Gift Exchange) to make this holiday season even more festive! The event will take place at a picturesque barn of a beautiful Quilt Studio (Studio on the Hill) in Holliston. The cost for the Holiday Ornament Making is $10 per person, CASH only and payable directly to the instructor at the event. After the ornament making, we will do our ever so popular Yankee Swap. This event is so much fun and laughter, you don’t want to miss it! So mark your calendar, shop at a local boutique for the perfect gift (value of $25) and bring a dessert or drink to share. And don’t forget to RSVP to Timea by 11/28!

DATE & TIME: Friday, December 1st, 2023 starting at 7pm

LOCATION: Studio on the Hill, 1038 Washington Street, Holliston MA

Parking is limited, so please plan on carpooling.

COST FOR THE ORNAMENT MAKING: $10 (cash only, payable at the event)

We are looking forward to seeing you at this terrific event!

Cheers,

Timea & Christel

Social Event Coordinators

We hope you will join us for our November Book Club, when we meet on Wednesday, November 15, at 7:30 p.m., to discuss Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng. Please don't feel that you shouldn't attend if you haven't finished (or even started) the book—Book Club is mainly an opportunity for old and new friends to get together and chat and snack. All are welcome—we would love to have some new members join our group.

We hold most meetings in person but also have a Zoom option if you can't attend. Please contact Debbie if you have any interest in hosting a meeting. We typically meet on the third Wednesday of the month (but we're taking the month of December off).

The Holliston Public Library reserves several copies of each book for us—they can be found (typically about a month ahead of each meeting) on the shelves along the windows on the right as you enter the library.

"From the author of Little Fires Everywhere, a deeply suspenseful and heartrending novel about the unbreakable love between a mother and child in a society consumed by fear. Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving but broken father, a former linguist who now shelves books in Harvard University's library. Bird knows to not ask too many questions, stand out too much, or stray too far. The authorities are now allowed to relocate children of dissidents, especially those of Asian origin, and libraries have been forced to remove books seen as unpatriotic. When Bird receives a mysterious letter containing only a cryptic drawing, he is drawn into a quest to find his mother, Margaret, a Chinese American poet who left the family when he was nine years old. His journey will take him back to the many folktales she poured into his head as a child, through the ranks of an underground network of librarians, into the lives of the children who have been taken, and finally to New York City. Our Missing Hearts is an old story made new, of the ways supposedly civilized communities can ignore the most searing injustice. It's a story about the power--and limitations--of art to create change, the lessons and legacies we pass on to our children, and how any of us can survive a broken world with our hearts intact"-- Provided by the publisher

Robin & Debbie

Book Club Co-Chairs

RSVP to Debbie

Dear Members,

I'm looking forward to the festive Fall activities that HNN has planned for couples and families! First, we are planning another adults-only Halloween Party on Friday, October 13th! Why should the kids have all the fun this Halloween? Of course, we will have our annual Halloween Rail Trail event again this year, for the kids. This family friendly spooky activity has been a favorite every year. It's just as fun for the volunteers as it is for the participants! Lastly, buy your tickets for our first-ever Comedy Night at Anthony's on the Green in Holliston on Nov. 3rd! This fundraising event is also for the Holliston community to get together and laugh, so grab your friends and make it a night-out! A community that laughs together supports each other and helps make Holliston an even better place to live!  

Best, 

Jennifer Mott

President

Leave your munchkins at home and join us on Friday, October 13th at 7:30pm for our traditional adults-only Halloween party at Casey’s Pub, 81 Railroad St. Holliston. Grab a costume if you’re feeling in the Halloween spirit, and come on down with your significant other, a friend or just yourself for drinks, appetizers and fun! 

Meet you there if you dare…

Please RSVP so we can get a rough estimate on food.

Happy Fall! We hope you will join us for our October Book Club, when we meet on Wednesday, October 18, at 7:30 p.m., to discuss The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill. Please don't feel that you shouldn't attend if you haven't finished (or even started) the book—Book Club is mainly an opportunity for old and new friends to get together and chat and snack. All are welcome—we would love to have some new members join our group.

We are looking for a host house for this meeting. We hold most meetings in person but also have a Zoom option if you can't attend. Please contact Debbie if you are interested in hosting our October or future meetings. We typically meet on the third Wednesday of the month (but take the month of December off).

The Holliston Public Library reserves several copies of each book for us—they can be found (typically about a month ahead of each meeting) on the shelves along the windows on the right as you enter the library. For those who want to get a head start on next month, our November book will be Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng.

Robin & Debbie

Book Club Co-Chairs