Loring Greenough House Offering Safe Activities for All

JP’s historic Loring Greenough House has plenty of outdoor, socially distanced events planned for the rest of the summer and into the fall. While most of the events themselves are not history-related, they take place outside of the lawn of the historic house.

The Gazette spoke with Lorie Komlyn, who serves on the Loring Greenough House Board of Directors as the Vice President, to learn more about these events.

Last year, the Loring Greenough House had to adapt many of its offerings because of the pandemic, including offering virtual house tours instead of in-person ones.

Komlyn said that they had to start thinking about programming for this summer last winter “when it was unclear how the summer would shape up,” so most of the planned activities are outside on the lawn and provide “ways the community could gather outside.”

She said there are three different series of events: the first are events centered around gardening, the second is a movie series, and the third is an exercise series.

The gardening series includes monthly events, two of which are upcoming. The first is “The Mother [Nature] of All Trivia” event where attendees can bring their own dinners to enjoy on the lawn while participating in the trivia game.

The questions “will all be related in some way to plants,” Komlyn said.

The event will take place on Tuesday, July 27, from 7-9pm. Tickets are free for Loring Greenough House members, and $5 for non-members.

The second event is a “family-friendly gardening event” that will include activities on the lawn, a scavenger hunt, and a craft station where people can make things like tissue paper flowers.

This event will take place on Sunday, August 22 from 11am-1pm, and is free for all.

Two movies have already been successfully shown as part of the Friday Nights at the Movies series on the lawn, including Made-Up and Miss Juneteenth. Upcoming movies include Some Like It Hot, which is currently sold-out ,but there is opportunity for walk-ins and to purchase unclaimed tickets at the event. The movie will be shown at 8pm on Friday, July 30.

 Other upcoming movies include Hairspray on August 27 at 8pm and Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon on September 17 at 7pm.

For the exercise series, there are several different kinds of programs offered this summer, including Tai Chi/Qigong, Yoga, and POUND, which uses weighted drumsticks called Ripstix to do a variety of different movements.  The schedule for these classes can be found at loring-greenough.org/house-events. 

Komlyn said the exercise series was a great success last summer, so it was brought back and extended for this summer.

 “I will say that in September, we will be hosting open studios and we are also hoping to be holding our culminating garden event,” Komlyn said, which is called “The Harvest,” and will be a pop-up festival that will feature area organizations and merchants who sell plant-related products. There will also be plant-related activities.

 “We’re hoping for good weather for all remaining events outside,” she said.

Additionally, Komlyn said that in the fall, the Loring Greenough House is hoping to host indoor activities again, including a “return to providing the community with lectures and concerts and other fun things to do.”

Right now, the in-person house tours are paused, but there are several virtual tours that are available for viewing on the Loring Greenough House website. The videos highlight different historical portions of the building.

 “We really love continuing to be a resource for the community to gather,” Komlyn said, “and we hope that people will come and enjoy all of these events.” She added that she hopes people will feel that these events are safe to attend.

 Komlyn said that “we are such a diverse and welcoming community” in JP, and she said she “would love to be the place where people can come together for that.”

For more information about the Loring Greenough House and full details for all upcoming events, visit loringgreenough.org. 

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