Music, crafts, activities at Nemasket Group’s festival
Dec 7, 2019
The Unlikely Strummers perform “Frosty the Snowman.” Photos by: Kenneth Borges.
Lorie Vieira, 10 and her father Carlos build a pencil box.
Lorie Vieira shows off her finished work.
Some of the ornaments made by Kirsten Thuestad.
Kirsten Thuestad showcased her work at the festival.
Ross Hooley helps a child work on a pencil box.
MATTAPOISETT — The Nemasket Group held their first “Winter Festival” on Saturday, Dec. 7, complete with music, artisans, and children’s activities.
The event took place between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. and featured musical performances from Unlikely Strummers, and Reversed Perception, a petting zoo, food from Fieldstone Market, a pencil box-making activity, and crafts made by local artisan Kirsten Thuestad.
Thuestad said she is originally from Mattapoisett, and now lives in Fall River. At the festival, she showcased a variety of crafts, ranging from Christmas ornaments to macrame, which she referred to as “the art of tying knots.”
Thuestad said that she also grows house plants as part of her “Grow Away Girl” business, but that the Winter Festival was a bit too cold to bring them outside.
Nemasket Group Project Director Ross Hooley supervised the pencil box-making activity for kids.
He said the hands-on activity was “a good way to get kids involved and engaged.”
Children used kits from home depot to nail and glue together their own rocket ship-themed pencil boxes, providing them with useful skills, as well as something to store their writing utensils in.
Human Resources Director Jessica Reilly said that the Nemasket Group will likely hold the Winter festival on an annual basis in the future and that “as a nonprofit organization, we wanted to create a community event that was also a fundraiser.”
The Nemasket Group’s vision is to provide support for families and individuals with disabilities, and help them develop relationships within their communities.
