Agenda

White Lion Harvest Nights

Through Oct. 30: White Lion Brewing’s summer beer garden officially ended on Aug. 31. During the summer months, the downtown beer garden, which occupies a private park in downtown Springfield, offered an eclectic lineup of events and community collaborations, hosting local musicians, food trucks, restaurants, special events, and nonprofit and private companies. Because of continuing demand for such events, White Lion will present Harvest Nights at 1477 Main St. each Wednesday and Friday from 5 to 10 p.m. through Oct. 30. Events will include White Lion Wednesdays, street food Fridays, local musicians and DJs, special evening hookah nights, and a Hop Headz home-brewer collaboration. Follow White Lion Brewing on all social-media platforms for ongoing updates.

Author Talk with Lesléa Newman

Sept. 19: Jewish Family Services will host a presentation by author Lesléa Newman on Thursday, Sept. 19 from 2 to 4 p.m. Newman will talk about her journey to become a children’s book writer and present and discuss some of her Jewish children’s books, including Gittel’s Journey: An Ellis Island Story. She will also show a short film titled We Are a Country of Immigrants in which she interviews Phyllis Rubin, her godmother and daughter of the real Gittel. The program is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served, and books by the author will be available for purchase. Jewish Family Services’ Community Room is located at 1160 Dickinson St., Springfield (the parking lot is on the Converse Street side).

AAFPAA Awards

Sept. 26: The African American Female Professors Award Assoc. (AAFPAA) will host its third annual awards ceremony at 5:30 p.m. at Bay Path University, 588 Longmeadow St., Longmeadow. The association will salute three professors, as well as present an Alumnae Award and Legacy Award. The keynote speaker is Yves Salomon-Fernandez, president of Greenfield Community College and a staunch advocate for reinventing higher education in the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. She has been recognized as a thought leader, writing and speaking on issues related to rural innovation, workforce development, and women’s leadership. With her passion for access and equity, she was named one of the “Top 25 Women in Higher Education” by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education in March 2018. Tickets are $20 per person, with half the proceeds going toward the AAFPAA Scholarship Fund.

Source to Sea Cleanup

Sept. 27-28: Registration is now open for the Connecticut River Conservancy’s (CRC) Source to Sea Cleanup. This annual event, now in its 23rd year, has grown into one of the largest river cleanups in the country. There are three ways for volunteers to get involved in the Source to Sea Cleanup this year: report a trash site in need of cleaning, find a nearby cleanup group to join, or organize and register a local cleanup group. For more information or to register, visit www.ctriver.org/cleanup. If your group wants to get involved but needs a cleanup site, if you have questions, or if you know of a trash site in need of cleaning, e-mail Lennard at [email protected]. Learn more about the event at www.ctriver.org/cleanup.

Run for the Bar

Sept. 29: The Hampden County Bar Assoc. will hold its sixth annual 5K Run/Walk Race Judicata – A Run for the Bar at Ashley Reservoir in Holyoke. Registration begins at 9 a.m., followed by the start of the event at 11 a.m. Proceeds raised from this year’s event will benefit the Children’s Law Project and the Colonel Archer B. Battista Veterans Scholarship fund. For more information, call the Hampden County Bar Assoc. at (413) 732-4660.

Aeron Chair Hockey Tournament

Oct. 2: In celebration of its 30th anniversary, Lexington Group will host an Aeron chair hockey tournament from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at its showroom located at 380 Union St., West Springfield. For this first-of-its-kind event in New England, Lexington Group has invited players, and their administrative staff, from elite area hockey teams — American International College and UMass Amherst — to battle it out in a friendly competition on the ‘ice.’ The winning team from the first round will play against members of the Springfield Thunderbirds. The tournament will be incorporated into an After 5 networking event, with about 300 business and community professionals expected to attend. The event will help raise funds and awareness for the Foundation for TJO Animals. Admission to the event is complimentary, but registration is required and can be made at lexington-aeronhockey.eventbrite.com. Donations to the Foundation for TJO Animals are appreciated and can be made in advance directly through the foundation’s website, www.tjofoundation.org, or may be made at the event. Sponsors include MP CPAs, St. Germain Investments, Sitterly Movers, and Sheraton Springfield Monarch Place Hotel (cup sponsors); bankESB, Behavioral Health Network, Complete Payroll Solutions, Dietz & Co. Architects, Fire Service Group, HUB International New England, Massachusetts Fire Technologies, Mercier Carpet, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, and New England Promotional Marketing (chair sponsors); AIS, Baystate Ob/Gyn, Contract Sources, Excel Dryer, KI, Lexington Group, Paragus IT, People’s United Bank, the Republican, and Westfield Bank (rink sponsors); Go Graphix and Herman Miller (goods sponsors); BusinessWest, ERC5, and West of the River Chamber of Commerce (event partners).

Jazz Brunch

Oct. 6: Tickets are now on sale for the 2019 Northampton Jazz Festival Brunch, a fundraiser to benefit the Jazz Artists in the Schools Program at John F. Kennedy Middle School, which exposes Northampton’s student musicians to the valuable mentorship of professional jazz artists. The DeChamplain Quartet, based out of Hartford, Conn., will perform their gypsy-style music from noon to 2 p.m. with Atla DeChamplain on vocals, Matt DeChamplain on piano, Chris Morrison on guitar, and Matt Dwonszyk on bass. Thanks to donations from the Davis Financial Group of Hadley, the program has been able to offer unique workshops with professional jazz artists to the jazz-band students at JFK and Northampton High School. The jazz brunch will be held at the Delaney House, 3 Country Club Road in Holyoke, starting at 11 a.m. Tickets to the brunch cost $40, and $10 from each purchase will benefit the Davis Financial Group Jazz Artists in the Schools Program at JFK Middle School for the 2019-20 school year. The brunch will wrap up the 2019 Northampton Jazz Festival, set for Friday, Oct. 4 through Sunday, Oct. 6. The event features three days of live music at various venues in downtown Northampton, including the main-stage act, the Kurt Elling Quintet, which will perform on Oct. 5 at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy of Music. For more information, to purchase tickets, or to donate to the Jazz Artists in the Schools Program, visit northamptonjazzfest.org.

Healthcare Heroes Gala

Oct. 17: The third annual class of Healthcare Heroes will be honored at the Sheraton Springfield from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Healthcare Heroes, a recognition program involving the Western Mass. healthcare sector, was launched in 2017 by HCN and BusinessWest. The program was created to shed a bright light on the outstanding work being done across the broad spectrum of health and wellness services, and the institutions and people providing that care. The class of 2019 was profiled in the Sept. 2 issue of BusinessWest and on businesswest.com. Tickets cost $90 or $900 for a table of 10. To reserve a spot, visit www.businesswest.com/healthcare-heroes-2 or e-mail [email protected]. Healthcare Heroes is sponsored by American International College and Baystate Health/Health New England (presenting sponsors), Behavioral Health Network, Comcast Business, and Development Associates (partner sponsors), and Bulkley Richardson, Design to Finish, Elms College, and Keiter Builders (supporting sponsors).

Women of Impact Luncheon

Dec. 4: The keynote speaker for the 2019 Women of Impact luncheon will be Lisa Tanzer, president of Life Is Good. Tanzer has more than 25 years of consumer brand experience. Prior to becoming president, she served as the company’s head of Marketing after spending more than 20 years on the board of directors of the Life is Good Kids Foundation. She’s held executive positions in the entertainment, e-commerce, and education sectors. Earlier in her career, she held marketing and strategy roles at Hasbro, Staples, Gillette, and PricewaterhouseCoopers. The 2019 Women of Impact honorees will be announced in the Oct. 14 issue of BusinessWest and feted at a celebration on Dec. 4 from 11 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. at Sheraton Springfield. Tickets cost $65 per person, or $650 for a table of 10. To purchase tickets, visit www.businesswest.com/women-of-impact or e-mail [email protected]. The Women of Impact program is sponsored by Country Bank and TommyCar Auto Group (presenting sponsors), Comcast Business (supporting sponsor), New Valley Bank & Trust (speaker sponsor), and WWLP 22 News/CW Springfield (media sponsor).