Seacoast exhibits, visiting ships and lambs: Community news update

Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum creates a new display of documents and artifacts

PORTSMOUTH — The Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum has created a new display of documents and artifacts that expands the story of the treaty exhibit first created for the 100th anniversary in 2005. The exhibition runs through Oct. 9, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, at the Portsmouth Historical Society’s John Paul Jones House Museum at 43 Middle St.

This “Diplomats in Portsmouth, 1713-1905” exhibition uses rare historical objects to trace the record of diplomats with Portsmouth connections and connect the story of the 1713 Wabanaki and English Treaty of Portsmouth and the diplomats in or from Portsmouth who shaped America’s relationship with Japan through the 1905 Portsmouth Peace Treaty and beyond.

Information: PortsmouthPeaceTreaty.org

Community Partners awarded grant for mental health education in Strafford County

DOVER — Community Partners, Strafford County’s community mental health center, ServiceLink, family support center and developmental services provider was awarded a five-year Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) grant to offer free mental health trainings throughout Strafford County. This federal grant provides funding for the delivery of mental health first aid, an evidence-based curriculum designed to teach anyone how to recognize and respond to someone in emotional distress.

The grant funding began on Oct. 1, 2022, with $125,000 allocated each year for instructor training, class seats and supply fees, with the goal to train almost 2,000 people in Strafford County by the grants’ sunset date in September 2027. To date, almost 140 people have been trained including city leaders, police officers, teachers, first responders, and business people and nonprofit representatives. An additional 280 people are set to be trained by September 2023.

For information or to set up a class, email MHFA@communitypartnersnh.org.

Portsmouth Fire Department Historical Exhibit Open House

PORTSMOUTH — In honor of the city's 400th anniversary, the Federal Fire Society and the Mechanic Fire Society, both of Portsmouth, commissioned special traditional leather fire buckets for the Portsmouth Fire Department and presented them to Fire Chief William McQuillen in a ceremony on May 5. The three partners are also hosting open house events to showcase the city’s fire department history through artifacts, early fire engines, photographs and informal talks at the Central Fire Station, 170 Court St., in Portsmouth. The next open house takes place the same day as the city's 400th anniversary parade, Saturday, June 3, 1-5 p.m.

Sturgeon Creek Farm bringing lambs again to Griffin’s Half Acre Farm

PORTSMOUTH — Mama Ophelia and her triplets, Omlet, Oscar and Oatmeal arrived on Tuesday, May 23 to spend the summer at Griffin’s Half Acre Farm on the corner of South Street and Richards Avenue in Portsmouth, with the Griffin’s geese enjoying the lovely grass and meeting the curious neighbors.  They are katahdin sheep and have hair instead of fleece which means they do not have to be sheared.  Instead, they shed their winter coats on their own by rubbing against trees and fences.

It has become an annual event to bring lambs to Half Acre Farm because the neighbors and the community enjoy seeing them. Sturgeon Creek Farm is in Eliot, Maine.

Historic Peace Ship to visit Portsmouth June 21-24

PORTSMOUTH — The Golden Rule, a 34-foot sailboat which protested nuclear weapons testing in the 1950s and has been restored by Veterans For Peace, will pay a four day visit to Portsmouth June 21-24.  Its new mission is the same as the old one: spreading the alarm about the risk to humanity posed by the existence and potential detonation of nuclear weapons.

Mayor Deaglan McEachern, will give the Golden Rule an official welcome at 11 a.m. on Thursday, June 22 in the Prescott Park “free speech area,” at the end of the parking lot near the Memorial Bridge.

At each stop, volunteer shipmates and local hosts conduct educational programs promoting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which has been adopted by the United Nations but not yet by any of the nuclear powers.  Yarne said the city of Portsmouth has already joined that cause by adopting a resolution calling for specific steps to reduce the threat of nuclear war and support the treaty calling for their worldwide elimination.

The Golden Rule is expected to arrive in New England in late May, visit Boston from June 17 to 20, and reach Portsmouth on June 21. In Portsmouth, it will dock at Prescott Park, where it will receive visitors.

In addition to Seacoast Peace Response, local hosts include NH Peace Action, NH Veterans For Peace, Community Church of Durham, Dover Friends Meeting, and the Seacoast Anti-Pollution League.

For information go to: NHPeaceAction.org/goldenrule or Facebook.com/seacoastpeace or vfpGoldenRuleProject.org.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Seacoast exhibits, visiting ships and lambs: Community news update