Maynard, MA - There are many ways to celebrate the Chinese lunar new year, which takes place on the first new moon in early February, even if your heritage isn’t Chinese.  This year, seniors from both Maynard and Stow met together for the first time to celebrate by playing Mah Jongg.

The game is akin to Gin Rummy, where players attempt to create certain combinations of tiles, each in their personal racks.  When it's a player's turn, they can select at tile from the supply of tiles face down, or take the last tile discarded by a previous player.  There are up to 144 tiles in a full set, although some variations of the game omit a few of them.  When a player anywhere in the room completes the desired combinations of tiles, they say "Mah Jongg" out loud for the rest of the room to hear.

Council on Aging Director Amy Loveless told me that she hopes to host another meeting of the two groups in Maynard in the future.  For details, she can be contacted via the Town of Maynard's web page for the Council on Aging:
https://www.townofmaynard-ma.gov/164/Council-on-Aging

•    Online registration deadline: 10 days before Election Day
•    Register by mail deadline: Must be postmarked 10 days before Election Day
•    In person registration deadline: 10 days before Election Day
See the  Commonwealth’s web site for more information on registration:
https://www.sec.state.ma.us/ovr/?ref=voteusa_en

Elections:   See the Town of Maynard's web site for more information on elections:
https://www.townofmaynard-ma.gov/170/Elections

15 February - (This Thursday) Democratic Town Committee (see "Town Committee Details," below)
20 February  - (Next Tuesday) Republican Town Committee (see "Town Committee Details," below)
5 March - Presidential Primary Election (for the political party of your choice):
• Preference for President of the United States
• State Committee Man & Woman
• Town Committee members
16 March - Maynard Democratic Town Committee Caucus, to elect State Convention Delegates (see "Town Committee Details," below)  (Note: The committee now changed the date; it was 9 March.)

15 July - Republican National Convention, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
19 August - Democratic National Convention, Chicago, Illinois
3 September - State Primary (for Governor, Legislators, Senators, Governor’s Council, etc.)
5 November - Presidential Election (President if the United States, US Senator, Congressional Representative, State Representative, State Senator, along with other state and federal offices)

MAYNARD, MA TO ELECT DELEGATES TO DEMOCRATIC STATE CONVENTION

Note:  As some state offices do not have a Republican running, the election for that office is often decided at the state primary on September 3rd.  By the election in November, there is only one candidate, except for write-ins.

• post more news stories
• update the Community List and begin expanding it to include more information.
• post a "year end report" to summarize what I've done and acknowledge donations from you, my readers, since starting this site, back in April of 2023.
• do more fundraising for the Field Guide to Maynard, in order to complete the project and provide printed Field Guide maps to everyone in town who wants one.
• establish an e-mail list (as some readers have requested) to be notified when I post a story, rather than having to check Facebook.

The Community List has taken a serious effort, but I'm dedicated to maintain it accurately and keep it updated.  To expand it, I need to determine what other information the members of each group want to include about their group and possibly about themselves as leaders or other office holders.  I have already gathered addresses, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, and so forth for some organizations, but I want to make sure I don't publish anything without permission. In today's world we all must be very careful with access information as it can sometimes be used as an avenue for unwanted communication (such as junk e-mail messages or phone calls or worse).
If you you are responsible for a group, I would really appreciate your help in this process.  If possible, would you please take a few moments to review the list and let me know whether what I've published is accurate, and what additional information you'd like me to include in the list connected with your group. Please go to the Contact Us page on this web site to send me the information. Thank you.