Daily Five: A Cancer Center, Sheep Shearing and a Choir Festival

This Daily Five was written by former Groton Patch Editor Deborah Straszheim.

1.  Today is Thursday, April 18. The National Weather Service predicts a high temperature of 52 degrees and increasing clouds. The low will drop to 48 tonight, with areas of fog and a 20 percent chance of showers.    

2.  Groton’s Charter Oak Federal Credit Union will donate $50,000 to the Lawrence + Memorial Hospital campaign to build a cancer center in Waterford, a credit union news release said. The 50,000-square-foot cancer center is being built in partnership with Dana Farber Cancer Institute of Boston, Mass. and Yale-New Haven Hospital.  The center will include a pharmacy, lab, blood bank, café, specialists' offices and a health resource center. Charter Oak will provide the money to the project over five years.   

3.  Groton Family Farm has two events planned this weekend. It will shear its Shetland sheep starting at 10 a.m. Saturday in the big barn, and you can bring the kids to watch. The work will take several hours as the farm has 18 sheep. The farm will also have coffee, hot chocolate, cookies and doughnuts. In addition, Yarn spinners will show how they spin the wool into yarn.
  On Sunday, the day before Earth Day, several volunteers will go the farm to get the ground ready for spring planting. Courtney Kolakowski, a master gardener, will answer questions and volunteers will clear brush, prepare soil, set up beds and plant seedlings.  

4.  The Mystic Area Ecumenical Council will hold its 2013 Choir Festival Concert at 4 p.m. on April 28 at Noank Baptist Church. The choir will include singers from ten area churches and a community children’s chorus. Composer and conductor Greg Gilpin, whose projects have included commercial jingles and work for Broadway and Disney, will serve as festival director. 
An offering will be taken at the festival. For more information call (860) 536-7171. Gilpin will also lead a free workshop for choir directors and singers at 8 p.m. on April 26 at the church, offering tips to improve choral rehearsals.  

5. Another "Drug Take-Back Day" is scheduled from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on April 27 at the Groton Senior Center. If you have old prescriptions or over-the-counter medications in your house, you can drop them off. The program is part of a larger effort to keep prescription drugs out of the hands of teenagers and protect the environment by giving people a place to bring unused drugs instead of flushing them down the toilet or throwing them in the trash.