Join us on October 20, 2024, for an engaging discussion with Sue Baur, a historian of oceanography and a self-taught naturalist. Through her passion for ponds and turtles, Sue founded OLAUG in 2017, an organization consisting of women aged 64 to 84 who actively remove cans, bottles, tires, and even toilets from ponds on Cape Cod and beyond.. All are welcome.

A retired psychologist, Sue Baur has authored several books on deep-sea exploration and psychology, as well as the Turtle Sisters series. Recently, she was honored as the 2024 Climate Resilience Hero by the American Red Cross (Massachusetts chapter). Sue has spent 18 years swimming with turtles, which she credits with teaching her valuable lessons about happiness. 

Join us on October 13, 2024, for a captivating discussion with

Kai Potter about his new book,

“Noticing”. Kai will guide us on a unique journey through the woods, heaths, and dunes he knows intimately. The event will include a reading followed by an engaging discussion. All are welcome.

Kai Potter is an artist, writer, surfer, and landscape designer born and raised on the outer edge of Cape Cod. He grew up amongst the scrub pines, sand dunes, wild oceans, and colorful characters that shape the landscape there. He is often found wading through roadside meadows or lying flat, cheek pressed to the ground, in pursuit of a closer look. 

Join us on September 29 for Words of the Bard with Bill Salem, a Cape Cod actor. Bill is delighted to perform a program of selections from plays by William Shakespeare. The selections have a unifying theme: the character will be dealing with his all too human need to control the situation.  For Bill, no playwright has sounded the depth of the human condition as astutely as Shakespeare. How much we can learn about ourselves by experiencing something written over 400 years ago! All are welcome.

Bill Salem has enjoyed a long run as an actor in all the cities in which he has lived.  His Boston credits include The Huntington Theatre Company, American Repertory Theatre, Zeitgeist Stage, and many Shakespeare roles with Boston’s Public Theater.  He has also appeared in local Cape Cod productions. 

While many people have thought about what they want or don’t want at the end-of-life, only about 30% have put their treatment wishes down on paper in an advance directive.  More importantly, they have not had conversations with their loved ones or friends about their goals for end-of-life care.  Althea will offer tips on choosing an effective healthcare surrogate who will honor treatment wishes. She will review end-of-life choices, including palliative sedation, hospice, medical aid-in-dying. There will be a discussion of patients’ legal and medical rights, including recent “wrongful prolongation of life” cases against medical personnel who fail to follow an advance directive or legal surrogate. All are welcome.

Althea Halchuck, EJD, CT, BCPA, founder of Ending Well! Patient Advocacy, LLC, is a Board-Certified Patient Advocate, professional medical power-of-attorney, and end-of-life Doula.  She has extensive expertise and service to patients and families with over 20 years of experience advocating for the vulnerable and dying.  She has focused much of her life and career on assisting those facing the end of life’s journey through death education, planning, legacy projects, and counseling.

Join us on September 15 for a presentation about the Zion Union Heritage Museum, a museum of art and a museum of history celebrating the contributions of African-Americans, Cape Verdeans and Native Americans on Cape Cod.

Deb Ullman is from Eastham and a member of NFUU. For 3 years she has been a volunteer at the museum which is open for tourist buses and by appointment.

We gather at our September Water Ceremony, taking place outdoors on Chapel grounds, weather permitting.

For this year’s ceremony, please bring your small amount of water to symbolize a body of water that is important to you, either from home or somewhere else.

As you pour your water into the shared vessel, you will be invited to place an empty cup (distributed) next to the vessel, mindful of all peoples who experience the absence of clean, potable water due to armed conflicts on Earth.

Cape Cod has always been in the path of deadly hurricanes and ferocious storms. Unwelcome summer visitors include the “Long Island Express” Hurricane of 1938, the Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944, the twin Hurricanes Carol and Edna in 1954 and Hurricane Bob in 1991. These storms destroyed countless homes and left coastal communities under several feet of water. Surging tides carried away houses with residents inside who didn’t survive, and high seas sank the Coast Guard lightship Vineyard in Buzzards Bay, killing all twelve crew members. Fall and winter brought the benchmark Blizzard of 1978, the nor’easter of January 1987 and the infamous “Perfect Storm” of October 1991, which delivered some of the highest tides ever seen on the Outer Cape. In his latest book, “Historic Storms of Cape Cod”, local author Don Wilding revisits the Cape’s most severe weather events and their devastating impact.

Don Wilding has worked as a Cape tour guide and is a regular speaker on Cape Cod lore in Massachusetts and across New England. He was an award-winning newspaper editor, writer, and designer in Massachusetts for 36 years, including a recent stint as a contributing history columnist and photographer for Cape newspapers. Don has also led history walks for the Harwich Conservation Trust since 2018 and was recognized as one of their “Conservationists of the Year” in 2023. Don has also been an instructor of Cape Cod history courses for the Open University of Wellfleet and Nauset Community Education. 

Join us for a musical performance by Ken Silvia. Ken is a velvet-voiced singer and songsmith with a versatile repertoire ranging from The Beatles to Gershwin, along with original compositions. Ken’s music is often centered around words of loves lost, won or rediscovered, and his voice will touch your heart and soul. All are welcome.

A longtime Cape Cod resident, Ken Silvia has enjoyed a musical career as a solo artist and a studio session vocalist with R&B, soul and jazz combos throughout the East Coast. He continues to perform and record both his own compositions and covers.

Join us as Marca Daley discusses Eastham’s Life-Saving Services on the oceanside: from the earliest Half-Way Houses of the Massachusetts Humane Society, to the first Three Sisters lighthouses, the creation of the US Life-Saving Service, the arrival of the French Cable Station, and the transitions to the new Nauset Light and Coast Guard Station. All are welcome.

Marca Daley was born & raised in Eastham. After university, she traveled abroad and settled in Greece where she worked at the American Community Schools of Athens for the next 40 years. In 2013 she returned to Eastham, and today is Archivist and Museum Curator for the Eastham Historical Society.