Students of Richmond’s Marcia Buker Elementary School act out working at a mill in an “Our Town! Adventures in Richmond History” project. Courtesy of Friends of Merrymeeting Bay

Friends of Merrymeeting Bay’s next installment of its 28th annual Winter Speaker Series, “Our Town! Adventures in Richmond History,” features the Piti Theatre Company and the 2023-2024 fourth graders of Richmond’s Marcia Buker Elementary School. The event will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 11. Visit fomb.org for the Zoom link.

This program premieres the “living history” streaming theater-meets-documentary work FOMB and Piti Theatre did in early 2024 with the Richmond students. The project looks at historical, cultural and social roots of contemporary environmental challenges in Merrymeeting Bay and around Midcoast Maine through the lens of local history — in this case, ice harvesting, dairy farming, ship building and spinning mills (topics chosen by the students). In collaboration with Piti Theatre Company (via a one week residency and more), the program produced film, songs, script and research, becoming a resource for local schools, colleges, libraries, historical societies and conservation groups.

FOMB hosts its Winter Speaker Series October through May on the second Wednesday of each month. Up next is “Getting to Know Rachel Carson” at 7 p.m. on Jan. 8. It features Barbara Vickery, retired director of conservation at The Nature Conservancy, Maine Chapter.

Speaker Series presentations are free and open to the public. Visit the Friends of Merrymeeting Bay website to see speaker biographies, full event schedules, video recordings of past presentations, become a member and learn more about how to help protect Merrymeeting Bay and the Gulf of Maine.

For more information, contact FOMB at 666-3372 or edfomb@comcast.net.