Community Action Inc. will offer a first-time home buyer education workshop for area residents beginning Monday from 6 to 8:30 p.m., in the Presidential Gardens apartments community room, 140 Evergreen Drive.
Information will be provided by housing professionals, including bankers, buyer/seller real estate brokers, attorneys, insurance agents, home inspectors and credit counselors.
Participants can learn about mortgage pre-qualification, foreclosure sales, affordable housing lotteries, down payment assistance and reduced interest loans.
The dates for the course are Monday, Wednesday, and Feb. 2 and 4. The cost is $50 per household. There are no income limits.
More information is available by calling Richard Lynch at 978-373-1971 or Susan Collins Hanley at 978-317-8998.
Parent Academy is on Internet safety
The next Parent Academy information session will focus on keeping children safe when they are online.
This free session is open to community members, parents, guardians and grandparents of children of all ages. It will be held Jan. 28 at Whittier Middle School, 256 Concord St.
The Parent Academy is sponsored by Haverhill's public schools and the District Parent Council. Registration and refreshments will be from 5:45 to 6 p.m. The information session is from 6 to 8 p.m.
Two door prizes will be drawn at the end of the event — one annual youth membership, valued at $120, to the Haverhill YMCA; and one annual teen membership to the club, valued at $264. The YMCA donated both prizes.
More information is available from District Parent Council President Joan Becker at 978-469-9095 or beckerjoan@yahoo.com. You can also contact Vice President Linda Gilmore at 978-372-4686, tuppergilmore@comcast.net or Communications Director Herb Bergh at 978-372-0376 or h.bergh@comcast.net. Baby-sitting and pizza will be provided for children ages 12 and younger who accompany their parents to the session.
YMCA has book fair, other events
The Haverhill YMCA, 81 Winter St., will host a variety of events this month and next.
The events include a Scholastic Book Fair on Friday from 5 to 9 p.m., and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The book fair will be in the lobby of the YMCA.
A Flip Flop Invitational gymnastics meet will take place on those same days. More than 275 gymnasts from across New England are expected to attend this first ever invitational meet hosted by the Haverhill YMCA.
More information is available by calling 978-374-0506 or online at www.northshoreymca.org.
Surgical office opens
Merrimack Valley Surgical Associates has opened an office on the campus of Merrimack Valley Hospital.
The practice will share a suite with Mill City Surgical Associates to offer patients three surgical specialties.
The office includes urologist Christopher Birdsall of Merrimack Valley Urology Services, vascular surgeon Walter Kwass of Merrimack Valley Vascular Services, and general surgeon Kathryn Hughes of Mill City Surgical Associates.
The office is temporarily in the hospital's main lobby and will eventually move into the Merrimack Medical Building on the hospital's campus. More information is available online at www.merrimackvalleyhospital.com.
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