NOTE: Community bulletin board-type items are welcome for inclusion in the Happenings! section of the Xpress newspapers. Please allow enough lead time for publication. Email your calendar or event notice to [email protected].

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27  

• Oxford Fall Festival sponsored by the Oxford Lions Club at Joslin Park, Oxford Center from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Lots of vendors. Food available for purchase, kids’ activities, entertainment, 50/50 raffle.

• Friends of WSL Book Sale from 10:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. The Friends of the Whitinsville Social Library are holding their annual fall book sale with a ton of great quality used books and media for great prices! Support your local library and snag your next read. The sale is on the library’s front lawn, weather permitting.

• Book Sale - Friends of the Auburn Public Library, 369 Southbridge Street, Auburn. Tables will be set up outdoors by the pond - 10 am - 12:30 pm

Payment: Cash, Check, or PayPal

Questions? email: [email protected]

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2

• The Museum of the Millbury Historical society will be open from 4-6 p.m.  This coincides with the Millbury Farmes Market held outside at the Mansion from 3-7 p.m. with many vendors participating. You can pick your fresh produce, groceries and other items from numerous vendors and picking up some Millbury history, too!

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4

• Friends of the Uxbridge Free Public Library Book & Bake Sale from 9 a.m.- 1 p.m.

It’s a great opportunity to find literary treasures and homemade treats while supporting your library! At 15 North Main Street.

• Douglas Oktoberfest 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. Main Street, Douglas. The event is a high point of the season, drawing thousands each year. Main Street is lined with vendors offering food, crafts, games, displays and even weiner dog races. There are also performances by singers, bands, choral groups, dancers and variety shows.  Enjoy the family friendly rides and games including the popular Huge Slide, train and obstacle course. The cash cube with prizes remains a highlight. Craft vendors, food, kids’ attractions and more.

• Dudley Grange # 163 Annual Apple Festival from 10 a.m .- 3 p.m. 

The Festival takes place on the lawn in front of the historic Dudley Grange Hall, 139 Center Road, Dudley. The Festival is held in conjunction with the Black Tavern Historical Society’s Annual Craft Fair, located across from the Grange. The Apple Festival features live music, hot apple crisp and other delicious food options. This is a rain or shine event.

• The Overlook in Charlton hosts its 8th Annual Fall Festival from 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. This public event takes place at 88 Masonic Home Road and will feature vendor booths, live music, hayrides, kids’ games, and seasonal treats. 

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 5

• Dudley Fall Festival at Shepherd Hill Regional High School, 68 Dudley-Oxford Road, Dudley. From  11:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. Enjoy a free trunk or treat event. Food trucks, carnival games and vendors. Rain date Oct. 19.

• Sing with the BVCC! The Blackstone Valley Community Chorus welcomes new and returning singers to Open Call for our 2025 holiday concert season! Open Call will take place on Sunday, October 5th, at 6:00pm at the Douglas Municipal Center Resource Room located at 29 Depot Street in Douglas. New members do not need to prepare an audition song, but should come ready to sing. There is a $35 membership fee to join. Rehearsals take place on Sundays at 6:00pm at the Douglas Municipal Center beginning on October 19th. This season the BVCC is preparing a Holiday Spectacular to be performed with a full orchestra on December 14th at Valley Chapel in Uxbridge.

tuesDAY, OCTOBER 7

• Sutton Historical Society will hold its Annual Meeting at 7 pm in the First Congregational Church, 307 Boston Road, Sutton. 

wednesDAY, OCTOBER 8

• Cybersecurity and You: learn how to stay safe online at Charlton Public Library. Join the Charlton Public Library for a Cybersecurity class on Wednesday, October 8 at 10:30 am. Art Torres from POST Computer Systems will be here to teach techniques and tips to help you avoid losing your valuable information and money to cyber criminals. There will be plenty of time for questions! A complete schedule of upcoming digital literacy events can be viewed on the Library’s calendar at https://charltonlibrary.org/event-calendar/ Charlton Public Library is located at 40 Main Street in Charlton.

October 9 - 23

• History Leads At Simon Fairfield Online Library Auction! The sixth annual Friends of the Simon Fairfield Public Library Online Auction will run October 9 – 23.  This year’s featured items include a 19th c. Douglas Axe from the Hunt Manufacturing Company, and a rare first edition Civil War Military Dictionary inscribed by Brevet Major Louis Edwin Granger, 13th Massachusetts Infantry, who fought at Bull Run, Antietam, and Gettysburg, and was breveted three times for bravery.  This is a unique opportunity to own a piece of Civil War and Massachusetts history.  The auction also offers a great selection of goods and services, including home and garden treasures, handcrafted, antiques and vintage goods, vacation packages, and useful services.  For more information visit the Friends page on the library website at:  mysfpl.org/friends . 

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11

• Halloween Harvest Festival at Douglas Orchard and Farm, 36 Locust Street, Douglas from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Get ready for a tail-wagging, treat-filled Halloween Festival with our amazing partners, Dog Orphans. Bring your pups dressed in their spookiest, silliest, or most creative Halloween costumes for our paws-itively adorable Dog Costume Parade Contest—winners will be announced with fang-tastic prizes. Kids can join the spooky scavenger hunt around the farm and grab their treat bags full of goodies. Don’t forget to come in your Halloween best, because it’s costumes galore for everyone! Plus, enjoy magical performances by the Witches of Sutton and the talented Dance Sensation children’s dance troupe. It’s going to be frightfully fun for the whole family! 

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16

• The Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce (BVCC)  announces its upcoming Business After Hours networking event, hosted by Fidelity Bank in Millbury. The event will take place on from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. at Fidelity Bank’s Armory Village branch, located at 16 South Main Street, Millbury. It’s free to attend!

• The Friends of the Auburn Public Library host Robert Stacy, historian at the Museum of Worcester who will give a presentation on “The Lives of Worcester Workers 1830-Present from 6:30-8 p.m. at the Pakachoag Center, 203 Pakachoag Street, Auburn. The doors open at 6 p.m. Admission is $15. Payment by cash, check or PayPal. The event is a fundraiser for the Friends. Kindly pre-register at [email protected]

SATURDAY OCTOBER 18 and SUNDAY OCTOBER 19

• 45th Annual Waters Farm Days 53 Waters Farm Road, West Sutton. 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Antique tractor and Doodlebug show, animal exhibition, 4H animals, craft vendors, tractor pull, car show, food vendors, barrel train, kids’ bouncy houses, robotics club, police/fireman meet and greet, blacksmith and shingle making demonstration, pottery demonstration, peddler shop, tractor-pulled hay rides, apple crisp, and circa 1757  farm house tours. 

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19

• The Museum of the Millbury Historical Society at the Asa Waters Mansion, 123 Elm Street,  will be open from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. This coincides with the Asa Waters Fall Festival. Some of the museum’s holdings are: 100 years of Aftermath yearbooks; photos: churches, schools, downtown, sports; scrapbooks; research books & histories of Millbury & Sutton going back to colonial times. Also, President Taft photos and memorabilia; military uniforms, guns, and flags.

• Fall Festival in Nelson Park, North Grafton, 6 Prentice Street from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. There will be music, inflatables, food trucks, and local businesses  joining in on the fun! FREE!! Music, food, games and more ! Decorate a pumpkin and build a scarecrow while supplies last. Halloween fun! Presented by Coral Care & Country Bank. 

• Join Oxford Ecumenical Food Shelf Volunteers for the Annual Crop Hunger Walk. Beginning at First Congregational Church, 355 Main Street, Oxford at 1 p.m.  Please arrive at 12:30 to sign in. This is an easy 3.5 mile walk through Oxford. A small monetary donation is requested. This year’s goal is $2500 which will help stock the shelves of the Food Shelf, Oxford’s community food pantry, in the weeks ahead. Register at crophungerwalk.org or just show up on the 19th. The food pantry is open to Oxford residents for free.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22

• Friendly Trick or Treat from 3 – 4 p.m.at Grafton Municipal Center, 30 Providence Road,Grafton.  Hosted by Grafton Rec and sponsored by the Town.  The event is designed for ages 5 and under, though all are welcome. Come visit Town Hall and trick or treat at town offices and tables set up by local businesses. Dress up in your costume and collect goodies in a safely lighted and non-scary environment. Start at the Senior Center Gym tent to collect your bag and a map. Face painting available! Halloween Fun!

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23 

• The Sutton Garden Club will host Gretel Anspach, Trustee of Mass Horticulture and a Lifetime Master Gardener of the MA Master Gardener Association,who  will talk about cold frames and hoop houses to extend the growing season by as much as 2-4 weeks.  These tools let you transition seedlings and from windowsills or greenhouses to the outdoors.  Presented at 7 p.m. at the A.L. Dudley-Gendron Post 414, 156 Boston Post Road, Sutton. The Garden Club welcomes new members: $20 individual or $30 for a family.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER  25   

• St. Patrick’s Church Autumn Recycling Event, 7 East Street, Whitinsville. 8 a.m. – 1 p.m.  Accepting gently used books (no encyclopedias), media & magazines, gently used textiles/clothing and accessories, electronics for a fee (no propane, batteries, lightbulbs),  rinsed bottles/cans returnable in MA (no glass). Please keep items for each station separate.  Call 508-234-5656 or contact  [email protected] for price list or questions. Proceeds benefit Youth in Action service projects.

• The Sutton Historical Society will be set up at the M. M. Sherman Blacksmith Shop, 6 Singletary Avenue, from 4-7 p.m. as part of the OMG Pumpkin Festival 2025 hosting a miniature Halloween village exhibit, Revolutionary War metal detecting finds from several Sutton farms, and interpreters sharing some of Sutton’s more colorful and historic events.  This community event at the Sutton Common is sponsored by the Sutton Fourth organization and includes a costume parade, tractor parade, scarecrow and jack-o-lantern contests, trunk-or-treat at the school complex, as well as a Boo Bash at the Sutton Library.  More information can be found at thesuttonfourth.org.  This event is free and open to the general public of all ages.  The Historic Sutton Center Walking Tour  begins at 5 p.m. on Sutton Town Common, 4 Uxbridge Road. Re-enactors will guide visitors to multiple stops around the Common sharing the town’s history and some stories befitting the Halloween season.  

• Food Truck Fright Fest 2025, 3:00 PM - 9:00 PM. On the grounds of Nichols College 121 Center Road, Dudley. Parking and Admission is FREE - Open to the General Public. The event of the season, Fright Fest 2025 offers visitors and their families a safe, fun environment to “trick or treat” among the festively decorated grounds and food trucks. Enjoy fantastic food from all your favorite food trucks. Visit the Oktoberfest Beer Garden for craft beer, wine and seasonal favorites. Costumes are encouraged. Cash prizes awarded for best costumes. There will be music and fun for everyone!  

The Blackstone Valley Crop Hunger Walk will be held on Saturday, October 25 - starting at 9 am at the Village Congregational Church in Whitinsville with registration at 8:30 am. For more

information, contact Barbara Fortin at 508-234-2137.         

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1

• Annual Holiday Fair from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.  at St. Denis Church, 23 Manchaug Road, Douglas. Crafts, raffles, baked goods, kids’ table. Luncheon served from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. Vendor spaces still available.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7

• Then Grafton Land Trust will hold its annual dinner meeting at 6 p.m. at the Highfields Golf Club in Grafton. This year’s speaker will be Dr. Stephen Mrozowski, the founding director of the Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archeological Research at University of Massachusetts Boston.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 9

• The Polish American Social & Civil Club is having a Polka Dance 1-5pm Featuring Dennis Polisky & Maestro's Men. Located at 217 Mendon Street Uxbridge.. Plenty of seating and area for dancing. Full bar,food, and raffles will be available for purchase. $15 admission for more info please email [email protected] or call 508-278-7583. POLKA MUSIC returns to Uxbridge so mark your calendar so you don't miss out on a great time!!!

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 11

• Charlotte Wilson will share fascinating facts about Sutton’s citizenry during Revolutionary days at 7 p.m. in the first Congregational Church, 307 Boston Road, Sutton. Courtesy of the Sutton Historical Society.