Shirley Cub Scout Pack 31 accepts boys and girls from kindergarten through fifth grade. The pack currently has a den for most grade levels. The pack meets as a whole once a month in tandem with Ayer Cub Scout Pack 32.  Pack meetings take place on the second Wednesday of every month, alternating between Page Hilltop and Lura A. White elementary schools. The March meeting will take place at L.A.W. Meetings start at 6:30 and last about an hour. A second meeting a month takes place by grade level at the leaders’ discretion. Shirley scouts participate in hiking, camping, science, service projects, drawing, and sports, and are always looking for more scouts to join!  This year’s much-anticipated Pinewood Derby will be held the weekend of March 14. For more information, contact shirleycubscouts@gmail.com  For older youth, the mission of Scouting America is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law.  The Scout Oath-“On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.”  The Scout Law-“A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent”.  The Value of Scouting  Discovery is at the heart of Scouting. Whether it’s a campout, derby car race, or hike on the trail, Scouters believe every adventure helps each scout to uncover a little more about himself or herself. Scouts build foundations for humility and compassion—strengthening character through actions—to prepare youth for a lifetime of leadership.  Scouting America troops include participants from ages 11 to 18. A person as young as 10 years old can join a Scout troop, if the youth has finished fifth grade or earned the Arrow of Light in Cub Scouts.     Troop 2 is for Ayer and Shirley boys. Meetings take place Tuesdays from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Ayer Gun and Sportsman’s Club, 255 Snake Hill Road, Ayer from September through July. For more information, contact troop2ayer@gmail.com.  Troop 3 is for Ayer and Shirley boys but may eventually become a co-ed/family troop. Troop 3 meets either at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays during the school year at Ayer Fire Station or an outdoor campsite located on Ayer Department of Public Works property on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. Contact troop3ayersm@gmail.com.  Troop 123 is a co-ed/family troop. Meetings are held at Shirley Rod and Gun Club, Kittredge Road, Shirley on Mondays from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. during the school year. Contact Troop123shirley@gmail.com  Shirley Local Issue #3 will present local Girl Scout information.

By Victoria Landry  Father William P. Sexton, called Father Will, was installed pastor of St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Parish on Sunday, February 22. The Nashoba Collaborative consists of two churches, St. Mary’s Church in Ayer and St. Anthony’s Church in Shirley. In August 2025, Father Will was appointed by Archbishop Richard G. Henning to serve as St. Nicholas’s pastor. The Installation Mass was well attended by local parishioners as well as his mother, Ellen Sexton, and many families and friends from Father Will’s former parish of St. Ann by the Sea in Ocean Bluff. A catered reception followed at the Derosier Parish Hall.  The liturgical procession was received by the Knights of Columbus District 9, led by Michael C. Palmatier, senior district deputy. At the altar presiding over the Mass were the following:   Celebrant and Homilist  I  Archbishop Richard Henning  I  Concelebrants  Bishop Robert Hennessey, auxiliary bishop and Episcopal vicar for the Merrimack Region of the Archdiocese. Father Brian Mahoney, VF, Pastor of Holy Rood Collaborative (Chelmsford and Lowell) and Vicar Forane for the vicariate, a small grouping of towns including Ayer and Shirley within a larger region. Father Paul Aveni, pastor of Our Lady of the Assumption Parish and St. Ann by the Sea Parish in Marshfield. Father Ed Derosier, former pastor of St. Anthony Parish and St. Mary Parish and founding pastor of St. Nicholas Parish. Father Kevin Leaver, Parochial Vicar of Braintree Catholic Collaborative including St. Francis of Assisi Parish and St. Clare Parish. One of Father Sexton’s best friends and ordination classmates.  Father Nicholas Stano, parochial vicar at Immaculate Conception Parish, Malden.  From Father Sexton’s home parish and his close friend.  “There were many who gave of their time over the last few weeks to help organize the installation celebration,” said Father Will, “but especially Mary Hamblett. Mary was the organizer and event coordinator. If I tried to list everyone that helped, I know I’d miss some name. Lerma Peura helped Mary closely.” “My experience since arriving almost four months ago has been predominantly positive. The people have been very welcoming and supportive. For the most part, as far as I can tell, most people seem happy to have me. You’re never going to please everyone.” “My hope in being here is to build and rebuild what I know was a once vibrant parish. The parish is, and so should be, thought of as one’s second home. My hope is that people start seeing and living as if the Parish was their second home.” “As Archbishop Henning charged me with at the end of Mass, and as I said in my very first homily here, the Eucharist must be the center of our life as a parish. If we aren’t in service to the Eucharist—Jesus fully Present Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity among us—then we’re missing the point of our Faith.” “There’s a lot the parish needs, but my hope is to build up and rebuild parish life around Christ fully Present in the Eucharist and the sacraments of the Church, so that, as Jesus commands, motivated by our Catholic Faith, with the Eucharist as the Source and Summit of all that we believe and say and do and are, people from our community who have either left the Faith will return, or people who have never truly and fully heard the Gospel—the Good News—of who Jesus is and the love he has for them, may come to know Christ as and be loved by him as he wants.” “We live in a world that with each passing decade was becoming more and more irreligious with people thinking they don’t need God. However, the last several years have seen a reversal of the trend. The years 2021 and 2022 saw Father Mike Schmitz’s Bible in a Year as the highest rated podcast out of all podcasts, in the US. In 2024, the Bible was the most given Christmas gift.” “The Catholic Church is the single largest social services provider of any institution or organization in the world, but people don’t know that. To quote the late Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, ‘There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate The Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be.’”