by Sandra Miller
Back Bay Sun
In troubled times, some people seek solace in unsavory ways, but with this group, when the going gets tough, the tough get knitting.
The Greater Boston Knitting Guild has been meeting for 15 years, offering each other company and conversation while they create blankets, sweaters, hats, and other often-complicated pieces from just a ball of yarn. They’re not just making sweaters, though: they’re making connections.
Some have weaved their way into finding a job; others are transplants who knitted their brows until they figured out a way to make fast friends. Some have supported each other through surgeries and family losses.
At the very least, they support each others’ projects, with a rotating team of “doctors” to help unravel mistakes. They show off their creations or help beginners with their first strand.
Forget the stereotype of the knitwit dullard. This crowd is filled with accomplished, driven and creative people. Many are bloggers who research their patterns online, and use computer programs to design their pieces. Others can do the complicated math involved with many pieces. Many of them are successful business owners or at least are organized and resourceful types, perhaps because knitting organizes their minds. Or maybe it’s the other way around, but the point is, knitting is not just for cozy grandmas.
Busy hands
About 60 members came to the December meeting. As always, they meet the third Thursday of the month, to sit and knit. They chat and listen to speakers, but their hands are busy, busy, busy, pausing their projects only to eat their bagged lunches or to duck out early for some shopping, including at the nearby Newbury Yarns store, at 164 Newbury Street, where they can get a discount on purchases.
December’s guest speaker was knitting instructor and author Jackie Fee, sharing tips and stories with the appreciative crowd. Fee, who wore an Aram Isle pattern in an Irish-type sweater she adapted for indoor wear, is the author of "Sweater Workshop”.
"She's my mentor," said one of the group’s founders, Anita MacKinnon. "We can do anything without having to sew the seams."
During the meeting, MacKinnon knitted socks from a blue, yellow and dark green yarn. She wore her homemade Christmas knitted sweater, which has the words “fa la la la la la” written along the bottom. "My children think it's tacky," she said. In spite, she takes it with her when she visits her kids for the holidays. "I wear it a solid week, every year," she said.
The attendees also exchanged Secret Santa gifts, and held a cookie contest that was won by Jackie Fee's date balls. One knitter stood up to recommend supporting a New Orleans woman who sells yarn despite having to rebuild from the hurricane.
"These women all have interesting lives, and they take the day off to come here," said MacKinnon, who also does marketing for the College Club of Boston.
And the group also has men. Or, at least one. Board member and past president Bob Jaeger was the sole male in attendance at the December meeting, working on a wool cardigan for his wife as a Christmas present. He'll also be hosting the annual summer club retreat at his Best Western Cold Spring motel in Plymouth, where members will come and knit by the pool.
"He's a good teacher and a good knitter," said MacKinnon. "He has six kids, like I do." Jaeger added, "I knit all of them sweaters in unisex colors and styles."
Jaeger wore a decade-old gray Aran cable knit that he dug out of the attic. Most meeting attendees wore self-knitted sweaters, but it’s not a badge for entry.
"The name guild is misleading," said guild President Cheryl Mariolis, who wore her red oversize sweater made from brown sheep lambs pride bulky yarn, designed with a the help of the computer program Sweater Wizard. It sounds complicated, but actually knitting is just common sense and patience. "We don't require a level of expertise. This is really a network of people who love to knit," she added.
However, some are more creative and talented than others. Judy Dienstag of the North End held up a stunning sling purse she knitted from felted wool, which she shrunk on purpose to make a strong knit. She says people stop her on the street and ask to buy it. She also modeled a pretty Sausalito sweater jacket, lined with handmade wooden buttons from Zecca of Western Massachusetts.
For those who haven't knitted in a while, they can get tips at the club. "It's like riding a bicycle. The little motions are back, once you put the needles back in your hands, it's a muscle memory," said Jean Holtey, who owns In Stitches and The Threaded Needle in Weston. The group even provides lessons and a rotating "knitting doctor" to help out anyone with a snag.
The guild also helps out non-knitters, supporting The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Caps for Kids program and The Woman's Lunch Place, a daytime shelter for homeless and poor women and their children. Guild members have contributed hundreds of hand-knit and crocheted baby blankets, sweaters, hats, mittens, booties, and socks to these and other Boston organizations. The Guild’s community outreach coordinator, Elaine Cobucci, distributed 364 knit hats to children at Dana-Farber in November.
The guild has been meeting for about 15 years, starting with about a dozen knitters gathering at the old The Women's Educational and Industrial Union on Boylston Street. They outgrew the space and moved into the College Club of Boston, which was big enough to start inviting guest speakers that include historians, magazine editors, authors, and designers. They have speakers booked into the next year. Hitting the 200 member mark, with young and old traveling from as far away as Rhode Island and New Hampshire to attend, they had to move to a bigger space, and since the fall they now meet in the basement of Trinity Church.
The Economics and Mental Health of Yarn
Yes, knitting can be expensive. You can certainly buy a sweater off the rack for a lot cheaper than buying the yarn, but a homemade sweater can have a higher quality and design.
Holtey gives member discounts. Despite the economy, she has seen an increase of about 20-30 percent in customers since last year. Actually, she said, the economy probably boosted sales.
"You sort of don't save any money knitting, but it's very soothing and allows you to make economical gifts. It allows you to give something to someone. They're made with really nice yarn. If you've tried to buy it, it would be hundreds of dollars,” she said.
But Holtey added in this economy, many people turn to knitting to improve their mental health. It’s a pretty good secret: Knitting is the key to good mental health.
Knit, purl, lining up the rows, it all seems pretty simple. But all that math and counting, and then when you get into a groove and are just doing the repetitive motion that allows your mind to wander, it’s all about organization, about strengthening the mind muscle. Like other craftwork, there are connections between handiwork and cognitive ability, and dexterity and mental health. Books on yarn also include talks about neuroplasticity, beta or alpha or theta wave action in the brain.
"It's like meditating,” said Holtey. “The key is to get the beta waves going, which happens when you're knitting and you're in the zone."
Unfortunately, her left hand was bandaged temporarily, and she looked sad and a little itchy watching everyone else knit. "I'm moderately crazed right now," she said.
MacKinnon didn’t have a lot of time at the meeting to knit her socks, but otherwise, she knits everywhere – at the airport, on the train, watching TV – calling it a compulsion. "I knit and talk all the time," she said, but she also keeps a notepad nearby, because that’s when the ideas come. "You can really multi-task when you're knitting,” she said.
MacKinnon added the hobby is recession-proof precisely because it’s addictive and puts her in a happier mood. "When a lot is going on, people are coming back to knitting. When I had a really bad day, I knew my knitting and my needlepoint and my piano were home waiting for me," she said.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Back Bay art galleries get creative
Time is running out to view 'Souvenir de Boston'
by Sandra Miller
Back Bay Sun
Art lovers will only have until January 15 to view Michel Delacroix’s, “Souvenir de Boston,” a winter scene of the Boston Public Garden on display at the Four Seasons Hotel.
It is the second such painting that Delacroix had made of the garden. He had created an autumnal view of the Public Garden for a benefit Axelle Fine Arts Boston did for the Friends of the Public Garden in 2007. “The painting was in the window, and we had clients fighting over it,” recalled Amse Hammershaimb, Axelle’s senior art consultant.
Based on the success of that painting, Delacroix decided to do another one, a winter version, which is a 24-by-28 ½-inch acrylic on canvas.
The 91 Newbury St. gallery consultant decided to loan the painting to the hotel, partly because it was a natural since the Four Seasons is featured in it.
“It was so stunning, and it was in front of the Four Seasons,” she said. “I couldn’t imagine a better home for this painting.”
Hammershaimb sent a letter and an image of the painting to hotel general manager Bill Taylor, who called her the next day. “He said he loved the painting, and he’d love to have it in the lobby for the holidays,” she said.
Delacroix is a French master of the naïf tradition whose work has been featured in over 300 US solo exhibitions, as well as around the world. Delacroix was selected an Official Artist of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games and commissioned to paint three works.
The other reason why the gallery decided to loan it out was to try a little marketing creativity. The hotel used the painting for its Christmas card, and otherwise, the painting saw foot traffic the gallery may not have otherwise received.
“I do have to say that I believe that had our economic situation been a little more stable, this would not be only a loan,” said Virginia Lockwood, an administrator at Axelle. “We are, however, happy to have the exposure. This is a great way to reach both tourists and Boston natives that have yet to visit the gallery.”
Said Hammershaimb, “We’re thinking left and right on how to do the best we can in this economy.”
The happy result is that the painting was sold to former locals who now live in New York, and it increased foot traffic to both the gallery and the Four Seasons.
“It started as reaching out to the Four Seasons, but now it’s gaining exposure for the gallery,” said Hammershaimb. “It’s about thinking who might be interested in certain pieces. I definitely think we got people in here that we wouldn’t have received before. In turn, we have clients of Michel Delacroix that we’ve sent to the Fours Seasons as well. It’s a nice way for the Four Seasons to get exposure.”
side: Spotlighting the Vose Galleries by Sandra Miller
A cheapskate on a date can skip the entrance fees at one of the local museums and just wander around the many art galleries along Newbury Street.
Sure, you can look at the Museum of Fine Arts or other museums, but sometimes you just want to browse artwork that’s a little more available.
“You can see a lot of great art, take a break from your shopping, see art in a great brownstone,” says Beth Vose, whose family owns Vose Galleries at 238 Newbury Street. “A lot of people spend a lot of time looking at the pieces. We were named a good date place by one of the local magazines.”
And maybe, just maybe, on a whim and a roomy credit card, you might just be able to afford one piece of art from Vose Galleries of Boston, who now feature a “Works Under $10,000” section.
Vose specializes in 18th, 19th and early 20th century American realist paintings and works on paper. They started the “budget” section to target those who love art but are scared off by some of the local galleries’ price points. It’s still high quality paintings, but it’s a 400-piece collection of “moderately priced” works by artists such as Ernest Albert, Thomas Allen, Joel Babb and Reynolds Beal.
Vose Galleries is a multi-generation gallery that opened in 1841, but they’re definitely in the 21st century, with a sophisticated website that includes search features, a “personal gallery” for your own browsing consideration, an e-newsletter, and e-mail alerts about newly added artworks for sale. “We’re doing a whole lot over the Internet,” says Vose.
Passed down through six generations from father to son- now daughters - Vose says it is the oldest family-owned art gallery in America, with paintings hanging in over 150 museums nationwide, and it claims to have the largest inventory of American realist paintings in New England.
In 2001, after a nearly 40-year hiatus, Vose Galleries opened a contemporary division, marking its return to handling the work of living artists.
“The Works Under $10,000 is fairly unusual because many galleries don’t like to put prices on a website,” says Vose. “We think it’s important. We may be reaching those who would otherwise feel uncomfortable contacting us. Maybe they’re a beginning collector. Some people don’t realize we have works under $10,000.”
by Sandra Miller
Back Bay Sun
Art lovers will only have until January 15 to view Michel Delacroix’s, “Souvenir de Boston,” a winter scene of the Boston Public Garden on display at the Four Seasons Hotel.
It is the second such painting that Delacroix had made of the garden. He had created an autumnal view of the Public Garden for a benefit Axelle Fine Arts Boston did for the Friends of the Public Garden in 2007. “The painting was in the window, and we had clients fighting over it,” recalled Amse Hammershaimb, Axelle’s senior art consultant.
Based on the success of that painting, Delacroix decided to do another one, a winter version, which is a 24-by-28 ½-inch acrylic on canvas.
The 91 Newbury St. gallery consultant decided to loan the painting to the hotel, partly because it was a natural since the Four Seasons is featured in it.
“It was so stunning, and it was in front of the Four Seasons,” she said. “I couldn’t imagine a better home for this painting.”
Hammershaimb sent a letter and an image of the painting to hotel general manager Bill Taylor, who called her the next day. “He said he loved the painting, and he’d love to have it in the lobby for the holidays,” she said.
Delacroix is a French master of the naïf tradition whose work has been featured in over 300 US solo exhibitions, as well as around the world. Delacroix was selected an Official Artist of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games and commissioned to paint three works.
The other reason why the gallery decided to loan it out was to try a little marketing creativity. The hotel used the painting for its Christmas card, and otherwise, the painting saw foot traffic the gallery may not have otherwise received.
“I do have to say that I believe that had our economic situation been a little more stable, this would not be only a loan,” said Virginia Lockwood, an administrator at Axelle. “We are, however, happy to have the exposure. This is a great way to reach both tourists and Boston natives that have yet to visit the gallery.”
Said Hammershaimb, “We’re thinking left and right on how to do the best we can in this economy.”
The happy result is that the painting was sold to former locals who now live in New York, and it increased foot traffic to both the gallery and the Four Seasons.
“It started as reaching out to the Four Seasons, but now it’s gaining exposure for the gallery,” said Hammershaimb. “It’s about thinking who might be interested in certain pieces. I definitely think we got people in here that we wouldn’t have received before. In turn, we have clients of Michel Delacroix that we’ve sent to the Fours Seasons as well. It’s a nice way for the Four Seasons to get exposure.”
side: Spotlighting the Vose Galleries by Sandra Miller
A cheapskate on a date can skip the entrance fees at one of the local museums and just wander around the many art galleries along Newbury Street.
Sure, you can look at the Museum of Fine Arts or other museums, but sometimes you just want to browse artwork that’s a little more available.
“You can see a lot of great art, take a break from your shopping, see art in a great brownstone,” says Beth Vose, whose family owns Vose Galleries at 238 Newbury Street. “A lot of people spend a lot of time looking at the pieces. We were named a good date place by one of the local magazines.”
And maybe, just maybe, on a whim and a roomy credit card, you might just be able to afford one piece of art from Vose Galleries of Boston, who now feature a “Works Under $10,000” section.
Vose specializes in 18th, 19th and early 20th century American realist paintings and works on paper. They started the “budget” section to target those who love art but are scared off by some of the local galleries’ price points. It’s still high quality paintings, but it’s a 400-piece collection of “moderately priced” works by artists such as Ernest Albert, Thomas Allen, Joel Babb and Reynolds Beal.
Vose Galleries is a multi-generation gallery that opened in 1841, but they’re definitely in the 21st century, with a sophisticated website that includes search features, a “personal gallery” for your own browsing consideration, an e-newsletter, and e-mail alerts about newly added artworks for sale. “We’re doing a whole lot over the Internet,” says Vose.
Passed down through six generations from father to son- now daughters - Vose says it is the oldest family-owned art gallery in America, with paintings hanging in over 150 museums nationwide, and it claims to have the largest inventory of American realist paintings in New England.
In 2001, after a nearly 40-year hiatus, Vose Galleries opened a contemporary division, marking its return to handling the work of living artists.
“The Works Under $10,000 is fairly unusual because many galleries don’t like to put prices on a website,” says Vose. “We think it’s important. We may be reaching those who would otherwise feel uncomfortable contacting us. Maybe they’re a beginning collector. Some people don’t realize we have works under $10,000.”
Friday, November 20, 2009
Grampy’s Gas Station to Become Office & Retail Building on Cambridge Street in Beacon Hill
By Sandra Miller
Beacon Hill Times
The long-delayed development of the 296 Cambridge Street property was finally greenlighted by the Boston Redevelopment Authority.
The Board approved a revised proposal for the project located at 296 Cambridge Street in Beacon Hill. After many changes in size and scope, the project is now a five-story, 35,000-square-foot brick building with commercial offices on the upper floors, and retail on the ground floor.
“The building features details that are reminiscent of Beacon Hill and other recently built buildings on Cambridge Street,” says architect Elizabeth Church of CBT, who is working with Don Megathlin of Talanian Realty as the developer, and Henry Kara as the legal counsel.
Original plans for residences and a garage are no longer being considered; Church said they “worked with the neighborhood to make it more compatible with the smaller neighborhood residential buildings.”
“It’s going to be a very nice building that will help to keep the edge of Cambridge Street consistent with what’s there.” They also promise to work with the Cambridge Street Community Development Corp. to keep up with area plantings.
The entrance for the building will be on Cambridge Street. “We’ve met with the BHCA and I believe they have the checklist with them. They gave us a vote of confidence, as we move into the BRA
process.”
Church had no predictions for how long the project would take. A call to Talanian was not returned by deadline. “Permitting is such a nebulous process,” she said. “I have no predictions for how long it will take. The neighborhood likes it, I think the city likes it; It’s very close to the 2003 design that was approved. I don’t forsee any trouble.”
BHCA executive director Suzanne Besser says they do not oppose the project. Talanian Realty, the developer, was approved by the BRA Board on April 10, 2003 to construct 16 one and two bedroom residential units with first floor retail space. The BRA since then approved the switch to a non-residential project.
For years, the project was delayed because of the reconstruction of Cambridge Street, and a moratorium of utility construction in the street. On October 16, the developer filed a Notice of Project Change that proposed a five-story office building with retail on the first floor.
“It’s not going forward as previously approved since the release states that we approved the project change and the uses are different,” said BRA spokesperson Jessica Shumaker. “The previous proposal was for a building that had 4 and 6 stories – now it will be just 5 stories. The previous height was 65 feet and now it will be 62 feet.”
“We still have permits to go through -- board of appeal, the architectural commission, other permists from the city, then we need to submit all of our design plans, construction documents… it could be finished by spring 2010,” said Megathlin, vice president at Talanian. Talanian will wait until mid-to-late 2009 to secure financing. “Now is not a good time to start, anyway,” Megathlin said.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino announced this project, along with three other projects that total more than $75 million in private investment, which received approvals from the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s Board of Directors. The projects represent more than 330 construction jobs. “We continue to see people investing in our city,” Mayor Menino said. “These development projects will greatly add to the overall quality of life in our city – and they represent new jobs and homes for our residents.”
The development site will replace the current Grampy’s Gulf Station, which includes a convenience store and Villa Mexico Café, a tiny burrito stand. It is between Strong Place and Grove Street at the base of Beacon Hill, across from Mass General Hospital.
According to the BRA, total development cost is approximately $9.5 million, and the project will create about 30 construction jobs.
The original building proposed for the site was about twice the size of another constructed by Talanian years before, at 326 Cambridge Street.
The proposed six-story residential and retail project was opposed by area residents, including abutters Jim Higgins and Rui Monteiro-Claro, who believed their adjacent home at Zero Strong Place would be dwarfed by the massive building, reducing their light and views. John Achatz, BHCA zoning and licensing co-chair, said the zoning and licensing committee reviewed issues, and the sub-committee reached agreement when Talanian agreed to step down part of the building to four stories, resulting in a loss of 6000 square feet to the building’s total floor area. The project was then given the green light by the BHCA and the city zoning board of appeal in May 2003.
Megathlin said they dropped the plans for residences when the BHCA reduced the size of the building. “It was economically infeasible to reduce the size of the project. This time they were much more supportive of our efforts and the needs we had, and we are appreciative of their support.”
Church said that the local favorite Villa Mexico Café, which serves burritos within the convenience store of Grampy’s, would be welcome to apply for a storefront. “I don’t think we could sell gas, but we could have a place for burritos,” she said with a smile.
Villa Mexico owner Julie King continued to make her burritos on Friday, not a bit worried about the announcement. She has a lease for another year and a half, and if she can’t afford a space in the new building, she said she’ll figure something out. “God will show the way,” she said. “People are asking me, what will I do? I love it here. If I have to, I’ll get a cart and go on a corner.”
Beacon Hill Times
The long-delayed development of the 296 Cambridge Street property was finally greenlighted by the Boston Redevelopment Authority.
The Board approved a revised proposal for the project located at 296 Cambridge Street in Beacon Hill. After many changes in size and scope, the project is now a five-story, 35,000-square-foot brick building with commercial offices on the upper floors, and retail on the ground floor.
“The building features details that are reminiscent of Beacon Hill and other recently built buildings on Cambridge Street,” says architect Elizabeth Church of CBT, who is working with Don Megathlin of Talanian Realty as the developer, and Henry Kara as the legal counsel.
Original plans for residences and a garage are no longer being considered; Church said they “worked with the neighborhood to make it more compatible with the smaller neighborhood residential buildings.”
“It’s going to be a very nice building that will help to keep the edge of Cambridge Street consistent with what’s there.” They also promise to work with the Cambridge Street Community Development Corp. to keep up with area plantings.
The entrance for the building will be on Cambridge Street. “We’ve met with the BHCA and I believe they have the checklist with them. They gave us a vote of confidence, as we move into the BRA
process.”
Church had no predictions for how long the project would take. A call to Talanian was not returned by deadline. “Permitting is such a nebulous process,” she said. “I have no predictions for how long it will take. The neighborhood likes it, I think the city likes it; It’s very close to the 2003 design that was approved. I don’t forsee any trouble.”
BHCA executive director Suzanne Besser says they do not oppose the project. Talanian Realty, the developer, was approved by the BRA Board on April 10, 2003 to construct 16 one and two bedroom residential units with first floor retail space. The BRA since then approved the switch to a non-residential project.
For years, the project was delayed because of the reconstruction of Cambridge Street, and a moratorium of utility construction in the street. On October 16, the developer filed a Notice of Project Change that proposed a five-story office building with retail on the first floor.
“It’s not going forward as previously approved since the release states that we approved the project change and the uses are different,” said BRA spokesperson Jessica Shumaker. “The previous proposal was for a building that had 4 and 6 stories – now it will be just 5 stories. The previous height was 65 feet and now it will be 62 feet.”
“We still have permits to go through -- board of appeal, the architectural commission, other permists from the city, then we need to submit all of our design plans, construction documents… it could be finished by spring 2010,” said Megathlin, vice president at Talanian. Talanian will wait until mid-to-late 2009 to secure financing. “Now is not a good time to start, anyway,” Megathlin said.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino announced this project, along with three other projects that total more than $75 million in private investment, which received approvals from the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s Board of Directors. The projects represent more than 330 construction jobs. “We continue to see people investing in our city,” Mayor Menino said. “These development projects will greatly add to the overall quality of life in our city – and they represent new jobs and homes for our residents.”
The development site will replace the current Grampy’s Gulf Station, which includes a convenience store and Villa Mexico Café, a tiny burrito stand. It is between Strong Place and Grove Street at the base of Beacon Hill, across from Mass General Hospital.
According to the BRA, total development cost is approximately $9.5 million, and the project will create about 30 construction jobs.
The original building proposed for the site was about twice the size of another constructed by Talanian years before, at 326 Cambridge Street.
The proposed six-story residential and retail project was opposed by area residents, including abutters Jim Higgins and Rui Monteiro-Claro, who believed their adjacent home at Zero Strong Place would be dwarfed by the massive building, reducing their light and views. John Achatz, BHCA zoning and licensing co-chair, said the zoning and licensing committee reviewed issues, and the sub-committee reached agreement when Talanian agreed to step down part of the building to four stories, resulting in a loss of 6000 square feet to the building’s total floor area. The project was then given the green light by the BHCA and the city zoning board of appeal in May 2003.
Megathlin said they dropped the plans for residences when the BHCA reduced the size of the building. “It was economically infeasible to reduce the size of the project. This time they were much more supportive of our efforts and the needs we had, and we are appreciative of their support.”
Church said that the local favorite Villa Mexico Café, which serves burritos within the convenience store of Grampy’s, would be welcome to apply for a storefront. “I don’t think we could sell gas, but we could have a place for burritos,” she said with a smile.
Villa Mexico owner Julie King continued to make her burritos on Friday, not a bit worried about the announcement. She has a lease for another year and a half, and if she can’t afford a space in the new building, she said she’ll figure something out. “God will show the way,” she said. “People are asking me, what will I do? I love it here. If I have to, I’ll get a cart and go on a corner.”
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Professor Wexler goes on the road for Holy Hullabaloos
BU Law Professor and divinity school grad Jay Wexler took a six-month road trip around the country, stopping at places where the significant church-state Supreme Court cases originated. This included visits to a high school football game in East Texas (Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe), a community of Orthodox Jews in New York State (Board of Education of Kiryas Joel v. Grumet), a Santeria gathering in South Florida (Church of Lukumi Babalu Ave., Inc. v. Hialeah), and Missouri to talk to a Mennonite who was the sole living plaintiff from the Wisconsin v Yoder religious freedom case.
The trip eventually produced the highly acclaimed Holy Hullabaloos: A Road Trip to the Battlegrounds of the Church-State Wars, released in June by Beacon Press. “My book tells the story of this trip while also explaining the basics of church-state law and making jokes,” Wexler explained on his blog. He claims inspiration from similarly thought-provoking on-the-road nonfiction such as Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation, Chuck Klosterman's Killing Yourself to Live, and Steve Almond's Candyfreak.
Before going to Stanford Law, Jay Wexler studied religion at the University of Chicago. “I’ve always been fascinated by religion, so it was natural that I would continue to be interested in the subject after studying law,” he said. “I like to think and write not only about how the law ought to treat religious beliefs and practice, but also about what role religion should play in the legal process.”
A member of the School of Law faculty since 2001, Professor Wexler teaches law and religion, administrative law, environmental law and natural resources law. Prior to BU Law, Professor Wexler clerked for Judge David Tatel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S. Supreme Court. He also spent two years as an attorney-advisor at the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice, advising components of the Justice Department and other executive branch actors on statutory and constitutional issues.
Professor Wexler has published articles, essays and book reviews on these topics in publications such as the Georgetown Law Journal, the Vanderbilt Law Review, the George Washington Law Review, the William and Mary Law Review and the Washington University Law Review. This is his first book.
“The students really have liked it a lot,” he said of the book.. “A lot of people who took my First Amendment class last spring came to a reading last June, and they seemed to think it complements the course nicely. They said that they can hear my voice in my writing, which is a compliment. I wrote the book like I teach the class. That was my goal.”
Professor Wexler said many not connected to his class or BU also have picked up the book, including a reviewer in the fourth largest town in Alaska. “I don’t know how anyone there got hold of it,” he said. And a Minnesota Vikings fan is mad at his poking fun of the team’s record. Otherwise, Pamela Karlan at Stanford Law said, “I’ve read a lot of entertaining travelogues and informative studies of Supreme Court cases, but never at the same time… Thank God for Holy Hullabaloos.”
Professor Wexler’s humor is welcome by many of the readers who otherwise would find the subject matter a bit tedious. “There’s a debate as to whether (readers) like the humor,” he said. “It’s kind of different from any other book on this issue.”
He has no idea how many books have sold, but just for the understanding of Constitutional law alone, he said, “I wish more people would read it.”
He didn’t get to cover as much ground as he would have liked, so is there a sequel planned? “Depends. If anyone pays me to do a Part Two, I’ll do it.” In the meantime, he’s a few chapters into his next book, about “10 weird clauses” in the Constitution such as laws that bar U.S. officials from accepting a title of nobility from another country and keep the government from adopting the Metric system. It’s due spring 2011.
Other books he’s considering penning would examine a specific legal case concerning religious freedom, and one on environmental law. He intends to cover less ground, physically at least.
“I doubt I’d do another religion road trip,” he said. “It may be unhealthy to travel to Superfund sites.”
Professor Wexler said his phone has been quiet on a movie treatment of Holy Hullabaloos, but there are a few YouTube clips, including a “reading” by Walter, his five-year-old. On his website you can even listen to the book’s theme song, written and sung by Mike Newdow, the California lawyer who sued to have "under God" removed from the Pledge of Allegiance. Wexler recently spoke and signed copies of his book at the BU Barnes & Noble, as detailed in this article in the Daily Free Press or available on video.
The author is scheduled to also read at the following locations:
- October 23-24 Marin County, California, at a Marin High School conference he was invited to via Facebook by his old 1986 debate partner.
- November 5-7 Sanibel Island Writers' Workshop, where he’ll be doing a reading, as will CandyFreak’s Steve Almond.
- November 12 Newton North High School (Huntington Lecture Series) 4 p.m.
- December 10 Social Law Library, Boston 5 p.m.
Reported by Sandi Miller
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Back Bay developer builds art career to operatic heights
by Sandra Miller
Back Bay Sun
A collection of paintings in the upper floors of a Copley Square real estate office displays scenes full of sexuality and betrayal and murder. It’s like life ripped from the tabloids, or today’s soap operas, but these stories were told centuries before as entertainment.
“These stories are crazy,” said artist Nicholas Abraham. He says it a little too enthusiastically, until you realize that he is a rare breed of music lover: the opera fan. Abraham is happy to talk about his 30-piece series of 20-by-24-inch oil paintings, which opera aficionados will recognize as scenes from such classics as “Carmen,” “La Boheme,” “Madama Butterfly,” “La Traviata,” “Tosca,” and “Tristan and Isolde”.
He’s done portraits of performers like Luciano Pavarotti, Jose Carrera and Placido Domingo, and composers such as Verdi, Puccini, and Wagner. But Abraham, 67, is not only an artist - he is a multi-millionaire real estate developer who came late to the art world.
He liked to draw when he was in school, but Abraham put that aside to build a career developing properties around Boston and New Hampshire, and raising a family. “I have wanted to paint since I was 8 years old, but being a father and husband, I wanted to send my kids to college,” he said.
At 60, Abraham bought a condo in Naples, Fla., and had some time on his hands. But when a bum knee ended his golfing hobby, he didn’t know what to do. His wife reminded him about how much he had always wanted to paint, and in the spring of 2002, he picked up some art supplies and taught himself how to paint. “I was really bad,” he said. “I thought it would be so easy.”
But he persevered, and studied impressionists such as Manet, Renoir and Degas, studying brush strokes and other techniques. He kept challenging himself, and eventually developed a style that’s compared to Matisse, Modigliani and Picasso.
Abraham is another kind of artist, too – a jazz musician who has toured the country playing drums. His musical curiosity eventually led to studying classical music, and then he was floored by the beauty and grandeur of an opera by Puccini.
“I said, ‘My God, that’s very moving,’” he said. It took him 10 years to truly understand opera, figuring out what he liked and didn’t like. He found he favored Italian operas. “They are romantic, and melodic,” he said. “They reach into my heart and bring tears to my eyes. It’s such a talent and gift. I appreciate it because I know how difficult it is to do something so exceptional.”
And when they say “Do what you love,” Abraham decided to paint what he loved. “It was easy for me to combine my love of opera and my love of art,” he said.
He started painting famous scenes from the world’s greatest operas, along with their composers and artists. Initial reviews by opera critics have lauded his work. “Abraham brings to the 20-by-24 linen canvas color, action, mood and a sense of excitement that conveys in its own right a sublime statement of what the artist feels,” said one reviewer at OperaOnline.us. “Its colors are vibrant; its characters, animated; its power, especially in ensemble, immense.”
He’s come a long way since his first painting, which, he said “looks like a child’s painting. I now see how I progressed, and I am amazed. I just stuck with it until I get it right.”
And when he thinks about it, he likens art to the world of real estate development. “Painting is not just an art, it’s a challenge. Commercially acceptable artists fall into a rut of painting what their customers want them to paint. All the great masters refused to fit into the mainstream. They weren’t even allowed to show their paintings in salons, because of their ‘deviant behavior,’” he said.
Like his painting career, Abraham started his real estate career with lots of elbow grease – literally. His father owned properties in Newton, and put young Abraham to work when he was 7, by pushing a hand-mower over the properties’ lawns. When he was 10, he graduated to helping maintain his father’s properties in Roxbury and Grove Hall, and later in Brookline. He began renting apartments and rose to managing construction sites. He had 16 years of experience before he went on his own in his early 20s.
One of his first properties was the Cushing Endicott House at 163 Marlborough St., a 10,000-square-foot mansion he converted to six units. He then developed 120 condos in New Hampshire, and in 1989, he bought the building his offices currently occupy on Boylston Street, during the height of the market then. “I bought it without telling my father. When he found out, he yelled at me, saying I’d lose my shirt; but I’m still in the building, and it has risen in value.”
Abraham took a career detour, as a trial lawyer for 20 years, while serving as the family business’ lawyer. His father took some of his money and invested it in property. When his father became seriously ill in 1986, Abraham retired as a lawyer and took over the properties his father managed.
He also owns several Stor-Gard self-storage units, the Wal-Mart shopping center in Walpole, and he is now developing warehouse units in Northborough and Franklin.
He owns and manages a half-million square feet of property in Massachusetts.
He and his wife raised two children, Annise and Nicko, whom he made sure also went to work for his business when they turned 7. Today, Nicko is the company’s president.
“The key to be successful in any enterprise is in the love of what you do,” said Abraham. “You should have fun and be good at it, and stick through it until its successful completion.”
When times get tough, including with the current economic situation, he quotes a Chinese proverb: “Fire is the test of gold. Adversity is the test of man.”
He added, “When you need to dig down deep inside of you to bring out a successful results, it’s difficult. Sometimes, you don’t feel well but you have to dig down -- whether in marriage, bringing up children, success in real estate.” Or art.
He also works hard to keep his tenants happy, and has been known to rip up some leases for tenants who are struggling. “If they can’t get a loan in time, I’d return their deposit,” he said. “I’d rather give it back and say we’ll do another deal another time. Our goodwill we create is for a family business. I have children and grandchildren in this business and know how this will affect them in this business.”
He teaches his grandchildren about opera and art in his Cape Cod studio, using those vehicles to also teach about astronomy, math and other subjects. “They all want to be artists like their grandpa,” he said, beaming.
He wants the great opera houses to still be operating when his grandchildren grow old enough to appreciate it. His opera art will never be sold, he vows, but will go on tour to raise money for opera houses. “I didn’t paint these to make money for myself,” he said. The works will go on tour when he finishes his last two paintings, “Romeo and Juliet” and “Turandot” for a total of 32. “I’ll donate the use of the paintings for a month at a time, for exhibits, and for them to sell my cards, coasters and prints,” he said.
Limited edition museum quality prints are signed and numbered, and glossy coasters and tiles are available online through www.OperaArt.US.
Back Bay Sun
A collection of paintings in the upper floors of a Copley Square real estate office displays scenes full of sexuality and betrayal and murder. It’s like life ripped from the tabloids, or today’s soap operas, but these stories were told centuries before as entertainment.
“These stories are crazy,” said artist Nicholas Abraham. He says it a little too enthusiastically, until you realize that he is a rare breed of music lover: the opera fan. Abraham is happy to talk about his 30-piece series of 20-by-24-inch oil paintings, which opera aficionados will recognize as scenes from such classics as “Carmen,” “La Boheme,” “Madama Butterfly,” “La Traviata,” “Tosca,” and “Tristan and Isolde”.
He’s done portraits of performers like Luciano Pavarotti, Jose Carrera and Placido Domingo, and composers such as Verdi, Puccini, and Wagner. But Abraham, 67, is not only an artist - he is a multi-millionaire real estate developer who came late to the art world.
He liked to draw when he was in school, but Abraham put that aside to build a career developing properties around Boston and New Hampshire, and raising a family. “I have wanted to paint since I was 8 years old, but being a father and husband, I wanted to send my kids to college,” he said.
At 60, Abraham bought a condo in Naples, Fla., and had some time on his hands. But when a bum knee ended his golfing hobby, he didn’t know what to do. His wife reminded him about how much he had always wanted to paint, and in the spring of 2002, he picked up some art supplies and taught himself how to paint. “I was really bad,” he said. “I thought it would be so easy.”
But he persevered, and studied impressionists such as Manet, Renoir and Degas, studying brush strokes and other techniques. He kept challenging himself, and eventually developed a style that’s compared to Matisse, Modigliani and Picasso.
Abraham is another kind of artist, too – a jazz musician who has toured the country playing drums. His musical curiosity eventually led to studying classical music, and then he was floored by the beauty and grandeur of an opera by Puccini.
“I said, ‘My God, that’s very moving,’” he said. It took him 10 years to truly understand opera, figuring out what he liked and didn’t like. He found he favored Italian operas. “They are romantic, and melodic,” he said. “They reach into my heart and bring tears to my eyes. It’s such a talent and gift. I appreciate it because I know how difficult it is to do something so exceptional.”
And when they say “Do what you love,” Abraham decided to paint what he loved. “It was easy for me to combine my love of opera and my love of art,” he said.
He started painting famous scenes from the world’s greatest operas, along with their composers and artists. Initial reviews by opera critics have lauded his work. “Abraham brings to the 20-by-24 linen canvas color, action, mood and a sense of excitement that conveys in its own right a sublime statement of what the artist feels,” said one reviewer at OperaOnline.us. “Its colors are vibrant; its characters, animated; its power, especially in ensemble, immense.”
He’s come a long way since his first painting, which, he said “looks like a child’s painting. I now see how I progressed, and I am amazed. I just stuck with it until I get it right.”
And when he thinks about it, he likens art to the world of real estate development. “Painting is not just an art, it’s a challenge. Commercially acceptable artists fall into a rut of painting what their customers want them to paint. All the great masters refused to fit into the mainstream. They weren’t even allowed to show their paintings in salons, because of their ‘deviant behavior,’” he said.
Like his painting career, Abraham started his real estate career with lots of elbow grease – literally. His father owned properties in Newton, and put young Abraham to work when he was 7, by pushing a hand-mower over the properties’ lawns. When he was 10, he graduated to helping maintain his father’s properties in Roxbury and Grove Hall, and later in Brookline. He began renting apartments and rose to managing construction sites. He had 16 years of experience before he went on his own in his early 20s.
One of his first properties was the Cushing Endicott House at 163 Marlborough St., a 10,000-square-foot mansion he converted to six units. He then developed 120 condos in New Hampshire, and in 1989, he bought the building his offices currently occupy on Boylston Street, during the height of the market then. “I bought it without telling my father. When he found out, he yelled at me, saying I’d lose my shirt; but I’m still in the building, and it has risen in value.”
Abraham took a career detour, as a trial lawyer for 20 years, while serving as the family business’ lawyer. His father took some of his money and invested it in property. When his father became seriously ill in 1986, Abraham retired as a lawyer and took over the properties his father managed.
He also owns several Stor-Gard self-storage units, the Wal-Mart shopping center in Walpole, and he is now developing warehouse units in Northborough and Franklin.
He owns and manages a half-million square feet of property in Massachusetts.
He and his wife raised two children, Annise and Nicko, whom he made sure also went to work for his business when they turned 7. Today, Nicko is the company’s president.
“The key to be successful in any enterprise is in the love of what you do,” said Abraham. “You should have fun and be good at it, and stick through it until its successful completion.”
When times get tough, including with the current economic situation, he quotes a Chinese proverb: “Fire is the test of gold. Adversity is the test of man.”
He added, “When you need to dig down deep inside of you to bring out a successful results, it’s difficult. Sometimes, you don’t feel well but you have to dig down -- whether in marriage, bringing up children, success in real estate.” Or art.
He also works hard to keep his tenants happy, and has been known to rip up some leases for tenants who are struggling. “If they can’t get a loan in time, I’d return their deposit,” he said. “I’d rather give it back and say we’ll do another deal another time. Our goodwill we create is for a family business. I have children and grandchildren in this business and know how this will affect them in this business.”
He teaches his grandchildren about opera and art in his Cape Cod studio, using those vehicles to also teach about astronomy, math and other subjects. “They all want to be artists like their grandpa,” he said, beaming.
He wants the great opera houses to still be operating when his grandchildren grow old enough to appreciate it. His opera art will never be sold, he vows, but will go on tour to raise money for opera houses. “I didn’t paint these to make money for myself,” he said. The works will go on tour when he finishes his last two paintings, “Romeo and Juliet” and “Turandot” for a total of 32. “I’ll donate the use of the paintings for a month at a time, for exhibits, and for them to sell my cards, coasters and prints,” he said.
Limited edition museum quality prints are signed and numbered, and glossy coasters and tiles are available online through www.OperaArt.US.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Newbury St. business is the face of success with line of skin treatment
by Sandra Miller
Back Bay Sun
Dale Holman of Newton had been using department stores’ line of skin products for years, and she was so unhappy with most of them, she’d return them to the store. About eight years ago, she discovered the Skin Health line of eye creams, moisturizers, and sunblock, and said her face of a certain age has no lines, no wrinkles, no signs of sun damage.
“I think it’s the best line I’ve ever used, for quality and for results,” said Holman, a woman in her late 50s who appreciates the hypoallergenic aspect of the products, too. “The cosmetics from retail stores are hyped with advertisements. Ingredients are seriously diluted. Skin Health’s sunblock is absolutely outstanding - you never tan. I have absolutely no marks on my skin. My face has such a glow to the skin. That’s pretty unusual for someone my age.”
At the SkinHealth Centers, a team of physicians, facial cosmetic surgeons and medical aestheticians develop and provide cosmetic dermatology, laser and skin rejuvenation treatments. At the store, clients get an assessment of their skin’s needs. As part of the no-pressure sales team approach, customers can take home samples of skincare products to try before buying.
“It’s not a hard sell,” said Holman. “The department stores push products on you. People turn their judgment over to a saleslady who is on a serious commission. It’s not like that at SkinHealth.”
Apparently SkinHealth doesn’t have to push their products too hard, because of word of mouth that has been ongoing since the company was founded 10 years ago. SkinHealth clients include actors, television anchors and politicians and others in the public eye whose faces are a business asset.
Cheryl L. Clarkson, president and CEO of SkinHealth Inc., runs three stores, including one at 73 Newbury Street, and said business is so good despite the economy that she’s hired two more Harvard-trained doctors for plastic surgery and filler treatments, Drs. David Kieff and Dan Driscoll, to join Dr. Dan Townsend.
In this economy, she can keep hiring because business is steady, Clarkson said. “We have seen an increased number of people who feel they are trying to maintain their appearance because it’s a tough job market. Some of our clients have lost their jobs, while most are still working but are a little worried.”
Clarkson reports interest in eyelid surgery, which she says is safe, relatively inexpensive, and quick. “It’s something that doesn’t really leave any scars,” she said. “They can go back to work a week later and look refreshed, and no one is going to say, ‘Oh my God, you had eye surgery. It takes 10 years off, but people can’t put their finger on what’s different.”
They also do face-lifts, liposuction, tummy tucks and breast enhancement, performed in a hospital, with pre- and post-operative care provided at SkinHealth.
For her skin care products, Clarkson notes an increase in eyelash extensions, and a steady commitment to skincare maintenance. She’s especially excited about a few new products with enzymes, such as Vital Repair Enzyme Serum that helps repair damaged DNA.
“My products are just for those who want to look healthy and vibrant,” she said. “It’s not for glamour-pusses.
But what SkinHealth is best known for is its sunscreens, she said. “We have a robust mail-order business, to every state in the country. “My products are results-oriented. There’s no fluff and they really work.”
Clarkson at one time was a Fortune 500 CEO of three medical device companies. However, her world turned upside down when her only sibling, a 39-year-old Los Angeles journalist who wasn’t even a tanner, was diagnosed with melanoma.
To cope, she buried herself in research about her sister’s cancer.
“I quit my job to manage her care. We sought help from the best medical experts and the country’s best hospitals. We tried experimental protocols, but the reality was that her diagnosis had been a death sentence,” she said.
Melanoma is one of the few cancers on the increase, annually claiming more than 7,000 lives and ranks as the second leading cause of cancer death in women under 40. According to a recent report published by the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, melanoma diagnoses increased by 3.1 percent a year between 1992 and 2004.
Leveraging her MIT MBA and her manufacturing experience, Clarkson collaborated with physicians and dermatologists to launch a sunscreen product line with a higher percentage of active ingredients than those found on the typical store shelf.
“I’m very committed to finding a cure for melanoma,” said Clarkson, who is on the Children’s Hospital stem cell research committee, and is one of the founding members of the Cancer Leadership Council at Mass. General Hospital.
And for every store gift certificate sold, SkinHealth donates 5 percent to Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center for Melanoma Research.
“I believe one of the reasons we’ve become so successful is that I have such a passion for it,” she said.
She also uses her CEO background to build a business that’s anything but skin-deep. Clarkson launched SkinHealth in 1999, and in 2005, Clarkson bought out her investor to expand SkinHealth’s national presence on her own. Her initial business model evolved into retail stores with skin care products, advanced skin care and laser services, and cosmetic medical procedures performed by physicians.
Today, SkinHealth products range from cleansers to moisturizers to advanced therapies to seven kinds of sunscreens – including one that was voted Health Magazine’s best sunscreen.
In the end, however, it’s all about the client.
Dale Holnan has been a customer for years, having laser skin treatments to remove acne scars without surgery, and wearing her sunscreen every day, year round. Her face is smooth, and others compliment her on her glow. In turn, she’s turned others onto the products.
And the best testament to any business is hearing a customer like Holman say, “My friends thank me.”
Back Bay Sun
Dale Holman of Newton had been using department stores’ line of skin products for years, and she was so unhappy with most of them, she’d return them to the store. About eight years ago, she discovered the Skin Health line of eye creams, moisturizers, and sunblock, and said her face of a certain age has no lines, no wrinkles, no signs of sun damage.
“I think it’s the best line I’ve ever used, for quality and for results,” said Holman, a woman in her late 50s who appreciates the hypoallergenic aspect of the products, too. “The cosmetics from retail stores are hyped with advertisements. Ingredients are seriously diluted. Skin Health’s sunblock is absolutely outstanding - you never tan. I have absolutely no marks on my skin. My face has such a glow to the skin. That’s pretty unusual for someone my age.”
At the SkinHealth Centers, a team of physicians, facial cosmetic surgeons and medical aestheticians develop and provide cosmetic dermatology, laser and skin rejuvenation treatments. At the store, clients get an assessment of their skin’s needs. As part of the no-pressure sales team approach, customers can take home samples of skincare products to try before buying.
“It’s not a hard sell,” said Holman. “The department stores push products on you. People turn their judgment over to a saleslady who is on a serious commission. It’s not like that at SkinHealth.”
Apparently SkinHealth doesn’t have to push their products too hard, because of word of mouth that has been ongoing since the company was founded 10 years ago. SkinHealth clients include actors, television anchors and politicians and others in the public eye whose faces are a business asset.
Cheryl L. Clarkson, president and CEO of SkinHealth Inc., runs three stores, including one at 73 Newbury Street, and said business is so good despite the economy that she’s hired two more Harvard-trained doctors for plastic surgery and filler treatments, Drs. David Kieff and Dan Driscoll, to join Dr. Dan Townsend.
In this economy, she can keep hiring because business is steady, Clarkson said. “We have seen an increased number of people who feel they are trying to maintain their appearance because it’s a tough job market. Some of our clients have lost their jobs, while most are still working but are a little worried.”
Clarkson reports interest in eyelid surgery, which she says is safe, relatively inexpensive, and quick. “It’s something that doesn’t really leave any scars,” she said. “They can go back to work a week later and look refreshed, and no one is going to say, ‘Oh my God, you had eye surgery. It takes 10 years off, but people can’t put their finger on what’s different.”
They also do face-lifts, liposuction, tummy tucks and breast enhancement, performed in a hospital, with pre- and post-operative care provided at SkinHealth.
For her skin care products, Clarkson notes an increase in eyelash extensions, and a steady commitment to skincare maintenance. She’s especially excited about a few new products with enzymes, such as Vital Repair Enzyme Serum that helps repair damaged DNA.
“My products are just for those who want to look healthy and vibrant,” she said. “It’s not for glamour-pusses.
But what SkinHealth is best known for is its sunscreens, she said. “We have a robust mail-order business, to every state in the country. “My products are results-oriented. There’s no fluff and they really work.”
Clarkson at one time was a Fortune 500 CEO of three medical device companies. However, her world turned upside down when her only sibling, a 39-year-old Los Angeles journalist who wasn’t even a tanner, was diagnosed with melanoma.
To cope, she buried herself in research about her sister’s cancer.
“I quit my job to manage her care. We sought help from the best medical experts and the country’s best hospitals. We tried experimental protocols, but the reality was that her diagnosis had been a death sentence,” she said.
Melanoma is one of the few cancers on the increase, annually claiming more than 7,000 lives and ranks as the second leading cause of cancer death in women under 40. According to a recent report published by the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, melanoma diagnoses increased by 3.1 percent a year between 1992 and 2004.
Leveraging her MIT MBA and her manufacturing experience, Clarkson collaborated with physicians and dermatologists to launch a sunscreen product line with a higher percentage of active ingredients than those found on the typical store shelf.
“I’m very committed to finding a cure for melanoma,” said Clarkson, who is on the Children’s Hospital stem cell research committee, and is one of the founding members of the Cancer Leadership Council at Mass. General Hospital.
And for every store gift certificate sold, SkinHealth donates 5 percent to Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center for Melanoma Research.
“I believe one of the reasons we’ve become so successful is that I have such a passion for it,” she said.
She also uses her CEO background to build a business that’s anything but skin-deep. Clarkson launched SkinHealth in 1999, and in 2005, Clarkson bought out her investor to expand SkinHealth’s national presence on her own. Her initial business model evolved into retail stores with skin care products, advanced skin care and laser services, and cosmetic medical procedures performed by physicians.
Today, SkinHealth products range from cleansers to moisturizers to advanced therapies to seven kinds of sunscreens – including one that was voted Health Magazine’s best sunscreen.
In the end, however, it’s all about the client.
Dale Holnan has been a customer for years, having laser skin treatments to remove acne scars without surgery, and wearing her sunscreen every day, year round. Her face is smooth, and others compliment her on her glow. In turn, she’s turned others onto the products.
And the best testament to any business is hearing a customer like Holman say, “My friends thank me.”
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Winthrop attorney opens branch in North End; says divorce rates are down
By Sandra MillerRegional Review
The good news is that, with the economy the way it is, divorce rates are down. The bad news is, it’s only because battling couples are just waiting for 401K and real estate values to rise before divvying them up, says a local attorney.
“Divorce is down 27 percent,” said Atty. Edward Amaral, who had been practicing for years in Winthrop and opened up a second office this fall in the North End. “They’re just prolonging their divorce.” Which means prolonging tension in the home, and if there are children involved, that’s not good. “Everyone knows what’s in the best interest of their children.”
Atty. Amaral does a lot of divorce cases, but he tends to do more divorce mediation, which is a less expensive and less contentious way to go, he said.
Plus, his “associate” Luciano, his cream-colored French bulldog, has a way of warming up clients so they act more civil toward each other, said Amaral, who said, “He’s the best mediator we have.” With Luciano’s big floppy ears and his unabashed love of being patted, Amaral is probably not exaggerating.
Amaral, who is single, admits to being a softie when it comes to marriage. He knows he’s biting the hand that feeds him – the divorce industry -- by saying, “I’m actually anti-divorce.” He thinks many people can work things out if they tried a little harder; however, he also knows that divorce is also sometimes the best thing for doomed marriages. “Any psychologist or psychiatrist or therapist will say once the air is cleansed, there’s no reason why you can’t be best friends.”
Atty. Amaral grew up in Worcester, the only lawyer in his family. His father’s a retired surgeon, his mom was a travel agent who passed away in 1994 of cancer. His brother’s a colonel in the US Army stationed in Washington, D.C., and his sister manages a restaurant in Saratoga, N.Y.
He’s wanted to be a lawyer ever since his third grade teacher Miss Avakian at the Thorndike Elementary in Worcester gave him the idea. “She told me I had a big mouth that reminded her of a Philadelphia attorney. It stuck with me.”
He studied law at Suffolk University, and tried to invite his old third grade teacher to his graduation ceremony in 1992, only to meet disappointment. “She was nowhere to be found,” he recalled.
Amaral worked for the Bronx District Attorney’s office as an assistant district attorney and opened up his own law practice at 92 State Street in Boston in 1994. However, he said the Big Dig scared away a lot of clients. "It was a nightmare. I think people don't like to go into the city, look for parking.”
He was living in Winthrop’s Seal Harbor at the time, and so he decided to renovate a building on Revere Street in Winthrop 11 years ago. Three years ago he moved his home to the Prince building on Atlantic Avenue, which he swears has a view of his old Seal Harbor home. North Enders may have noticed the handsome, unmarried lawyer walking around the neighborhood with Luciano. Amaral, whose last name is Portuguese, is also of Italian and Greek decent, so he’s happy to be working in the North End again. In 1986 Amaral worked as a paralegal for Campbell and Associates, a law firm above the former Michael’s restaurant at 83 Atlantic Avenue, which was next store to his new office. He fondly recalls grabbing sandwiches at the old Scola’s sub shop.
Amaral decided to open up the North End office as a convenience to those area residents who also use the Winthrop office but work in town. Unlike the fancy State Street address, he said, “We’ve been busy since the day we opened.”
He meets clients everywhere – at the Beacon Hill Athletic Club down the street, at the Sports Club LA gym, where he also goes, and he even gets referrals from his competitors’ clients. “They say, ‘I wish I had him working for me,’ and they tell their friends. It’s all word of mouth.”
Amaral is also seeing more bankruptcy and debt restructuring cases coming in because of the economy. Unfortunately with a lot of lawyers with not a lot of work, he’s also seeing a lot of cases that don’t have much merit coming into court.
Amaral is a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association, Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys, and The Offshore Institute. He is also an affiliate partner with the law firm of Engel and Reiman, P.C., whose principal attorney, Barry Engel, “is considered one of if not the top asset protection and offshore trust attorneys in the world,” said Amaral.
His eight-member law firm practices general law in the areas of family law, real estate, estate planning, asset protection, business law, immigration and personal injury. His staff includes paralegal Mal Jones, legal assistant Lindsey McClarey, and Atty. Joe Vecchio, all of Winthrop. There’s two lawyers in each office, and four support staff.
He’s also considering expanding his divorce mediation practice to other areas around the state. But for now, he’s doing a balancing act with keeping busy and trying to keep his clients in check.
“The economy is affecting everyone,” said Amaral, who noted having to remind a few clients to pay on time so he can meet his payroll. Otherwise, for his line of work, with his experience, he says, “We’ve been lucky; we’re recession-proof. We’re very good at what we do. We’re at the top of our game.”
That’s why he tries to steer his clients toward divorce mediation instead of a costly court battle. “Most divorces can be settled for $1,250 each,” said Atty. Amaral, who said he has represented many high-net-worth clients with divorces, support and custody matters. “Divorce can cost $30,000-$50,000, when they could just settle in 10 hours or less. It’s such a big waste of money. People can at least call a divorce mediator by phone for free consultation.”
For more information:
Atty. Edward Amaral
65 Atlantic Avenue, Boston
(617) 742-2020
Winthrop
246 Revere Street,
Winthrop
(617) 539-1010
edamaral@amarallaw.com
www.amarallaw.com
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Beautification Committee keeps things clean
By Sandra Miller
Winthrop Sun Transcript
Winthrop is a pretty little community. When you come into town, there’s a happy little traffic island with flowers. In the center of town, French Square is a restful respite with benches and natural settings. Along the main streets, you probably take for granted just how litter-free it is.
This doesn’t happen because of your tax dollars, although the town DPW does what it can. It’s not magic little fairies that swoop in and blow away the trash. Actually, it’s a merry band of active citizens who care about how their town looks.
The Winthrop Beautification Committee has quietly toiled away for decades, doing everything from picking up cans and candy wrappers while doing fitness walks around town, to granting sponsorships of traffic islands, to organizing large-scale cleanup of major areas such as Hannaford Park and Crest Avenue park. Now that it’s spring the crocuses they planted at Hannaford and in front of Town Hall two years ago are beginning to sprout again.
They held their first meeting of the year on Monday, which followed the first day of spring, coming away with a new schedule of cleanup projects around town – which welcomes plenty of volunteers.
Said committee president Alan Peabody, “We’re not trying to do the town’s job. We’re just putting the spit shine on the town.”
The beautification committee was founded in 1981, when Architectural Designer and gardener Frank Costantino heard about plans by the Board of Selectmen to support a Metropolitan Area Planning Council idea to raze the middle of French Square to make way for a new road. Costantino filed a counterreport stating that the road idea was “basically destroying that open space, in the center of the center's congested zone,” said Costantino.
“That approach would be maybe get more vehicular circulation but would destroy the character of the park that was there. I thought it was really a poor way of handling the problem and of handling the old Narrow Gauge railroad station stop.”
His counterproposal would replace the fenced-in square with a park. “It was unfortunately being used as a dog run, sealed off with wire fencing. At the time it wasn’t a very attractive spot. The idea was to open it up as a quiet place for rest and relaxation. The concept was a community living room.”
The town liked his idea, which led to the creation of a Beautification Committee, consisting of five members plus Costantino as chair. Members of the Winthrop Gardening Club joined forces, and the likes of Norma Belcher and other experienced gardeners lent their knowledge of plants.
Its first planted site was the transformation of the Crest Avenue island, complete with a donated boat named after Sidvin Tucker. Another boat with “piers” fashioned from old telephone poles was set up at Beacon Circle, and dedicated to Winthrop icon Edward Rowe Snow. French Square took more than four years to complete, and was dedicated in August 1987.
“We continued our upgrading work on all public islands and spaces throughout the town for over 15 years, supported solely by donations and citizen fundraisers,” recalled Costantino. “We added members to the Committee as we went, and regularly had 8 to 10 members doing the hands-on work each season.”
They got strong high school students and football players to lug poles and cobblestones. “I had kids mix mortar, we had dropping in contractors and masons,” Costantino recalled.
When the boats eventually disintegrated, they replaced them with other decorations. Richard Vivolo, who recently passed away, and fellow shop teacher Sid Williams built planters, a few of which are still standing. The committee rallied churches, civic groups and students to get involved. “We had a cooperative board of selectmen, and fantastic support from the DPW,” recalled Costantino.
As the original Beautification Committee aged, a business sponsorship program was launched in 1991, with the help of Michael Carney and a number of Chamber of Commerce businesses, while the committee members continued to focus on French Square and the Highlands.
Costantino, whose business is on Pauline Street, is still sponsoring a site, but his role is more as consultant. Richard Honan took over as chair for years, and Alan and Betty Peabody joined about 10 years ago until Alan was named chair last year when he retired from the airlines, and Betty became treasurer.
“I joined because of the satisfaction and the visual effect that one small group can accomplish,” said Alan. “I would have to say I am proud of every project that the committee undertakes but, if I have to single one out it would be the four hours (on a beautiful fall day) that the volunteers committed to clean up a neglected Hannaford Park.”
Yep, volunteers. Not the DPW, not some state agency, not prisoners on work leave. It’s a quiet revolution that maybe hasn’t been picked up by many residents: that Winthrop is a cleaner town thanks to an unsung committee of do-gooders. Well, not completely unsung: Betty Peabody received a beautification award from the Chamber years ago.
And now that it’s spring, it’s time for them to plot this year’s cleanup schedule. At the committee’s Monday meeting, they discussed a few projects and brainstormed some marketing ideas to add to their couple dozen members.
For 2009, the committee is seeking an hour from all able-bodied residents and their families to spend a little time taking pride in their community, to participate in what the group calls “Guerrilla Work Parties.” They’ll supply the weedwhackers, brooms, and bags. You supply your own protective gloves.
April 4: 8 am, to kick off the season, they’ll target the Main Street/Saratoga Street bridge area. They’ll even bring coffee.
May 2: Hannaford Park – last year they did one side of the park, and now they’ll take clear away the trash and brush on the other side. “We need a lot of people for Hannaford,” said Helen. “It’s brutal.”
May 24: Dean Winthrop House, with the Winthrop Improvement and Historical Association.
June 20: Massa Playground on Beacon Street.
***
While the DPW does its share of maintenance, street sweeping and other cleanup, they can’t be everywhere, all the time. And with layoffs and aging pipes and maintaining the park lawns, there’s only so many hours in the day.
DPW Director Dave Hickey gets emails from the Beautification Committee with requests for help. “They’ll email me saying, ‘By the way, we noticed a broken fence,” said Hickey. “They mostly work very quietly behind the scenes. They are a super resource to the town of Winthrop.”
Anyway, it’s not really the town’s help they need; it’s the businesses and residents. They aren’t super-martyrs, so they’re not shy about asking for more volunteers.
“Those flowers need to be watered once a day in midsummer,” worried Helen Honan, whose husband, Steve, is also on the committee. “You have your own yard to do, you have work, I understand people are busy. We try to do these cleanups one hour, two hours max, on a Saturday or a Sunday. We’re only so many people. We can’t do it all.”
The committee said that if everyone in town, whether property owner or renter, business owner or wandering teen, would at least pick up after themselves, around their homes and businesses, then their little group wouldn’t have to work as hard. Everyone can make a difference, they say. That’s what they say when they’re patient.
And sometimes they get annoyed. Board member Susan Gervasi wants to talk to the guy who regularly leaves a Heineken bottle at the bridge coming into town. Others seethe at weeds in curb cracks. Almost everyone on the committee, however, are really upset at businesses who don’t maintain their storefronts.
“My biggest pet peeve are the business owners who do not clean up from door to curb or for that matter don’t take pride in their own business district,” said Alan Peabody.
“They blame it on staff cuts,” said Helen Honan. “People don’t want to hear it. That’s a lame excuse. It doesn’t cost anything to keep things clean.”
In the meanwhile, the committee members do what they can, carrying trash bags while they walk around town. They know where to borrow the occasional chainsaw to take care of problem trees, like the crooked olive tree at Beacon Circle that a resident requested help with.
The group members are even willing to give advice to residents, such as gardening tips or how to clean a gutter. They’re thinking of starting a blog or a newsletter to provide tips, and considering posting reminders in the paper or on a sandwich board or at the hardware stores.
But…isn’t it somebody else’s job to clean the town? “That’s the flaw – the somebody is them,” said Costantino. “It comes down to inattention. Things can very quickly get very slummy looking and very messy. Maybe other can hire gardeners and landscapers. We’re a town with lesser resources. We have to do more of it ourselves.”
Plus, there’s a number of rewards to keeping your town clean.
“There’s a psyche to having a clean place,” said Betty. Added Gervasi, “It only helps the valuation of your property. The value increases. If you don’t have pride in your community, you don’t have anything.”
“It’s a mindset,” said Costantino. “It has to do with a commitment to the community that’s an extension of themselves. If they pick up a piece of trash, it will be less messy for themselves and others traveling though the course of a week. Everyone should be picking up around their own property, as the approach to life, on a day to day basis.”
“The naysayers say that you can’t do anything because the teenagers ruin it,” he said. “Well, I involved the teenagers, and they helped and now they are parents. Teaching the kids is very important. We all have a vested interest in the town.”
He refers to one of the books he read during his college years that struck a strong chord in him and countless others: The Whole Earth Catalog. “It brought out the connections we all share, and the buzz phrase ‘To think globally, act locally.’ If we make our own towns a better place to live, hopefully that example will rub off on the larger community.”
Sidebar:
Box:
Some businesses maintain an island. In 2008, the following sponsored areas around town, and are expected to renew their sponsorships: Amaral & Associaties: Belle Isle Bridge; Boyd and Conway Insurance, French Square; Century 21 Seacoast, Revere St. and Highland Ave.; Gentle Leaders Dog Walking Service, Dinsfriend Square; Cervizzi’s, Winthrop Center; MTS Landscaping, Beacon Circle; Frank Costantino, Metcalf Square; The Dreamlawn.com, Revere St. and Crest Ave.; Honan Sign, Main St. and Hermon St.; Luna Boutique, Yirrell Beach; Marr Real Estate, Crest and Highland; Rep. Bob DeLeo and Sen. Anthony Petrucelli, EB Newton School; Steve Honan, the Public Landing; Swetts Liquors, Winthrop Center; Terry Vazquez, Revere St. and Crest Ave.; Kelly Construction, Memory Square; Biggio Insurance, Magee’s Corner; Industrial Television Services, Main and Pleasant streets.
Others with barrels include Five Petals Flower, Luna, Moonstruck Café, Pizza Center, The Crusty Crumpet, Winthrop Chamber of Commerce, Salon Luxo, Twist and Shake, and Gary’s Restaurant.
What they raise in sponsorships and fees goes toward more flowers, equipment such as brooms and rakes, maybe some coffee for early-morning volunteers.
Sponsorships are $35, and many businesses do their own plantings. Committee charges $100 for 3 plantings a year. The areas get a plaque with the sponsor’s name on it, which means year-round advertising.
Anyone who wants to start a new spot, or when one of the above spots open, the committee welcomes sponsors.
Winthrop Sun Transcript
Winthrop is a pretty little community. When you come into town, there’s a happy little traffic island with flowers. In the center of town, French Square is a restful respite with benches and natural settings. Along the main streets, you probably take for granted just how litter-free it is.
This doesn’t happen because of your tax dollars, although the town DPW does what it can. It’s not magic little fairies that swoop in and blow away the trash. Actually, it’s a merry band of active citizens who care about how their town looks.
The Winthrop Beautification Committee has quietly toiled away for decades, doing everything from picking up cans and candy wrappers while doing fitness walks around town, to granting sponsorships of traffic islands, to organizing large-scale cleanup of major areas such as Hannaford Park and Crest Avenue park. Now that it’s spring the crocuses they planted at Hannaford and in front of Town Hall two years ago are beginning to sprout again.
They held their first meeting of the year on Monday, which followed the first day of spring, coming away with a new schedule of cleanup projects around town – which welcomes plenty of volunteers.
Said committee president Alan Peabody, “We’re not trying to do the town’s job. We’re just putting the spit shine on the town.”
The beautification committee was founded in 1981, when Architectural Designer and gardener Frank Costantino heard about plans by the Board of Selectmen to support a Metropolitan Area Planning Council idea to raze the middle of French Square to make way for a new road. Costantino filed a counterreport stating that the road idea was “basically destroying that open space, in the center of the center's congested zone,” said Costantino.
“That approach would be maybe get more vehicular circulation but would destroy the character of the park that was there. I thought it was really a poor way of handling the problem and of handling the old Narrow Gauge railroad station stop.”
His counterproposal would replace the fenced-in square with a park. “It was unfortunately being used as a dog run, sealed off with wire fencing. At the time it wasn’t a very attractive spot. The idea was to open it up as a quiet place for rest and relaxation. The concept was a community living room.”
The town liked his idea, which led to the creation of a Beautification Committee, consisting of five members plus Costantino as chair. Members of the Winthrop Gardening Club joined forces, and the likes of Norma Belcher and other experienced gardeners lent their knowledge of plants.
Its first planted site was the transformation of the Crest Avenue island, complete with a donated boat named after Sidvin Tucker. Another boat with “piers” fashioned from old telephone poles was set up at Beacon Circle, and dedicated to Winthrop icon Edward Rowe Snow. French Square took more than four years to complete, and was dedicated in August 1987.
“We continued our upgrading work on all public islands and spaces throughout the town for over 15 years, supported solely by donations and citizen fundraisers,” recalled Costantino. “We added members to the Committee as we went, and regularly had 8 to 10 members doing the hands-on work each season.”
They got strong high school students and football players to lug poles and cobblestones. “I had kids mix mortar, we had dropping in contractors and masons,” Costantino recalled.
When the boats eventually disintegrated, they replaced them with other decorations. Richard Vivolo, who recently passed away, and fellow shop teacher Sid Williams built planters, a few of which are still standing. The committee rallied churches, civic groups and students to get involved. “We had a cooperative board of selectmen, and fantastic support from the DPW,” recalled Costantino.
As the original Beautification Committee aged, a business sponsorship program was launched in 1991, with the help of Michael Carney and a number of Chamber of Commerce businesses, while the committee members continued to focus on French Square and the Highlands.
Costantino, whose business is on Pauline Street, is still sponsoring a site, but his role is more as consultant. Richard Honan took over as chair for years, and Alan and Betty Peabody joined about 10 years ago until Alan was named chair last year when he retired from the airlines, and Betty became treasurer.
“I joined because of the satisfaction and the visual effect that one small group can accomplish,” said Alan. “I would have to say I am proud of every project that the committee undertakes but, if I have to single one out it would be the four hours (on a beautiful fall day) that the volunteers committed to clean up a neglected Hannaford Park.”
Yep, volunteers. Not the DPW, not some state agency, not prisoners on work leave. It’s a quiet revolution that maybe hasn’t been picked up by many residents: that Winthrop is a cleaner town thanks to an unsung committee of do-gooders. Well, not completely unsung: Betty Peabody received a beautification award from the Chamber years ago.
And now that it’s spring, it’s time for them to plot this year’s cleanup schedule. At the committee’s Monday meeting, they discussed a few projects and brainstormed some marketing ideas to add to their couple dozen members.
For 2009, the committee is seeking an hour from all able-bodied residents and their families to spend a little time taking pride in their community, to participate in what the group calls “Guerrilla Work Parties.” They’ll supply the weedwhackers, brooms, and bags. You supply your own protective gloves.
April 4: 8 am, to kick off the season, they’ll target the Main Street/Saratoga Street bridge area. They’ll even bring coffee.
May 2: Hannaford Park – last year they did one side of the park, and now they’ll take clear away the trash and brush on the other side. “We need a lot of people for Hannaford,” said Helen. “It’s brutal.”
May 24: Dean Winthrop House, with the Winthrop Improvement and Historical Association.
June 20: Massa Playground on Beacon Street.
***
While the DPW does its share of maintenance, street sweeping and other cleanup, they can’t be everywhere, all the time. And with layoffs and aging pipes and maintaining the park lawns, there’s only so many hours in the day.
DPW Director Dave Hickey gets emails from the Beautification Committee with requests for help. “They’ll email me saying, ‘By the way, we noticed a broken fence,” said Hickey. “They mostly work very quietly behind the scenes. They are a super resource to the town of Winthrop.”
Anyway, it’s not really the town’s help they need; it’s the businesses and residents. They aren’t super-martyrs, so they’re not shy about asking for more volunteers.
“Those flowers need to be watered once a day in midsummer,” worried Helen Honan, whose husband, Steve, is also on the committee. “You have your own yard to do, you have work, I understand people are busy. We try to do these cleanups one hour, two hours max, on a Saturday or a Sunday. We’re only so many people. We can’t do it all.”
The committee said that if everyone in town, whether property owner or renter, business owner or wandering teen, would at least pick up after themselves, around their homes and businesses, then their little group wouldn’t have to work as hard. Everyone can make a difference, they say. That’s what they say when they’re patient.
And sometimes they get annoyed. Board member Susan Gervasi wants to talk to the guy who regularly leaves a Heineken bottle at the bridge coming into town. Others seethe at weeds in curb cracks. Almost everyone on the committee, however, are really upset at businesses who don’t maintain their storefronts.
“My biggest pet peeve are the business owners who do not clean up from door to curb or for that matter don’t take pride in their own business district,” said Alan Peabody.
“They blame it on staff cuts,” said Helen Honan. “People don’t want to hear it. That’s a lame excuse. It doesn’t cost anything to keep things clean.”
In the meanwhile, the committee members do what they can, carrying trash bags while they walk around town. They know where to borrow the occasional chainsaw to take care of problem trees, like the crooked olive tree at Beacon Circle that a resident requested help with.
The group members are even willing to give advice to residents, such as gardening tips or how to clean a gutter. They’re thinking of starting a blog or a newsletter to provide tips, and considering posting reminders in the paper or on a sandwich board or at the hardware stores.
But…isn’t it somebody else’s job to clean the town? “That’s the flaw – the somebody is them,” said Costantino. “It comes down to inattention. Things can very quickly get very slummy looking and very messy. Maybe other can hire gardeners and landscapers. We’re a town with lesser resources. We have to do more of it ourselves.”
Plus, there’s a number of rewards to keeping your town clean.
“There’s a psyche to having a clean place,” said Betty. Added Gervasi, “It only helps the valuation of your property. The value increases. If you don’t have pride in your community, you don’t have anything.”
“It’s a mindset,” said Costantino. “It has to do with a commitment to the community that’s an extension of themselves. If they pick up a piece of trash, it will be less messy for themselves and others traveling though the course of a week. Everyone should be picking up around their own property, as the approach to life, on a day to day basis.”
“The naysayers say that you can’t do anything because the teenagers ruin it,” he said. “Well, I involved the teenagers, and they helped and now they are parents. Teaching the kids is very important. We all have a vested interest in the town.”
He refers to one of the books he read during his college years that struck a strong chord in him and countless others: The Whole Earth Catalog. “It brought out the connections we all share, and the buzz phrase ‘To think globally, act locally.’ If we make our own towns a better place to live, hopefully that example will rub off on the larger community.”
Sidebar:
Box:
Some businesses maintain an island. In 2008, the following sponsored areas around town, and are expected to renew their sponsorships: Amaral & Associaties: Belle Isle Bridge; Boyd and Conway Insurance, French Square; Century 21 Seacoast, Revere St. and Highland Ave.; Gentle Leaders Dog Walking Service, Dinsfriend Square; Cervizzi’s, Winthrop Center; MTS Landscaping, Beacon Circle; Frank Costantino, Metcalf Square; The Dreamlawn.com, Revere St. and Crest Ave.; Honan Sign, Main St. and Hermon St.; Luna Boutique, Yirrell Beach; Marr Real Estate, Crest and Highland; Rep. Bob DeLeo and Sen. Anthony Petrucelli, EB Newton School; Steve Honan, the Public Landing; Swetts Liquors, Winthrop Center; Terry Vazquez, Revere St. and Crest Ave.; Kelly Construction, Memory Square; Biggio Insurance, Magee’s Corner; Industrial Television Services, Main and Pleasant streets.
Others with barrels include Five Petals Flower, Luna, Moonstruck Café, Pizza Center, The Crusty Crumpet, Winthrop Chamber of Commerce, Salon Luxo, Twist and Shake, and Gary’s Restaurant.
What they raise in sponsorships and fees goes toward more flowers, equipment such as brooms and rakes, maybe some coffee for early-morning volunteers.
Sponsorships are $35, and many businesses do their own plantings. Committee charges $100 for 3 plantings a year. The areas get a plaque with the sponsor’s name on it, which means year-round advertising.
Anyone who wants to start a new spot, or when one of the above spots open, the committee welcomes sponsors.
Team says I Do to wedding business
By Sandra Miller
Winthrop Sun Transcript
In an economy that’s seeing a lot of boarded-up storefronts, local wedding photographer Nikki Cole and her wedding-singer husband, Chris, decided to open a studio at 518 Shirley Street. After all, people don’t stop getting married, even in an economic downturn.
Nikki Cole is a lifelong resident here, who worked a lot of weddings for the catering business belonging to her father, Richard DiMento. “I started in the kitchen as a prep cook, then as a server, and became his host and manager,” she said.
Wedding cake and champagne toasts were in her blood, and yet after graduating from Winthrop High, she studied political science at the University of New Hampshire, thinking she’d go into law. But after some soul-searching, she decided becoming a lawyer wasn’t a good fit, and she ended up doing wedding planning.
She had built up a successful business, and headed the wedding planning department at Seaport Hotels. Looking to be more well-rounded, she picked up a camera belonging to one of her photographer vendors, Dan Doke. She had never had any interest in photography before, and yet the photos “came out pretty good,” she recalled. “He was impressed, and trained her as an assistant for a few years while she continued doing weddings at the Seaport Hotel. She started shooting on her own.
Despite no formal photo background, she found that her experience in the wedding industry gave her what her clients wanted: an understanding of what they wanted captured on their special day.
“It’s more iporatnt to know about weddings than photography these days,” she said. “People are more inclined to like the candids and capturing the special moment. It’s not about posed photography … it’s about telling a story about the day, and including the clients’ cultures.”
Soon, friends and business associates were hiring her, and her moonlighting job on the weekends began to get so busy, she didn’t have time to plan weddings anymore. “It kind of snowballed,” she said.
Nikki went full-time last year, and has since shot hundreds of weddings. Business is busy on the weekends, and clients come into her studio during the week, too, to go over packages and plans. She takes corporate headshots, senior portraits, and family portraits, including a growing industry with pregnant-belly shots. But wedding photos are her bread and butter, even in this economy.
Inspired by reality TV shows, weddings have grown into an extravagant industry, earning $73 billion in 2006, nearly double what it pulled in 15 years before, according to Conde Nast Bridal Media. However, people are cutting back with off-the-rack wedding gowns, smaller wedding parties, and other cutbacks. The National Association of Catering Executives reported 48 percent seeing a decline in wedding food spending. And the Wedding Report research company reports a slight dip in the average price of weddings, nationally at $28,704. Still, the state is also seeing a boost in same-sex wedding spending; and in bad times, there’s nothing like having a party.
Heck, even Brides Magazine was started during the Great Depression, founded following a Fortune Magazine article that noted that even at times of economic depression, people would reliably spend money on weddings.
However, it’s hard to get away without professional photos or a decent wedding band, says the local couple.
“People are still getting married,” she said. “I found it was fortuitous to get in when I did. My prices are pretty reasonable, and so I’m finding clients are more appreciative now; they are really looking for a great value.”
The Coles speak from experience. Not only are they wedding industry vendors, they were clients once. And of course, they met at a wedding. “It’s the only way people in America get to meet each other,” she said, not entirely kidding. As a wedding planner, her weekends were doing weddings, so it didn’t give her an opportunity to meet anyone elsewhere.
She was planning a high-end wedding for an ad exec at, of all places, the wedding publication Knot. “My client kept raving about her band,” recalled Nikki. “I had never heard of them, and if I had never heard of them …. “ so she was dubious.
She had a brief phone conversation with Chris, and when she finally met him to plan the wedding music, she recalled thinking how handsome he was. “The band was spectacular,” she said of Chris’ band, Kahootz, an eight-piece band that does everything from Sinatra to Beyonce.
Chris is a Seattle native who came to Boston to attend Berklee School of Music. After a few years doing weddings for a few agencies, the crooner and sax player formed his own band in 1998. “We have four singers,” said Chris. “I’m the Tony Bennet/Sinatra guy. I was never a rocker; I’m more of a jazz guy.” They were getting so much business he now also manages a second band, called K2.
He recalls the first time he saw her. “I thought she was so cute, and at the end of the job, I was kind of in a funny position. As a vendor I didn’t want to come off as someone just hitting on somebody. So I waited til the end of the night to get her number … and she was gone.”
He kept looking for her at future Seaport gigs, but was meeting the other coordinator. “As it turned out, this worked out really well because she was seriously seeing someone else at the time.”
Two years later, he gets a phone call from a Seaport wedding planner. “I had this sassy girl giving me a hard time about details, about how I didn’t call her back earlier in the week. It was her. Before the end of the night, I tried to make it apparent I was interested. One band member was playing cupid. The base player said, ‘I know you’re going to marry her.’ I got her number at the end of the night.”
He invited her out for a glass of wine. “When I got her there I managed to talk her into a bottle,” he recalled.
Five years, they got married – that was last year this January. They hired a band from out of town, a group called Skintight that was similar to what his band did, so all of his local musician friends could attend his wedding. There were 150 guests at the Seaport Hotel, and they both said everything went perfectly. “There were no stories to tell,” she said. He added, “I think part of it, there’s a thing that you think it should be perfect, you set yourself up for disappointment. We chose the vendors that we knew would be able to roll with the punches and we knew could make lemonade out of lemons, which is how you want to choose people. She was still director of weddings when we got married, but she didn’t direct her own wedding. She handed things off and enjoyed being a bride. We had more fun than two people deserved to have.”
Chris’ business is also doing well in the economy.
“Our job is to see to our clients’ formalities, play great music for their first dance and formal dances, and get the audience to dance their butts off,” he said. While he understands why certain wedding parties would hire a DJ, there’s nothing like a live band at a wedding, or the corporate parties and fundraisers he also does, to get a party started.
“The client who wants the dj should get that,” said Chris. “There’s a difference in style in having a band and having a dj. I was in a wedding as a guest over the weekend, and there were two DJs working together, who were considered the best in the area. They created a really nice party. A great band creates a great event, creates an energy and interaction that you cannot replace with an iPod or CDs.”
Added Nikki, “Working with those guys it’s really a joy. They make my job easier because they get people dancing and that makes my job easier to shoot.”
Ironically, Nikki and Chris don’t work much together. “I don’t know if I’d want to work with him that much,” she said, laughing. He added, “We work together a few times a year, she works more with the second band. We refer each other a lot to clients. My band’s a great band but I don’t think a great band’s right for every client, just like Nikki’s style is not right for everyone. They could want a nontraditional photographer with a non-traditional band.”
“I think people think it’s a riot when they hire both of us,” said Nikki.
As a married couple, their dates are spent working, at weddings and music shows, and checking out new hotels. “We both really work hard,” said Nikki. “We find time for each other, steal a few hours on Sunday nights.”
They’re very busy working with potential clients this month, as the wedding season arrives full force in June. The two of them are so busy, they decided to rent a spot on Shirley Street. Her studio is booked during the week, and he uses the downstairs area for rehearsals.
They are noticing that in this economy, even with a once-in-a-lifetime event as the big wedding, people are trying to maximize their dollars.
Said Chris, “If your singers are terrific and you know how to create a party for your client, we offer great value. We’re noticing more clients are looking for an off night, like Fridays and Sundays.”
“People are always looking for doing the best thing they can with their budget,” added Nikki. “People want a great value, and great value equals quality. We’re always flexible with our packages, so they don’t have to pay for what they don’t need.”
And she recommends never skipping the wedding planner to save money. “It will cost you more in the long run.”
Area schools think creatively for raising funds
by Sandra Miller
Back Bay Sun
The economy may be decimating a lot of local fundraisers, but area schools planning their April fundraisers have the best reason in the world on why area residents are opening up their wallets: their kids’ future.
Still, many fundraisers are noticing a little less coming in this year, since a lot of families have been hurt by the economy, and they are looking to their private schools for financial aid.
As a result, many schools are getting creative.
“We’re definitely doing more with less this year,” said Kingsley Montessori School parent Tony Tjan, who is co-chair of the Kingsley’s April 25’s “Because Childhood Calls Us” gala and scholarship, to be held at the Artists for Humanity EpiCenter in South Boston. The Kingsley event marks a few milestones this year, including the school’s 70th anniversary, the 90th birthday of Lowell Kingsley, son of the founder, and Renee DuChainey-Farkes' 10th anniversary as head of school.
It’s also a year that has them a little worried about raising funds. Tjan said that in anticipation of difficult economic times, Kingsley Montessori School has changed its approach to its fundraising in three ways: doing more with less, seeking contributions earlier, and reminding donors of the purpose of why they need to raise money.
“We have some very generous parents within the school that either have restaurants or access to restaurants,” said Tjan. They’re also planning a simpler menu to stretch dollars while providing a tasty meal, including serving macaroni and cheese with truffle oil. “It’s good and fun and simple, something that everyone will enjoy,” he said, “and it won’t cost as much as what is on a more traditional menu.”
Most schools raise money through a combination of local sponsorships, ticket sales, raffle tickets, and auctioned items donated by parents’ businesses. The bids for auctions and raffles include sports tickets, entertainment offerings, even artwork and baskets of goodies the students and their teachers created.
In past years, many schools were able to trust that most parents would come through with funds, even up to the last minute for tickets and for auctions. No more. Now, gala organizers are trying to get the money before the event occurs, with ticket sales and sponsorships and raffle tickets. “The auctions on the night of the event traditionally make up two-thirds of the proceeds,” said Tjan. “This year, we’re trying hard to flip that around by being prudent, again with the anticipation we may not be able to raise as much the night of the event.” As a result, at Kingsley they are up 20 percent from the same time last year, although they are still below their goal.
“We hope to gross $150,000 this year,” said Tjan. “I think that’s at best a stretch goal. I think a more prudent measure is 20 percent more than last year’s net. If we can reach that, it’ll be like getting a triple, rather than a home run.”
Which is great, compared to many other nonprofits that report net proceeds are down by almost 50 percent lately, said DuChainey-Farkes.
"We are fortunate to have extremely committed and creative chairs in Tony Tjan and Darla Soukas, who have really been able to build upon the successes of last year's chairs, Lee Doyle and Marni Katz," she said.
The other part of the increased push to the donor community is articulating why the money is needed in the first place.
“This is where virtually all of our financial aid comes from,” said Tjan, noting that Kingsley doesn’t have an endowment. “We want to accomplish a great community building event, and tell everyone how critical this is for existing families and incoming ones. Across the board, the need is greater than ever.”
The Commonwealth School reports success in hitting up current families and alumni with its annual fund drive so far, running about even from what they raised this time last year. The annual fund accounts for more than 10 percent of the school’s overall budget.
An anonymous family is also promising to match each donation since January 26 with an additional $100, a challenge that was met by 11 families so far.
With just two months until the June 30 fiscal year closes, they have reached 80 percent of its goal – a whopping $480,000 so far.
“These numbers indicate the strong support we have from all of our constituents, but we need hundreds more gifts at every level to raise the last $120,000,” said school spokesperson Tristan Davies. “In our small community, each contribution makes a significant difference.”
In addition, a student dance-a-thon in February raised about $1,100 for Neighborhood Action, where students prepare meals for the homeless.
The tiny Learning Project on Marlborough Street is hosting an April 4th “April in Paris” themed spring auction at the Benjamin Franklin Institute in the South End. “We’re anticipating a great night,” said Director of School Advancement Andy Gallagher. Their goal is to raise $60,000 for scholarships and operating budget, and so far they’ve raised $50,000. Part of their success is gathering “useful” prizes. “With the tough economy, I think people just aren’t looking to buy extra things, so we’re trying to find what people need or want, like gift certificates to restaurants and vacations - things people will do anyway.”
Attendance numbers are down, 150 this year so far, compared to 170 last year, although they are hoping for a last-minute wave. To earn more, they’re trading the sit-down dinner for appetizers and desserts, catered by Chez Henri in Cambridge, and also with a raw bar donated by parents who own Neptune Oyster.
At the Advent School, one of the parents organizing its March 28th China-themed auction at the Hotel Marlowe is a local business owner who knows how to solicit gift certificates and sponsorships.
Casandra McIntyre, owner of Rugg Road, is in her third year of raising money for the school, where her daughter, second-grader Lillian, has been going since pre-school. McIntyre is co-chair with fellow mom Diane Woolf.
The Advent’s goal is $125,000, up from last year’s $120,000, to raise money for financial aid, faculty travel, special curricular projects and field trips, and other program enhancements.
The event also includes a cocktail hour and live and silent auctions that, in the past, donated auction items have included vacations in Vermont, Disney World, and Colorado, Red Sox tickets, and local gift certificates. One of the more popular auction items are art projects created by students. Organizers were able to secure some donated items, such as Harpoon supplying the event’s beer.
The North End’s St. John School is hosting an April 4 fundraiser, held at the Coast Guard base, free of charge, to help keep costs low for families. Their coffers are strong, so they were able to keep tuition from going up this year. Financial aid for Catholic school students in general is down, according to the Catholic Schools Foundation, while applications for aid are up.
Even parents at public schools are hosting April fundraisers to keep its programs protected from slashed budgets. The Eliot School in the North End will hold an Evening for Education on April 29 at Monica's Restaurant in the North End, a restaurant owned by Jorge Mendoza who has two children who attend the Eliot school. The school is also hosting another fundraiser dinner June 6 at Tecce's. Proceeds will help support its Italian Language program, technology such as white boards, field trips, and a nonprofit data analyst to create academic action plans for students. The school’s Family Council leaders, Denise Clancy and Fred White, aren’t sure what’s going to happen with their budget, but they want to ensure the future of certain programs that make them love what the Eliot is doing for their children.
“The budget is a movable feast at the moment,” said Boston Public Schools spokesperson Chris Horan, who added the superintendent of schools is presenting the budget this Wednesday to the School Committee.
Back Bay Sun
The economy may be decimating a lot of local fundraisers, but area schools planning their April fundraisers have the best reason in the world on why area residents are opening up their wallets: their kids’ future.
Still, many fundraisers are noticing a little less coming in this year, since a lot of families have been hurt by the economy, and they are looking to their private schools for financial aid.
As a result, many schools are getting creative.
“We’re definitely doing more with less this year,” said Kingsley Montessori School parent Tony Tjan, who is co-chair of the Kingsley’s April 25’s “Because Childhood Calls Us” gala and scholarship, to be held at the Artists for Humanity EpiCenter in South Boston. The Kingsley event marks a few milestones this year, including the school’s 70th anniversary, the 90th birthday of Lowell Kingsley, son of the founder, and Renee DuChainey-Farkes' 10th anniversary as head of school.
It’s also a year that has them a little worried about raising funds. Tjan said that in anticipation of difficult economic times, Kingsley Montessori School has changed its approach to its fundraising in three ways: doing more with less, seeking contributions earlier, and reminding donors of the purpose of why they need to raise money.
“We have some very generous parents within the school that either have restaurants or access to restaurants,” said Tjan. They’re also planning a simpler menu to stretch dollars while providing a tasty meal, including serving macaroni and cheese with truffle oil. “It’s good and fun and simple, something that everyone will enjoy,” he said, “and it won’t cost as much as what is on a more traditional menu.”
Most schools raise money through a combination of local sponsorships, ticket sales, raffle tickets, and auctioned items donated by parents’ businesses. The bids for auctions and raffles include sports tickets, entertainment offerings, even artwork and baskets of goodies the students and their teachers created.
In past years, many schools were able to trust that most parents would come through with funds, even up to the last minute for tickets and for auctions. No more. Now, gala organizers are trying to get the money before the event occurs, with ticket sales and sponsorships and raffle tickets. “The auctions on the night of the event traditionally make up two-thirds of the proceeds,” said Tjan. “This year, we’re trying hard to flip that around by being prudent, again with the anticipation we may not be able to raise as much the night of the event.” As a result, at Kingsley they are up 20 percent from the same time last year, although they are still below their goal.
“We hope to gross $150,000 this year,” said Tjan. “I think that’s at best a stretch goal. I think a more prudent measure is 20 percent more than last year’s net. If we can reach that, it’ll be like getting a triple, rather than a home run.”
Which is great, compared to many other nonprofits that report net proceeds are down by almost 50 percent lately, said DuChainey-Farkes.
"We are fortunate to have extremely committed and creative chairs in Tony Tjan and Darla Soukas, who have really been able to build upon the successes of last year's chairs, Lee Doyle and Marni Katz," she said.
The other part of the increased push to the donor community is articulating why the money is needed in the first place.
“This is where virtually all of our financial aid comes from,” said Tjan, noting that Kingsley doesn’t have an endowment. “We want to accomplish a great community building event, and tell everyone how critical this is for existing families and incoming ones. Across the board, the need is greater than ever.”
The Commonwealth School reports success in hitting up current families and alumni with its annual fund drive so far, running about even from what they raised this time last year. The annual fund accounts for more than 10 percent of the school’s overall budget.
An anonymous family is also promising to match each donation since January 26 with an additional $100, a challenge that was met by 11 families so far.
With just two months until the June 30 fiscal year closes, they have reached 80 percent of its goal – a whopping $480,000 so far.
“These numbers indicate the strong support we have from all of our constituents, but we need hundreds more gifts at every level to raise the last $120,000,” said school spokesperson Tristan Davies. “In our small community, each contribution makes a significant difference.”
In addition, a student dance-a-thon in February raised about $1,100 for Neighborhood Action, where students prepare meals for the homeless.
The tiny Learning Project on Marlborough Street is hosting an April 4th “April in Paris” themed spring auction at the Benjamin Franklin Institute in the South End. “We’re anticipating a great night,” said Director of School Advancement Andy Gallagher. Their goal is to raise $60,000 for scholarships and operating budget, and so far they’ve raised $50,000. Part of their success is gathering “useful” prizes. “With the tough economy, I think people just aren’t looking to buy extra things, so we’re trying to find what people need or want, like gift certificates to restaurants and vacations - things people will do anyway.”
Attendance numbers are down, 150 this year so far, compared to 170 last year, although they are hoping for a last-minute wave. To earn more, they’re trading the sit-down dinner for appetizers and desserts, catered by Chez Henri in Cambridge, and also with a raw bar donated by parents who own Neptune Oyster.
At the Advent School, one of the parents organizing its March 28th China-themed auction at the Hotel Marlowe is a local business owner who knows how to solicit gift certificates and sponsorships.
Casandra McIntyre, owner of Rugg Road, is in her third year of raising money for the school, where her daughter, second-grader Lillian, has been going since pre-school. McIntyre is co-chair with fellow mom Diane Woolf.
The Advent’s goal is $125,000, up from last year’s $120,000, to raise money for financial aid, faculty travel, special curricular projects and field trips, and other program enhancements.
The event also includes a cocktail hour and live and silent auctions that, in the past, donated auction items have included vacations in Vermont, Disney World, and Colorado, Red Sox tickets, and local gift certificates. One of the more popular auction items are art projects created by students. Organizers were able to secure some donated items, such as Harpoon supplying the event’s beer.
The North End’s St. John School is hosting an April 4 fundraiser, held at the Coast Guard base, free of charge, to help keep costs low for families. Their coffers are strong, so they were able to keep tuition from going up this year. Financial aid for Catholic school students in general is down, according to the Catholic Schools Foundation, while applications for aid are up.
Even parents at public schools are hosting April fundraisers to keep its programs protected from slashed budgets. The Eliot School in the North End will hold an Evening for Education on April 29 at Monica's Restaurant in the North End, a restaurant owned by Jorge Mendoza who has two children who attend the Eliot school. The school is also hosting another fundraiser dinner June 6 at Tecce's. Proceeds will help support its Italian Language program, technology such as white boards, field trips, and a nonprofit data analyst to create academic action plans for students. The school’s Family Council leaders, Denise Clancy and Fred White, aren’t sure what’s going to happen with their budget, but they want to ensure the future of certain programs that make them love what the Eliot is doing for their children.
“The budget is a movable feast at the moment,” said Boston Public Schools spokesperson Chris Horan, who added the superintendent of schools is presenting the budget this Wednesday to the School Committee.
Stella Trafford at 97, was a tireless advocate for area parks by Sandra Miller
by Sandra Miller
Back Bay Sun
The area’s community of parks protectors lost a strong advocate with the recent passing of Stella Trafford, the Steel Magnolia of Boston, who died of natural causes March 13 at the age of 97 in Boylston Place at Chestnut Hill.
Trafford was a tireless protector of the Commonwealth Avenue Mall, the Public Garden and other area parks. She was able to use her Southern charm and her political background to battle those who would let the Back Bay wilt in the shadow of so-called progress.
Raised in Jackson, Mississippi, she was the daughter of a state senator, William E. Mallett, and her cousin was a congressman. A Democrat, her background in politics gave her skills that came in handy as a volunteer with Planned Parenthood in New York City and the League of Women Voters, and also later in the Back Bay.
“She knew the name of every member of the state Legislature and the name of every county in the state,” said her friend, Luanne Pryor.
When she arrived in Boston with her third husband, William Bradford Trafford, in the 1960s, Stella was shocked at the dying Commonwealth Avenue Mall and its elm trees, and angry at plans to develop the area.
In 1970, Trafford took on major developer Mort Zuckerman, who wanted to construct five skyscrapers near the Public Garden, an idea that was supported by nearly every major player in town, including the mayor and Boston newspapers. But Trafford and Henry Lee formed the Friends of the Public Garden, and for seven years slowly gathered opposition. They eventually won.
Wrote Trafford, "If I were going to point to one thing in which I take the greatest pride, it would be to the blue sky over the south side of the Public Garden, which but for our determination, might be obscured by three 600-foot towers."
Anne Swanson worked with her fellow Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay (NABB) member for decades, fighting to save the elms along Commonwealth Avenue and the Boston Common, which suffered from Dutch elm disease. “She had quite deep feelings for the elms,” said Swanson. “To see them dying of Dutch elm disease… she was probably the whole program.”
Trafford helped launch “The Boston Tree Party,” and with NABB formed the Commonwealth Avenue Mall Committee to attack Dutch elm disease, one of the first such efforts in the nation. They figured out how to use bicycle pumps to insert antifungal liquid into the trees. Trafford then came up with a memorial tree program where neighbors would give money to care for or plant new trees.
She was instrumental in making the Commonwealth Avenue Mall what it is now. She was involved in the Victorian Promenade, where locals in parasols, straw hats and tea gowns strolled the Public Garden, and arranged lighting from nearby rooftops to spotlight Commonwealth Avenue mall statues. The mall gained beautiful magnolias, and Stella, being from the South, helped to care for them. Everyone said magnolias couldn’t be grown up north, but Trafford knew better, and she knew how to care for them.
“In about a month, you’ll see, it’s a sea of pink here,” said Karin Dumbaugh, a Friends of the Public Garden Board member. “When you look at books on Boston, they always feature those magnolias in some way or another in postcards, in the newspapers. I think she made a real difference, visually and otherwise. She organized people around her cause.”
Longtime friend Luanne Pryor first met Stella Trafford in 1991, when the Commonwealth Avenue Mall Pooch Parade was formed.
In conjunction with the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay, 100 dogs and their people paraded up and down the mall for six years, carrying signs that read "Be a Good Neighbor, Pick up after Your Dog”.
“It was a complicated issue for Stella as she didn't like dogs, but she wanted the mall cleaned up,” recalled Pryor, whose dog, Lucky, Stella had considered a “gentleman”.
Stella’s campaign succeeded, although, said Pryor, “The challenge was to keep Stella away from dog owners whom she liked to chastise -- not a good way to go, as they were actually her allies. Somehow, we all survived. Dog owners are a formidable group, and I think they brought Stella to a new understanding of the importance of animals in human existence. Not long afterwards Stella adopted a cat to whom she was devoted.”
Jackie Yessian, a former NABB chair and 30-year Back Bay resident, recalled Trafford’s nearly 40 years of tireless community efforts. “Even through a dizzying succession of parks commissioners over those years, she was steadfast and was able to forge a new partnership and level of trust that allowed her to pursue her single-minded purpose, as she called it. We really have Stella, her patience, her perseverance, and her considerable political skill to thank for the way these parks look today.”
It was her Southern charm and political experience that made her literally a force of nature.
Friends of the Public Garden President Henry Lee said City Hall didn’t know what to make of the sweet-talking Southerner who somehow managed to make them sit up and take notice of the area parks, including the Commonwealth Avenue Mall, that sat neglected for years until she went to battle. Others also recalled Trafford’s ability to turn amusing stories into political currency.
“She always seemed a bit of an anomaly here, being from Mississippi,” said fellow Neighborhood Association of Boston member Anne Swanson. “She’d tell anecdotes -- she’d use that charm in a political way, to wield power and to have influence. Other people would call City Hall and get no response, but then she called and they’d say, ‘Yes, Mrs. Trafford, yes, Mrs. Trafford.’ I think it was just her iron will and her soft southern style that was such a striking combination.”
“Her stories about her mother -- Momma -- were tantalizing and gave credence to the well-brought-up, socially aware woman who took on Boston to save its historic neighborhoods,” said Pryor.
“I admired her grit, charm, and amazing ability to get things done,” said Friends of the Public Garden Board Member Linda Cox. “’Polite persistence is the key,’” she said, and I’ve never forgotten those wise words.”
Dumbaugh described Trafford as “wispy-thin, with an iron will. She’d get her way most of the time - I would say all of the time. She was inspirational. What a role model for all of us. She had a very soft exterior that hid a very steely interior -- like a steel magnolia.”
The Friends of the Public Garden planted a tree for her, a Chinese handkerchief tree that looks like doves floating in the trees, said Dumbaugh. “That’s pretty much what she was like, very feminine, very wispy.”
And very adventurous. Pryor recalled stories of Trafford driving barefoot around Jackson, Mississippi in her father’s car, and she doesn’t think that attitude changed much over the years.
“To drive with Stella at the wheel of her car was not dissimilar to Russian roulette,” she recalled. “One occasion, we packed a gourmet lunch and headed with Lucky [Pryor’s dog] to Mt. Auburn Cemetery, where Stella wanted to tell me about the trees. Before reaching the gate, we were pulled over by a policeman. ‘If I didn't know better,’ he said, ‘I would have assumed the two of you had just come out of the local tavern. You were all over the road.’" Stella was driving a second-hand Lexus that she wasn’t used to driving. She also didn't have her license. “And her spiel about trees didn't gain us any ground,” said Pryor. “I rummaged through the glove compartment and found a Parks Department permit that belonged on the dashboard. It saved us. But once inside Mt. Auburn, we were firmly but nicely thrown out.” Apparently, neither picnics nor dogs were allowed, so they headed back to Trafford’s car. “The siren went off, wailing as we drove out of Mt. Auburn and continuing until someone at a stop sign told us what to do. ‘Lets forget the trees now, Stella,’ I said, knowing full well that she would not.”
Swanson recalled going with Trafford to Crane Beach in Ipswich, and was concerned when her friend proposed swimming so as to be drawn out with the tide and into the ocean. “I remember being rather fearful for her, hearing her description,” said Swanson. “I thought, would I be able to save her? It wasn’t quite that dramatic,” she chuckled.
Stella was also known for her impeccable wardrobe and always-coiffed appearance, even into her 90s. Her stepdaughter said she died with her pearls on.
“Fashionista that she was, Stella was delighted when I invited her to join me in New York at my family's apartment, from which we could take the Fifth Avenue bus to Bryant Park to see the latest fashions,” said Pryor. “The problem was that it was pouring rain. I raided the family coat closet and came up with the most beat-up raincoat imaginable. There was nothing else. Looking at Stella on the bus, I couldn't get over how lovely she looked, in rags. They didn't matter. She was incredibly beautiful.”
Trafford told her that her beauty helped her reach her goals, but her friend disagreed. “Those with whom she worked saw the commitment, will and determination to succeed that lay deep within her.”
Still, she always tried to keep in shape. Dumbaugh recalled, loaning Trafford an exercise bike. “She was 80 years old and actually used it,” she said. She recalled Trafford’s 90th birthday, with her walking down the stairs in a Chanel outfit, making a grand entrance. “She really had style,” said Dumbaugh. “She was always coiffed.”
“The last time I saw Stella in December 2008 she was frail,” said Pryor. “Still so much of her remained -- her interest in politics and people. Not gossip. Stella never gossiped, and that is where she rose so far above so many. I have never known anyone like her. I don't think I would want to - maddening, incorrigible, true to herself, and therefore so forgivable.”
“We were incredibly fortunate to have her as our ally,” said Swanson. “She knew [the beauty of the Back Bay] was why people wanted to come here and never leave again.
“People love it here. Stella Trafford’s impact on this area was quite important. She dedicated many years to community service, and left a really powerful message. She’ll always be here. People like her, their spirits are still coursing through the Back Bay and the mall.”
A three-time widow, Stella married Jerome Yates, a fighter pilot who was lost over the South Pacific in World War II; Rene Champollion, who died of cancer in New Hampshire; and William Bradford Trafford, a lawyer, music composer, and World War II veteran who died in 1983 of a heart attack while cross-country skiing on the Esplanade.
Mrs. Trafford leaves two stepdaughters, Abigail of Washington, D.C., and Vinalhaven, Maine, and Elizabeth of Bridgton, Maine; a stepson, William Jr. of Bridgton; two step-grandchildren and three step-great-grandchildren. Funeral services will be announced in the spring.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Sister Eileen celebrates 25 years at St. John's
By Sandra Miller
North End Regional Review
A pair of St. John alums walked into the school last week, looking for Sister Eileen Harvey, their old principal.
When Sister Eileen spotted 2003 alums Max DeGrandis and Ricky Scimeca, she burst into a huge smile and gave them hugs. They talked about going onto St. Mary’s in Lynn and Matignon High in Cambridge, but said they wished St. John’s went onto all 12 grades.
“I miss the smell of this school,” said DeGrandis. “It was home. It was a safe school.”
Of course it was safe here – it’s a small school, with a nun for a principal who’d put the fear of God into everyone.
“If anybody was acting up, it wouldn’t be allowed,” said DeGrandis. “You’d be taken outside.”
Scimeca said most kids ended up in Sister Eileen’s office at one time or another, in need of a little straightening out. “We all ended up in her office, shaking,” he said, laughing. “You do something wrong, the spotlight’s on you. You don’t want Sister Eileen upset at you.”
They talked about the Red Sox, and reminisced about the limo drives for lunch at the Prince House of Pizza and the Hilltop they earned for selling the most candy bars in one of the school’s many fund drives. Scimeca remembered starting the day with morning prayer as well as the Pledge of Allegiance. “It was a good way to start the day,” he said. “It was like a sense of family here.”
That’s why families love St. John’s, for its small-school atmosphere, its feeling of safety, and for getting a good Catholic education. Sister Eileen’s been providing that for 25 years now, successfully reaching her goals is to keep her K-8 classes full and the bank account healthy.
For all of her hard work, parents will be feting her silver anniversary at the school’s annual fundraising gala, to be held April 4 at the Coast Guard base.
“Everyone loves Sister Eileen,” said one of the event’s organizers, Ginny Innocenti, who lives with Sister Eileen in Somerville, and a former kindergarten teacher who now works in the office. “The school wouldn’t be here without her.”
Eileen Harvey grew up in Brighton, with two older brothers, raised by Irish immigrants, and attended parochial school since first grade. When she was 17, she decided to enter the convent, which was hard on her, since at the time she wasn’t allowed any contact with her family. She went from attending a Catholic school to, three years later, teaching at one – the only time she didn’t set foot in a parochial school was when she wasn’t old enough for school, and when she was in her canonical year.
She started studying at Regis College to become a teacher in 1954, not getting her degree until 1963, a normal pace for the Sisters of St. Joseph. When the church relaxed some of its rules in the 1960s, she was relieved that she could finally have her mother visit, on Saturdays. The habits became optional.
“We were seen as normal people,” she said. “People saw that we were serving the lord as best we can. I tell the kids that I make mistakes, too. It’s the choices we make that make the difference. They don’t see me as an angry person, and yet something makes a difference.”
She was an elementary school teacher teaching mostly first-graders at St. Agatha’s in Milton, Our Lady of Christians in Newton, and St. Catherine’s of Sienna in Somerville.
But as is the way in Catholic education, she started getting asked to move into administration, but kept ducking them. “First grade is my love,” she said. “I said, ‘Why don’t you leave me alone? I love what I’m doing. I love the children.’” But after years of persistence, they wore her down. “I said, ‘Enough of this nonsense. I said ok.”
So she looked at a half-dozen openings around the area, but when she heard about the North End opening, it gave her pause. She was a Brighton girl who had never been to the North End. During the Feast of St. Joseph, she met St. John’s principal, Sister Catherine, who asked her if she was looking at St. John’s. “I had to ask her, ‘How do you get to the North End?’”
St. John’s started as a large brick warehouse on Moon Street, purchased in 1943 to a “free church “ of St. John the Baptist to meet the needs of Irish immigrants. By 1895 the parochial school opens to 300 boys and 500 girls, many from Italy. The next year, Rose Fitzgerald, the mother of JFK, is enrolled. The North End was once home to three parochial schools, but by 1982 St. John’s became the last one standing in the North End, and today is part of St. Leonard’s Parish.
When Sister Eileen took a tour of the school, she fell in love. “There was a hominess to the place. The children were warm and friendly. There was order in the school. A lot of what I believe in as an educator was here.” Needless to say, the next day the pastor had called and hired her. “I said, ‘Are you sure, Father?’”
She met the parents that spring. “They were sizing me up. And they were talking while I was talking. So I stopped talking. When they noticed, I said, ‘I have so much to say to you, I’m going to stop talking until you’re finished. My message got across. It was like heaven.”
In September 1984, she arrived at St. John’s … and didn’t know what to do with her new school. The kids were in their classrooms, the teachers were busy teaching. It was the first time in decades she didn’t have a classroom of her own. She turned to her office manager, Vinnie DeLeo, and said, “What do I do now?”
“It was a lonely feeling,” she recalled. “But we had a good laugh.”
Eventually she bonded with the entire school, by visiting the classrooms, remembering the students’ names, and telling everyone that when they passed her Iin the hallway, to say hello. She told them, “I really like to be spoken to, don’t just walk by in the hall. And remember all the teachers you had, don’t just say goodbye and move onto the next classroom.”
But she nearly had to say goodbye to the school, which was in the red when she first arrived.
“The school was on its way out, it was on the verge of closing,” said Innocenti. “At one point, she had to borrow money from her mother to buy a roll of stamps.”
The school still had two eighth grades but was transitioning to single classrooms. And while they were taking in the students from the closing of nearby St. Anthony’s and St. Mary’s schools, there was an exodus of North End families moving to Medford, Revere, and other area communities that offered bigger homes for growing families. St. John’s had dropped from a high of 225 students down to 135, and many families weren’t applying because of the very real danger that it would also be closing. “If you don’t have students, you don’t have a school, and tuition covers teachers’ salaries,” she said.
So Sister Eileen organized a meeting with parents to save the school. She told them, ‘This is not my school, it’s our school, it’s your children’s school. If you’re not going to work with me, I’m not staying. But if you promise me you’ll work with me, I’ll stay.” The parents responded, “’Sister, we want this school more than anything.’”
The parents launched a grassroots marketing campaign: they targeting the South End, which didn’t have a parochial school; they reminded East Boston that it was just a five-minute trip through the tunnel. They reminded Charlestown, which lost their parochial school, that the North End was just a walk over the bridge. Workers at MGH and the State House and City Hall who wanted their kids close by began to consider St. John’s.
“We’re kind of tucked away here,” said Sister Eileen. “Parents would say, ‘We didn’t know you were here.’ Thank God for technology, people use our website and learned more about us. The money we put into the website is paying off.”
And Sister Eileen balanced the books. DeLeo noticed a huge difference in the way the school was run. “She was more of an administrator,” DeLeo said. “She was starting to make things happen for the school. She started a bingo every Wednesday, began the May Fair, we had something going on every night. After the first year, we were cleared. It was the last year we had a deficit.”
The numbers started growing. At one point, one of the board members promised to take Sister Eileen to the Ritz if they got their numbers up to 200 students. She had a great meal there, she says happily.
Now she’s looking to expand to 250 students. Today, about 40 percent of students are from the neighborhood, and a bus picks up kids from all over Boston, including Beacon Hill, the South End, East Boston, Charlestown, Dorchester and Roxbury. The rest come from places that include Winthrop, Revere, Medford, Milton and Tewksbury.
Classes start off with the “thundering 30” in kindergarten, which has a waitlist. “That hasn’t happened for years,” she said. “This is exciting. The parents are doing a great job.”
The classes gradually taper to 20 per class by eighth grade as they lose their brightest Boston kids to Boston Latin. “It’s bittersweet,” she said. “We’re happy that we do such a good job.” She’s trying to figure out how to market the school to parents of grades 2-8. But otherwise, she’s proud of leading a financially sound school supported by a strong group of parents.
As the school prepares for its annual gala, and concludes a year of successful fundraising, its budget is doing well enough that they didn’t have to raise tuition. “I always feel like a beggar,” said Sister Eileen. “A good beggar, but still. My mother said, you can always get a no, but if you get a yes, that’s great.’”
The school also received an anonymous $100,000 for computers and math, and so St. John’s has equipment that isn’t seen in most schools until the high school level. “I don’t believe anyone can replace a teacher,” she said. “But we know children are going into a world filled with technology, and we prepare them. Some children are visual learners, and this helps them, too. We’re such a little school, so we’re not doing so bad.”
Not that she wants to be in competition with other schools, but still… “Our values should be the same like other schools. But our mission, our religious values, are to celebrate God here. Hopefully there’s a God present in this building. I like to think of St. John’s as holy ground. When people come to register, I love that they say ‘There’s a feeling I get that does my heart good.’ We get so used to it. I go to other schools and try to compare, and I’m always happy to come back to St. John’s.”
She also gets help from the Catholic Schools Foundation, a group of businesspeople who support a parochial education. It contributed money toward scholarships and marketing, including a snazzy new brochure that promotes the school’s programs such as art, music, Italian classes, Girl Scouts, extended day program, computer classes, summer reading program, physical education, volunteer opportunities, and even yoga classes for kids and parents. The school is fully accredited by the Archdiocese of Boston and the New England Schools and Colleges.
This month, Sister Eileen celebrated 54 years with the Sisters of St. Joseph, and her 72nd birthday. “Someone asked me, ‘You’ve been here for 25 years, haven’t you done it all?’ and I said, ‘I’m just beginning.’”
She has as a role model in Sister Tarbula, an ancient but beloved nun who taught math and other subjects until she was so bent over with arthritis the kids had to tie her shoes for her. “Kids who are 30 come in and ask about Sister Tarbula. Math was her baby. She’d bang it in and bang it in to her students. She had a heart of gold, but she made sure she got ever kid into high school.”
When Sister Tarbula broke her arm, she retired. When Sister Eileen visited her in the retirement home, Sister Tarbula would tell her “Never leave the North End, stay there forever, they need you.’” She has no intention of leaving. And since Sister Eileen is vibrant and healthy, it looks like she’ll stay a while.
However, one day she was out with a bad cough, and when she returned, a student told her that the school wasn’t the same without her. Her heart was warmed, but she was skeptical. “I asked him what was so different? Half the time I’m in my office or running around. And he said, ‘When you’re in the building, I always feel safe.’ That made my day. It’s little things like that that really touch you, not the 25 years. It’s the little ones that just give you a hug, that’s spontaneous. The love we show. The 25 years here flew by, I don’t know where the years have gone.”
Still, people ask her how long she plans to stay. “I tell them I will know the day I need to leave, but I will stay if I have the health,” she said. “I wish I had another 25 years here, but I’ll always be watching over St. John’s.”
North End Regional Review
A pair of St. John alums walked into the school last week, looking for Sister Eileen Harvey, their old principal.
When Sister Eileen spotted 2003 alums Max DeGrandis and Ricky Scimeca, she burst into a huge smile and gave them hugs. They talked about going onto St. Mary’s in Lynn and Matignon High in Cambridge, but said they wished St. John’s went onto all 12 grades.
“I miss the smell of this school,” said DeGrandis. “It was home. It was a safe school.”
Of course it was safe here – it’s a small school, with a nun for a principal who’d put the fear of God into everyone.
“If anybody was acting up, it wouldn’t be allowed,” said DeGrandis. “You’d be taken outside.”
Scimeca said most kids ended up in Sister Eileen’s office at one time or another, in need of a little straightening out. “We all ended up in her office, shaking,” he said, laughing. “You do something wrong, the spotlight’s on you. You don’t want Sister Eileen upset at you.”
They talked about the Red Sox, and reminisced about the limo drives for lunch at the Prince House of Pizza and the Hilltop they earned for selling the most candy bars in one of the school’s many fund drives. Scimeca remembered starting the day with morning prayer as well as the Pledge of Allegiance. “It was a good way to start the day,” he said. “It was like a sense of family here.”
That’s why families love St. John’s, for its small-school atmosphere, its feeling of safety, and for getting a good Catholic education. Sister Eileen’s been providing that for 25 years now, successfully reaching her goals is to keep her K-8 classes full and the bank account healthy.
For all of her hard work, parents will be feting her silver anniversary at the school’s annual fundraising gala, to be held April 4 at the Coast Guard base.
“Everyone loves Sister Eileen,” said one of the event’s organizers, Ginny Innocenti, who lives with Sister Eileen in Somerville, and a former kindergarten teacher who now works in the office. “The school wouldn’t be here without her.”
Eileen Harvey grew up in Brighton, with two older brothers, raised by Irish immigrants, and attended parochial school since first grade. When she was 17, she decided to enter the convent, which was hard on her, since at the time she wasn’t allowed any contact with her family. She went from attending a Catholic school to, three years later, teaching at one – the only time she didn’t set foot in a parochial school was when she wasn’t old enough for school, and when she was in her canonical year.
She started studying at Regis College to become a teacher in 1954, not getting her degree until 1963, a normal pace for the Sisters of St. Joseph. When the church relaxed some of its rules in the 1960s, she was relieved that she could finally have her mother visit, on Saturdays. The habits became optional.
“We were seen as normal people,” she said. “People saw that we were serving the lord as best we can. I tell the kids that I make mistakes, too. It’s the choices we make that make the difference. They don’t see me as an angry person, and yet something makes a difference.”
She was an elementary school teacher teaching mostly first-graders at St. Agatha’s in Milton, Our Lady of Christians in Newton, and St. Catherine’s of Sienna in Somerville.
But as is the way in Catholic education, she started getting asked to move into administration, but kept ducking them. “First grade is my love,” she said. “I said, ‘Why don’t you leave me alone? I love what I’m doing. I love the children.’” But after years of persistence, they wore her down. “I said, ‘Enough of this nonsense. I said ok.”
So she looked at a half-dozen openings around the area, but when she heard about the North End opening, it gave her pause. She was a Brighton girl who had never been to the North End. During the Feast of St. Joseph, she met St. John’s principal, Sister Catherine, who asked her if she was looking at St. John’s. “I had to ask her, ‘How do you get to the North End?’”
St. John’s started as a large brick warehouse on Moon Street, purchased in 1943 to a “free church “ of St. John the Baptist to meet the needs of Irish immigrants. By 1895 the parochial school opens to 300 boys and 500 girls, many from Italy. The next year, Rose Fitzgerald, the mother of JFK, is enrolled. The North End was once home to three parochial schools, but by 1982 St. John’s became the last one standing in the North End, and today is part of St. Leonard’s Parish.
When Sister Eileen took a tour of the school, she fell in love. “There was a hominess to the place. The children were warm and friendly. There was order in the school. A lot of what I believe in as an educator was here.” Needless to say, the next day the pastor had called and hired her. “I said, ‘Are you sure, Father?’”
She met the parents that spring. “They were sizing me up. And they were talking while I was talking. So I stopped talking. When they noticed, I said, ‘I have so much to say to you, I’m going to stop talking until you’re finished. My message got across. It was like heaven.”
In September 1984, she arrived at St. John’s … and didn’t know what to do with her new school. The kids were in their classrooms, the teachers were busy teaching. It was the first time in decades she didn’t have a classroom of her own. She turned to her office manager, Vinnie DeLeo, and said, “What do I do now?”
“It was a lonely feeling,” she recalled. “But we had a good laugh.”
Eventually she bonded with the entire school, by visiting the classrooms, remembering the students’ names, and telling everyone that when they passed her Iin the hallway, to say hello. She told them, “I really like to be spoken to, don’t just walk by in the hall. And remember all the teachers you had, don’t just say goodbye and move onto the next classroom.”
But she nearly had to say goodbye to the school, which was in the red when she first arrived.
“The school was on its way out, it was on the verge of closing,” said Innocenti. “At one point, she had to borrow money from her mother to buy a roll of stamps.”
The school still had two eighth grades but was transitioning to single classrooms. And while they were taking in the students from the closing of nearby St. Anthony’s and St. Mary’s schools, there was an exodus of North End families moving to Medford, Revere, and other area communities that offered bigger homes for growing families. St. John’s had dropped from a high of 225 students down to 135, and many families weren’t applying because of the very real danger that it would also be closing. “If you don’t have students, you don’t have a school, and tuition covers teachers’ salaries,” she said.
So Sister Eileen organized a meeting with parents to save the school. She told them, ‘This is not my school, it’s our school, it’s your children’s school. If you’re not going to work with me, I’m not staying. But if you promise me you’ll work with me, I’ll stay.” The parents responded, “’Sister, we want this school more than anything.’”
The parents launched a grassroots marketing campaign: they targeting the South End, which didn’t have a parochial school; they reminded East Boston that it was just a five-minute trip through the tunnel. They reminded Charlestown, which lost their parochial school, that the North End was just a walk over the bridge. Workers at MGH and the State House and City Hall who wanted their kids close by began to consider St. John’s.
“We’re kind of tucked away here,” said Sister Eileen. “Parents would say, ‘We didn’t know you were here.’ Thank God for technology, people use our website and learned more about us. The money we put into the website is paying off.”
And Sister Eileen balanced the books. DeLeo noticed a huge difference in the way the school was run. “She was more of an administrator,” DeLeo said. “She was starting to make things happen for the school. She started a bingo every Wednesday, began the May Fair, we had something going on every night. After the first year, we were cleared. It was the last year we had a deficit.”
The numbers started growing. At one point, one of the board members promised to take Sister Eileen to the Ritz if they got their numbers up to 200 students. She had a great meal there, she says happily.
Now she’s looking to expand to 250 students. Today, about 40 percent of students are from the neighborhood, and a bus picks up kids from all over Boston, including Beacon Hill, the South End, East Boston, Charlestown, Dorchester and Roxbury. The rest come from places that include Winthrop, Revere, Medford, Milton and Tewksbury.
Classes start off with the “thundering 30” in kindergarten, which has a waitlist. “That hasn’t happened for years,” she said. “This is exciting. The parents are doing a great job.”
The classes gradually taper to 20 per class by eighth grade as they lose their brightest Boston kids to Boston Latin. “It’s bittersweet,” she said. “We’re happy that we do such a good job.” She’s trying to figure out how to market the school to parents of grades 2-8. But otherwise, she’s proud of leading a financially sound school supported by a strong group of parents.
As the school prepares for its annual gala, and concludes a year of successful fundraising, its budget is doing well enough that they didn’t have to raise tuition. “I always feel like a beggar,” said Sister Eileen. “A good beggar, but still. My mother said, you can always get a no, but if you get a yes, that’s great.’”
The school also received an anonymous $100,000 for computers and math, and so St. John’s has equipment that isn’t seen in most schools until the high school level. “I don’t believe anyone can replace a teacher,” she said. “But we know children are going into a world filled with technology, and we prepare them. Some children are visual learners, and this helps them, too. We’re such a little school, so we’re not doing so bad.”
Not that she wants to be in competition with other schools, but still… “Our values should be the same like other schools. But our mission, our religious values, are to celebrate God here. Hopefully there’s a God present in this building. I like to think of St. John’s as holy ground. When people come to register, I love that they say ‘There’s a feeling I get that does my heart good.’ We get so used to it. I go to other schools and try to compare, and I’m always happy to come back to St. John’s.”
She also gets help from the Catholic Schools Foundation, a group of businesspeople who support a parochial education. It contributed money toward scholarships and marketing, including a snazzy new brochure that promotes the school’s programs such as art, music, Italian classes, Girl Scouts, extended day program, computer classes, summer reading program, physical education, volunteer opportunities, and even yoga classes for kids and parents. The school is fully accredited by the Archdiocese of Boston and the New England Schools and Colleges.
This month, Sister Eileen celebrated 54 years with the Sisters of St. Joseph, and her 72nd birthday. “Someone asked me, ‘You’ve been here for 25 years, haven’t you done it all?’ and I said, ‘I’m just beginning.’”
She has as a role model in Sister Tarbula, an ancient but beloved nun who taught math and other subjects until she was so bent over with arthritis the kids had to tie her shoes for her. “Kids who are 30 come in and ask about Sister Tarbula. Math was her baby. She’d bang it in and bang it in to her students. She had a heart of gold, but she made sure she got ever kid into high school.”
When Sister Tarbula broke her arm, she retired. When Sister Eileen visited her in the retirement home, Sister Tarbula would tell her “Never leave the North End, stay there forever, they need you.’” She has no intention of leaving. And since Sister Eileen is vibrant and healthy, it looks like she’ll stay a while.
However, one day she was out with a bad cough, and when she returned, a student told her that the school wasn’t the same without her. Her heart was warmed, but she was skeptical. “I asked him what was so different? Half the time I’m in my office or running around. And he said, ‘When you’re in the building, I always feel safe.’ That made my day. It’s little things like that that really touch you, not the 25 years. It’s the little ones that just give you a hug, that’s spontaneous. The love we show. The 25 years here flew by, I don’t know where the years have gone.”
Still, people ask her how long she plans to stay. “I tell them I will know the day I need to leave, but I will stay if I have the health,” she said. “I wish I had another 25 years here, but I’ll always be watching over St. John’s.”
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