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Wellesley sports catch-up: Softball fields opening ceremony; Boston Marathon invitational #s up for grabs; Peewee AA1 hockey team wins title

April 18, 2021 by admin Leave a Comment

A round-up of recent Wellesley sports happenings:

Softball fields opening ceremony

wellesley softballWellesley will celebrate the renovated Lee and Warren softball fields on Friday, May 7 at 4:30pm at Lee Field on Washington Street near the tennis courts.

The event is planned to last no more than 20 minutes.

More info:  Jill Creevy at [email protected] or 617-461-4618

warren field
Diane P. Warren Field

 

Boston Marathon numbers up for grabs

boston marathon wellesleyWellesley has received a handful of invitational entries for the in-person Boston Athletic Association’s Boston Marathon that will be awarded to local non-profit organizations and runners representing the War Memorial Scholarship Fund. The event has been pushed from April to October 11 this year due to the pandemic, and the field is limited to 20,000 participants.

Non-profits and runners may apply for these invitational entries between Tuesday, April 20 and Monday, May 10. Applications will be available on the Town of Wellesley website. The minimum fundraising amount for the 2021 Marathon is $5,000.

The Select Board will review all applications and announce the invitational entry recipients at its regular meeting on Monday, May 17.

Priority will be given to Wellesley non-profits and groups whose services benefit Wellesley residents. War Memorial Scholarship runners must be Wellesley residents.

Wellesley’s Peewee AA1 ice hockey team wins division title

Reported by Eddie Zeng, Photo by Dingli Zeng

hockey peewee
Photo by Dingli Zeng

 

The Wellesley Raiders Peewee AA1 team (12- and 13-year-olds) had a rocky start at the start of the season. They lost their first seven games by a margin of four or more. In the twelfth game of the season, they ended up winning for the first time against a team whose goalie didn’t show up. The team got beat up so hard that they moved down a division, and despite that, they still could never win more than two games in a row. They ended up last in their division, but their dedicated coaches, Sean Campbell, Scott Duddy, and the whole team never lost confidence and made a large run in the playoffs

In the first game of the playoffs on March 27th, the Raiders faced the top team in their division, Newton. The Raider’s offense pushed around Newton’s defense, but their goalie made many saves keeping their team in the game. Wellesley ended up finding the net in the third period and scored. In the next game, they defeated 5th seeded Triboro by five to two on April 3rd. This earned the team a spot in the Peewee Central American AA Division Final, in which Wellesley faced the 3rd seeded Junior Railers. The final game was set in Lawrence on April 10th.

The Raiders took an early 2-0 lead with goals by Jayden Hall and Alasdair McDonough. Late in the second period, all momentum shifted to the rival team when their wing swiped the puck away from Wellesley’s defense and scored from a breakaway. The Railers pounded on the Wellesley defense throughout the third period until it cracked and let in a second goal, tying the game with a minute and twenty-four seconds remaining. With momentum in their hands, it seemed imminent that they were going to win, but with less than a minute to go, Brady Anderson carried the puck up the ice into the rival team’s defensive zone. The puck soon was on the stick of Noah Pollock, with fourteen seconds remaining, and he delivered a shot that hit the goal post and went in. The Raiders’ bench was jubilant and their parents were cheering. The team would hold out for the remaining fourteen seconds and win the Valley Hockey League Peewee Central American AA Division Finals.

Coach Sean Campbell has repeated history. He led the Wellesley Raiders Squirt B2 team to win the division final in 2018. Alasdair McDonough, Conor Campbell, and Eddie Zeng are the proud players on both teams.

(Team roster: Brady Anderson, Conor Campbell, Adrian Daigle, Eoghan Daly, Kieran Duddy, Johannes Eikeboom, Conor Foley, Chase Gemski, Jayden Hall, Owen Keating, Alasdair McDonough, Sloane Partlan, Noah Pollock, Margaret Redgate, Jackson Reynolds, Kojo Sam, Matthew Silk and Eddie Zeng.)

peewee hockey
Photo by Dingli Zeng

 

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Wellesley Historical Society online lecture: Ben Franklin, The Early Years

April 17, 2021 by admin Leave a Comment

Join the Wellesley Historical Society for an online lecture by Olin College Professor Rob Martello about the early years of Ben Franklin. The event takes place on April 22 at 7pm, and is free to attend

Rob Martello Olin photo small
Rob Martello (photo courtesy of Olin College)

More about the talk

Benjamin Franklin is rightly praised for his transformative achievements as a scientist, statesman, philanthropist, diplomat, and inventor, and the city of Philadelphia hails him as one of their greatest heroes. In this talk, Robert Martello, Professor of the History of Science and Technology at Olin College, will explore Franklin’s earliest years. Franklin’s story begins right here in Boston with his childhood as one of the 17 children of a hardworking candle maker, and his earliest experiences allowed him to develop the skills that catapulted him to worldwide fame. Franklin’s experiences as an apprentice printer, his daring and illegal relocation to Philadelphia, and his dynamic career as a young printer, newspaper editor, postmaster, and writer offer a thrilling story of artisan traditions, literary and entrepreneurial innovation, and social mobility in early America.

Advanced Registration Required via Zoom. Click here to register.

More information available: www.wellesleyhistoricalsociety.org/programs


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Filed Under: Education, History

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Wellesley education spotlight: Waitlisted? What to do

April 17, 2021 by Martha Collins Leave a Comment

Thank you to education writer and guest columnist Martha Collins of Admit Fit College Admissions Counseling for the following post:

Admit Fit, WellesleyBy late March or early April, high school seniors who applied to college for admission this coming fall received acceptance or rejection notifications from the universities to which they applied. A third type of notification is placement on a waitlist.

College admissions offices have a target number of acceptances that they are trying to reach each year. They strive to compose a class that reflects a balance of gender and that represents a wide range of states and countries. The ideal class will be one that is diverse, and that represents students across a range of intended majors.

Few colleges achieve 100% acceptance from the students to whom they offer admissions. After all, if you applied to ten schools, and accepted admission and submitted a deposit at one school, nine other schools will then have an “open” position in their entering fall classes.

In response to this inevitable reality, colleges typically offer admissions to a larger pool of students than they expect will accept and subsequently attend. They also place a subset of students they consider highly qualified on a waitlist that may be tapped after May 1, once they begin to get a clearer picture of which students have accepted their offer of admissions.

Making a list, checking it twice

The number of students placed on a waitlist varies from school to school, and the number of students who may “come off the waitlist” and be offered admissions varies from year to year at any given school.

The good news: the number that make it to a waitlist is a small fraction of the original applicants, so if you are on a waitlist, you are a member of a select group. The not-so-good news: a small fraction of students on a waitlist will be admitted. While most waitlist movement happens in May, there are cases of the occasional late-in-August acceptance.

So, if you find yourself on a waitlist, what should you do?

First, make sure to submit an acceptance to enroll and submit a deposit before May 1 at a school which offered you an acceptance.

Second, carefully consider whether, if admitted, you would still want to attend the university that placed you on the waitlist. If the answer is an enthusiastic yes, then log in to your applicant portal and confirm your interest in remaining on the waitlist. If the answer is no, remove yourself from the waitlist so another on the waitlist has an opportunity for acceptance at the school.

Follow up is key

Admit Fit, Wellesley
Photo from Unsplash

If you do accept a position on a waitlist, consider reaching out to the admissions representative from the university for your school. In this case, a personal phone conversation is superior to an email or text exchange.

First, thank the admission rep for advocating for your placement on the waitlist and further considering you for admissions. Ask if there is anything specific that you can clarify about your application or provide more detail on. If time allows, briefly describe your specific interest in the university and why it is absolutely your “first choice” school.

If you feel comfortable doing so, politely probe on whether there is anything you can do to improve your application and whether much waitlist movement is anticipated. In a small number of cases, a student on a waitlist may be offered admission for the following year. If this topic comes up and you would accept such an offer, say so.

Many university admissions offices provide an opportunity for you to provide an “update letter.” If this is the case, carefully read and follow the instructions provided by the university.

Open the letter by thanking the admissions office for additional consideration via placement on the waitlist. State with conviction that if admitted, you would attend. Based on any feedback you received in the live conversation with the admissions officer, describe any actions you’ve taken to improve your perceived shortcomings as an applicant. Provide an update on your academics since you submitted your application, and highlight any new or noteworthy developments in your extracurriculars.

Keep it in perspective

Next, emphasize your fit with the school. Describe why you’ve always wanted to attend, which specific classes you see yourself attending, and how you will fit in with and proactively contribute to the class. Try to avoid repeating information that is already in your original application. Strive to keep it brief.

In some cases, an admissions office will accept additional recommendations, but make sure to follow the university’s instructions on this point. More is not always better. Likewise, do not persist in calling the admissions office frequently to find out the status of your position on the waitlist. In nearly every situation, this will not help your case.

Last and maybe most importantly, put it in perspective. While the probability of admission off of a wait list are relatively low, the probability of you having a life-changing college experience is high: after all, you’ve already accepted a position as an incoming member of next fall’s entering class!

Martha Collins is president of Admit Fit College Admissions Counseling.

MORE:

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All about college decisions—and how to deal with them

Avoiding common college admissions essay errors

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Filed Under: Education

Wellesley woman pleads not guilty to child rape charges

April 17, 2021 by admin

Caitlin Harding, 37, has pleaded not guilty to charges she raped a middle school student while a teacher in Hudson, Mass., in 2010, according to an Associated Press report.

The Wellesley resident was arraigned on Friday via videoconference on multiple charges, according to the Middlesex District Attorney’s office. She has been released, but must stay away from the victim and witnesses, and is forbidden from having unsupervised contact with children through work, according to a Boston Globe account.

Filed Under: Crime

Your Wellesley authority on ‘Ginny & Georgia’ Netflix TV series

April 17, 2021 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

I came clean in a post in March that I’m probably not THE best person to ask about the popular Netflix show “Ginny & Georgia,” set in the fictional community of Wellsbury that some take to be Wellesley. I’ve watched an episode and a half, and didn’t feel like I was quite the target audience.

But I do know a thing or two about Wellesley, so it did make sense for a Boston Globe writer to hit me up for thoughts on whether Wellsbury is Wellesley (“The idyllic New England town of Wellsbury from ‘Ginny & Georgia’ is closer than you think”).

Among my pithy quotes that the writer did a good job making sense of in her piece: ““It is idyllic in some ways. It’s kind of an easy target for what people think of as a really nice community. But then to say it’s a model for this kind of show, it seems like a little bit of a stretch.”


More: Movies filmed in Wellesley, Mass.

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Beyond Wellesley: Swellesley goes to Eastie

April 16, 2021 by Deborah Brown 2 Comments

The goal of the Boston Harbor Now is lofty. The group, dedicated to keeping Boston’s waterfront open and accessible to all through its Harborwalk initiative says on its website, “First and foremost, Harborpark is designed to guarantee public access to the unique environment along the Boston Harbor, while encouraging balanced growth along the entire waterfront.”

Beyond Wellesley, East Boston
The must photo-stop from Piers Park in East Boston. Along the harbor walk there are several remnants of old piers, left in the water as urban reef safety spots for underwater wildlife.

For over thirty years they’ve worked to establish a 43-mile linear, uninterrupted walkway along Boston’s shoreline, connecting Boston’s waterfront neighborhoods to Boston Harbor and each other. Extending from Charlestown to South Boston, the park is a mostly-connected path system that is still a work in progress in a few parts.

We’d heard about the spectacular views of downtown Boston from Piers Park in East Boston (known as Eastie by many). Our sources were right. Piers Park in the East Boston Shipyard area could be the best-kept secret of the Boston Harborwalk area. We put Piers Park into our GPS, about a 15-mile, 45-minute drive from Wellesley Square, and headed out on an early spring afternoon. We found parking without too much trouble, but be warned that the signs that say 2-hour parking only are serious about it. Tow lots are aplenty in East Boston, and seemingly all full.

Beyond Wellesley, East Boston
The Zakim Bridge.

We walked out to the end of the pier and took in the amazing view of the city. Sailing teams buzzed about against a backdrop of skyscrapers, while cargo-handling ships moved in and out of the harbor. Looking up, we saw not only airplane traffic as it flew toward or away from nearby Logan Airport, but the stunning number of luxury condos that are going up, up, up along the waterfront. Piers Park may be a little-known gem, but Eastie has been discovered by young people who can hop a water shuttle for a quick ride into Boston, or access the nearby MBTA Maverick stop as a first leg to pretty much wherever they want to go. Empty nesters from the suburbs have caught on as well, and we saw what looked like a few potential transplants wearing hardhats and examining blueprints as they toured the latest from-the-ground-up project. Gentrification of this working-class area is in full swing.

Beyond Wellesley, East Boston
Some of the streets in Eastie are literally being rebuilt. The new construction bears no resemblance to the brownstones of Back Bay or the wood-framed triple deckers common up and down the hills here. We’re already planning our return visit to the area just so we can track the changes and say we remember what it looked like back when.

As we walked along the pathway (here’s a handy map of the entire Harborwalk)  we found LoPresti Park, a beautiful spot with  a playground, a very cool ping pong table (bring your own paddles and ping pong balls), a summertime splash park for the kids, and an amphitheater area for concerts and other performances. And the sights kept on coming. The untrammeled views of  the Financial District, Beacon Hill, Charlestown, the Zakim Bridge, and more, right from the water’s edge, were stunning.

Beyond Wellesley, East Boston

Beyond Wellesley, East Boston

Beyond Wellesley, East Boston
Serious soccer players practice drills at LoPresti Park.

 

Beyond Wellesley, East Boston
We walked along as far as we could and eventually bumped up against a reminder that the area is still very much a working harbor front.

Beyond Wellesley, East Boston

Beyond Wellesley, East Boston
The Trustees of the Reservation operates the Eagle Hill Community Garden, one of its 56 community gardens across eight Boston neighborhoods.

Because we’re kind of nosy, we did a full exploration of the neighborhood and found shopping districts, pocket parks, memorials to the area’s military heroes, libraries and schools, the famous Santarpio’s Pizza restaurant, as well as a neighborhood controversy hot-spot, the planned site of an Eversource Substation to be located at the edge of Eagle Hill (just below the Eagle Hill garden pictured above). Residents have voiced objections to the project due to safety concerns because the area is subject to frequent flooding. WBUR has excellent coverage of the story.

We left Eastie wondering where we’d been all its life, feeling like we’d barely scratched the surface of this neighborhood we’ve flown over so many times but never parachuted in on. What about lunch at The Reel House? Or an authentic Peruvian meal at Ricon Limeno? How about a visit to the Madonna Queen of the Universe shrine?

We’ll be back to enjoy this part of Boston that felt welcoming and vibrant.


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Wed 21

Wellesley Select Board online office hours

April 21 @ 8:30 am - 10:00 am
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Ben Franklin, The Early Years: Wellesley Historical Society online lecture

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