The Swellesley Report

More than you really want to know about Wellesley, Mass.

Looks like Wellesley will get the movie treatment with “The Artist”

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We’ve noticed a couple of huge tour buses parked in the lot at Weston Road and Washington Street, as have a few readers. What gives, we wondered.

Wellesley movie, The Artist
Thanks to sharp-eyed reader PL for this shot.

The buses seem to be connected to a casting call for an upcoming film titled The Artist, by FNB Productions, an independent film company based in Dedham. Locally based director L. Steven Stanley is seeking actors to portray a German sculptor; an art buyer; an art model; and a WWII-era nurse.

Initial interviews for the roles will be done via Skype, and actors must be able to transport themselves to Wellesley for shoots and weekly in-person rehearsals.

If you’re interested, email a headshot, resume, cover letter, and general availability as well as a time for a Skype interview to [email protected]

This wouldn’t be the first time FNB has filmed in this area. Last year the company was in  Sudbury at Pride’s Crossing, and at Fatima Shrine in Holliston to work on scenes for The Train, a futurist Christian noir film set in the year 2041, with flashbacks to the present. In the film, Christians are facing persecution for their beliefs. The Train has not yet been released.

In a Wellesley Public Media interview last year, L. Steven Stanley gave an overview of The Train, talked about what it was like to film during a pandemic, and expounded on the novel coronavirus.

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Movies filmed in Wellesley, Mass.

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Linden Square, Wellesley
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Wellesley Rotary Club to host farmer and food industry expert

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Wellesley Rotary Club, Lori Stevermer
Rotary Club speaker Lori Stevermer

Food availability, nutrition, and safety issues continue to be major concerns for consumers. These issues have become even more relevant during the COVID-19 pandemic. On November 3, 2020, 6:30pm, the Rotary Club of Wellesley in partnership with The
National Pork Board Speakers Bureau will host , marketing manager of Hubbard Feed and an active farmer.

Mrs. Stevermer will explain how food moves from farm to local grocery stores, how the pandemic has affected the food industry, and will share information about the current food safety practices that are employed to produce nutritious food.

Mrs. Stevermer serves on the National Pork Producers Council’s Executive Board. She is an enthusiastic advocate for the swine industry and will use the pork production to illustrate how the overall food industry operates.

The Rotary Club of Wellesley is one of Wellesley’s oldest community service groups and conducts local programs to benefit the Town of Wellesley. The public is always invited to any Rotary program. Due to COVID-19, all meetings take place on Zoom. Please check www.wellesleyrotary.org for times. If you are interested in attending, please send an email to [email protected] to receive a Zoom Meeting invitation.

ZOOM EVENT: How the food Industry operates
DATE: November 3, 2020
TIME: 6:30pm – 8pm

More on Lori Stevermer

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Page Waterman, Wellesley
London Harness, Wellesley

Wellesley League of Women Voters to e-host international security expert

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Juliette Kayyem, Wellesley League of Women Voters speaker
Juliette Kayyem

The League of Women Voters of Wellesley invites the public to attend its fall Opening Meeting on October 8, 2020 at 7pm. The featured speaker will be international security expert, Harvard Kennedy School Lecturer and best-selling author, Juliette Kayyem.
Ms. Kayyem will speak on “COVID-19: Elections and the Road Ahead”.

More on Juliette Kayem

Juliette Kayyem is Belfer Senior Lecturer in International Security at the Harvard Kennedy School and Former Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Over the last two decades she has managed complex policy initiatives and organized government responses to major crises in both state and federal government.

She is currently the faculty chair of the Kennedy School’s Homeland Security and Security and Global Health Projects and is a frequent on-air national security analyst for CNN. Previously, she served as President Obama’s assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, where she played a pivotal role in major operations responding to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and H1N1 pandemic, and she was the homeland security advisor to Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts.

Ms. Kayyem is the author of the best-selling book Security Mom, and a Pulitzer finalist for her opinion columns in the Boston Globe. She is the founder of Kayyem Solutions, Inc, which provides strategic advice in cybersecurity, resiliency planning, risk management, mega-event security, infrastructure protection, and cybersecurity.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, she has been advising mayors through the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, as well as governors and CEOs, on crisis response and recovery efforts. Now a contributor for The Atlantic, she has a new book, Beyond 9/11: Homeland Security for the Twenty-First Century, that was released in August 2020.

How to register in advance for this webinar:

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Stretch Lab, Wellesley

Morses Pond extends the beach season in Wellesley to August 23rd

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Morses Pond
Flags mark reserved beach spots at MOPO.

The Morses Pond season will be extended to August 23rd, 2020. The beach hours and the reservation process will remain the same until August 23rd. Beach access is available to Wellesley residents only.

To register for a 2-hour time slot for a blanketing area, go to this link. The time slots start at 10am. The last slot is 5:30 – 7:30pm. the Turner Road gate closes at approximately 7:45pm.

Wellesley Rec is looking for additional staff to keep the beach available and extend the season through Labor Day or later. So if you have a college student who is studying remotely this semester and would like to pick up some work hours, contact Rec via email at [email protected] or at 781-.235-2370.

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Wellesley Rotary Club speaker to be Political Affairs Ambassador for The Borgen Project

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Wellesley High School graduate and New York University student Lara Smith will be the featured speaker at the August 18th, 6:30 – 8pm meeting of the Wellesley Rotary Club. Smith is currently a Political Affairs Ambassador intern for The Borgen Project, a national campaign that works to make worldwide poverty a focus of United States foreign policy. The Politics and Journalism major’s presentation will focus on the work The Borgen Project does to benefit those in need around the world, and how that work has direct domestic benefits.

Lara Smith, Wellesley Rotary Club
Lara Smith will be the Rotary Club’s speaker at its August 18th meeting.

The Borgen Project’s mission

The non-profit organization mobilizes constituents to contact their congressional leaders and urges them to support legislation that benefits impoverished countries. At the moment, the US spends just about 1% of its federal budget on foreign aid. The Project encourages investing in global communities that are in need as a way to build up those populations while creating more consumers for American products. This in turn benefits the US economy and creates US jobs.

Furthermore, the Project maintains that  investing in impoverished communities and countries around the world protects the US’s national security. The Seattle-based group takes issue with the notion that military action and/or strength is the key to
national security. Instead, it suggests that investing in impoverished countries stabilizes them and in turn, stabilizes the countries around them, as well as the US.

Join the conversation

If you are interested in attending this Zoom meeting, send an email to [email protected] and the club will send you an invite to the August 18th, 6:30 – 8pm online meeting.

The Rotary Club of Wellesley is one of Wellesley’s oldest community service groups and conducts local programs to benefit the Town of Wellesley. The public is always invited to any Rotary program. Please check the web site www.wellesleyrotary.org for times and location.

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Wellesley Rotary Club to host speaker via Zoom meeting, May 19th

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Rotary Club, WellesleyThe Rotary Club of Wellesley will meet via Zoom meeting on May 19, 6:30 – 7:20pm, with Geoffrey Woglom as the club’s speaker.
Prof. Woglom recently retired from Amherst College as the Richard S. Volpert, ’56 Professor of Economics. During his career, he has held visiting and consulting positions at the Federal Reserve Board, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, and the International Monetary Fund.

During his talk, “The Economic Consequences of the COVID-19 Crisis and Recent Fiscal and Monetary Responses,” Woglom will provide a rundown of the impact of the pandemic on economic activity, labor markets and financial markets.  Then he will turn to the unprecedented responses of fiscal and monetary policy and why these policies are different from the responses in the 2008 financial crisis.  Finally, he will talk briefly of the prospects for economic recovery.

Woglom has published articles in major economic journals on finance, macroeconomics and monetary policy. He and his wife, Susan, are enjoying retirement as part-time residents of Seabrook Island South Carolina and Lenox, Massachusetts.

If you are interested in attending this Zoom meeting, send an email to [email protected] and the club will send you an invite to the online meeting.

The Rotary Club of Wellesley is one of Wellesley’s oldest community service groups and conducts local programs to benefit the Town of Wellesley. The public is always invited to any Rotary program. Please check the web site www.wellesleyrotary.org for times and location.

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Pinnacle Residential Properties — finding “home” now

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SPONSORED POST: Teri Adler of Pinnacle writes about her experiences in real estate during this time:

As a local Wellesley resident, Pinnacle real estate agent, and mother and wife I am always seeing this great town of ours through so many lenses. Now, with the pandemic, the lens is a little more cloudy, but through the new guidelines that have shaped our lives, there is so much about Wellesley that has become clearer than ever.

Pinnacle, Wellesley
In Wellesley Square, before the mandatory mask ruling — from left: Anna and Eliza Lazzarino relax on a bench with their dad, Jeff.

I’ve really not stopped working once during the quarantine. When it became clear a shutdown was imminent in March, there were families, who for pressing personal reasons (not discretionary moves), still needed to buy or sell a home. Pinnacle quickly put every recommended precaution in place so that we could safely conduct those showings. I have watched tired doctors and other essential workers gather their families and drive into Wellesley to find a home where they could live comfortably and have access to outdoor space.

The buyers who are calling for showings are mostly young couples coming from Boston. I see in their eyes now more than ever how they are ready to breathe deeply in their own backyard and not have to share a staircase and elevator with neighbors. I smile knowing they are about to gain so much more by choosing to live in Wellesley and I am excited for them to discover it. I am actually grateful to have been there helping people find their ray of sunshine during a dark time in the form of  “finding home.”

Pinnacle, Wellesley
Teri Adler’s daughter Eliza Lazzarino and their dog, Millie on the Brook Path.

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