The Swellesley Report

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

Free Summer Youth programs in Wellesley — registration is open

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The Wellesley Youth Commission is excited to announce the 2019 lineup of summer programs. Get an insider view of the Town of Wellesley by experiencing one of the town’s amazing programs.

All summer programs offered through the Wellesley Youth Commission are free and for Wellesley youth (residents) or students attending Wellesley public schools and must be entering grades 6, 7, and 8 Fall of 2019. The programs are held at various locations throughout Wellesley with lunch provided daily.

Applicants may apply online now, and may choose to apply to any of the summer exploration programs, but applicants can attend only one program per summer. Please identify 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choices appropriately. Participants will be chosen by lottery and email confirmations will be sent early March.

Wellesley Eco Summer Program

Eco Summer Program is a week-long exploration for 12 youth with the Wellesley Conservation Council the week of July 15 – July 19, 2019, from 9:30am – 3pmHighlights for this program include:

  • Hands-on fishing demonstrations by the Massachusetts Department of Fish & Game
  • Wilderness survival and fire-building
  • Experimentation with drones
  • Kayaking, swimming and shoreline restoration
  • Learn about how to protect and preserve the natural environment in Wellesley

Fire Rescuers

Fire Rescuers is a week-long exploration for 20 youth with the Wellesley Fire Department the week of July 22 – July 26, 2019, from 9:30am until 3pm

Highlights for this program include:

  • Experience a working Fire Department with hands-on training including fire extinguishing, knot tying, water rescue, and much more.
  • Field trip to the Boston Academy on Moon Island Boston, Massachusetts.
  • Visits and demonstrations from the MBTA Bomb Squad.

Wellesley Police Department Youth Academy

WPD Youth Academy is a week-long exploration for 25 youth with the Wellesley Police Department the week of July 29 – August 2, 2019, from 9am – 3pm

Highlights for this program include:

  • Learning the importance of law enforcement in their community and beyond.
  • Experiencing hands-on demonstrations involving radar, motor vehicle stops, mock arrests and crime scene search.
  • Discover the valuable collaboration between local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies.
  • Field trips to Boston area law enforcement agencies, FBI, and State Police.

Wellesley Media Summer Program

Wellesley Media Summer Program is a week-long exploration for 10 youth ENTERING 8th GRADE with Wellesley Media Corporation the week of August 19 – August 23, 2019, from 10am – 2pm

Highlights for this program include:

  • Learning the art of program planning.
  • Learning to operate Wellesley Media studio equipment including cameras, audio, and editing devices.
  • Gaining the skills to produce a public service announcement or news piece for Wellesley Media.

Applications are available here.

For additional information contact Maura Renzella, Youth Director at [email protected]

Wellesley author’s book has kids cooking with solar power

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Wellesley author Elizabeth Suneby’s latest in a series of socially-conscious children’s book has just been recognized with an award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science as the top children’s science picture book.

Iqbal bookIqbal and His Ingenious Idea: How a Science Project Helps One Family and the Planet, written by Elizabeth Suneby and illustrated by Rebecca Green, tells the story of a Bangladeshi boy who sets out to build a smoke-free solar cooker in light of the damage that cooking over indoor fire during the monsoon season is having on his family’s health. The device might also earn him a sustainability award from his school, and instructions are provided in the book on how to concoct such a solar cooker with a pizza box and aluminum foil.

Suneby learned about the issue of 3 billion people cooking over open fires or stoves using wood, coal or other solid fuels while working on the first book she wrote for the Citizen Kid series, Razia’s Ray of Hope: One Girl’s Dream of an Education. To further learn about the issue, she worked with the UN Global Clean Cooking Alliance in the United States and Bangladesh, Solar Cookers International as well as with local Bangladeshi students.

“Each of the Citizen Kid books… addresses one issue to help kids become world citizens,” Suneby writes. “Cooking is a daily activity every kid can relate to — and they should understand and care that for a huge portion of the world’s population, it is a task with many issues,” such as harming the environment, causing health issues, and dis-empowering women.

The book, geared toward kids in grades 3-7, is available locally (autographed editions at Wellesley Books) and online.

kids cooking with solar
Kids cooking with solar

 

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Wellesley represented at State House firefighter memorial

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firefighter memorial

In taking a stroll during my lunch break over to the park on the side of the State House, it struck me to take a look at whether Wellesley might be represented at the Massachusetts Fallen Firefighters Memorial. Sure enough, I did make a couple of Wellesley sightings.

The memorial’s Ring of Honor features bricks dedicated to firefighters who died in the line of duty, but also recognizes firefighters whose families have purchased bricks for them via a donation to the Fallen Firefighters Memorial Foundation. I spotted bricks for Wellesley Firefighters Local 1795 and Lt. Ed Conlon.

Each year a ceremony is held to honor additions to the Ring of Honor.

firefighter memorial firefighter memorial firefighter memorial firefighter memorial

Wellesley Fire Department and friends serve early Thanksgiving dinner to seniors

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Wellesley Fire Chief Rick DeLorie reports that the department this past weekend held a successful Thanksgiving dinner at Babson College’s Trim dining room for 140-plus seniors, carrying on a tradition that the Veterans Council started in 1966 and that the Fire Department has been the sole sponsor for in recent years.  Firefighters, their friends and family, Selectmen and other volunteers served the feast at the event, which also included raffle prizes.
wellesley fire thanksgiving dinner wellesley fire thanksgiving dinner wellesley fire thanksgiving dinner

 

Whitey Bulger’s Wellesley connection

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Whitey Bulger
Whitey Bulger

Whitey Bulger, the mobster who terrorized South Boston in the 1970s and 80s, was murdered at the US Penitentiary Hazelton in Bruceton Mills, Virginia on October 30 at around 6am, beaten to death by prison inmates, his eyes nearly gouged out. Apparently his reputation as a former FBI informant was never forgiven or forgotten. For those who finally got to him, it was just a matter of biding their time, being in the right place at the right time, and seizing the moment.

Although Bulger is best know for his involvement in multiple murders and extortions in South Boston, he wasn’t above taking a little business trip to Wellesley. According to authors of the 2013 book Whitey Bulger: America’s Most Wanted Gangster and the Manhunt That Brought Him to Justice, Kevin Cullen and Shelley Murphy, back in 1974 Bulger came into Wellesley and created a dangerous mess.

In 2013 Cullen and Murphy came to the Wellesley Free Library for an authors’ talk. A chapter of their book tells how in September 1974 Bulger trekked out to Wellesley to send a little message to Judge Arthur W. Garrity, who lived in Wellesley Hills. The communication device: a Molotov cocktail. The target: Kingsbury Elementary School, now known as Kingsbury Condominiums, at 40 Seaver St. Bulger apparently hit his mark, and the school was closed down for repairs for a matter of months.

Students were not in the building at the time, and nobody was injured by the bomb. Fire damaged two classrooms, and about 40 students were displaced. Wellesley firefighters put out the blaze. The school was closed in 1975 and eventually turned into condos.

So why Wellesley? It was all a little message to Garrity, who in 1974 ruled that Boston public schools had a history of systemic and unconstitutional racial discrimination that was achieved through segregating students by race into separate and unequal schools. Garrity was instrumental in implementing the school busing plan that assigned and bused students to different schools in order to end segregation in those schools.

Whitey didn’t like anyone saying that South Boston kids had to leave their neighborhood to go to Roxbury schools. And when Whitey didn’t like something, someone was going to pay. Since Garrity lived in Wellesley, the authors say Whitey hand delivered his message straight to Wellesley, throwing the homemade bomb through a window of the Kingsbury School.

Bulger was never arrested for his alleged involvement in the incident.

Garrity lived in Wellesley until his death in 1999.