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Congrats to all those sweaty, determined Pan-Mass Challenge riders

August 8, 2022 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Cyclists raised a combined tens of millions of dollars for cancer research by taking part in the annual Pan-Mass Challenge this past steamy weekend. Many cyclists started and finished their rides in Wellesley at Babson College, and this included lots of Wellesley residents.

Congrats to all of the cyclists, and thank you to the many volunteers who made things run smoothly.

Tod Loofbourrow
Tod Loofbourrow (donate) approaching the finish line at Babson

 

2022 pmc babson finish
Cyclists finish their rides late Sunday afternoon at Babson

 

2022 pmc babson finish

 

Laughing Monk, Wellesley
Laughing Monk, which has a Wellesley Square location, took part in the PMC by donating veggie gyoza, edamame, and more to the tired and hungry riders.

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Wellesley readies for Pan-Mass Challenge 2022

August 4, 2022 by Duncan Brown Leave a Comment

On Aug.6 and 7 cyclists from Wellesley and well beyond will embark on rides ranging from 25 to 210 miles for the Pan-Mass Challenge. The annual PMC raises money for research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and is the highest grossing athletic fund raising event in the country. 

The Pan-Mass Challenge has 16 official routes, including seven that start in Wellesley at Babson College. The routes are supported by volunteers who run water stations, hand out food to riders, and check participants in at the start. This weekend the PMC will boast 6,800 riders and 3,000 volunteers, and has currently raised just over $35 million, with a goal of raising $66 million total.

PMCThis is a big step up from the original ride, which had only 36 riders and 10 volunteers. Even with those small numbers, the event was able to raise $10,200 for Dana-Farber. This initial event was organized by Wellesley’s Billy Starr, who was inspired to start the PMC after he lost his mother to cancer. He continues to organize and head the PMC.

Like Starr, many cyclists either ride because they have had cancer, or because of a loved one who has battled the disease. Stephen Keep, a participant from Wellesley, shared his inspiration. “I’ve been biking a bit for the last couple years and with the passing of a close friend last year thought it was a good moment to give it a go,” he said. The preparation for the event has given Keep an opportunity to get to know the nice rural routes in neighboring towns, and he said that the training has been enjoyable. 

When it comes to the importance of donations, Keep said that “100% goes to Dana Farber, and living around here we all have examples of their amazing work.”

If you would like to support Keep or any other rider, their pages are available for direct donation.

These Wellesley residents are listed as participants:

  • Laurel Archibald
  • Kyle Bettigole
  • Ian Blasco
  • Moe Blaustein
  • Jesse Boehm
  • Brian Bowser
  • Angela Braman
  • Grant Brown
  • Jeff Carney
  • John Carney
  • Kevin Clark
  • Jarrett Collins
  • Louis Corticelli
  • Jerry Coughlan
  • Stephanie Coughlan
  • Dan Cullaty
  • Katharine Cunningham
  • James DeCaprio
  • Bonni DiMatteo
  • Justin DiMatteo
  • Bob Dolan
  • Paul Enderle
  • Jonathan Ettinger
  • Wendy Fischman
  • Thomas Goemaat
  • Richard Green
  • Eunice Groark
  • Barbara Gross
  • Christopher Harding
  • Craig Hartigan
  • Susan Hartigan
  • Wendy Horn
  • Lisa Hughes
  • Robert Ix
  • Robbie Ix
  • Sara Johnson
  • Hugh Johnston
  • Lori Johnston
  • Ken Jones
  • Stephen Keep
  • Enrique Laso
  • Paul Laviolette
  • Stephen Leonard
  • Yamini Levitzky
  • Mark Lorion
  • Brandon M Sullivan
  • Katherine Macdonald
  • Kevin Macdonald
  • Glen Magpiong
  • Patricia Mallett
  • Bill Maynard
  • Julie Moore
  • Mike Mordas
  • Patricia Mordas
  • Gerard Mulrooney
  • Matthew Olton
  • Laura Olton
  • Ian ONeal
  • John Power
  • Patti Quigley
  • Roger Randall
  • Kate Roosevelt
  • Stephen Rosen
  • Grant Rosen
  • Thomas Rosenbloom
  • Eric Scharmer
  • Alex Silberman
  • Benjamin Smith
  • George Stathis
  • Garrick Stewart
  • Katie Stewart
  • Collin Sullivan
  • Andrew Wagner
  • Benjamin Wagner
  • Andrew Ward
  • Laura Wilkins
  • Nancy Williamson

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Filed Under: Fundraising

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Wellesley charity news: Kids Backing Kids is back with school supplies drive; Student launches kids book drive

August 2, 2022 by admin Leave a Comment

Our roundup of the latest Wellesley charity news:

Kids Backing Kids is back with school supplies drive

kids backing kids logoWellesley-based charitable organization Kids Backing Kids seeks your help in meeting its goal of supporting 300 students for the upcoming school year. It’s about a third of the way there so far.

With the cost of seemingly everything going up, school supplies have been no exception and that’s presenting a financial challenge to more families. Kids Backing Kids is partnering with schools, housing programs, and community programs in Wellesley, Needham, Newton, and Dorchester for its Third Annual School Supplies Drive.

There are two ways to be a sponsor:

  • Shop for school supplies on Kids Backing Kids’ list and fill one or more backpacks yourself. A youth volunteer will pick up the goods when ready or you can deliver them to the organization yourself. The cost for each assembled backpack will be around $50-$75.
  • Donate money to Kids Backing Kids and a volunteer will shop for the supplies and fill one or more backpacks. Each backpack will cost $50-$75 per student, but any amount is greatly appreciated.

Kids Backing Kids is spearheaded by the Rodrigue sisters, including Wellesley High School student Simone, and their corps of volunteers.

Student launches kids book drive

Aynsley Szczesniak, who performs and interns at Wellesley Theatre Project, has gotten a senior project head start and is running  a community children’s book drive through Aug. 22, in partnership with the Boston-based nonprofit Cradles to Crayons.
One of Szczesniak’s collection boxes is actually at the Wellesley Theatre Project studio at 219 Washington St. Books in any condition for kids up to 12 years old are accepted.
The book drive is part of a broader Summer of Service initiative by Szczesniak.

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Filed Under: Education, Fundraising, Kids

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Charitable endeavors from Wellesley crowd

June 19, 2022 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

A few Wellesley sightings at recent charitable events:

Chief DeLorie supports Special Olympics in Orlando

Wellesley Fire Chief Rick DeLorie spent recent vacation time volunteering for the Special Olympics in Orlando at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The event, which DeLorie described as “an amazing organizational effort,” involved some 6,000 athletes. DeLorie was recruited by a friend on the Special Olympics staff that he met during a training program.

special olympics
Rick DeLorie, with the Massachusetts basketball team

 

Joslin Diabetes Center’s night at the Pops

Wellesley residents Peter Seibert and Marjorie Nealon Seibert earlier in June attended Joslin Diabetes Center’s night at the Pops at Boston Symphony Hall where 26-year-old Duxbury resident, Kevin Coakley, received the Frank and Jean Ring Memorial Award in the Fight Against Diabetes. The event included a pre-concert seated dinner and a ceremony to present Coakley with his award as well as hear remarks from Joslin’s President and CEO, Dr. Roberta Herman and others. Conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, Keith Lockhart, also said a few words and sang “High Hopes” with the guests before the show.

Peter Seibert and Marjorie Nealon Seibert
Peter Seibert and Marjorie Nealon Seibert (Photo Credit: Regan Communications Group)

 

Golfing for the Y

The West Suburban YMCA in Newton raised nearly $90,000 through its annual golf tournament at Belmont Country Club. The event supports the Y and its programs “that enable families of all backgrounds to develop healthy habits, build confidence and foster strong relationships.”

ymca golf
Golf foursome pictured, from left: Mark Mancuso, principal at Wellesley‘s Kincora Development; Ray Ciccolo, founder and owner of Village Automotive Group; Jack Fucci, president and CEO of the West Suburban YMCA; and Darryl Settles, president and managing partner at Catalyst Ventures Development.

 

More: Wellesley Charitable & Community Action Groups


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Weston Garden Club tour is a once-in-a-decade celebration

June 15, 2022 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

The Weston Garden Club held its once-every-decade garden tour earlier this month, an expansive event during which eleven club members opened their properties up to  the horticultural-loving public. Proceeds from the tour support local conservation and environmental efforts, as well as the Club’s ongoing community educational and beautification projects.

Each of the properties on tour was owned and tended by Weston Garden Club members eager to share what they’ve done with their beautiful outdoor spaces. Some gardens were carefully manicured, others walked more on the wild side, and all were inspirational.

When members aren’t tending and showing off their multi-acre gardens, they’re busy with civic projects. Club members design and maintain the plantings in the historic horse watering trough at the center of town; maintain a section of conservation land; make wreaths and swags for Town buildings every December; plant 250 daffodils by the Town Green steps each fall; provide flowers for the Weston Public Library on a weekly basis; and water, weed, and maintain the Native Plant Garden at Town Hall.

Last time the Weston Garden Club had its tour, back in the aughts, I was up to my eyeballs in my kids’ end-of-year activities and missed the event. Next time the tour comes around in the 2030s, who can say where I’ll be? So when I had the opportunity to attend this tour, I grabbed it. Thanks for the kind invite, Weston gardeners. I enjoyed every minute of the perfect early June weather you thoughtfully arranged for the big day.

All hail the chief

Weston Garden Club president Molly Varnau’s garden included mixed beds of foxglove, allium, salvia, and nepeta, intertwined with a succession of colorful annuals and flowering trees and shrubs. Yew hedges, a birch grove, white pines, and a grand red oak provide year-round structure. Molly and her husband plant, prune , and mow the property themselves. A couple of years ago they created composting bays behind their shed that turn their lawn clippings and autumn’s fallen oak leaves into soil-enriching mulch.

Weston Garden Club tour
Weston Garden Club president Molly Varnau

 

Weston Garden Club tour

 

Weston Garden Club tour

 

Weston Garden Club tour
Frenchglen reblooming bearded irises.

100+ year old Colonial house, 3.5 acres

When the homeowners bought the property twelve years ago, they found one acre of beautiful plantings and specimen trees, and 2.5 acres of poison ivy and thorny raspberries running wild. What a difference 12 years makes. The Weston Garden Club member and a friend do all the gardening with the help of an arborist. The property features huge rock outcrops, rock walls, a varied terrain, a fern walk through the woods, a lovely gazebo, a spiral garden, an old storage building, stone pathways and stairs, and masses of plantings.

Weston Garden Club tour, house #7

Weston Garden Club tour, house #7

 

Weston Garden Club tour, house #7


This garden has a wild side

Established plantings and perennial gardens surround this gardener’s property including tree peonies, wisteria, azaleas, and flowering bulbs. The front is a beautiful and manicured space. Out back visitors can walk on the wild side as they are treated to a panoramic view of a wildlife sanctuary, which includes a tranquil pond. From their elevated deck vantage point, the homeowners often spot egrets, hawks, geese, and swans.

 

Weston Garden Tour, house #5
Carefully clipped vine on the side of the house gives way to….

 

Weston Garden Tour, house #5
…nature in all its splendor.

 


Working with the terrain

There are a couple of ways to deal with an uneven lot when building a home. One way is to chop down all the trees, bring in the bulldozer, and level every “inconvenient” rise and hillock from one edge of the property to the next. Or you could work with the land, as one member did, and create a garden in harmony with the natural slopes of the terrain. Embracing the shade of the mature trees led the gardener to explore and plant a beautiful world of trilliums, woodland peonies, primroses, jack-in-the-pulpits, and Welsh poppies. A vegetable garden has been planted to take advantage of the sunniest spot on the property, a place where tomatoes, kale, lettuce, and more thrive.

Weston Garden Club, #10

Weston Garden Club, #10
Vegetables are grown in raised garden beds.

 

Weston Garden Club, #10
The gardener starts many of the greens indoors from seed.

How to join in the fun

Not that I’m trying to siphon members away from Wellesley’s four garden clubs (I’m a proud sustaining member of the Wellesley Gardeners’ Guild, after all), but you don’t have to be a Weston resident to join the Weston Garden Club. You just have have an interest in gardening, attend meetings, serve on a committee, sign up for watering duty, pay your dues, and agree to a few other things (don’t worry, no hazing is involved).


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Filed Under: Beyond Wellesley, Fundraising, Gardens, Houses, Outdoors

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Join Wellesley Theatre Project at 10th anniversary of Teal Tie Affair

June 7, 2022 by admin Leave a Comment

Wellesley Theatre Project (WTP) will hold its 10th anniversary celebration for WTP A Teal Tie Affair on Saturday, June 18, 6pm, at Babson College’s Sorenson Center for the Arts, 19 Babson College Drive, Wellesley.

Get tickets now to Wellesley Theatre Project’s Teal Tie Affair.

Teal Tie Affair, Wellesley Theatre Project

This great evening of entertainment, fun, and celebration of 10 years of WTP will include an outdoor reception with hors d’oeuvres; desserts; beer & wine; over 25 performances by current and past WTP students; an online silent auction; and a live auction with auctioneer extraordinaire Tom Stebbins.

The silent auction will open on June 13.

Tickets and silent & live auction sales at this fundraising event support WTP, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. WTP has an active community service program and provides scholarships, after-school programming, performance opportunities, and theatre education to area youth.

The silent auction opens on June 13.

EVENT: Wellesley Theatre Project’s 10th anniversary celebration of A Teal Tie Affair
TIME: Festivities begin at 6pm; performances begin at 7pm
WHAT TO WEAR: Cocktail attire with a “teal twist”
RSVP: Purchase tickets here by June 10
DETAILS: The food and beverage portion of the evening is scheduled to take place outdoors. When guests are indoors, masks are required. WTP encourages families to take a rapid COVID test prior to attending the Teal Tie Affair.

Teal Tie Affair, Wellesley Theatre Project

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Registration opens for PlayRoxRun!

June 4, 2022 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Community Investors is hosting a PlayRoxRun! event designed to encourage kids to have fun running while raising funds for youth programs focused on physical, social and emotional wellness.

The event, slated for June 12 at the Wellesley College track, is open to all current Wellesley students in grades 3-12 (public & private schools). Grades 3-5: 1-2pm, Grades 6-8: 2-3pm; Grades 9-12: 3-4pm.

Fun Runs: Individuals enjoy running a lap, a mile, or as far as you can (15-minute limit).

Team Relay Bucket Races: Teams of 4 runners complete a mile relay race for the PlayRoxRun Bucket.

A running/training session will be held at Sprague Fields on Wednesday, 3-3:45pm on June 8.

Runners are encouraged (not required) to raise funds to expand PlayRox programs. $100 for individuals, $400 for teams. Fundraising tools will be made available.


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Filed Under: Fundraising, Health, Kids

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