“Good Egg” Girl Scout sends message of positivity in Wellesley

April 1, 2020 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

The call went out from the fearless leaders of Schofield Girl Scout Troop 64202 to their scouts: during these difficult times, messages of positivity and support to those on the front lines of the corona virus crisis were needed. One suggestion Troop leaders Lexi Vichniac and Sharon Clarke put forth was for scouts to “write and decorate a sign to hang on your front door thanking all the delivery people.”

Wellesley Girl Scout "Good Egg" project — Wellesley Girl Scout Elissa Leber’s hand-drawn sign tells the story behind the multitude of eggs adorning the weeping cherry trees in her front yard.

Elissa Leber put some thought into what signs of thanks might look like and came up with an idea. “In wanting to thank more that just a few professions, and in combination with decorating for Easter, she creatively came up with a “Good Egg” project. Handwritten on 72 eggs are a multitude of professions which she felt deserved thanks,” mom Lauren Leber explained.

The Lebers — mom, Lauren; dad, Geoffrey (who grew up in Wellesley); and Elissa and her two siblings say they feel grateful to live in Wellesley because of its community feel. The project is meant to demonstrate that the concept of community extends beyond a neighborhood and into the greater community of town, state and country. “We all need each other, especially during a crisis. The ‘good eggs’ are a visual reminder of this and our family’s gratitude,” Lauren said.

Girl Scouts are a special breed. They have a reputation for being prepared, inclusive, and ready to help out where ever and whenever needed, even during a pandemic. It’s all part of the “Do a good turn daily” ethos of the Scouts. The Good Egg project is a visual manifestation of how everyone can somehow bring positivity to the lives of others, despite the current need for physical distancing.

Lauren said, “Our mail carrier was very moved by the gesture and relayed that he told many at the Post Office about the Good Egg trees. We are so happy that the gratitude she wished to convey is finding its way to those meant to receive it.”

In normal times, Troop 62402 gets together to plan projects, work toward badges, and carry on the scouting traditions of friendship and community service. The troop’s efforts to maintain those traditions individually shows how deep their commitment to positivity and helpfulness runs.

“Before I did this project, so many people may have felt unappreciated. After doing this project, I hope it helped people to realize that they’re appreciated for what they do every day. Every job helps us, especially during times like these,” Elissa said.

If Girl Scout Troop 62402 can stay strong, so can all of us.

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Wellesley COVID-19 update: Building inspections going virtual via FaceTime & Skype

March 30, 2020 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Local builders, electricians, plumbers and others who want to move ahead with their projects during the coronavirus crisis will be relieved to see that Wellesley has begun moving to remote building inspections. The town had temporarily banned non-emergency interior inspections.

We’d started to hear from builders who were hoping Wellesley and other communities would come up with innovative ways to allow inspections to be conducted without putting inspectors in harm’s way. After all, many of those involved in the building process are small businesses, just like restaurants, retailers and others that have rallied town and community support. While this spring real estate season might not be like any other, low interest rates and projects already near completion give hope to those in the market.

The town’s Board of Heath put the kibosh on non-emergency interior inspections on March 19, though said on March 25 that it was looking for alternative approaches in light of the state’s guidance that such work falls under essential services.

“I have never known an inspector to touch or handle anything while doing an inspection,” says one contractor I reached out to about this topic over the weekend. “There is no reason any one needs to be within six feet of anyone else.”

The new Wellesley rules (embedded below) require inspections to be held via FaceTime, Skype or via submission and review of photographs.

Among those hoping the town would find a “sensible workaround” that would ensure safety but allow work to proceed was Marc Charney, a Wellesley-based realtor and builder. As he explained, 6 to 10 inspections might be required per project, so the inability to get one could stop a project anywhere along the way, from the foundation to insulation to electrical stages. “This was going to grind things to a stop and have devastating consequences on our local housing market,” he says.

Charney hoped that a solution might at least be found for unoccupied properties, even if they had to be quarantined for a couple of weeks before an inspection.

“Housing in Wellesley is an extremely important part of our local economy and I think it is very important that the community at large support this segment and the small business owners who” take part in it, Charney says.

The town won’t mind renewing its collection of fees from contractors either…

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Wellesley postal workers on the job despite COVID-19

March 30, 2020 by Deborah Brown 10 Comments

Wellesley Square postal workers are on the job, making sure that home delivery service throughout town remains in place despite COVID-19 concerns. I stopped into the 1 Grove Street office to check on the status of Swellesley’s P.O. box and was greeted with a number of safety measures. All interior doors are propped open so that customers and workers do not need to touch handles; blue tape on the floor marks out 6-foot distances between customers and front-desk employees; and the flower boxes out front maintained by the Wellesley Gardeners’ Guild remain empty for now so that volunteers do not have to perform watering and dead-heading duties.

Wellesley Square Post Office, Wayne — Wayne was working front desk duty when I stopped by. “I brought the flowers in and put up the sign,” he said, which says ‘Just my way to brighten your day and encourage you to stay positive! — Wayne.’

Wellesley Square Post Office — The camera angle is deceiving — from left, Wayne, Mark, and Charlie are keeping a 6-foot distance between them. Shout-out to Mark, who delivers to the Swellesley home.

Wellesley coronavirus (COVID-19) update: Active cases double overnight; Babson, Olin, Wellesley 3D printer donating masks

March 27, 2020 by Bob Brown 2 Comments

The latest coronavirus (COVID-19) news from Wellesley includes word that there are now 16 active COVID-19 cases, up from 8 yesterday.

The town writes: “Officials attribute the large increase in COVID-19 cases today to ‘community spread’-meaning people have been infected with the virus in our area, including some who are not sure how or where they became infected. Infected individuals may be showing symptoms, or they may be asymptomatic.”

Separately, a more robust online learning model is expected to be announced next week by Wellesley Public Schools.

Official town coronavirus update

Making masks

Babson and Olin colleges have donated a bunch of personal protective equipment—65 boxes of gloves, 100 pairs of used goggles and 40 pairs of new goggles—to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency Donations Management Branch at the Best Western Royal Plaza Hotel & Trade Center in Marlborough.

Wellesley business Toys-in-Box, a 3D printing company, has been cranking out protective face shields and plans to donate at least 100 of them to those in the medical and other fields that need them during the crisis. Contact the company if your organization is in need: [email protected]

toys in box shields — Toys-in-Box 3D-printed face shields

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Wellesley Spring 2020 refuses to stay cooped up

March 27, 2020 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

At a time when Wellesley residents are tightly cocooned in their homes in an effort to stem the spread of COVID-19, Mother Nature has taken a different approach. She’s chosen to ignore the circumstances of the human world and go forward with all the pomp that is Spring. Her kids are hard at work, blooming, breeding, beautifying. Some things never go on lockdown.

Wellesley, corona virus, forsythia

The forsythia is in full bloom on Great Plain Avenue.

Wellesley, corona virus, Nehoiden Golf Course

Pink blooms, Nehoiden Golf Course.

Wellesley, corona virus, Hunnewell mansion

Chores are in full swing at Hunnewell Farm, Washington Street, on the front lawn of the Hunnewell mansion.

Wellesley, corona virus, RDF

We miss the book drop section at the Wellesley RDF. The RDF is operating under regular hours right now, but some drop-off restrictions are in place. Most on RDF current guidelines here.

Beyond Wellesley, corona virus, South Natick dam

Beyond Wellesley at the South Natick dam. This log perched atop the spillway seems a fine metaphor for the idea of waiting for the other shoe to drop as the coronavirus continues to spread. According to the Town of Wellesley’s most recent update, Norfolk County has a total of 292 cases of the virus; Wellesley has 8 active cases and 6 recovered cases for a total of 14 cases.

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Covering coronavirus (COVID-19) in Wellesley: Canceled vs. Cancelled; small biz challenges; no more empty nest; thanks for the tips

March 26, 2020 by Bob Brown 5 Comments

While the Town of Wellesley has done a nice job disseminating its coronavirus (COVID-19) updates, we at The Swellesley Report have also had a job to do in keeping the community plugged in on the unofficial word. It’s been a challenge. We’ve shown discretion in most cases (those teens and their cars…), maybe jumped the gun on a few others (a rogue food delivery effort).

While the coronavirus situation in Wellesley remains serious (up to 14 total cases, 6 active), we’ve also tried not to be all coronavirus all the time (“Spring trying its darndest to boost Wellesley’s spirits”).

Events and Cancellations

During the early phase of the crisis, it seemed like we spent half of our time posting about new events, then days or hours later removing those events when organizations would alert us the events had been canceled or postponed.

They’re still coming: The Wellesley College Club has just canceled its May 12 Authors on Stage program and the Wellesley Trails Committee has nixed its April 19 guided trail walk.

Oh, and about that word canceled. Mrs. Swellesley had something to say to me about that the other morning as I was about to head into the shower: “So, how many ‘l’’s do we have in the word ‘cancelled’?”

Authoritatively, I responded 1 in “canceled” or “canceling,” 2 in cancellation. I’d researched all this earlier in the week for work I do for the Commonwealth’s Mass.gov, website, which has seen traffic soar. Mrs. Swellesley, identifying with her English relatives, insisted on 2 “l”’s across the board.

So Much for the Empty Nest

It’s been a cozy household, with the 2 of us “essential” employees working here in what is not a naturally socially-distanced house of the McMansion variety. I’ve tried not to cramp Mrs. Swellesley’s style too much now that I’m teleworking. I pretty much behaved myself when she was on a Zoom call with neighborhood friends, and resisted doing a TV show-like review of it like I did with recent Wellesley town government meetings that were live streamed.

Meanwhile, our college-age offspring have been kicked off their respective campuses due to coronavirus concerns and right back into what was briefly our empty nest.

They’ve been highly useful for making dump runs, and we’ve emphasized that they need to follow the new safety practices being enforced at the Recycling & Disposal Facility.

coloring — Mrs. Swellesley has kept things lively with forced-family-fun activities

Helping Small Businesses…like us

Good-hearted people in town have been tripping over each other to help one another, whether it’s collecting masks for medical workers or sharing online yoga classes or offering to pick up groceries and things for those who can’t get out.

They’ve also urged us to spread the word about restaurants and other small businesses that have reworked their operations to get through this rough stretch. We set up a page on take-out and deliveries.

We’ve also reached out to small businesses to encourage them to share their behind-the-scenes stories with us, and you. If you’re interested in sharing, please let us know: [email protected]

As a small business ourselves, we know only too well the hurtin’ that the coronavirus outbreak is putting on small operations like ours. We’ve been applying for grants from the likes of Facebook (I know, scary) that are freeing up funds to support local journalists. We’re working overtime, have never seen higher traffic on our website and our daily email subscriber numbers keep going up. But we also have temporarily lost advertising on events that have been…canceled. Please consider contributing to sustain our independent news venture.

google analyics — Coronavirus: Good for website traffic

Questions & Suggestions

We’ve had a higher number of reader tips, suggestions and questions over the past few weeks, and we want to say “Thank You.” Readers such as AT and PC have entered our mythical Swellesley Hall of Fame.

After all, we only have so many eyes and ears, and need the community’s help to spot important, interesting and just plain quirky news in Wellesley. Especially since we’re doing our best to limit our expeditions in light of the state’s advisory to hunker down at home.

Given that we no longer have kids in the school system (which in Wellesley and the rest of the state is now closed until at least May 4), we’re especially thankful to those of you keeping us in the loop about Wellesley public school developments.

Other tips and inquiries and have been all over the map. While we don’t always have answers off the top of our heads, we often know who to ask.

*Who can I contact about the cruddy condition of a Hastings Street sidewalk? We passed along our Highway Division contact.

*Why’s the DPW digging up Bristol Road? We hit up the Municipal Light Plant’s Don Newell, who said: “The Wellesley Municipal Light Plant is installing fiber optic cable to support the expansion of our distributed antenna system with Small Cell Wireless antennas that will improve cell phone coverage.” Good answer.

We’ve got a handful of other inquiries that we’re digging on, and you’ll be seeing posts in the days and weeks ahead that stem from those.

Other ideas or inquiries? [email protected]

natick traffic light — Seen in Natick, needed in Wellesley

It’s bear—and mask—season in Wellesley

March 26, 2020 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Wellesley residents across town have begun propping up bears (and other stuffed animals) in their windows to give kids and adults something amusing to do while they’re airing out in a safe distanced way.

Updates to bear locations are being made on a shared Wellesley Bear hunt document. One organizer credited her daughter’s preschool with the suggestion. We’ve seen other scavenger hunts in town popping up with various themes, including rainbows.

Taking photos of stuffed animals in windows is no easy task. Reflections are tough, plus you find yourself asking strangers things like “Mind if I take a picture of your monkey?”

bear 2020 cottage

Masks in, bears out (for now)

Separately, Wellesley’s Pete Jones tells us that after hearing health officials were looking for face masks for public service officials, residents in town their volunteer sewing efforts from making comfort bears for children to producing face masks for those on the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic front lines.

Pete’s wife JoAnn, among those doing the sewing, says “some protection for our workers is better then no protection.” Pete adds: “What better way to serve ‘Those who serve’, during our stay at home lock down.”

oAnn Jones Face masks — JoAnn Jones sews face masks

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Blood Drive at Wellesley Community Center — Apr. 1, 2020

March 25, 2020 by admin 3 Comments

Wellesley Blood Drive

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Wellesley puts out call to join Medical Reserve Corps

March 23, 2020 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Wellesley town officials are in the awkward position of not wanting to diminish volunteer efforts by residents to help one another immediately during the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, but also seeking to increase control over responses to the situation as it intensifies. This is particularly true of medical-related efforts.

The town has made a renewed call for those interested in helping to join the Wellesley Health Department Medical Reserve Corps.

The Corps, which is part of a regional Norfolk County effort, has about 100 members and new inquiries are coming in, according to the Health Department’s Cheryl Lefman.

The town is emphasizing that those medical and non-medical volunteers included in the Corps are “vetted by Health Department staff, credentialed (CORI/SORI forms) and receive training for specific tasks. For COVID-19, duties may involve assisting the Health Department staff, helping coordinate volunteer teams, working with families and children, and other community support roles.”

As of Friday, volunteers had not received specific training related to COVID-19, but do receive just-in-time training based on the town’s Incident Command System. We asked about which skills are most needed, but that was still in the brainstorming phase when we asked.

The town says the Medical Reserve Corps. played an important role in the H1N1 flu pandemic 10 years ago. “The Health Department ran 59 clinics in two months, in which vaccine for H1N1 was offered to children and adults. MRC volunteers were key to the success of these clinics, as it would not have been possible for the Health Department’s staff of five full-time employees and a few per-diem nurses to canvas the entire town. Volunteers helped to fill each role/responsibility at large and small clinics, and helped to allay fears of the townspeople when there was a shortage of vaccine. They demonstrated skill, diplomacy, empathy and willingness to assist with all tasks. Several new volunteers joined as a result of the response.”

To volunteer for the Corps, contact Cheryl Lefman at [email protected]

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