Wellesley Cotillion chaperones needed on Saturday, January 5
The Cotillion is approaching fast: January 5, 2019. All 800 elegantly dressed young adults will dance the night away in the same spacious venue as last year: Boston University’s Metcalf Hall Ballroom, located on the 2nd floor of BU’s George Sherman Union Building, 775 Commonwealth Ave, Boston.
I’m joining in the volunteering fun on the late-shift side of things, but the real need right now is for boots on the ground in Boston. SIGN UP HERE.
Urgent need for adult chaperones
Sign up to chaperone at the event and you will have a coveted position and a bird’s eye view of our High School students as they enjoy the evening. Adult volunteers always have as much fun as those who attend the event.
Here is the link to the volunteer Sign-Up Page.
Please sign up today. Cotil needs your support on the evening of January 5th.
“Real Housewives” star treated for allergic reaction at Newton-Wellesley hospital
Bethenny Frankel
had a close call in the area.
“Real Housewives of New York City” star Bethenny Frankel was treated for a severe allergic reaction just a bit beyond Wellesley at Newton-Wellesley hospital, according to E!News. In a tweet Frankel called the 300-beds medical center “…the best hospital I have ever been to and I am so grateful.”
She tweeted on Monday that after ingesting soup on Sunday she started itching, “was unconscious for 15 minutes”, then was rushed to the Emergency Room and spent two days in the Intensive Care Unit. “I couldn’t talk, see, thought I had a stroke & dying & told if 5 mins later I’d be dead. 911 & EPI saved me. I’ll never not carry an epipen.”
Although Frankel raved about the care at Newton-Wellesley, apparently she was less impressed with the mattresses. After hitting up a high-end mattress company to donate 200+ mattresses to the hospital and being gently let down, Frankel is asking anyone with a mattress contact to let her know.
Hundreds of Wellesley fire hydrants up for adoption
The DPW and Wellesley Fire-Rescue Department are asking for your assistance in clearing fire hydrants of snow in your neighborhood this winter season. There are over 1,400 hydrants in Wellesley and each one is potentially vital in the event of an emergency.
1. Visit the Wellesley Adopt a Hydrant web map.
2. Pan and zoom to your neighborhood or search for an address by expanding the Find tab on the left. In the Address field, start typing your Street Name and select the Street when it appears in the drop-down list. Repeat this for the Address #. The map will then zoom to your neighborhood.
3. Click on the Adopt a Hydrant button on the right and then click any RED hydrant to adopt it. Green hydrants have already been adopted.
4. Enter your information in the pop-up form and click “Update.”
Here’s what those Halloween teal pumpkins in Wellesley are all about
If on Halloween you see a teal pumpkin on a Wellesley doorstep, it’s not just a holiday decorating project run amok. To those in the know, teal pumpkins are purposefully placed, and they’re sending out a special code. I am here to crack that code as wide open as a vandalized jack-o-lantern.
Part of the Teal Pumpkin project, the blue-green symbols are all about making sure that trick-or-treating is fun and safe for everyone. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, 8% of U.S. kids have food allergies and other conditions that preclude them from joining in on the traditional autumnal candy bacchanal. Teal pumpkins serve as a signal to the treats-seeking community that here is a place where non-food loot is available such as glow sticks or small toys. It’s a simple act of consideration designed to promote inclusion for kids whose food allergies turn the fun of Halloween into a just another time when mom and dad are saying a whole lot of “no.”
Teal — it’s not just for 1980s bridesmaids anymore
Teal as the color of food allergy awareness and has been used for 20 years to raise awareness about food allergies — think bumper stickers and banners. The pumpkin add-on came in as a national initiative launched in 2014 by Food Allergy Research & Education to “raise awareness of food allergies and promote inclusion of all trick-or-treaters throughout the Halloween season.”
What got going as a social media campaign has spread to more and more communities. It’s something Wellesley mom and Mass General hospital allergist Kimberly Gold Blumenthal and her family have done for several years. “We have a teal fake pumpkin and a plastic teal pumpkin that we will fill with toys…Children with food allergies, especially those with anaphylactic-type allergies to peanuts and tree nuts, used to feel left out of the Halloween fun. What fun is it to collect a bunch of candies that may not be safe to eat? The teal pumpkin project helps ‘mark’ houses where food-allergic kids can trick or treat at safely, so they can join in the fun.”
It’s an idea whose time has come because let’s be real here. There’s nothing scarier than a potentially life-threatening allergic reaction.
Nobody’s trying to take candy away from a non-allergic baby
Candy is still king on Halloween, but the work-around of a toys option for some means a safe and happy Halloween for all. Rebecca Flanagan (those pics, above, are of her home) says, “My 5 year old has severe food allergies, so the Teal Pumpkin Project has really helped to make Halloween easier for my son and make him not feel different from the other children. In our family, the kids trade in the candy they collect for a LEGO set and are given a small bag of safe candy from home. With the inception of the Teal Pumpkin Project he is now able to keep the non-candy treats he collects trick-or-treating, making him feel more included on a day that can be a real challenge for food allergy kids and parents.”
If you’re thinking about joining in this year and don’t have the time to paint a pumpkin or buy a fake one, you can go to the Teal Pumpkin Project website and download a sign. And if it’s the first you’ve heard about all this and you know running out for a bag of el-cheapo toys just isn’t going to happen this year, no guilt allowed. Moms have enough of that. There’s always next year. That’s my plan.