Wellesley Hills Junior Women’s Club plans in-person comeback

July 20, 2021 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

Wellesley Hills Junior Women's Club After over a year of getting creative with its fundraising efforts due to the pandemic, The Wellesley Hills Junior Women’s Club (WHJWC) is bringing back its in-person, community-based events to keep moving forward with its mission of raising money for as many area charitable organizations and scholarships for Wellesley students as possible.

First up: The Wonder Run will be held on October 2, 2021 as part of Wellesley’s Wonderful Weekend.

Also planned: The Wellesley Kitchen and Home Tour is scheduled for May 7, 2022.

Wait till next year: As we reported earlier this month, Wellesley Marketplace, traditionally held in November, will not take place in 2021. “Many, many factors played a role in our decision to postpone Marketplace for another year, the biggest one being time,” WHJWC incoming president Lindsey Crowley said. “Marketplace planning typically begins in February, reviewing and soliciting vendor applications. This past February, we decided against starting to plan for 2021 based on COVID-19 conditions and predictions which was the right decision at the time.

“However, since we are now nearly five months behind in planning we just don’t think this large-scale event is feasible to execute this year. We also polled our recent vendors, and the results painted a picture that was uncertain and hesitant to commit, therefore we couldn’t guarantee we would have enough vendors to even fill the venue. But mark my words, Marketplace will be back and better than ever for 2022.”

It’s all about flexibility

Although WHWJC last year canceled all three of its major fundraisers, with ingenuity and creativity the membership pivoted. Club members produced a community cookbook entitled Wellesley at Home and brought back Luminary Night. Both events helped fulfill the Juniors’ annual fundraising mission and fostered community connection.

Despite the many challenges COVID presented, the club still distributed $64,000 in scholarships and awarded $63,970 in grants in the 2020-2021 season. “In this unprecedented year, it is truly amazing that we were able to uphold our regular charitable giving levels,” said outgoing WHJWC president, Steph Flynn.

WHJWC also stayed virtually connected to its direct service partners. The Club gave over one hundred $100 Roche Brothers gift cards to Wellesley Friendly Aid for Thanksgiving, and upheld the annual Holiday Toy drive. The Kids on the Block team produced a high-quality video to ensure key messages of self-esteem, friendship and inclusion could be delivered to Wellesley kindergartners. And WHJWC provided snacks and messages of support to Elizabeth Seton Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation residents, planted pots to beautify the new ABC House, and completed several drives to benefit the Wellesley Food Pantry.

About the Wellesley Hills Junior Women’s Club

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Wellesley High seniors join forces to clean up the RDF

May 26, 2021 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

It’s inevitable as residents dutifully drop off their recyclables and garbage at the Wellesley Recycling & Disposal Facility that some amount of that stuff escapes. No matter how carefully you organize your receptacles or tie your garbage pages, some of that material is going to get loose, and scout about to land in a stream, forest, or someone’s backyard. I’ve seen it happen on a windy day at the RDF, even when you go to toss a plastic bottle all of 3 feet into a dumpster.

A group of about 40 Wellesley High School seniors today did their part, on Community Service Day, to pick up gobs of litter at the RDF.

No reason to have the RDF looking dumpy.

“They worked in teams and the place looks amazing. The RDF staff would love to give them a big thank you and good luck,” says RDF Superintendent Jamie Manzolini.

Wellesley springing back to life

May 23, 2021 by Bob Brown 3 Comments

It wasn’t an official Wellesley’s Wonderful Weekend, but it had that kind of feel to it.

That annual event was scrapped last year due to the pandemic but is making an official comeback on the first weekend of October.

This weekend in town, renewed energy could be seen across Wellesley.

I started my Saturday helping the Wellesley Trails Committee install flower boxes on the lower falls footbridge that traverses the Charles River next to the Waterstone assisted living facility on Washington Street. We’re hopeful that flowers, which will be planted and tended by Waterstone, will be blooming in those boxes before summer’s done, as bridge beautification ideas have been discussed since before the current bridged replaced a dilapidated railroad bridge about a decade ago.

On my back through Wellesley, I spied a town employee giving the raised lettering on the Wellesley Hills train station sign a fresh coat of paint.

Just down the block from there I saw that another couple electrical boxes were being painted as part of that ongoing program.

I then dropped by Linden Square, where a pack of teens selflessly paraded from the Kids Backing Kids Diaper Drive tent at the Linden Square parking lot into a Federal Realty building where thousands of diapers were being stored. Collections were also taking place at Sprague Field, and those will be added to the ones collected at Linden Square as well as another few thousand at Fiske Elementary School.

Volunteers collected nearly 19,000 diapers and 300 packs of baby wipes, far exceeding the organization’s goal of 10,000 diapers. “All diapers and wipes have been distributed to several local and regional organizations that help families in need (the Wellesley Food Pantry, individual families in low-income housing in Wellesley, Centre Street Food Pantry in Newton, the Chelsea Collaborative, and the Diaper Circle in Brookline),” said Kids Backing Kids’ Jim Rodrigue, providing an update after the event.

Linden Square, Wellesley — Kids Backing Kids collected nearly 19,000 diapers as part of its campaign

Elsewhere in Linden Square, shopper were checking out sidewalk sales.

Finally, I swung by Wellesley Square for the tail end of its sidewalk sales and outdoor concerts. Not settling for just a community service dog, the police appeared to be trying out a community service monster (actually, the wild thing was part of a library promotion).

Wellesley community roundup: Mental health awareness on library lawn; Touch-a-Truck to collect food; diaper drive in Linden Square

May 20, 2021 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

Our roundup of the latest Wellesley community news:

Mental health awareness on library lawn

Wellesley has set up a flag and sign display on the lawn of Wellesley Free Library’s main branch to boost mental health awareness, and to remind individuals and families that Wellesley is here to help.

The Health Department, which has numerous mental health resources available, hopes the display will encourage more people locally to discuss the subject and seek support if needed.

Wellesley library, mental illness awarness — The colored flags highlight that 1 in 5 U.S. adults are affected by mental health each year.

wellesley parade truck may — Throwback: Wellesley truck parade, May 2011

Touch-a-Truck to collect food

Don’t miss the chance to peek into dump trucks, front loaders, and perhaps even a fire truck or a police cruiser. Bring a non-perishable food donation to help fill a bucket or a truck bed.

A variety of trucks will be open for visitors to explore on Saturday, May 22, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at DPW Headquarters (20 Municipal Way).

Also on Saturday, Wellesley Recycling & Disposal Facility (RDF) users can fill a truck with non-perishable food at the book exchange area.

All donated food will go to the Wellesley Food Pantry which currently serves approximately 400 clients in about 200 households in town. One third of clients are children 18 years old and younger. Suggested donations include chicken broth (low sodium or no salt), almond milk (plain, unsweetened), canned salmon, laundry detergent, canned beets, Dinty Moore beef stew, prunes, peanut butter in plastic jars, soy milk (plain, unsweetened), and vegetable oil.

When exploring the DPW trucks, please remember to cover your face if you can’t remain distant from others. Surfaces will be cleaned throughout the day.

Questions? Contact the Wellesley DPW by telephone at 781-235-7600 ext. 3300 or by email at [email protected]

Kids Backing Kids organizes diaper drive to help families in need

Kids Backing Kids, Inc. is accepting donations for its 1st annual Diaper Drive in Wellesley. Donations of diapers, pull-ups, and swimmers of all sizes (both new and opened packages) and new containers of baby wipes can be dropped off on Sat., May 22, 8am-3pm in the parking lot across from California Pizza Kitchen.

Kids Backing Kids, Wellesley — Left to right: Olivia Rodrigue (WHS ’22), Grace Rodrigue (WHS ’21), and Simone Rodrigue (WMS)

Then non-profit organization’s volunteers decided to organize a diaper drive upon learning that one in three families cannot afford diapers for their young children. “Diapers are really expensive and we thought that a community-wide diaper drive would be one small way that we could help families in need,” said Grace Rodrigue, co-founder of Kids Backing Kids and a senior at Wellesley High School. “Diapers and wipes are necessities in the first few years of life, costing families as much as $100 per month.”

The need for a diaper drive is greater than ever during the ongoing COVID pandemic. The cost of diapers rose over 8 percent in the last year. But that’s not the end of it. Kimberly-Clark and Proctor & Gamble—two of the big diaper makers—recently said that additional price increases are coming this summer. This will be another blow to low-income families already struggling to make ends meet.

The goal of the drive is to collect 10,000 diapers. “Kids Backing Kids represents the best of the young people in our community, and providing space for the diaper drive is our way to support their great initiative,” said Chris Fleming, Vice President, Asset
Management for Linden Square owner Federal Realty Investment Trust.

Can’t stop by Linden Square? Here are more ways to donate: