Friday, May 18, 2012
Their village—now their home and family—houses, cares for and schools children of genocide.
Before they go to sleep, the students gather, like family, they said, and talk about their day. Unusual? It was for these students. Many of them are orphans, or have lost at least one parent. “We were like homeless people,” Pascasie Nyirantwari told a class of 10th graders at WMHS, after genocide in her country—until they moved into a community that houses, cares for and schools 500 young people in rural Rwanda. Three students, all seniors from the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village, spoke Wednesday with students in Brendan Doherty’s honors American history class. A total of 12 students from the village are visiting different US cities, in groups of three, to reach out, Bill Cummings told the WMHS students, to meet supporters and …
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Facing a deadline for a nuisance classification, neighbors pitch in to help a WWII veteran clear his property.
More than six months after the City Council debated whether the property at 602 Main St. was a nuisance, neighbors got together to help clean up the area. Home owner Ralph Saviano responded to the City Council's nuisance question in November of last year, saying that he wanted to repair the property problems, including overgrown vegetation, front porch damage and several unregistered vehicles parked on the grounds. In November, Saviano said he planned to have many repairs completed by December, with the exception of the dilapidated and collapsed garage. The City Council gave the disabled World War II veteran until June to fix up the property. Over the weekend, VFW Post 543 Commander Charlie Culhane, Paul Murray of Murray Hills …
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
From Megan McCue, GM of McCue Garden Centers.
Orange and purple. Purple and yellow. Blue and white. Megan McCue walked past tables of pansies, some with two-color faces. With the warm winter—the last cold snap notwithstanding—gardeners are salivating to start planting. Some plants, like pansies, are cold-hardy, said McCue, a member of the third generation of her family to run McCue’s Garden Centers—now two, one in Woburn, one in Billerica. So are some vegetables, like cabbage, lettuce, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, kale and swiss chard, and some perennials. So gardeners can begin to work in their gardens, said McCue, the centers' general manager. Some seeds can be planted as soon as the ground is workable. "That was three weeks ago,"McCue said. Read seed packages carefully, she …
42.46619
-71.17663
McCue Garden Center
200 Cambridge Rd, Woburn, MA
/articles/time-to-garden
760941
/locations/6711450
Friday, March 16, 2012
One of 100 contestants, she's an eighth-grader at the Kennedy Middle School.
Holly Brown and her classmates picked up their pencils and began to answer multiple-choice questions about geography. One of the questions: “The Bitterroot Range is located on the border of Montana and what other state?” Brown, an eighth-grader at the Kennedy Middle School, put herself on the map by winning the school level of the National Geographic Geography Bee. Now, she’s headed to state competition. Brown has been putting in time after homework—about half an hour, but not every day—to study geography, from US cities and states to international locations to physical geography—“like the continental shelf”—to bodies of water and cultural geography. “There’s a lot of stuff,” she said. She finds some of the categories easy. US states, …
Monday, February 27, 2012
Matthew Govostes is home with a new heart.
Matthew Govostes didn’t go back to school today after a week of school vacation. A first grader at the Wyman Elementary School, Matthew hasn’t been in school since late January. That’s because one month ago, Matthew received a new heart. Matthew’s home now. Depending on his immune system, he may join his classmates and teacher Nancy Hubbard at the end of March. Matthew’s parents, Elena and Jason, have known that Matthew had a rare heart defect since Elena was pregnant with him, she told Woburn Patch yesterday afternoon. Structures in his heart called ventricles, which are chambers, were reversed. Three years ago, in February of 2009, Matthew underwent his first surgery to fix the problem. It didn’t help at first. Then he rallied. But …
Monday, January 30, 2012
Young designer Christopher Cuozzo keeps his Woburn pride while becoming better known in the fashion scene.
Though he often works from his Woburn home, designer Christopher Cuozzo dresses up to a degree that most self-employed people don’t. On a recent winter weekday, he wore a fitted gray wool suit over a pink and white-collared dress shirt, navy socks and brown wingtip leather shoes. Even with the white pocket square, the look he considers “very, very understated.” “Men especially don’t take pride in what they wear,” he said, “and that’s why I make a point every day of dressing to the nines.” The 29-year-old fashion entrepreneur’s favorite color is pink, but lately he’s been wearing bright orange shoelaces and elbow patches like the ones on the cardigans he sells on his online store, Dressed by Christopher Cuozzo. And he's not the only one. …
Monday, January 16, 2012
St. Anslem's College recently honored Marla Pascucci-Byrne.
Teachers often inspire their students. Marla Pascucci-Byrne of Woburn, a teacher at both Austin Prep in Reading and Bentley University, was honored recently by the Saint Anselm College Alumni Council. Pascucci-Byrne received the John F. Barry Spirit of Saint Anselm College Award for "her inspiring work in the classroom and the community, and her loyalty to the college," said a statement from the New Hampshire school. She was a 1993 graduate of Saint Anselm, studying English, and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in English at Northeastern University. While at Saint Anselm, she performed in the student drama company and is now a dance director at Austin Prep. She returns to Saint Anselm to perform in the Abbey Players anniversary celebrations.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
According to the Boston Globe, Bill and Joyce Cummings will be giving away 90 percent of their fortune.
One Winchester couple has decided to donate most of its fortune to charity. Bill and Joyce Cummings of Cummings Properties were the first Massachusetts couple to sign the Giving Pledge, according to the Boston Globe. The pledge, which was started by Warren Buffet and Bill and Melinda Gates, invites the wealthiest individuals and families in America to commit to giving the majority of their wealth to charity either during their lifetime or after their death. According to the Globe, Bill and Joyce Cummings were trying to set an example for the wealthiest one percent, by signing more than 90 percent of their fortune. The couple has made its fortune through real estate property, which has land in Woburn, Wakefield, Stoneham and other areas in …
42.498639
-71.126986
Cummings Properties Commercial Real Estate
200 W Cummings Park, Woburn, MA
/articles/cummings-family-donating-fortune
760794
/locations/6114642
Monday, December 19, 2011
John Flaherty explains his family's involvement in the new Veterans' Memorial project.
John Flaherty wanted to help replace and expand the crumbling, almost-70-year-old monument to World War II veterans on the Common. He originally planned to be “last man in” and contribute the difference between the amount that was donated and the cost of the project. “I didn’t want to take away from community (efforts),” Flaherty told Woburn Patch Saturday. The monument is “everybody’s.” The estimated cost of the new monument: around $500,000. “In this economy, it would have taken a long time to raise the money,” Flaherty said. Plus, the Boys and Girls Club is planning a capital campaign, he noted. Flaherty got an idea. “I got up one morning,” he said, “and asked my wife, ‘Are you all right with doing it all?’”—The whole project? Now the…
42.47935
-71.152929
/articles/santa-flaherty-family-to-gift-city-with-new-veterans-memorial-and-more-on-the-common
/locations/6034708
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
After almost four decades on the committee.
When Joseph Crowley looks at the clock he received as a gift yesterday afternoon, it will be easy for him to remember what he has spent many hours over 30-plus years on. Instead of numerals, the hours are marked by names of city schools: the Altavesta at one o’clock, followed by the Linscott, Joyce, Hurld, Goodyear, Reeves, Clapp, White, Kennedy, Wyman, Shamrock and, at high noon, Woburn Memorial High School. Crowley has sat on the Woburn School Committee for 38 years. A group of about 30 people, including two past school superintendents, a state representative, a representative of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees and members of the School Committee, school administrators and others gathered around 3 p.m. yesterday to …
Earnhardt
9:40 am on Tuesday, May 15, 2012
That's a great way to help a Veteran, you should all be proud of your accomplishments. It's great to see people helping people. Congratulations to all of you. more ›