By Kathy Kurtz Ferrari
Staff Writer
4/29/10
When Amy Hartford answered the phone back in January while her husband, Jay, was sleeping, she didn’t even need to wake him to get his reply to the caller.

By Alexander A. Padis Jr., Esquire
7/30/09
In the current economy, the need to cut back has encouraged many to resort to do-it-yourself projects. We try to avoid hiring a contractor if we can do the job without one.
Some of us are more “hands on” in this type of endeavor than others. Regardless of our skills, however, there are some jobs that require special expertise or equipment.
If that huge tree in the backyard were to fall against another, leaving the fallen tree to rest precariously until the next storm knocked it down, a specialist would have to be called to remove the tree safely. Such a specialist would have the skill, experience and
equipment to ensure that the tree would be brought down, cut up and removed without causing any
injury or damage to the homeowner, neighbors, or curious passersby.
What would be the owner’s liability, however, if the specialist hired for the job were to act negligently and cause harm to a third party? Could the injured party recover against the homeowner for the harm caused by the independent contractor’s negligence?
This issue was examined again recently by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in a case entitled Kelly v. Foxboro Realty Associates LLC. The husband of the plaintiff, Janice Kelly, was injured in a freak accident while a passenger on a bus. As the bus traveled down a road approaching the facility of one of the defendants, a security gate suddenly and unexpectedly swung out into the road, piercing the side of the bus. While several passengers were injured, Mr. Kelly’s injuries were severe and caused his death. Mrs. Kelly sued several parties, including the owner of the facility that owned the gate.
The owner defended her claim on the basis that it had hired an independent contractor to operate the gate and that, if the gate’s unexpected opening and striking of the bus was the result of negligence, it was the negligence of the independent contractor, for which the owner could not be held liable.
During the trial, the judge instructed the jury that the owner could be liable for the negligence of the independent contractor in the performance of its work if the owner gave direction for the work, furnished equipment for the work or retained control over any part of the work. The judge refused the owner’s request to instruct the jury that mere control over any part of the work was not enough and that the owner had to have retained “a right of supervision that the contractor is not entirely free to do the work in his own way.”
The jury found in Mrs. Kelly’s favor and against
the owner, as well as the independent contractor.
The owner appealed, and the case was heard directly by the SJC.
On appeal, the SJC upheld the judge’s instruction and the verdict. The court agreed that, in some cases, “it might be helpful to instruct juries that ‘[t]here must be such a retention of a right of supervision that the contractor is not entirely free to do the work in his own way.’”
This type of instruction would be appropriate where the owner or employer retained only “a general right to order the work stopped,” which would not alone be sufficient to permit the owner or employer to be liable for the contractor’s negligence. In this case, the owner had established an informal protocol for the opening and securing of the gates on its property, which the court determined was more than a mere “general right” to control the gate arm. As a result, the owner’s conduct was sufficient to constitute “control” over the independent contractor so as to render the owner liable for the independent contractor’s negligence.
If you hire an independent contractor to perform a task on your property, you will not be liable for harm caused by the negligence of that contractor to a third party if you have not retained control over any aspect of the contractor’s work other than the general right to stop the work. Using the example of the fallen tree, suppose that the owner were to insist that the contractor use only one piece of equipment, rather than the two pieces that the contractor would ordinarily use, because the owner wanted to minimize damage to his lawn. If the one piece of equipment proved inadequate to control the tree, permitting it to fall against a neighbor’s house, the owner would be liable for the damage caused to the neighbor’s house, because the owner would have exercised control beyond the general right to stop the work.
The lesson to be learned here is to select your independent contractors carefully and to trust them to do the job using the skill, experience and equipment that influenced you to retain their services in the first place. And that is your “Attorney’s Advice.”
(Alexander A. Padis Jr. is a partner with McDermott & Padis in Milton. The firm can be reached at (617) 698-2828.)

By Suzette Martinez Standring
5/28/09
Eleven-year-old Zackary Fischer has leadership potential. As a selected “scholar,” he will attend the Junior National Young Leaders Conference in Washington, D.C., this summer. Zackary was nominated by his teacher, Marie-Laure Brown, who recognized his “scholastic merit, maturity and strength of character to represent Tucker Elementary School at this unique leadership program for exceptional fifth- and sixth-graders,” according to the acceptance letter from Marguerite Regan, dean of academic affairs for the JrNYL.
(continued)

By Kathy Kurtz Ferrari
Staff Writer
3/19/09
It was another invitation to a ladies’ night.
Aimee Driscoll was used to getting them from neighbors and friends. They usually involved looking over some items that someone is selling, some good conversation, maybe a glass of wine, but in the end she usually ended up writing out a check for something she really didn’t need or even want.
But this one was different. This time she walked out with money – lots of it – in her pocket.
(continued)

By Scott MacKeen
Staff Writer
3/12/09
The Historical Commission is calling for the Town Farm to become a national historic landmark.
According to Meredith Hall, the commission’s chair, the designation would require that the current structures on the property be maintained. The 34-acre farm, under Colonial Gov. William Stoughton’s will, must be used to aid Milton’s poor.
(continued)

By Kathy Kurtz Ferrari
Staff Writer
3/5/09
The Hajjar family of Milton has been dedicating time and money for decades to help support St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.
Beginning with Evelynne and Sydney Hajjar, the matriarch and patriarch of the family who met years ago at one of the first conventions for St. Jude’s, and now with their children and grandchildren, the Hajjars have been generous supporters of the hospital.
St. Jude’s is internationally recognized for its pioneering work in finding cures and saving children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. Founded by the late entertainer Danny Thomas and based in Memphis, Tenn., St. Jude’s shares its discoveries with scientific and medical communities around the world. No family ever pays for treatments not covered by insurance, and families without insurance are never asked to pay.
(continued)

By Scott MacKeen
Staff Writer
2/5/09
Many charitable groups out there like to wave a big flag when they make donations. They want the world to know about it.
But there are other groups that give quietly, wanting no recognition in return.
If you talk to a Milton Mason, chances are you won’t hear about praise and accolades. You won’t see a banner being waved announcing them as a charity group.
But what you’ll see is a group of men acting according to a belief that a community can exist among all people, no matter their race or creed, and that supporting said community is a duty rooted deep in history.
“We won’t ask to be recognized for what we do. We’re not looking for our name in the paper,” says Dave Duncan, secretary to the Milton Lodge of Masons. “But charity is the most important job we do.”
(continued)

1/29/09
The Milton Times is currently running a contest for a number of Best in Milton categories. See Page 21 for our survey form. We take the contest seriously and hope our readers will send back the forms to the Milton Times, 480 Adams St., Suite 208, Milton, MA 02186. You may also e-mail your votes to bestinmilton@aol.com.
There will also be information about the survey at our web site, www.miltontimes.net.
The winners will be announced in the Feb. 26 edition of the Times. Deadline for submission is noon on Thursday, Feb. 12.
Every year there are a few scattered votes for an out-of-town business or organization. We don’t consider those valid votes. The contest is all about Milton and it is our focal point.
The Milton Times began publication 14 years ago. We began surveying our readers within the first year, and we try to keep up with what our readers are looking for. If any of our readers have suggestions on ways to improve the paper, please send them along with the contest entries.

By Jennifer Tegan
First Parish
10/23/08
On Sunday, Oct.12, First Parish held a service to bless our sometimes unrecognized, but enormously important, family members: the feathered, the furry, and even the slimy and scaly ones.
Members of the congregation and others in the community brought pets of all shapes and sizes to be blessed individually by the Rev. Parisa Parsa.
This is an annual service at First Parish because the members believe in honoring the connections among all beings, and what better example and teacher of that truth do we have than our beloved pets?
The animals included some in attendance, some participating via photographs at the discretion of wise owners, and some who were just soft and stuffed and the favorite friends of little ones. The pets added quite an interesting note to the hymns sung, as well as a general background “music” even when there was no singing.
To the enormous relief of a few anxious parishioners, the recently-renovated meetinghouse and its brand-new carpeting survived without incident.
At the end of an inspiring service,
the crowd processed out to the tune
of “Old MacDonald.” It was a Sunday to remember, and to make everyone eagerly anticipate next year’s animal blessing.
Clearly, everyone really is welcome at First Parish.

By Nate Leskovic
Times Staff
10/2/08
David Thompson has always been an artist. He focuses on buildings and interiors. But after a stay in one of the historic dune shacks on the seaside coast of Cape Cod, he knew he had found his muse.
For three summers, Thompson worked to paint all 18 of the Provincetown shacks and the windswept landscapes they rest on. As far as he knows, he is the only artist to do the series.
“Something struck me as I saw it and I felt that I had to paint it,” he said of his first visit. “I’ve been going out there ever since.”
Thompson said it’s a combination of the ocean environment and the isolation that inspires him.
“It forces you to stop and slow down and think,” he said. “You realize what’s important.”
The shacks, which have no electricity and only
well water, have also been special to playwright
Eugene O’Neil, writer Jack Kerouac, poet e.e. cummings, painter Jackson Pollock and others. They
were built in the 19th century and have been used by sailors and the Life Saving Service, a precursor to the Coast Guard.
Thompson said living your day synchronized with the hours of sunlight brings you closer to nature.
“There’s no distraction,” said Thompson. “It’s totally about being creative and in your element.”
The first time he stayed on the dunes was when a friend won a week’s stay in the yearly lottery for the shacks in the national seashore. Then he met a family with a lease on a shack and said he has been taken in as family.
Tucked in between the dunes on a four-mile stretch, Thompson said it takes effort to find all of them.
“It is the end of the world,” he said, adding that often the only companions are seals, crabs or birds.
“But sometimes nature isn’t always beautiful. Sometimes it’s cold and rainy and damp, or there are so many bugs that you can’t sit on the beach. I think you’re either a dune person or not.”
Thompson’s paintings of the shacks and other subjects are available for view or purchase on his web site www.davidthompsonart.com. He has them in note card sizes as well as larger frame-able prints. He has collected his work into a book, Dune Shacks.
Since his dune shack project, Thompson has begun working on a series of paintings of Ogunquit in Maine. He was sidelined this summer as he decorated the new Eclipse Salon in Milton Village. He is co-owner of the salon. He plans to be back at it next year.
Thompson is also a photographer and once created a project on the graffiti of Newbury Street, the former location of Eclipse.
“People go into all the galleries, but there is some really cool stuff on the back sides that no one gets to see,” he said.
Thompson enjoys the isolation of the Provincetown dunes.
“I think a lot of people don’t like to be alone because they never are,” he said, describing an experience
one summer as he was settling into his third day on
the shore. As he began to walk toward the ocean
he stopped.
“I turned around and realized, at that moment, I don’t have to go anywhere,” he said. “I just sat down right there.”

By Nate Leskovic
Times Staff
8/28/08
The Boy Scouts have put the 107-acre Camp Sayre property up for sale.
Just two years ago they spent $7.5 million building the Egan Center office building and indoor pool.
The Blue Hills Reservation-abutting land, assessed at $14.5 million, also includes cabins and trails. The camp is run by the Boston Minuteman Council, the governing body of many Boy Scout troops in Greater Boston.
The property at 411 Unquity Road has a conservation easement which restricts further development.
The move was surprising to at least one Minuteman Council board member, as well as several residents involved in scouting from Troop 3 and Troop 5.
Council Board President John Halsey stressed there is no sale pending of the property.
“Probably every couple of years we review all of the assets that we hold and try to understand what are they all worth and then integrate that into an analysis,” he said. “We really thought the firm could give us a good handle on what is the real value in the marketplace.”
Halsey says the Scouts are not “aggressively” trying to sell the property, but would consider offers. He said a “strategic alliance” with another organization that allows the Boy Scouts to continue using the property is also a possibility.
Realtor Lisa Campoli of Colliers Meredith & Grew, which has listed the property for sale, said there is no asking price and would not provide an estimate. She said there are currently no prospective buyers.
“It depends on how somebody utilizes the site,” she said about the price. “We’re flexible and are keeping an open mind.”
Camp Sayre is used mainly as a base for out-of-town troops visiting Boston.
Cabins are frequently rented on weekends. In the summer there are day camps for Cub Scouts and Camp Fire USA.
Though the real estate listing includes both the camp and the Egan Center, Halsey said they could be considered separate. The 22,000 square foot building houses about 15 Minuteman Council employees, who moved into the building in 2005 from its previous headquarters in Jamaica Plain.
The building was constructed with the help of donations. Richard Egan, former ambassador to Ireland and the billionaire founder of the data storage EMC Corporation in Hopkinton, gave a $1 million gift.
Another source of construction money for the pool was the Yawkey Foundation which stated in a brochure about its 2005 giving campaign that the expansion of Camp Sayre “provides young people in the Boston area the opportunity to enjoy the natural wonders of New England.”
The Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) paid the Boy Scouts $1.75 million in 1995 to place a conservation restriction on the land, according to DCR spokesperson Wendy Fox.
The restriction prohibits any development of the property not used for “activities which promote outdoor recreation education and training,” according to state records. It aims to preserve the land in its natural state and protect it “in perpetuity from ecological imbalance and environmental degradation, the destruction of wildlife habitats and inappropriate land use activities.”
Fox says it’s common for the state to buy conservation restrictions of land bordering parks. The chance that the DCR would reverse the restriction for a buyer of the property is slim.
“A new owner can certainly come and talk to the DCR, but it has almost never happened,” said Fox.
Minuteman Council is in good financial condition, according to the board members.
“I don’t think it’s any secret that in these economic times, most charitable organizations are scrambling,” said Elmer Lupton Jr., a board vice president. “Building the Egan Center was expensive and probably more expensive than planned. In that context, we need to do what’s prudent. We need to consider all options.”
Though the majority of the debt from the Egan Center has been paid off, according to President Halsey, the council is still making payments.
“We’re exploring the value of our assets in the interest of our members and whether it would make sense to better deploy them,” said Halsey. “It’s not to say, ‘let’s get this much money to satisfy a problem.’”
This summer the Egan pool was open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Youth swims were offered from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursdays. The summer hours end Aug. 29 and there has been no announcement of a fall schedule.
The council owns two other camps – the T.L. Storer Scout Reservation in Barnstead, N.H., and Camp Massasoit in Plymouth.
Halsey says the council’s finances are “in good order,” despite the economic climate.
“Are we getting as much out of every fundraising effort that we would like?” he said. “Probably not. But we’re moving along at a good pace at retiring our debt.
Camp Sayre’s programs will continue as scheduled, despite being on the market. Halsey said a new building, paid for by a grant, is scheduled for construction. It will be used as a center for environmental learning and as part of the camp’s school awareness program that brings in children from the city to learn about nature.

By Kathy Kurtz Ferrari
8/21/08
Haiti is a long way from Milton, both geographically, as well as culturally. But thanks to a local teacher, the two points on the globe have a little more in common.
Shauna O’Leary, a third grade teacher at Glover School and long-time Milton resident, recently returned from a two-week trip to Haiti, where she took part in a program run by “Project Teach.” The Canadian-based group seeks to improve education and foster children’s rights through specialized training for teachers and administrators in developing countries. Project Teach concentrates its efforts on Haiti, where things like corporal punishment are often a common practice. O’Leary joined a group of 10 teachers from around the world to share their teaching skills with Haitian educators.
During this past school year, Milton Public Schools had a focus on Haiti, with seminars and professional development days on the subject for teachers. The town has some Haitian immigrants among its population, and these things sparked O’Leary’s interest.
“After hearing so much about Haiti, I said there must be something I can do. It’s time to give back,” said O’Leary shortly after she returned from her trip.
“So I searched on the Internet and I found this group.”
There is much civil unrest in Haiti, a small nation in the West Indies that shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic. The French-speaking country is the poorest in the Western Hemisphere, and has little to offer for education to its citizens. The need is overwhelming for educational supplies and teacher training.
O’Leary said she was shocked at the conditions, but touched by the dedication of those trying to help. Assisted by a French-speaking translator, she brought school supplies she purchased with her own money, and some donated items from people in the community to help teach Haitian teachers. Included were materials from the French Immersion Program - a perfect fit for the task. O’Leary herself teaches the English portion of third grade French Immersion, and the materials she brought were translated by her colleagues for her use.
“What we were trying to do with the methodology was teach them to help the kids with higher order thinking skills,” she said.
But the conditions under which learning attempts to thrive was humbling for her. Schools are merely shells that look more like war-remnants, with dirt floors, no electricity or plumbing. That means no lights, running water or toilets, or even desks in some cases.
“To me it looked like a war-zone,” O’Leary remembered, looking at photos of the schoolhouse from her trip. “It was poorer, than poorer, than poor. But the people were so earnest.”
Many of the Haitian teachers are young, barely old enough to have finished high school themselves, but they were enthusiastic and thirsty for knowledge. Simple materials like chalk and maps were coveted by the group.
“They were out-of-their minds with the maps. And we did a little thing with a globe and I showed them Haiti on the globe and they said, ‘How come we’re so small?’ They had no idea! They kept saying, ‘Are you sure?’ It was cute,” she said.
The two-week sojourn found O’Leary introducing the teachers to ideas like using learning stations and teaching in teams. She introduced them to gimmicks to help kids want to learn, like marking their shadows with chalk in the open courtyard, then returning later to demonstrate the way the Earth moves throughout the day.
She brought with her as many supplies as she possibly could to share with the participants. Luckily, American Airlines waived the extra-baggage fee she would have incurred from her four over-stuffed bags.
“There’s not a lot of hope among the people there,” she said. “And it’s less than two hours from Miami! But they seem happy. They smile. This (the program) was a big deal for them. They were so grateful.”
And O’Leary said she was grateful for the help she received from parents in Milton, who contributed funds to help her purchase supplies; to French Immersion teachers that gave and translated learning materials and suggested activities to share with the Haitian instructors; and to Jim Corliss, of Sir Speedy in Braintree, who made countless copies of things like Continental Math booklets.
“I really feel like I’ve been blessed,” O’Leary said. “It was a great experience.... It was so worthwhile. It’s eye-opening, and I don’t think I’ll ever look at things the same way.”
If you would like further information on Project Teach, you can visit their website at www.project-teach-haiti.org.

By Julie Fay
Contributor
8/14/08
Q: What do a professional trombonist and a producer of a cable TV reality show have in common?
A: They both got their artistic starts in the Milton Public Schools.
Trombonist Joe McEttrick traces his musical development to his years at Pierce Middle School. Erin Kelly, senior producer for Gene Simmons Family Jewels on the A&E network, speaks highly of her experience with the creative arts at Milton High School. We spoke with Joe in Milton and Erin from California.
Q: Tell me about your involvement in the arts in the Milton Public Schools.
Joe: I never played an instrument in elementary school. Then, at Pierce, Nancy Johnson taught a general music class, and she let (the students) try out all the instruments one day. I tried the baritone horn, and I was able to play a note right away. It grew from there.
Erin: I played flute in band and sang in the chorus. I took lessons for both.
Q: What are you doing now?
Joe: I’m working as a freelance trombonist in the Boston area. I play with the Boston Pops and substitute in the Boston Symphony.
Erin: I produce every other episode of Gene Simmons Family Jewels start to finish, from concepting to making every aspect of it happen.
Q: After high school, where did you further your artistic education?
Joe: I went to the Curtis Institute (a highly competitive conservatory in Philadelphia that awards each student a full-tuition scholarship) for my bachelor’s degree, and to New England Conservatory for my master’s in trombone performance. I also played in an orchestra in Korea for two years. That’s where I met my wife, Ann (who teaches piano in Milton).
Erin: I went to Franklin Pierce College, a tiny school in New Hampshire, for music. I was a singer. About halfway through, I switched my major to mass communications and television.
Q: Did your involvement in the arts in Milton schools help get you to where you are today?
Joe: It really is all because of Nancy Johnson (who died in the early 1990s). I would never have had a career in music if it weren’t for her. We had extraordinarily good bands in middle school and we had a stage band. That was the first time I ever had any exposure to jazz. I heard my first jazz trombone solo there and I still remember it.
Middle school for wind players is so important. I started off not being able to play at all, and I learned how to read music, to sight-read and to play in an ensemble. Learning to read music is like learning arithmetic for musicians. I played in GYBSO (Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra); I won the concerto competition; we went on tours to Europe. I learned so many important skills from playing in that (Pierce) band.
Erin: I had a strong series of teachers in Milton, including (music department head) Dr. Noreen Burdett and Nancy Johnson. They will forever stick out
as my favorite teachers. Dr. Burdett always made me believe I could do it. I was a cheerleader, too, and she knew cheering was hard on my voice but she wanted to help me because she knew I loved doing both things. Once I sang in a competition and the judge asked me if I was a cheerleader, and gave me a hard time about it. When Dr. Burdett heard about that, she made a complaint, saying that the judge had no right to penalize me because of my extracurricular activities.
Q: What do you think about the recent cuts to the music curriculum, especially the elimination of chorus at the elementary level and the reduction of general music classes by half?
Erin: I’m a supporter of the arts. There’s something to be said for having music in the schools because not every kid is going to be math-science-English-history driven. There are just some people out there who need creativity. The possibilities are endless; only being in the arts made me realize that. Algebra didn’t put me here.
Joe: The importance of arts education has been borne out by all sorts of studies. First of all, it’s an entire branch of intellectually rigorous and culturally valuable human activity. It’s equal in value to other disciplines such as language study or mathematics, and it’s well-documented that music education improves children’s capacity to learn.
Every student should have music education. I wish that every student were required to learn an instrument. If they don’t learn musical skills, it’s almost like not being able to read or not knowing history or math; they won’t even be aware of what they’re missing. You’re doing children a disservice if you cut that out.
(Joe McEttrick is a graduate of Boston College High School.)

By Brittany Peats
Contributor
8/7/08
The barbershop that Jim Cummings ran was a throwback to the days - when people sat around and played checkers and drank coffee and talked about politics and sports, one of his regular customers recalled recently.
Another remembered that when he gave you change, he would always say, “Hey, take it easy.”
Cummings died early in the year, and his friends and customers dedicated a bench in his honor outside the East Milton Square shop that he ran for more than 30 years.
“I’ve known him for 30, 35 years,” said Town Treasurer Kevin Sorgi. “I drank a lot of coffee at his shop…He never had a lot to say but everybody liked him. He taught me humility and wisdom.”
Sorgi along with Bob Foster and John Dempsey planned the memorial for Cummings, who died earlier this year. They contacted friends and relatives and sent out letters requesting donations.
“I went to his barbershop from when I was in third or fourth grade until he closed. It was a good long stretch of time,” said Dempsey. “He was a friendly, gentle man, a great listener and very polite. It was wonderful to be in his company…It was always more than just getting a haircut when you went down there.”
Every morning a group would gather at the shop, whether getting a haircut or not, and have a “conference,” according to longtime customer Joe Sullivan.
“His personality was wonderful,” Sullivan said. “The poor guy had diabetes, but you would never know it. When he was having trouble standing on his feet, we had him get a chair, but he never wanted to use it.”
Sullivan used to go out and grab orange juice for him when his blood sugar level was low. When Cummings retired a few years ago, he and the other regulars took him out to dinner once a month.
“The barbershop was a throwback to the old days - when people sat around and played checkers and drank coffee and talked about politics and sports. It was really a lot of fun,” said Sorgi. “Jim’s was unique. He would let people sit around who weren’t customers. We were sensitive to not affect his business.”
“You had no idea who was going to be there and what the conversation was going to be about,” said Dempsey. “There was quite an array of characters. One guy thought he was Spiderman who had cobwebs tattooed on his arm and there were sleaze-ball salesmen.”
Dempsey said he would tease Cummings with running jokes like, “Jim, don’t worry, the little boy is going to be alright—we’ve reattached his ear.”
“He had no cash register. He would take change out of a wooden drawer or out of his pockets,” said Dempsey. “When he gave you back your change he would always say ‘Hey, take it easy’ and most people took his advice,” said Dempsey.
Those words will not be forgotten, because they are engraved on the plaque that adorns the bench.
Jim Timmons of Quincy said Cummings never said anything bad about anyone and no one ever said anything bad about him.
“He had an opportunity to have a relationship with people that most of us don’t have,” said Timmons, who gave the eulogy at the funeral service. “He was a good friend and confident of so many people, all types, when many are just friends with one kind of person.”
Cummings, who grew up in Quincy and lived in Weymouth, was active in the Weymouth Neighborhood Association and interested in current events.
“He really was an institution in East Milton Square,” said Dempsey. “He was an anchor there. His passing was the passing of a good friend and a fine fellow.”
Cummings’ friends raised more money than the cost of the bench and have decided to use the balance for scholarships. They are still accepting donations. Contact Sorgi at 617-898-4850 for information.
(Nate Leskovic contributed to this story)

By Julie Fay
Contributor
7/31/08
Four of Pierce Middle School’s best and brightest students will participate in a prestigious leadership conference next spring in Washington, D.C. The students are Tess Deaibes, Phillipe Janvier, Griffen Lloyd and Jack Radley.
The conference, founded by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956 is called the “People to People Leadership Forum.” It’s an opportunity for middle school students from across the world to develop leadership skills and apply those skills to make a difference in their schools and communities.
Kelly Connell, a geography teacher, selected the four students because they are potential leaders, she says, with an array of budding leadership skills.
However, this sort of hands-on education has a price. With an approximate cost of $2,000, plus airfare to and from Dulles airport in Washington for each student, some families are wondering how they will finance the trip.
Lena Deaibes, Tess’s mother, says it’s an honor for her daughter to be chosen for the forum, and she hopes she will be able to organize a fundraiser or find sponsors to help with the costs. She describes her family as “working class people,” and adds, “We’ll do whatever it takes to help Tess go. These are four kids who have done a lot and we should do whatever we can to encourage them.”
Lisa Radley, Jack’s mother, voices a similar determination. “If we decide (to send Jack), we’ll find a way to get him there,” she says. She adds that a tour of the Senate chambers in 2006 piqued Jack’s interest in government, and she calls the People to People Forum “a great opportunity” to further that interest.
At the People to People Leadership Forum, the students will participate in a week of team building, community service, academic and social activities. There will also be a number of opportunities to interact with current national and world leaders, including a member of Congress. Radley is looking forward to this meeting the most.
“It will be a unique experience, to talk to (a member of Congress) and see what they do every day,” he says.
The four young leaders will have a busy itinerary during the forum, which will take place during school vacation week next April. Planned excursions include visits to the Capitol, the Supreme Court and the Library of Congress. Student leaders will interact with international diplomats at an embassy dinner and will tour national historic sites including Gettysburg, Arlington National Cemetery and the Korean and World War II memorials. Other excursions will include the Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Smithsonian Institution museums and the International Spy Museum.
Students will also participate in daily leadership meetings to discuss the historical significance of the various sites and reflect on the leadership decisions that impact the events commemorated.
Connell says that this kind of real-life experience can bring history and civics alive for students.
“A classroom setting can often be somewhat limiting,” she says. “The Leadership Forum…offers a hands-on, challenging way to examine the idea of leadership and how it has molded the country in which they live.”
Twelve-year-old Deaibes, who describes herself as “extremely excited” about the forum, hopes that the finances will come through and looks into the future when she talks about the opportunity for herself and her classmates. “We’re just kids, but you never know, one of us might end up being President of the United States someday,” she says.

By Brittany Peats
Contributor
7/24/08
In anticipation of Gov. Deval Patrick’s appearance at a town hall-style meeting in Milton this week, we asked residents in East Milton Square the following: “If you had 10 minutes with Gov. Patrick, what would you ask him?” Their responses varied. Here is some of what they had to say.

By Julie Fay
Contributor
6/26/08
Milton High School junior Kendall Stewart may have found her “gift.”
A former dancer with the Atlantic Studio of Dance, she currently studies voice and musical theatre at Riverside Theatre Works in Hyde Park and counts several musicals among her performing credits.
But the dedicated performer became a playwright and director this year with the creation and premiere of her one-act play at Milton High School.
According to Stewart, the project began as something fun to do and later took on a greater earnestness.
“I started writing it in October,” she says. “I gave it to every English teacher at the high school for comments, and it became an assignment (because) I took a creative writing class and I needed a final project.”
That final project proved to be an ambitious undertaking, and Stewart is quick to acknowledge the assistance and expertise of her creative writing teacher at Milton High School.
“I made it my goal to get through John Radosta’s English class as a freshman,” she says. “Now, in his creative writing class, I go home a little happier every day. He saw a few drafts (of the play) and he marked them up. He really helped with dialogue and characterization. It really became a story with him.”
Radosta says he’s never had a student write and produce a play before, but downplays his role. “She’s giving me a lot more credit than I think I deserve,” says the 15-year teaching veteran. “I gave her advice on trying to work it into an actual narrative. I just told her what the gaps were.”
The play, set in the present, follows a group of teenage friends through the ups and downs of their friendships and romances. Inspired by Alice Sebold’s novel The Lovely Bones, Stewart used the death and memorial service of the main character as a device to explore themes of eternal youth and immortality.
According to Radosta, death is a common theme in teens’ creative writing. “A funeral is something students have experienced or something they’re afraid they’re going to,” he says.
Stewart says that the other characters couldn’t talk honestly about their feelings for Alex before the funeral because they never felt a sense of urgency.
“We (as teenagers) may need each other, but we’ll never say it,” she says. “We think, ‘I don’t need to tell my friend I love them. I’ll just tell them tomorrow.’”
“Students know intellectually that they don’t always have tomorrow, but a lot of them tell me they choose not to think about it,” says Radosta. “Kendall is wise. She reads more deeply and more extensively than many students I’ve had. She absorbs a lot of it. She has an idea about what’s going on.”
Looking ahead to her senior year, Stewart will serve as co-editor-in-chief for The Observer, the Milton High School newspaper. Her senior project will be a work of fiction, which she hopes to bind and include with her applications to creative writing programs at colleges across the country. “Hopefully they’ll let me in,” she says.
Radosta is confident of Stewart’s abilities and optimistic about her future as a writer. “As a freshman she was getting into other people’s heads (in her writing), not writing about a fictional ninth-grade girl. She was trying out all different personas. With that kind of a tendency, and where she’s stuck with it for the last three years, I can see her giving it a go,” he says.

By Kathy Kurtz Ferrari
Contributor
6/19/08
It looks like a typical scene at Shields Park: a bunch of kids playing soccer, a mixture of sizes and shapes, some girls and some boys, but one thing is different: The shouting and chatter isn’t in English. This group is speaking French.
While this may not be very unusual in Milton, with its French Immersion program, these children are not local school students. They are actually French students visiting Milton, part of a group of 26 here for just under two weeks from Bordeaux, France.
They are all fifth graders, with an average age of 11. There are 17 boys and five girls, along with four adult chaperones, attending the town’s four elementary schools’ immersion classes. While here they lived with 13 different Milton families. All across town parents spent time brushing up on their French and digging out French-English dictionaries.
“The pick-up soccer game was really amazing and fun,” says host-family mother, Kathy McLaughlin. “Some middle school kids just happened to show up and jumped in the game, and they all started speaking French with each other. Ironically, they were French Immersion students. Only in Milton!”
The trip was planned through e-mails and phone calls between Selectman Kathy Fagan, working in her other capacity as a mother, and French native Christine Nogues, whose family lived in Milton for a short time a few years ago. Their families became friendly through their sons, Eric and Lucas, during the Nogues’s brief time here, and upon their return to France the friendship continued.
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By Chris Campbell
Contributing Writer
5/6/08
With Memorial Day weekend past, many boaters are working hard to get their boats back into commission so that they can tackle the summer seas.
At Milton Yacht Club, members can be found painting, grinding and sanding their boats in preparation for the upcoming season. However, many other boats sit dormant as the number of “For Sale” signs increases with the significant rise in gas prices.
Raymond Carlson, 82, has been a member of the Milton Yacht Club since 1955. An engineer, he constructed his boat, the Laura V, from scratch over 20 years ago. He estimates that he will have to devote 50 hours to working on his boat before he can launch it.
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By Dawn Aberg
Contributor
5/29/08
Tom Gavin grew up in Norwood. Outside of the Blue Hills and the Ulin Rink, he didn’t know much about Milton. But in 2000, practical commuting concerns brought him here with his new wife Audrey.
She was in graduate school at Harvard. He was building a software company in Boston. And they fell in love with the town.
Residents have probably seen Tom and Audrey Gavin around. “We’re the crazy family that walks a lot,” Tom says. Before the recent addition of baby Lia (she was born April 8), the Gavins could be seen with a triple jogging stroller “bouncing around” (Tom’s phrase) with their older three children settled in for the ride. “It’s so great to be able to go down the street with them,” Tom says of Jack (5 1/2), Ella (4) and Charlie (2 1/2), “So great to practice riding bikes on the bike path, to head down to the Radio Coffeehouse for ice cream.”
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By Nate Leskovic
Times Staff
5/22/08
Haircuts for men are generally a necessary evil. Fortunately some barbershops swap the lost half hour for a painless and often entertaining experience.
East Milton Square’s Milton Barber Shop and Mackie’s Barber Shop on Central Avenue are two such shops: Stories, confessions, advice—a barber is often like a shrink with a chair instead of a couch.
“They tell me everything,” says Marianne Colligan, better known as Mackie, a nickname given to her by her sister who was unable to pronounce “Marianne.” “There’s something about barbers that makes everyone comfortable.”
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By Kathy Kurtz Ferrari
Contributor
5/15/08
Did you ever wonder where animal experts like Jane Goodall got their start? It might have been in a program like the one third and fifth graders in the public schools are doing as part of their science curriculum.
The students are taking part in a junior naturalists program. In conjunction with the Blue Hills Trailside Museum, they are learning about animals indigenous to the region.
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By Julie Fay
Contributing Writer

Spring is in the air and for distance runners that can only mean that the grueling challenges of the Boston Marathon call to them again.
What motivates runners to enter the oldest marathon in the world? We caught up with four of Milton’s marathoners to chat before race day.
Bob Falconi
Bob Falconi will run his 12th consecutive Boston Marathon this year. The 56-year-old from the Falconi Companies thrives on pushing himself, he says, whether its completing marathons and Ironman triathlons or climbing Mt. Everest, as he attempted in 2006.
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By Julie Fay
Contributing Writer
Emma Jean Moulton is a musical visionary. The longtime Milton resident and music teacher saw an opportunity not available to music students in 1987, so she created the Milton Young Musicians’ Festival to fill it. Now in its 22nd season, the Festival gives local student musicians a chance to perform for each other and receive critical feedback from professionals in the field.
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