Marion’s new foodbank operating out of the otherwise-closed Community Center emanated from an announcement that Town Administrator Jay McGrail made, telling an Emergency Preparedness Meeting on March 13 that the town would be releasing funds from its reserve account to develop a foodbank plan that, by the end of the day, he hoped would be fully developed.

            On Monday, March 16, McGrail reported success to the Board of Selectmen during its 3:00 pm meeting at Town House. He doubled down on the message March 17, noting 12 responses to Marion’s reverse 911 call.

            The foodbank, at the Cushing Community Center, 465 Mill Street, has been set up to distributing arranged bags of groceries from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday. Bags are categorized for families of four and families of two. The town asks residents when pulling up to the Center to stay in their vehicles, show proof of residency, and let volunteers know how many members are in their family.

            The town notified Marion residents in need who are unable to make it to the Center or feel unsafe going out may call 508-748-3570 and arrangements will be made to assist those residents.

            Senior citizens wishing to receive a daily home-delivered meal provided by Coastline Elderly Services are invited to call 508-748-3570 to sign up for the program.

            The emergency preparedness team meeting on Friday morning, March 13, included Old Rochester Regional Superintendent of Schools Doug White, public health officials including Public Health Nurse Kathleen Downie, Board of Health members including Vice Chairperson Edward P. Hoffer, MD, representatives from the Fire and Police departments, Board of Selectmen member Norman Hills and Assistant Town Administrator Judy Mooney.

            Hoffer, a practicing physician, was told not to travel to Boston so he has made himself available to the Board of Health and was nominated Friday morning as chief coordinator for Marion’s emergency-preparedness effort.

            Downie continues to remind people that if people think they are sick or think they have the coronavirus, they need to call their doctor first and not to go to the emergency room without calling ahead. “We don’t want anyone going to the doctor without calling first,” she told the meeting.

            At the time of the meeting, Old Rochester Regional High School had yet to suspend school per order of Governor Charlie Baker (that would come later that evening), opting at the time to conduct classroom work only. White told the meeting that the “education that will now be provided is essential education.”

            White did caution the meeting that if any school in the district was to close, all would close and there would be no online alternative from home. Effectively, public education would be suspended. When asked by the Wanderer, “What about seniors?” White answered, “Fill in the blanks.”

            The subject of students on reduced or free lunch programs was also discussed.

            “We are at the very beginning of this. We have a long way to go to get to the top of the curve,” said Downie, noting that, while cancelations are a stop-gap measure, a brief school closure might not be effective, adding, “I would be surprised if it’s over in two months.”

            Hours before Tabor Academy announced its plan to extend its current suspension of school per its academic calendar to April 13, McGrail reported having asked the Tabor administration to provide a written plan before the students return. 

            Hoffer wondered aloud if Marion could overrule the prep school if the plans Tabor brings forward in response to McGrail’s request are considered inadequate. McGrail answered, “Yes.” Tabor has many students returning from outside the country.

            Marion will arrange for transportation through the Council on Aging for seniors for doctor appointments, but not for grocery shopping. Effective March 13, the town was also looking to expand restrictions on the Meals on Wheels program.

Emergency Preparedness Meeting

By Marilou Newell

The Tri-Town Basketball Playoffs on Thursday, March 12 was the final night for Tri-Town basketball. The league had over 190 participants in grades 3 through 6 from Mattapoisett, Marion and Rochester. 

            The first game of the evening was the girls grade 3-6 finals. Team Sparks coached by Sarabeth Morrell played the Mystics coached by Tim Harkins. It was a very close game through the third quarter when Team Sparks pulled ahead 12-9. In the fourth quarter, the Mystics came out strong and brought the score to 11-12 in the first two minutes of the quarter. A Mystics foul shot tied the game with 2:46 remaining. The Sparks scored with 2:29 left to go, up 14-12 then a foul shot brought the final score to 15-12. The high scorer for team Sparks was Alivia Miranda with 8 points. 

            The boys grade 3 and 4 final had the Raptors coached by Evan Dube and Chris Wadsworth playing the Heat, coached by David Arancio and Sarah Thomas. The Raptors came out strong and went up 4-0 in the first three minutes. The Heat then rallied to go up 7-4 by the end of the quarter. The second quarter had the Raptors hit three shots and two free throws to go up 12-9 to end the half. The Heat came out strong to go up 13-12. Both teams had a strong quarter to end the third, tied 19-19. Both teams played a hard, defensive battle in the fourth quarter but the Raptors pulled ahead to win 24-22. High scorer for the Raptors was Nathan Dubuc with 12 points. Heat high scorer was Andrew Hebert with 10 points. 

            The boys grade 5 and 6 final had the Warriors coached by Jen Porter and Lindsay Harding playing the Bulls coached by Peter Brzezinski and Jill Paquette.  The Warriors took an early four-point lead, but the Bulls came back to finish the quarter tied 4-4. The second quarter was a back and forth battle to end, with the Warriors up 9-8. After the half, both teams played hard and the score at the end of the third was tied 13-13. The Warriors scored early in the fourth quarter to go up 15-13 but the Bulls answered with two baskets and a foul shot to go up 18-15 with about three minutes left. The Bulls then went on a run to win 26-16. Brock Winslow was the high scorer for the Bulls with 10 points. Bennett Goodwin was the top scorer for the Warriors with eight points.  

            All three games were close right up until the final minutes. It was an exciting night for all. A huge thank you to all of our coaches for volunteering their time!

Welcome to the latest edition of The Wanderer! As with pretty much everything these days, The Wanderer is treading new ground and sailing uncharted seas in response to our ever-changing world. The first thing we’d like to do is congratulate everyone on their proactive response to our new world challenge. What we do today isn’t just about us – although not getting sick would be a bonus – it’s about helping others. We hope our actions will save lives and keep our system from getting overloaded. Good for you!

            By now you have been flooded with the standard COVID-19 updates telling you how each and every one of the dozens of businesses you have contact with will assist in your staying healthy. With that in mind, we will keep our response short and to the point. First and foremost for our readers, The Wanderer is available online. Many of our readers already know this as we have almost twice as many people who download each week’s edition as we print copies; for this, we thank you and the trees thank you! If you haven’t already checked out the online edition, you can see them at www.wanderer.com – just click on “read the full edition.” On our website, there is a Portable Document Format (PDF) version of our paper as well as a Page Flip version, should you really enjoy flipping virtual pages, which is really cool. We also offer a mobile edition through The Wanderer app, which allows you to read each week’s edition on your iPad or iPhone. To find this visit the Apple App Store and search for ‘Wanderer’ or click on the link on our web page.

            For the next few weeks, we are increasing our direct mailings of The Wanderer throughout the TriTown. While costly, we hope that this change helps keep folks at home by bringing the news to them directly. This shift also helps our advertisers, many of whom are small businesses struggling to make it through these limited times. If your business is looking to stay in touch, now is a great time to advertise. Get in touch so we can help you get the word out.

            There are many other ways you can keep yourself and others safe while still supporting local business. Many of the restaurants in our area are offering take-out or delivery, now that sit-down service has been curtailed. You can also support small businesses by buying gift certificates.

            While some of us, who have introverted tendencies, have been practicing for this pretty much all our lives, some folks are very social and need to stay in touch. Use this time to reach out by phone, email, and message. By doing this, you are supporting your friends and growing relationships in ways you may never have done during a busy schedule.

            Should you need to get in touch with our office you can do so by emailing office@wanderer.com or calling 508-758-9055 (please leave a message if we are not in and we will get back in touch as soon as we can). As always, you can manage any advertisements on our website, wanderer.com, and manage bills and payments from the convenience of your computer.

            We would like to transition this period of isolation from a time when everyone is telling you what you can’t do, to showing you what you can do. With that in mind, we invite everyone to share their stories, photos, and ideas with us so we can share them with our community. We always reflect on simpler times when we had time to sit back and read and relax; well, that time is now. We will do our best to keep you informed, entertained and our local businesses strong during these changing times. We hope that one day we will look back on this time fondly as the time when we all acted together, to be separate for the common good.

            When we moved from Monterey to Buzzards Bay, we were within walking distance of a lighthouse that was obsolete but made into a public park called Ned’s Point.

            We were thrilled in the morning when Mute Swans went winging past our windows at dawn, to land and glide gracefully in the waters around the historic seaside landmark. Now with spring along the coastline with open waters, they will once again appear around the park as a decorative symbol to give it a mystical aura of an old-world species from across the pond.

            They were brought to this country at the beginning of the 19th century to authentically decorate our parks, estates and wildlife reservations with royal-courtyard images, formerly owned by the queen of England, on display floating on the moats around Windsor Castle. Yet they are not entirely mute but have a variety of quieter vocal expressions, much quieter than their native cousins, the bugling Trumpeter Swan.

            By the turn of the next century, they were doubling their population every 10 years, and subsequently with bad environmental habits, close to being labeled as an invasive species.

            They would tip up along the shore to reach down three feet under the water to wipe out underwater plants essential to lesser waterfowl. In addition, they can become very ornery and territorial around their nests and young. After a hissing warning alarm, called a basking, they would attack dogs or children with an injuring wing beat.

            Subsequently, in the year 2003, U.S. Fish and Wildlife proposed to reduce their numbers accordingly. However, animal rights countered that Mute Swan fossils here go back thousands of years and are proven to be indigenous and could not be reduced as invasive. They are now protected under both state and federal laws.

            They also have some very admiral qualities of exemplary well-known behavior. According to Norse mythology, they originally established their purity white reputation by drinking from the mythically pristine waters of the historical well of Urd. This cleansed their plumage and also the image of their character. They are said to mate for life, unless one of the pair dies or is somehow lost. Both male Cob and female Pen are also known to faithfully look after the young Cygnets until they are ready to choose mates themselves.

            Mute Swans make frequent appearances in Literature, such as “The Ugly Duckling” by Hans Christian Andersen. Shakespeare wrote more about love, jealousy, and revenge in swan behavior than any other poet. Tennyson wrote a ballet of a dying swan singing its own death song. And even today, Mute Swans are known to vocally mourn for themselves or others in death.

            Carolyn Longworth, the director of the Millicent Library in Fairhaven, is an avid and accurate bird watcher and reports, “A dead Cygnet was seen floating on a nearby pond, and two adults and others came over to form a circle around the dead bird. Then they all started making a mourning conversation and all pointed their heads up into the heavens.”

            At our new location, when the chilled stillness of a pale blue sky of a spring dawn is broken by the shrill clarion of a skein of Snow Geese winging high overhead towards the Arctic Circle, it is an annual sun sign that a renewed season is just over the horizon.

            Soon Mute Swans that have nested in the marshes around Eel Pond across the bay will bring their young on their backs or in tow to show them off to Ned Point park visitors. And the SouthCoast harbors will unfurl white sails on Buzzards Bay and launch their recreational flagships of spring.

By George B. Emmons