On April 15, Tammy Ferreira from Mattapoisett, will be running in the 117th Boston Marathon^® to help conquer cancer as a member of the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge team.

Ferreira, along with more than 550 Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge teammates from across the United States and around the world, will run Massachusetts’ historic marathon route from Hopkinton to Boston with a goal to raise $4.6 million for cancer research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

One-hundred-percent of the funds raised benefit Dana-Farber’s Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Basic Cancer Research, which supports cornerstone science research in its earliest stages, providing researchers with critical resources to test their leading-edge ideas. Findings from Barr program research can provide novel clinical insights as well as the results necessary to seek additional federal funding.

Since its inception in 1990, the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge has raised more than $56 million for the Barr Program. Dana-Farber Trustees J. Wayne and Delores Barr Weaver founded the Barr Program in 1987 to honor Mrs. Weaver’s mother, Claudia Adams Barr, who lost her battle with cancer in 1957.

In 1990, Dana-Farber was among the first charity organizations to be recognized by the Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A), which organizes the Boston Marathon. The Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge team offers its members extensive fundraising support, training guidance from Jack Fultz, the 1976 Boston Marathon men’s champion, plus team training runs, and volunteer opportunities for non-runners. Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge runners who are not time-qualified for the Boston Marathon receive an invitational entry into the race.

Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge team members must meet one of the following fundraising commitments:

• Invitational runners, runners who receive an entry from Dana-Farber have a fundraising commitment of $4,000.
• Own entry runners, runners who have joined the DFMC after obtaining their own race entry have a fundraising commitment of $3,500.

To contribute to the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge, go online to www.RunDFMC.org or contact the Dana-Farber Running Programs office at (617) 632-1970 or dfmc@dfci.harvard.edu. Follow the DFMC on Facebook: www.facebook/marathonchallenge.

The Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge is one of many ways runners can support the lifesaving mission of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.  Participants can run on the official Dana-Farber team in the Boston Marathon, the Falmouth Road Race, and the B.A.A Half Marathon, or run in any race, of any distance, in any city, while raising funds for Dana-Farber and the Jimmy Fund.  For more information visit RunDanaFarber.org.

During the February blizzard, Marion Town Administrator Paul Dawson faced a big problem: Fire, police, and other crews had been working for upward of 36 hours without food, and as conditions worsened to the point of near shutdown across the community, local restaurant options dwindled to zero. Then, he got an idea. He decided to call the recently installed Head of Schools at Tabor Academy, John Quirk.

“Since it’s a boarding school, they had students to feed, and John had offered a couple of times to help in case anything came up during the storm,” Dawson remembers. More than 75 percent of Tabor’s nearly 500 students live on campus. “So, I decided to take him up on it. I said, ‘Here’s my dilemma; is there anything you can do?’ He told us to bring everybody over during the students’ dinner hour for a hot meal, and he opened up the male and female locker rooms so that personnel could shower. It was just really good teamwork there.”

At last week’s first official meet-and-greet between the Marion Board of Selectmen and the new Tabor Head of School, who started his tenure in July of 2012, Dawson recalled this story as an example of “wide-open lines of communication,” which emerged as the dominant theme of the session.

“When in doubt, I want you to feel like you can pick up the phone any time,” Quirk said. “My family moved to Marion for Tabor, but we also moved to Marion to be a part of the town. I hope residents will see in me an investment in that partnership.”

Marion Selectmen Chair Stephen Cushing, Vice-Chair John Henry, and Clerk Jonathan Dickerson all expressed a desire for such meetings to take place on a recurring schedule.

“This can’t be done too often,” said Henry, who is up for re-election in May.

Dickerson agreed. “When you think of Tabor, you think of Marion, and when you think of Marion, you think of Tabor,” he said.

Officials referenced land-use litigation between Marion and Tabor as an example of a communications breakdown, which escalated in recent years when the school undertook construction on new athletic facilities even as the town denied zoning permits.

A judge in Boston ruled in June of 2012 that the school overreached when trying to build certain features of the facilities without permits, but was otherwise not subject to site plan review for the new field itself. The case remains in land court, but Dawson said that the parties hope for amicable resolution in the near future, with Tabor already having agreed to fund an engineering study on the potential impact of the track’s synthetic crumb-rubber surface on the Sippican Harbor.

Although Quirk was not involved in the most contentious stages of those proceedings, he said he does see several lessons in what has transpired between the entities.

“The better work and business go, the better you get to know people,” said Quirk, who succeeded Jay Stroud after the latter’s 24 years as Head of School. “I will be looking at growth and development in the context of how it fits into the town’s needs.

“I say this not in my capacity as a decision-maker, but in my capacity as an educator: Our focus will not be on getting bigger, but on getting better,” Quirk continued. “We need to think about our place on the water in terms of maintenance, aesthetics, and sustainability. There’s a lot to it. I like living in a town where people spend time thinking about the health, safety, environment, and aesthetics of a community. You want to live in a town where people are civically minded.”

By Shawn Badgley

From Left to right: Marion Selectmen Chair Stephen Cushing, Clerk Jonathan Dickerson, Vice-Chair John Henry, and Tabor Head of School John Quirk

As horrifying and unbelievable as it may seem, break-ins during the day have increased over the years in and around Mattapoisett. I once heard a self-defense expert say that “you don’t hunt for deer in the city, meaning predators go where the prey is.” Mattapoisett homes have become prey to the bad guys. This past week, a police officer knocked on our door inquiring if we had seen or heard anything suspicious in our neighborhood. My reaction was, “Oh no, not another break-in!” Yes, a house across the street had been robbed. That makes three break-ins in less than a year less than an eighth of a mile from our front door; too close for comfort.

Our neighbors, the Booths, had been robbed. “I came home around 5:30 pm and noticed the slider door was ajar,” said Joseph Booth. He then went to find that his iPad was missing from the charger.

“I’m angry,” Booth declared. “How dare they come into my home, my sanctuary and take my belongings!” That sense of outrage will take some time to abate.

The neighbor contiguous to his property experienced a near miss last November. Cheryl Zeppenfeld told me, “I came home from work and there was a car in my driveway.” That car was waiting for a male who saw Zeppenfeld arrive and ran to the waiting car. The assailants got away before she could get a look at the registration number or get a description of the car. Although she reported the incident, there was little the police could do.

Most of these robberies are fueled by drugs and the need for cash. As sad as these individuals may be, their illegal activities leave behind a host of misery that spreads out, impacting surrounding families.

“I feel unsafe in a lovely neighborhood,” remarked Karen LaBonte.

“No matter what you do, you can never feel really safe,” stated Barbara Belanger. Belanger said security systems were alright, “but those can be breached, crooks know how to disarm [them].” And although both LaBonte and Belanger haven’t been directly impacted by crime, they have been affected by it. Their sense of wellbeing in this bucolic seaside village has been shaken.

They asked the same question I have: “What can we do?”

Captain Days of the Mattapoisett Police Department offered a few tips and insights when I spoke to him. First and foremost, “be aware.”

Days said, “People need to be more diligent if they suspect something. You shouldn’t be afraid to call the police if you think a person or car doesn’t belong in your neighborhood or in someone’s driveway. Don’t wait; call the police right away with as much detail as possible. Don’t approach the person or car yourself.”

He went on to say that getting a good description of a person’s clothing, gender, physical attributes, or a car’s plate number and description is critical to the police tracking down suspects.

“We want to look for the best in people so we may not think that a healthy well-groomed young person is really a criminal … Some of these people are new to drugs,” Days continued. “They may not appear hardened or sick from their addictions.” Male, female, teenage, middle-age, clean cut, average appearance, just plain ordinary-looking people may be criminals.

“They can work in pairs or groups,” Days shared. Armed with a cell phone and tools of the trade, the burglar gains entrance to the home, grabs small valuable items such as electronics, cash, jewelry, and yes, prescription drugs, then calls the gang members to get picked up. They are in and out of the neighborhood with stealth and speed.

“Don’t worry about being wrong. Don’t wait to call the police,” Days said. “It doesn’t do us much good if someone calls nine-one-one 30 minutes after seeing something that sets off their internal alarm.” Call immediately.

“It was the furthest thing from our minds,” said Charlotte Bellando. Living in a neighboring community, Bellando is a victim of a break-in. “We didn’t even realize we had been robbed until we went into the bedroom.” That was when her husband noticed a pillowcase was missing. “They used my pillowcase to carry my belongings out of my house!” she exclaimed. For the Bellandos, the ending was rather good. Most of their possessions were recovered when the criminals were apprehended. Many times, even when the perpetrators are caught, the stolen merchandise is long gone.

Days pointed out, “Some of these people have never been arrested before. Their fingerprints won’t be on file.” In the absence of useful fingerprint matches or witnesses, finding the burglars can be frustratingly difficult.

For the Belangers and the LaBontes, looking out for one another has now become part of the fabric of their lives. “I’ve always been careful to watch for people I don’t recognize being in our neighborhood,” LaBonte said. Now she’ll be even more proactive.

Belanger said, “Telling neighbors when you’ll be away is important. We can watch out for each other.”

Retired Fire Chief Paul Coderre believes, “A person could be totally innocent, or casing your house. Take nothing for granted.”

At the end of the day, no one wants to live in fear. But we all must take responsibility for being aware of our surroundings and the people therein. Days offered some final advice, “If someone stops you for directions, beware. Even the crooks have a GPS; they don’t need to get directions from you.”

Also, Days stressed that if someone breaks into your home while you are there, “get out of the house if you can and call nine-one-one.” If you can’t escape the house, hide with your phone and call nine-one-one. “Your address will show up in the station if you are calling from your land line.”

Simply being more aware and more diligent won’t stop the bad guys from invading our community. It will however, make us feel a bit more empowered and certainly will aid the police in their work protecting us and our homes. When stripped of a sense of confidence that you live in a place where nothing bad can happen, most of us will take empowerment over feeling like prey.

By Marilou Newell