Sippican School Is Boston Strong

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Are you Boston Strong? Sippican School is! Students in Nicole Radke’s fourth-grade classroom organized and ran the school’s most successful charity fundraiser in just two days. Upon learning about the tragedy of the Boston Marathon Bombings and reflecting upon the courage and bravery of the first responders, students asked their teacher, “Can we do something to help the people who are hurt?”

In just two days, the students were granted permission by Principal Rivet to raise money for the One Fund Boston, the fundraiser designed by Governor Deval Patrick and Boston Mayor Tom Menino, to assist those physically and emotionally affected by the events on April 15.

The “Radkids” went to work immediately. Recesses were spent painting posters and decorating the hallways of Sippican School. Students volunteered to read both morning and afternoon announcements to bring awareness to a Boston Strong Spirit Day on April 26. The school community was encouraged to dress in the traditional colors of the BAA (Boston Athletic Association) and/or wear sports gear depicting a Boston sports team to show unity, pride, and spirit.

On April 26, the Radkids’ efforts were rewarded immediately. Students rushed into the building sporting their favorite team’s T-shirts, donning blue and yellow ribbons in their hair, and even wearing face paint with the motto “Boston Strong” on their cheeks. Teachers could also be spotted wearing blue and yellow outfits and wearing Boston Bruin jerseys. In the end, the students counted spare change and collected $1,057 from the school community. Most importantly, they learned the valuable lesson that we can come together to stand as one and help those in need.

Sally Webster (Wilde) Hayward

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Sally Webster (Wilde) Hayward, 89, passed away on May 2, 2013 at Alden Court in her beloved hometown of Fairhaven. Born in New Bedford, she was the wife of the late Calvin Hayward, and the eldest child of the late Webster and Jenny (Holmstrom) Wilde.

In her early years, Sally developed a passion for sports at Fairhaven High School, class of 1941, where she was the captain of the field hockey and basketball teams. After graduating from Kinyon Campbell Business School in New Bedford, she worked at the Fairhaven Institution for Savings Bank until she married her high school sweetheart, Cal.

Throughout her life, she remained an avid sports enthusiast and always enjoyed attending basketball games at Fairhaven High school, following the Red Sox, and watching her husband, Cal, win many local golf tournaments. Sally always kept up with her grandchildren playing tennis, swimming, and spending long summer days with her family at Crescent Beach in Mattapoisett.

Sally was a member of the Unitarian Memorial Church in Fairhaven and served as collector for many years. Additionally, she was a member of the Fairhaven Colonial Club and Fairhaven Mother’s Club.

Above all, Sally was a devoted and loving wife, mother, grandmother, sister and friend who brought smiles to many faces with her vivacious personality. She is survived by two daughters; Nancy W. Brooks and her husband, Terrance, of Rochester MA; Leslie H. Hill and her husband, Calvin, of Rye NH; four grandchildren: C. Austin Hill, III of Columbus OH, Andrew A. Thake of Fairhaven, Sarah H. Hill of Hoboken NJ, and Alison W. Brooks of Mattapoisett. She is also survived by her brother, Webster Wilde Jr. and his wife, Rosemarie, of So. Swansea; her sister, Frances Boynton, and her husband Rev. Nehemiah Boynton of Marshfield and many nieces and nephews.

Sally was the sister of the late Betty Smith Georgas.

Donations can be sent in Sally’s memory to the Unitarian Memorial Church Preservation Fund, 102 Green Street, Fairhaven MA 02719.

A Memorial Service will be held in her honor on Saturday, May 11 at 1:00 p.m. at the Unitarian Memorial Church in Fairhaven. Interment will be at Riverside Cemetery in Fairhaven on Friday, May 10 at 2:00 p.m.

Helene A. (Saltzmann) Craver

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Helene A. (Saltzmann) Craver, 71, of Marion died May 2, 2013 at Tobey Hospital.

She was the beloved wife of Lee Craver.

Born in Irvington, NJ, the daughter of the late John A. and Helen L. (Skrovanak) Saltzmann, she lived in Marion most of her life.

Mrs. Craver was a member of St. Gabriel’s Episcopal Church in Marion.

She was formerly employed as a legal secretary at Corbin, Hoyt & Watson in Morristown, NJ and later was the secretary to the Marion Board of Selectmen at Marion Town Hall, a career she enjoyed for 23 years before retiring in 2010. Colleagues at Town Hall remembered Mrs. Craver fondly at her retirement party, recalling her quiet grace, her kindness and her ready supply of candy for those in need of a sugar fix.

Mrs. Craver was an avid gardener, cook, baker, often sharing her delicious meals and goodies with family and friends. Other interests include travel, art, backyard bird watching, sewing, watching the Boston Celtics and the company of her dog Magnus.

Survivors include her husband, her 4 beloved children, Timothy Craver of New Bedford, Matthew Craver and his wife Cathy of Bloomfield, CT, Sally Kurtz and her husband Ned of Denver, CO, and Jason Craver and his wife Jennifer of Baltimore, MD; a sister, Marylis Saltzmann of Highland Lakes, NJ.

Her Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, May 11th at 3 PM in St. Gabriel’s Episcopal Church, 124 Front St. Marion. In lieu of flowers, remembrances may be made to Tobey Hospital, Intensive Care Unit, 43 High St. Wareham, MA 02571. Arrangements are with the Saunders-Dwyer Mattapoisett Home for Funerals, 50 County Rd., Route 6, Mattapoisett. For on-line guestbook, please visit www.saundersdwyer.com.

 

Rochester Historical Society Yard Sale

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The Rochester Historical Society will hold a Yard Sale at the East Rochester Church/Museum at 355 County Rd. on May 18 from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. Items for sale may be dropped off at the Museum on May 3,10, and 17 from 9:00 am to noon. No electronics please.

Rochester Memorial Day Boat Race

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The Rochester Memorial Day Boat Race on the Mattapoisett River, sponsored by the Rochester Fire Department, will take place on May 27 starting at 8:30 am at Grandma Hartley’s Reservoir, Snipatuit Road, in Rochester, and finish at the Herring Weir, River Road at Route 6, in Mattapoisett.

The race is open to persons of all ages. There will be two persons to a boat. The boat must be a homemade river racer design of any material you choose. There are no limitations or restrictions on types of paddles.

Divisions include open/men’s, women’s, junior boys, junior girls, co-ed and parent/child. Junior division teams are both contestants under 14 years old. Parent/child is for a parent with his/her child (child under 14 years old) or an adult (25 or older with a child under 14 years old). Trophies are awarded to the first-, second-, and third-place finishers in each division.

Pre-registration is required. Contestants may register at the Rochester

Grange Hall, 205 Hartley Rd., May 10 and May 17, 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm. No registrations will be accepted after May 17 at 8:00 pm.

Rules and registration forms may be obtained at Lloyd’s Market, and at the registration sessions. A signed registration form must be submitted by each contestant for a team to be eligible to draw a starting position.

The Boat Race Ham and Bean supper will be served on the Saturday evening of Memorial Day weekend, May 25, 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm at the Rochester Memorial School.

Tickets for the supper may be purchased at the door. Proceeds from the supper, along with

donations, fund the expenses of the race. (There is no registration/entry fee to race.)

Trophies and prizes will be awarded Memorial Day at the Rochester Memorial School at 7:30 pm. For further information, contact Boat Race Chairman Arthur F. Benner, 508-763-2024.

‘Touched by War’ Public Reading

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On May 4 at 8:00 pm, the Marion Art Center is hosting a public reading of James Marlow’s new play, “Touched by War.” Marlow is a professor at UMD, and the reading is in collaboration with Culture Park of New Bedford. The play is about a Vietnam veteran who believes the autism of his son is a curse from the war come home to roost. Although a play is written to be fully acted, a reading by skilled actors is an important step in the process of readying the work for the stage. The readers include three actors from the Provincetown Theatre: Tom Wolfson, Sewell Whittemore, and Deborah Peabody. Admission is free.

Christmas in May in Marion

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There’s no snow on the ground, but there is a Christmas tree.  Marion’s new town Christmas tree arrived and was planted on Friday.  The twenty foot Concolor Fir, from upstate New York has a root ball nine feet by three feet.  The tree is a type of white fir with light colored bark and silver blue-green needles.

Members of the town tree committee, along with the Department of Public Works, used a crane to move the massive tree off a flat bed trailer, over to the hole and into place at its home in Bicentennial Park in Marion.

Passers-by stopped to watch the effort and marvel at the beauty of the tree.  Seeing the commotion, several Town House employees came out to snap photos.

“It’s tradition in France to throw a coin into the hole so the tree will flourish,” said Danielle Francis.  Francis provided coins to several of the onlookers resulting in a total of seventy eight cents under the root ball of the new tree.

DPW employees who helped maneuver it joked that an upstate NY squirrel or bird might fly out out the branches at any moment.              When asked about the age of the tree, Steve Gonsalves of the Marion Tree Committee said it was “a teenager who was moving into town.”  The life span of the tree could be up to one hundred years.

According to Gonsalves, the tree was hand dug and the root ball was drum laced, meaning it was covered with hay, carefully wrapped in burlap and had a wood cap over the base.

The old Christmas tree was a Colorado Blue Spruce which died over time.  The Tree Committee raised the $1400 cost of the new tree, along with the $700 transportation fee to bring it to Marion.

“It’s a nice looking tree and we’ll make sure it is properly cared for,” said Gilly Leonardo, Foreman of the DPW.

By Joan Hartnett-Barry

Anna White’s Deep Rochester Roots

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“I guess it’s because I’m older than most,” said Anna White, Rochester’s most esteemed historian, during an interview at her home. “I know some of the history first hand.”

Born on in Rochester in 1927 in the Dexter Lane house of her family, White has spent all but about 12 years of her life living and working in Rochester. That’s more than 70 years in one place, and White hasn’t been afraid to share her vast knowledge with the rest of the townspeople.

Recently, White decided to retire from the Rochester Historical Commission, possibly marking the first time in the history of the Commission that she has not served on it.

“Fred Underhill, who is now Chairman, asked me not too long ago, he said ‘Anna, were you on the first Historical Commission?’ and I suspect maybe I was. Way back when I was working for the town, there was no Historical Commission.”

White said that she spent many years working for the town as its secretary at Town Hall, and she has helped write some of the history for the town and its buildings through the Historical Commission.

“I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve done,” White said. “I love the town. It’s a wonderful place to live and grow up in.”

After she married her husband Ainsley, who passed away about 20 years ago, he took a job in Western Massachusetts, and she worked as a secretary at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Ultimately, they decided to move back to Rochester, and she has lived here ever since.

“My mother was a Hartley,” White said, referring to one of the town’s oldest families and whom Hartley Road is named after. “I’m related to half the town. Not so much now, but then – I had dozens of cousins, literally.”

White said that she had always taken an interest in all things Rochester, and was surprised to learn that the board wanted to make her an honorary member of the Historical Commission. She stressed the importance of preserving the history of the town, and hopes people continue with the work that has already been done by her and her fellow members of the Commission.

Naida Parker, Chair of the Board of Selectman, commended White at the Board’s meeting Monday night.

“It’s disappointing that she needs to give her seat up,” Parker said. “She has an amazing memory for the history of this town.”

White said that she has three children, six grandchildren, and a number of great grandchildren who are scattered all over the country. Though they’re not all present to witness it, she wants them to know about the history of the town that the family’s roots have sunk so deeply into.

“I’m fascinated by the things that went on in my parents’ early life, and things will change I’m sure in the future, but my grandchildren – how will they know about it if something wasn’t written down somewhere?”

By Nick Walecka

Destination Imagination Fundraiser

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The pride of Massachusetts, perennial powerhouse the G.E.E.K.S. (Great Educated Entertaining Kids), have once again cracked the Global Finals in the Destination Imagination tournament.

In order to make it from the Tri-Town to Knoxville, Tenn., for the competition, the team needs your help. On Sunday, May 5, the G.E.E.K.S. – made up of Old Rochester Regional Junior High Schoolers Sara Lafrance, Holly Frink, Ed Krawczyck, Rikard Bodin, and Kyle Rood – will host a car wash at the Mattapoisett Fire Station.

The travel expenses are just one more problem for these dynamic students to solve. Destination Imagination, incorporated in 1999, is a New Jersey-based nonprofit organization with international reach. Its mission is to teach students from kindergarten to college three skills: creativity, teamwork and problem-solving.

“This is the Super Bowl of Destination Imagination,” Rood said. “Last year we placed ninth in the world! Please help us get there again.”

The car wash starts at 10:00 am and runs through 2:00 pm on Sunday at the Mattapoisett Fire House.


Officials Eye Full-Day K, Nix Choice

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The Rochester Memorial School Committee met Thursday evening, and among many issues discussed was the unanimous decision to not go forward with the School Choice program, and also to study a potential switch from a half-day kindergarten to a full-day program.

The School Choice program as discussed by the Committee would have allowed for up to 10 students from outside the district to attend RMS by using funds provided by the former district to pay for the student’s tuition.

“There are a lot of variables that come into play,” said Superintendent Douglas White. “Where the economy is at, I just don’t know what that looks like going forward. I think that staying the way we are is the most efficient way to continue on at this time.”

The committee also addressed the potential move to a full-day K program, which most members are leaning toward but won’t vote on until June.

“I feel very strongly about the full-day K,” White said. “You have to be careful about how many changes you make,” referring to potentially switching to full kindergarten and School Choice at the same time.

White added that Marion had also voted against School Choice for their schools, but that it is an option districts will revisit.

Committee officials, meanwhile, seemed excited about the switch to full-day K, which would have a limit of 25 students for the class. There would be seven slots for half-day students, but those students’ parents would be responsible for their own transportation.

The Committee discussed two potential plans for the Full Day program: one with tuition, and one without, with the major difference between the two being the cost of bus transportation. Without tuition, there would be no transportation provided. Officials also stated that additional grant money would be made available under a no-tuition plan.

It is not yet clear which option the board will pursue, but further discussions will be held in the near future before a vote.

“I feel like we are really close,” said Sharon Hartley of the Committee. “I believe the town leaders would support us on this.”

In other news, the Committee unanimously approved a plan to construct a new playground at RMS for students in grades two through six. Donna Forcier and Erin Bednarczyk, who are co-chairs for the Playground Committee, presented a plan alongside Cindy Maak of Rochester, who designed the new playground and who has helped design more than 800 playgrounds total, including many in the area.

According to the Playground Committee, approximately $27,000 was raised in the last three years, but nothing had been done to move forward with the project. They formed at the beginning of this year, and were able to construct a plan for the new equipment, which will cost about $29,000. The PTO will have another fundraiser in the near future to supply the remaining funds.

“We’re going to order the equipment tomorrow,” Bednarczyk said. “It’s nice to see it get done. For three years, the kids played on asphalt.”

By Nick Walecka