Newton Community Farm is opening their online Seedling Sale on April 27th. Order through May 13th, then schedule your curbside pickup date and time in mid-May. There are over 80 varieties of vegetable, fruit, herb, and flower seedlings plus soil for sale.
Thank you for supporting the Farm and happy gardening! https://newtoncommunityfarm.org/news-events/2020-seedling-sale/
Mayor Fuller has requested that the Economic Development Commission (EDC) provide her with ideas on a recovery plan focusing particularly on steps that can be taken to assist Newton businesses in regaining their footing post Covid-19. As part of the EDC’s development of these ideas, they are surveying Newton businesses.
This survey is open to the Newton business community and will be open through May 4th www.surveymonkey.com/Newton_EDC_Business_Survey If you have questions, please contact Devra G. Bailin, Director of Economic Development for the City of Newton at dbailin@newtonma.gov.
If everyone in Newton buys just one book through the Bookshop.org page, it would greatly reduce the financial burden facing Newtonville Books. If you start your browsing on the landing page https://bookshop.org/shop/Newtonvillebooks the site tracks all your purchases and the bookstore receives 30% of all sales. Please help spread the word about this challenge and thank you if you can help Newtonville Books and Jaime and Mary (parents of a Cabot student).
Alix de Saint-Aignan, a junior at Newton North, is the Founder of Girls Connecting. The concept is to connect 4th-8th grade mentees with high school mentors (from 10th grade to college) for an hour a week of video chat for support, help with schoolwork, game playing, etc. Check out the website www.girlsconnecting.com.
She has successfully recruited enough high school-age volunteers to accommodate ~100 mentees. In such an isolating time, Girls Connecting offers mentors and mentees an additional outlet and source of connection to the community.
Please e-mail girlsconnectinginfo@gmail.com or text 617-997-8761 with any questions or to sign up.
Newton South High School’s Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) Club feels tremendous gratitude to the countless healthcare workers who put their own lives on the line to help those afflicted with COVID-19. With that in mind, they have decided to mount a campaign to help our local hospitals battle this pandemic.
There are two ways people can help:
First, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) is asking for iPads so hospitalized patients can talk to their loved ones at home. If you can donate any old but functioning iPads, it can help reduce the social isolation for hospitalized patients. A club member can do a contact-free curbside pick-up if you live in the Greater Boston Area. All the patients and the hospital will undoubtedly appreciate it!
Here is the link to donate an iPad: https://forms.gle/uNiNPnzKYFphKM4h8
Second, if you do not have an old iPad but would still like to join in our fight against COVID-19, they’ve also started a GoFundMe page to help the Massachusetts General Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center through their fights against COVID-19. Every dollar donated will go towards saving the life of a doctor, nurse, friend or neighbor. Even though we are all apart, we are all in this together!
Here is the link to donate money to the Go Fund Me: http://gf.me/u/xycbfz
Please consider donating to the iPad and fund campaigns so NSHS HOSA can help these wonderful local hospitals during this devastating COVID-19 crisis.
Several students from Newton South High School the Hackley School, and Dwight-Englewood recently created Prep Time Debate Camp. Prep Time Debate Camp is for middle-school students who want to improve their public speaking skills or want to learn about high school Public Forum Debate. PFD is a form of debate in which two teams of two argue for or against a resolution (for example, Resolved: The United States should provide universal healthcare for all).
The camp will be at least 8 hours of direct online instruction on a platform known as Zoom across four weeks, meeting as a group, two times a week for 1 hour each. The staff will consist of high school debaters from different backgrounds across the Northeast, teaching Middle Schoolers the fundamentals of debate such as researching, writing cases, and learning overall how a debate round works. Concepts like public speaking, research skills, and articulation can be very useful in job interviews, leadership activities, or anytime you need to captivate an audience.
If you are at all interested in the camp, please fill out this survey, and remember, by filling it out, you are in no way committing to the camp. After seeing how many people want to participate, they will send out an email with the final logistics, such as timings, the number of middle schoolers in a group. On a final note, all the optional donation we get will be given the Boston Debate League to help children access formal clothing and to help send them to tournaments once COVID-19 is over.
Here is the link to the survey if you wish to sign up:
Let’s stay connected as a community in the face of COVID-19! On April 20th, Patriots’ Day/Marathon Monday, we invite all Newtonians to make handmade #NewtonTogether signs and display them in your windows. Get creative–make paper signs, use sidewalk chalk, whatever inspires you–and share the incredible joy, strength, and resiliency of Newton. Just because we can’t gather for the Marathon this year, doesn’t mean we can’t connect! Tag your creations in the Facebook event or on social media with #NewtonTogether. For more information, click HERE.
Some Newton villages are also choosing to stand outside at noon on April 20th to clap/bang pots in recognition and gratitude for all the hometown heroes (medical personnel, pharmacists, grocery workers, teachers, etc.) who are working the front lines to keep us all safe. Feel free to recognize your favorite hometown hero in your #NewtonTogether social media posts.
The idea came to the Mayor’s Office from Newton resident Rakashi Chand:
Let us bring our community together in a shared message of perseverance and pride. Let us inspire one another as we are and always have been an unwavering city, that has stood tall and united in the face of adversity and overcome again and again, every challenge, hardship, tragedy and crisis. We will persevere, we will fight in every way we can, we will unite and we will see the dawning of a brave new day. This epidemic will make each day harder than the last, but we will persevere, we will face the challenges that present themselves, because we are strong. The idea came to the Mayor’s Office from Newton resident Rakashi Chand:
Let’s find a way to inspire our citizens, and remind them that we, like our forefathers and foremothers, will overcome this, and find ways to raise each other up with hope.
In addition, for those of you who are big fans of the Boston Marathon, the Newton, Wellesley and Natick Historical Societies will be showing vintage photos of the Boston Marathon on their websites on April 20th. You are welcome to share your marathon thoughts, memories, and photos of your favorite site on the route using #VirtualMarathon.
Thanks so much for being a part of #NewtonTogether on April 20th! Click here for the flyer with information.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Massachusetts Safe Routes to School has extended their deadline to May 1st for their annual yard sign design contest. This year’s theme is eliminating distracted driving, especially in and around school zones. The contest is a way for students to use their creativity to help promote safe routes for cyclists and pedestrians in their communities. Winning entries will be made into yard signs – signs from prior years are on display around Newton.
Signs may be hand drawn or created digitally. Either way, please submit them digitally; also, a school signature is no longer needed unless your student’s design is selected as a winner.
The contest is open to students in grades 2-8. Guidelines and more details here: https://www.mass.gov/doc/yard-sign-design-contest-signups-and-guidelines-2020/download. Direct questions to NewtonSafeRoutes@gmail.com.
Announcing the Faculty and Staff Variety Show on Zoom! Saturday, April 18th, at 7:00 pm.
See Newton South faculty and staff members sing and dance (mostly sing) for an evening of joy and humor to celebrate our community, even at a distance.
Click Here on Saturday night for the show–from 7:00 – 9:00 pm.
Your enthusiastic hosts,
Rachel Becker, Tori Parker, and Alan Reinstein
