The Hometown Weekly for all your latest local news and updates! Over 27 Years of Delivering Your Hometown News!  

Category Archives: Needham

Survivor Fineblum’s story still poignant

[ccfic caption-text format="plaintext"]
By Linda Thomas Hometown Weekly Correspondent Sol Fineblum didn’t have much but three cigarettes to barter with. He grew up in Baltimore during the 20s and 30s. Members of his generation not only relinquished a portion of their childhoods to the desperation of the Great Depression, but forfeited the promise of their young adulthood to help...
Read more

Congregations Walk to End Homelessness

The Congregational Church of Needham, First Baptist Church, and Carter Memorial United Methodist Church were among 66 teams who joined the Walk to End Homelessness on Saturday, April 6, to benefit the programs of Family Promise Metrowest, a nonprofit dedicated to helping families facing homelessness. Over 800 people came out to raise awareness and funding...
Read more

Needham musicians perform at Symphony Hall

How do you get to Symphony Hall? Practice, practice, practice, as well as an outstanding K-12 music program with skilled students and dedicated teachers. On May 4, four groups from the Needham Public Schools showcased their talents on the Symphony Hall stage. These were the NHS Symphonic Band, the NHS Chorus, The Pollard 8th Grade...
Read more

WPD receives seat belt enforcement grant

The Walpole Police Department received grant funding from the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security (EOPSS) to increase seat belt enforcement patrols as part of the national Click It or Ticket campaign taking place May 13th-June 2. The Walpole police will be joined by the Massachusetts State Police and up to 140 other local...
Read more

Pianist Adrian Liao performs for seniors

[ccfic caption-text format="plaintext"]
By James Kinneen Hometown Weekly Reporter On Wednesday afternoon, the New England Conservatory and Needham Council on Aging presented the piano stylings of junior student Adrian Liao to the seniors of the Tolles Parsons Center. Playing three pieces from Joseph Haydn, Franz Liszt and Robert Schumann, Liao wowed the audience before fielding question about...
Read more

Youth & Family Services awards volunteers

[ccfic caption-text format="plaintext"]
By James Kinneen Hometown Weekly Reporter On Thursday night inside of Needham Town Hall, Needham Youth & Family Services held its Senior Awards Ceremony to honor its over 25 peer tutors and VIP mentors. The peer tutor program is the more academic-based of the two. It matches high school students with middle school and elementary...
Read more

Broadmeadow and Mitchell renew rivalry

[ccfic caption-text format="plaintext"]
By James Kinneen Hometown Weekly Reporter On Friday night, the bleachers of Babson College’s Webster Center were packed with a marching band, mascots, and students screaming for the people they see in class every day. But the students weren’t college kids and the players weren’t Babson Beavers - it was the annual Broadmeadow-Mitchell School...
Read more

Open Studios this weekend

[ccfic caption-text format="plaintext"]
Needham Open Studios is celebrating 21 years as a supportive, inclusive and vibrant community. Members of the community are encouraged to take a self-guided tour from 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. during the weekend of Saturday, May 4, and Sunday, May 5, and visit with 35 new and returning award-winning artists. Many Needham...
Read more

Deeper Than The Skin to play Needham

Deeper Than The Skin is set to play at the Homegrown Coffeehouse on Saturday, May 4, at 8:00 p.m. Richmond, Virginia, the James River, two friends - one Black, one White - one from the North, one from the South. Greg Greenway’s ancestors grew up beside the river; Reggie Harris’ ancestors were most likely brought up...
Read more

Ben Railton presents ‘We the People’

By Amelia Tarallo Hometown Weekly Staff Today, there seems to be one question being asked when it comes to our identity as Americans: what makes each one of us Americans? Is it something as simple as where we were born or where we have citizenship? Or perhaps it is how long our family and culture has been...
Read more

Great Bear Run planned for May 19

On Sunday, May 19, the Needham Youth Track Club is sponsoring the 29th running of the Great Bear Run, a road race for all ages. There is a 5K run (10:30 a.m.), 1 Mile Run and Prostate Walk (12:15 p.m.), events for children including 400 meter (age 7-14) – 2:15 p.m., 200 meter (age 6)...
Read more

Needham celebrates Pansy Day

[ccfic caption-text format="plaintext"]
By Amelia Tarallo Hometown Weekly Staff Anyone who wanted to enter the History Center & Museum in Needham on Saturday, April 13, would have had to walk between an aisle of multicolored pansies - a vibrant variety of flowers in blue, purple, red, and yellow. Some sat in hanging buckets, waiting to be bought...
Read more

Gerry Clifford exhibiting at Open Studios

Needham Open Studios is celebrating 21 years as a supportive, inclusive and vibrant, community. Neighbors and art enthusiasts are invited to take a self-guided tour from 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. on the weekend of Saturday, May 4, and Sunday, May 5, and visit 35 new and returning award-winning artists while they demonstrate their skills in...
Read more

Community attends ‘It Happened Here’

On Sunday, March 24, over 75 people gathered at Temple Beth Shalom in Needham for a potluck meal and conversation on how the community reckons with, seeks renewal and reconciles the remnants of the town’s past. Special guest speakers included Executive Director of the Needham History Center and Museum Gloria Greis and Rev. Darrell Hamilton...
Read more

Brentano String Quartet playing Great Hall

On Saturday night, May 4, the Great Hall Performance foundation will welcome the Brentano String Quartet. Since its inception in 1992, the Brentano String Quartet has appeared throughout the world to popular and critical acclaim. “Passionate, uninhibited and spellbinding,”raved the London Independent; the New York Times extolled its “luxuriously warm sound [and] yearning lyricism.” Within a...
Read more

Needham’s Lamenzo publishes children’s book

[ccfic caption-text format="plaintext"]
By Amelia Tarallo Hometown Weekly Staff Having a picky eater can be a struggle for many parents - and for kids, as well, for whom the pressure to try new foods that they may not like can feel overwhelming. In her new book, “Addy Wants to Fit In,” Jacky Lamenzo explores the relationship between children and...
Read more

Rational Rocket mathletes on positive vector

[ccfic caption-text format="plaintext"]
By Amelia Tarallo Hometown Weekly Staff 
 It’s not often that high school students would give up a Friday to do math. It’s even less likely that they would give up a Friday to compete in a competition where they had to solve math problems. But Needham High School’s math team did just that a few...
Read more

Needham High School Makes a Statement

[ccfic caption-text format="plaintext"]
The 14th annual Make a Statement Day, part of Own Your Peace Week, was held on Thursday, March 28, at Needham High School, in collaboration with Needham Youth & Family Services and the Own Your Peace Group. This year, Make a Statement Day created puzzle pieces as a way to speak out, educate...
Read more

Robert Mesrop gives watercolor demonstration

[ccfic caption-text format="plaintext"]
By James Kinneen Hometown Weekly Reporter On Tuesday night, the Needham Library held a live watercolor showcase of Robert Mesrop’s work, in which Mesrop took around an hour to create an original painting in front of - and inspired by - the audience. Co-sponsored by the Needham Art Association and the Wellesley Society of Artists,...
Read more

The Scent of War

[ccfic caption-text format="plaintext"]
By Tom Keating I boarded the Flying Tiger Air 707 at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey on September, 1969 along with 200 other soldiers to begin our trip to the war in Vietnam. We all wore our new bright green jungle fatigues, and sat silently as the plane took off and headed...
Read more