BrookWood gymnastics optimistic after season
Islington Branch knitters spread warmth
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Knitters at the Islington Branch Library are giving back.
Mary Campion hatched the idea for members of the library's Sit and Knit group, which meets weekly, to create a "peace blanket" for donation. Everyone would knit a square, which would then be combined to form a larger quilt. With help from members of the...
Buckmaster Pond hike planned for Feb.
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Westwood residents are enjoying the monthly hikes with the Westwood Community Trails group.
The Westwood Community Trails group is inviting locals to explore various areas throughout the town. Richard de Reyna is leading hikes that will have residents discovering Westwood’s outdoor resources in a fun, safe, and healthy way. The next outing will be...
WHS hosts LGBTQ alumni panel
Westwood High School recently hosted a number of alumni on an LGBTQ panel as part of its Courageous Conversations program, through which students and staff work together to identify topics that should be discussed.
Spanish teacher Anne-Marie Sklarwitz organized the event, bringing together six alums who graduated from 1975 to 2017. Each spoke about...
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Annual rabies clinic draws wide crowd
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By Alex Oliveira
Hometown Weekly Reporter
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Westwood Media Center wins volunteerism award
By James Kinneen
Hometown Weekly Reporter
For creating a seven-part video series designed to help people understand caring for the elderly free of charge, the Westwood Media Center has been awarded the Neponset Valley Chamber of Commerce’s (NVCC) Paul Smith Award for Outstanding Volunteerism.
In a release, the NVCC said in part: “Our selection committee was impressed by...
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FBC presents poster to COA
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Recently, Christine Keddy, Associate Pastor for Family Education and Outreach at the First Baptist Church of Westwood, presented a framed poster of decorated handprints, created by a multitude of Westwood youth, to Lina Arena-DeRosa, Director of Westwood’s Council on Aging. It was decided that the colorful poster will hang in the hallway of...
Downey School webcast inspires thousands
Teaching children to be inclusive and compassionate is an ongoing mission in the Westwood Public Schools. When educators at the Downey School had the chance to make those principles resonate with the help of technology, a picture book and a dog, they seized the opportunity.
“This all stemmed from our ‘Same and Different’ curriculum, which...
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Woman’s Club holds Christmas party
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The Woman's Club of Westwood recently held their annual Christmas party with lots of food and festive holiday decorations. The members were dressed in their Christmas attire and looking forward to a fun time.
The Club had invited Duane Sullivan, who was raised in Westwood and attended the school system, to perform. Sullivan...
WHS Sophomores pitch in for seniors
A number of Westwood High students, teachers, and staff took part in a project last month to clean up the yards of some local senior citizens. The effort, spearheaded by the sophomore class, is part of a multi-year effort to help the community. The class of ’21 first conceived of the project as freshmen and...
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The drive of Judy Brown
By Linda Thomas
Hometown Weekly Correspondent
Her alarm clock went off on time.
But it didn’t matter.
She missed the bus anyway.
It was the beginning of the school year 1975, and Nancy Maloof Winn was starting her freshman year at Westwood High School.
She grew up over by the railroad station on Juniper Ridge Road, about a 4½-mile walk...
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COA hosts holiday luncheon
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By Alex Oliveira
Hometown Weekly Reporter
The Westwood Council on Aging hosted their annual Holiday Luncheon this past Wednesday at the NorFolk Golf Club.
With light streaming in off the fairways and across the packed dining room, 135 senior members of the Westwood community, town representatives, the police department and the North Pole enjoyed a...
Courageous conversations punctuate professional development day
During an extraordinary professional development day for Westwood teachers and staff, six students took to the stage of Westwood High School’s auditorium to talk openly about their perceptions of being students of color in a majority-white school district. Their appearance highlighted a day-long examination into race, which was guided by civil rights leader David Johns....
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Westwood schools hold winter concert
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By Alex Oliveira
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Students from the Westwood middle and high schools held their winter concert on Wednesday night in the high school auditorium. With the help of a spectacular light crew, singers, string instrumentalists, horns and percussionists transported the audience for an hour to a land of wintertime wonder.
The middle school...
Garden Club holiday party warms hearts
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By Alex Oliveira
Hometown Weekly Reporter
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Thomas Philbin takes LBE award
Thomas Philbin, Westwood's Energy Manager, was honored at the Massachusetts State House on December 6, 2018 with a Public Sector Individual Award in the 12th annual Leading by Example (LBE) awards. These awards, given by the Baker-Polito administration, recognize those who promote clean energy and sustainable initiatives. Additionally, Philbin was awarded congratulatory citations on the LBE award...
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Westwood residents contribute to Elite football success
On Dec. 2nd, at Dexter/Southfield in Brookline, MA the sixth, seventh and eighth grade Massachusetts Elite football teams won their way into the Elite 8 of the FBU National Championship.
This year’s eighth grade team features six athletes with Westwood connections. Five of the players are from Xaverian (Matt Defeo, Alex Saunders, Cole Jette, Michael Oates...
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Troop 62275 Brownies visit science lab
Girl Scout Troop 62275, a 3rd Grade Brownie Troop in Westwood, recently visited the lab of Life Biosciences in Cambridge.
The scouts were interested in visiting the lab to learn more about science, see it in action, and talk to a few female scientists about their careers, what they studied, and what they do on a...
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Murder and intrigue at Westwood Library
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By Alexander Oliveira
Hometown Weekly Reporter
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Neil Martino here for a purpose
By Linda Thomas
Westwood Hometown Weekly Correspondent
A ribbon of tracer fire cut through the night sky over the Green Zone in the middle of Baghdad.
It was a black October night in 2005. The air was cool.
Bullets were flying everywhere. No one knew where they were coming from. No one knew what was going on.
One soldier,...
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