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Category Archives: Westwood

STEM interest blossoms at Sheehan

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By Laura Drinan Hometown Weekly Reporter Sheehan Elementary School students are curious children. They come to school each day with endless questions and ideas, which their teachers do their best to answer. There’s one night a year, though, where all of their curiosities converge into a celebration of science, technology, engineering, and math: the annual...
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Thurston Middle performs amazing musical

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By Laura Drinan Hometown Weekly Reporter Thurston Middle School’s seventh and eighth grade students may be young, but they are bursting with talent. They proved that with their performances of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” at Westwood High School from April 5 to 7. The middle school thespians followed the script of Tim Rice and...
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Westwood declares Device Free Day

Did you know that too much screen time is harmful to your health? Experts cite excessive screen time as a cause of depression. It also hurts your eyes, disrupts your sleep, and causes gray matter atrophy in your brain. There are even new physical ailments like “text neck” and “text claw” cropping up, as we...
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COA members learn knife skills

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By Laura Drinan Hometown Weekly Reporter Have you ever watched chefs on Food Network chop a vegetable in the blink of an eye? It may seem like a job that only a professional chef could achieve, but Westwood and Dover’s Councils on Aging (COA) were determined to prove that anybody could possess the knife skills...
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DPW makes daily efforts for town

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By Laura Drinan Hometown Weekly Reporter As seen in March, it’s not uncommon for New England to receive snowstorm after snowstorm. While playing out in the snow, shoveling driveways, and brushing off our cars, we see plows clearing the streets of snow and often hear them continuing to keep the roads safe throughout the night....
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Third graders set for 1800s school day

Westwood’s third graders are gearing up for a unique experience. Each year, the Fisher School (home of the Westwood Historical Society) is transformed into an old-fashioned classroom with antique school desks and chairs, plus a dunce cap and stool. All Westwood third grade classes are then invited to an 1800s school day. Students dress in period...
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‘The Drowsy Chaperone’ a lively tale

By Laura Drinan Hometown Weekly Reporter When you go to see a play, there’s a moment that you spend sitting in utter darkness; it’s those few seconds that come after the house lights go out and before the curtain opens, cuing the stage lights to come on. During those fleeting moments, what are you thinking about? In Westwood...
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Smiles abound for Bachar Saba

By Linda Thomas Hometown Weekly Correspondent Life was simple growing up in Damascus, Syria in the 1970s. There were fewer responsibilities. All then-12-year-old Bachar Saba thought about was summer breaks from school and the chance to be his father’s companion. It was his first taste for dentistry. Saba remembers taking his small bike to his dad’s office, riding it...
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Celtic harpers astound library goers

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By Laura Drinan Hometown Weekly Reporter At the Westwood Public Library, locals crowded into the Community Room, dragging chairs from the lobby to enjoy a special concert from the New England Irish Harp Orchestra (NEIHO). The Celtic-inspired group features nearly a dozen harpers, as well as a uilleann pipes player, a fiddler, a woodwind player,...
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Gabriella Heaney-Secord, 3-point champ

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WHS senior Gabriella Heaney-Secord has won the MetroWest 3-point shootout in support of cancer research. The shootout was a fun event in which over 110 middle school and high school students came out to compete in a game they love, all while raising funds to support a worthy cause. The fundraiser is part...
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WY&FS seeking R.A.Y. nominations

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The Westwood Rotary and Westwood Youth & Family Services Department (WY&FS) are seeking the public’s help to identify young people in our community that have demonstrated a commitment to helping others. They would like to celebrate these individuals by honoring them with the R.A.Y (Recognize-A-Youth) award. Recipients will have distinguished themselves through their initiative...
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Court of Honor lauds Westwood Scouts

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Marco D'Angio, Gregory Fleming, Matthew Montalto, and Sean Ross became Westwood’s newest Eagle Scouts in a Troop 3 Court of Honor on Sunday, March 11....
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Islington Branch hosts cheesy program

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By Laura Drinan Hometown Weekly Reporter On February 28, Westwood’s turophiles visited the Islington Branch Library for a special program all about cheese. Joining the cheese lovers for the event was the owner of Roslindale’s Boston Cheese Cellar, Adam Shutes. While many were looking forward to tasting the five cheeses that Adam brought along, they were...
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Residents take guided school tours

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Westwood residents – some with children in the public schools and some without – took part in guided tours of the Deerfield, Hanlon and Sheehan elementary schools last weekend. The tours were coordinated by Superintendent of Schools Emily Parks as part of the District’s efforts to give residents an opportunity to see for...
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WY&FS seeking R.A.Y. nominations

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The Westwood Rotary and Westwood Youth & Family Services Department (WY&FS) are seeking the public’s help to identify young people in our community that have demonstrated a commitment to helping others. They would like to celebrate these individuals by honoring them with the R.A.Y (Recognize-A-Youth) award. Recipients will have distinguished themselves through their initiative...
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Women’s choir harmonizes the Center

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By Laura Drinan Hometown Weekly Reporter Wednesday mornings at the Westwood Council on Aging are relatively quiet. Usually, an exercise class will meet and SHINE counselors make themselves available to those with appointments. But there’s one group that truly animates the Center through the power of music. Though they don’t yet have a name, the...
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Celtics are Westwood Girls Jamboree champs

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The Celtics, coached by Jeff Hurley and Brian Greally, eked out the championship win over the Magic, coached by Jason Macy. The games were a pleasure to watch - travel league teammates and friends on opposing town teams were blocking each others' shots one minute, then laughing and hugging the next. The girls'...
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First Baptist team visits Rosie’s Place

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A group of teens and adults from First Baptist Church of Westwood recently visited Rosie’s Place in Boston, where they helped prepare and serve dinner for approximately 150 guests. In addition, they delivered twenty “comfort bags” containing socks, gloves, snacks, and toiletries that had been put together by the participants of FBC’s Kids...
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Westwood’s Philbin is town’s energy man

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By Linda Thomas Hometown Weekly Correspondent There was a time not too long ago when there were lights at the library that didn’t work. Streets weren’t always as bright as they are now. The town was burning money on outdated technology and inefficient energy systems. Then, Tom Philbin came along. Philbin, a New York City native with...
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