Columns :: Neighborhood News
South End wins big in Small Changes grants by Linda Rodriguez
managing editorWednesday Aug 13, 2008 South End wins big in Small Changes grants
Several South End nonprofit organizations have received a total of $6161 from the city of Boston’s annual Small Changes grant program, an initiative that offers local community groups small grants to fund moderately priced beautification projects.
This year, Washington Gateway Main Street plans to use their $3500 grant to plant and maintain the grassy at the corner of West Dedham and Washington streets, known to many as the Puerto Rican Veterans’ monument. An award of $1485 was given to the South End Lower Roxbury Open Space Land Trust for the restoration and greening of a pocket park at Taylor and Milford streets; and the Friends of Allan Rohan Crite Square, in honor of the recently deceased influential South End artist, will use their $1176 grant for plantings in the square at the intersection of Appleton and West Canton streets.
The Small Changes program, created by a $1 million donation from Boston 2004, Inc., is now in its fourth and final year of grant-making.
South End resident elected to BPS Special Education Advisory Council
Parents and advocates of special needs children in the Boston Public School system met recently to rekindle the Boston Public Schools Special Education Parents Advisory Council - and elected South End resident Susan Battista co-chair of the nascent group. Battista, who lives on Rutland Street with her husband and her 7-year-old daughter, said in a press release that the group will focus on working with the city, BPS superintendent Carol Johnson, and the School Committee to advocate for the needs of special education students in the city. Battista is serving with Kim Campbell; the group will hold its first meeting at 7 p.m. on Sept. 25 at English High School in Jamaica Plain.
Local youth earns Boston College High School honors
South End resident Luka Prodanovic, now entering his senior year, achieved High Honors for the fourth quarter at Boston College High School for maintaining better than a 3.8 quality point average. Boston College High School is a Jesuit, Catholic, college-preparatory school for young men founded in 1863 and formerly located in the South End.
Blackstone Community Center wins grant for girls’ programming
GoGirlGo!, a nationwide initiative designed to motivate girls to be more physically active, recently awarded a grant to the Blackstone Community Center on West Brookline Street. The grant, part of a $2.6 million nationwide grant fund, will help create and sustain programs targeting local girls that will encourage them to become more physically active, to help them deal with issues of weight and body image, and to help them make better choices about their health. As part of the grant, GoGirlGo! will also provide Blackstone with education materials designed to help them create better curriculums for girls ages 8 to 18. For 8 to 12 year olds, the materials include a GoGirls! Guide to Life, featuring personal stories from female athletes who have made healthy choices, and accompanying GoGirl scrapbook; for the 13 to 18 year olds, the GoGirlGo! Ambassador Leadership Program provides them with college scholarship and team grant incentives to individuals and programs that advocate physical activity among their peers.
This grant is particularly valuable in Boston, where studies have shown that female high school students are more likely to be overweight than the national average.
South Ender cleans up at city’s Garden Contest
Marlene Karas, a West Canton Street resident and frequent photographic contributor to South End News, will be taking home not one but two Golden Trowels at the 12th annual Boston Garden Contest awards ceremony, to be held Thursday, Aug. 21, in, appropriately enough, the Boston Public Garden. Karas, a perennial Garden Contest winner, won first in two of the 11 categories, the Window Boxes or Tree Pit category and the Shade Garden category. Karas, along with the other first place winners, will also receive a prize package from HGTV, a one-year American Horticultural Society membership, and a Stinger Mosquito Vacuum yard and garden insect control device.
Linda Rodriguez can be reached at lrodriguez@southendnews.com
|
|
|
Email
Print
Share