Hi everyone,
First, you may notice that for the first time, I am trying comments on my posts. I’m pretty new to the world of blogging, and I’ve never done comments, so I hope they work OK… Feel free to write in with your opinions (or just to say Hi!)
Second, I hope you are enjoying the warm weather – it reminds us that summer is right around the corner. And summer means ice cream, baseball, and of course, over-the-top, super fun, special-effects-drenched blockbusters. Spiderman 3 is already out, and in a few weeks it will be competing with Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World’s End. Anticipation runs high for the next installment of Johnny Depp’s loveable swaying-and-swashbuckling scoundrel.
Heritage Museum and Gardens in Sandwich brings us even more High Seas Action with a kid-friendly exhibit, “A Short Life and Merry: Pirates of New England,” which runs from May until October.
“”””””””””“Pirates” brings to life a time when scurvy swashbucklers stormed the seas in and around New England.
”While most folks associate pirates with a certain Caribbean, there was a time when this region’s waters were rife with infamous sea captains, including the likes of Samuel Bellamy, William Kidd, and Edward Teach, otherwise known as Blackbeard.There are plenty of visuals, as well as sound bytes, clips of sea chanteys, and even a special treasure chest that invites patrons to use their noses to determine what the treasure within might be. Money wasn’t the only good they coveted.Kids of all ages will delight in learning about the pirates of New England, and some will even enjoy playing a bit of dress-up. There is a special treasure trunk overflowing with bandannas, topcoats, and tri-corn hats for wee ones to deck themselves in full pirate regalia.Naturally once they’ve donned the proper attire, they will want to set sail on the exhibit’s central focus, an pirate ship with captain’s wheel, spyglass, and a one-time working cannon (safely under glass).Older kids will enjoy discovering how pirate lore affected music, movies and literature such as the stage show The Black Pirate, movies such as Peter Pan and Sea Hawk, and books such as Treasure Island.
A pirate symbol scavenger hunt will keep everyone occupied as they attempt to determine the meanings of the many pirate flags flying from the rafters.””””
Exhibit brings out the pirate in everyone
By Kathleen Szmit of the Barnstable Patriot, May 4. 2007
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Our next story brings us to Mattapoisett, where Sarah DeMatos, a recent graduate of Old Rochester Regional High, is organizing a series of concerts to benefit the tiny nation of Swaziland. DeMatos, who is currently studying at Berklee College of Music, visited the impoverished African country in the summer of 2006. “”””””””What Sarah found in Africa was a country with the globe’s lowest life expectancy and one of its highest occurrences of AIDS. Ancient beliefs and practices have left the country so completely riddled with the HIV virus, that the United Nations has projected that the country will be extinct by the year 2040. As is often the case in pandemics, children are often made to suffer some of the hardest consequences. The United Nations also estimates that because of death or abandonment about 140,000 children will be orphaned. The mortality rate is so bleak that in the average household in Swaziland the head of the house is no more than eleven years of age. It is against this backdrop of hopelessness that Sarah DeMatos found hope. 
Sarah organized a benefit concert last fall with the help and talents of her classmates raised about $1,000 dollars for [a] children’s home. This weekend she returned home to Mattapoisett promoting the first of what is to be a series of concerts here in the South Coast in conjunction with the Swazi Aid relief fund. The first of show of the series took place on Sunday, April 29 at the Mattapoisett Congregational Church’s Reynard Hall. After taking a few moments to thank the audience for coming and explaining what the task that she and the ABC Ministries were trying to accomplish, Ms. DeMatos introduced soul singer Joy and her band to the crowd. Joy led her six-piece band through a sizzling set of funk-tinged R&B. The singer’s voice is reminiscent of a young Aretha Franklin and she sings with the bold confidence of a seasoned performer. If this show is a taste of things to come, the South Coast is in for some great music this summer in support of a very worthy cause. If you would like to help Ms. DeMatos in her endeavors or would like to find out more information on upcoming Swazi Aid events, please contact Sarah at sarah.dematos@gmail.com. “”””””””””
Rock for Africa: Swazi Aid Show Raises Money, Awareness
By Robert Chiarito of the Wanderer, May 03 2007
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Moving west, congratulations to Harney Academy of Irish Dance in Walpole. Its eight-girl team recently finished second out of 68 teams in the Girls Under-16 category at the Step Dancing World Championship in Glasgow, Scotland. “”””””The weeklong competition – Oireachtas Rince Na Cruinne – is considered the Super Bowl of Irish step dancing.In an interview last week, [coach] Liam Harney said he was proud of how well his students fared; they faced top-notch competition.“Those are the finest dancers in all of England and Ireland…,” he said.””””””And congratulations to Connor McCarthy (11) and Melissa McCarthy (9) who finished in the top 12 within their solo categories.
Harney Academy a step above the rest
By Brian DeCesare of the Walpole Times May 04, 2007
(sorry, article removed by Walpole Times! : (
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And finally, please keep Mary Kozloski of Norton in your thoughts. The Walpole Pediatrics nurse lost her husband, Joseph, of 18 years last month to a heart attack he suffered while working as a maintenance man at Boston Medical. To make matters worse, Mr Kozloski had no life insurance, though he thought he did. To make matters worse, Mrs Kozloski suffers from Hodgkins Disease. And to make matters even worse, her chemotherapy treatments have left her legs numbs and feeling dizzy, forcing the sole breadwinner quit her nursing job. Fortunately, the community has gone out of its way to help Mrs Kozloski and her three children, Kathleen, 4, Jared, 11, and Hillary, 15, get back on their feet. “””””””””””””””””Some are friends who long admired Mary and Joseph’s character and integrity; others are complete strangers moved by the family’s plight.As Mary Kozloski spoke of her late husband – taking on extra jobs after the cancer diagnosis, making home repairs, devoting his rare free hours to the kids – Mary Gallagher, longtime friend and former coworker, sat nearby nodding in agreement. “He was working two, sometimes three jobs, working different shifts, so he only had maybe four free hours,” Gallagher said in an earlier phone interview. “But when I came by to visit, you would see him out there, particularly with Jared.”A fellow Norton resident, Gallagher has come by to visit frequently since her friend fell ill, bringing dinners and comfort. She said the entire staff at Walpole Pediatrics, where the two worked together for several years, had pitched in funds to help the family when Mary was first diagnosed.“Mary is the sweetest and most selfless person I’ve met in all my life,” Gallagher said.
She said her close friend frequently went out of her way to help patients and provide support to others undergoing their own cancer therapies.
She recalled Joseph as similarly sensitive. At a local Christmas charity last year, she noted, he declined to take any of the proceeds, saying other families were in greater need.Other residents have also assisted the family. Johnna-Maria Masala, the local YMCA’s program director and a family friend, spearheaded several drives to raise relief funds after Joseph’s death. She said she was extremely impressed with the generosity of the community.Another local woman and attorney, Deborah Mason, took on Mary’s exhaustive set of paperwork for her. Acquaintances and strangers alike have also come by to deliver groceries and other household supplies. Selectmen and school officials have likewise offered their support.Mary said she has seen kindness from less likely sources, as well. One local woman called to offer six month’s worth of COBRA health insurance payments.”A complete stranger,” Mary noted in amazement.
“Nothing anyone says can make us feel better about our loss,” Mary said. “But I am so grateful for all their help, and I want to thank all of them.”As she awaits her upcoming cancer test, Mary said she is praying for better health and a reversal of side effects that have left her hands and legs partially numb.In two weeks, Mary explained, she would return to the hospital for a PET scan to determine whether months of chemotherapy and radiation treatment had completely removed her cancer.“I pray every day that I can return to work,” she said. “I know that God will carry us and get us through it.”””””””””””””””””””””””””””””
Good luck, Mary.
Donations can be made to
The Kozloski Children’s Fund, c/o North Easton Savings Bank, P.O. Box 495, Norton, MA 02766.
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Well, that’s all the news for now…. Tune in next week for more stories of what makes Massachusetts, Massachusetts.
