Hi everyone!
I realized I haven’t written about the North Shore for a while, so this week’s update brings us up to historic Gloucester.
Officials there have been working to restore the Dun Fudgin Salt Marsh located located on the Annisquam River behind the Gloucester High School. The marsh had been dug up, paved, and converted into a swimming pool in the 1930’s, but abandoned in the 1970’s. Eventually the area became filled with sediment.
Enter Stubby Knowles, the town’s shellfish warden, David Enos, the high school’s oceanography teacher, and Eric Hutchins, Gulf of Maine habitat restoration coordinator. Four years ago they began to think of ways to restore the deteriorating cement back to a viable ecosystem. Mr Knowles passed away, but with the help of Mr. Enos and Mr. Hutchins, along with an alphabet soup of state and federal organizations, the town tore down the old pool and began to restore the area to its pristine state.
“”"”"”"”"”"”"”"Clams, worms, periwinkles, fish and wading birds once made the Dun Fudgin area their home; the goal of the project was to bring that life back.
The pool’s location behind the high school meant the project could be localized and provide a terrific outdoor classroom experience for the students … they only had a two-minute walk and they were on site. Students in Enos’ class last fall helped map the area and collect specimens.
Classmate Thomas Lesch, 18, agreed. “It was interesting to see how just a couple of feet down the high tide line revealed more and different organisms. Hands-on learning is definitely more influential than class learning. I can remember more from that one day than any time in a classroom,” he said.
Though the high schoolers were just laborers that day, sifting through mud to measure the sizes of clams, taking latitude and longitude coordinates, recording wind direction and performing specific tasks step by step, there were moments of fun and surprise.
“The bloodworm was pretty cool,” said Ryan Russell, 17. “We didn’t expect to find that. It’s a gooey, kind of nasty, fleshy creature whose head comes out of its body to attack you.” Russell was mum to say if he deliberately dangled a fingertip in front of the worm’s mandibles or not. “We’d lived close to the water forever,” [Iris Quesada, 18] said, “but we’d never stopped to look at what was there.”
“I think the pool definitely needed to come out of there,” Russell said. “It was dangerous. There was exposed rebar everywhere.”
“It will lead to a healthier ecosystem,” added Zach Levesh-Raabe, 18.
After helping out on a project that was carefully watched by so many organizations, the students all said they were pretty happy to have been a part of the process.“”"”"”"”"”"
There is a special dedication ceremony from 10:30 to 11:30 on Tuesday, May 22nd at the site of the Dan Fudgin Salt Marsh (behind the Gloucester High School’s tennis courts, near the Dun Fudgin boat ramp).
Students from the high school and the preschool will help to plant 2,600 grasslets, which is the first step in attracting marine life back to the coastal habitat. They will be joined by “state and city officials, including Mayor John Bell, Rep. Anthony Verga, D-Gloucester, NOAA Deputy Regional Director Chris Mantzaris and state Deputy Secretary of Environmental Affairs Philip Griffiths.”
Bringing a salt marsh back to lifeBy Sam Carter of the Gloucester Daily Times, May 18 2007
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
And here’s a great story, one that connects the city of Lowell, Massachusetts across 
the ocean to the city of Turin in Italy. Michael Darish (blue shirt, photo) was a man in search of meaning in his life. Since graduating from Medford High in 1975, he bounced from job to job and started a few different college programs. Nothing really stuck.
But shortly after enrolling in the Electrical Engineering program at University of Massachusetts -Lowell in 2003, a faculty member from the Assistive Technology Program presented him with a unique challenge. Professor Alan Rux was seeking students to help him design a voice-controlled computer mouse. A family in Italy needed help for their three year old daughter, Anna, who was paralyzed from the neck down in an automobile accident. In class, Rux showed a picture of the three year old, clenching a breathing tube but still smiling.
“””””””””””””””””””””””Michael Darish was hooked.
“I saw [the] picture, and it kind of got to me,” says Darish.
Over three semesters, Darish worked to incorporate a voice-recognition chip to write software to create the device, which is about the size of a notebook computer.
While he was [in Rux's lab], he made it so the voice-controlled system would operate a handheld fan, a toy that lights up and blows bubbles, and another toy, and a bear that bangs a drum.
Darish often arrived at his lab station as early as 5 a.m., and spent 10 hours a day there, working on Anna’s device, in addition to his classwork.
Some students headed for beaches during spring break, but Darish went to northern Italy, with videographer Valerie Parker, hired by the university to document the trip. The university paid for the trip, but Darish says, “I was going either way.”
He spent a week there, gradually introducing Anna to her voice-controlled system, tinkering to perfect it.
“She was, being a 5-year-old, a bit apprehensive at first,’ says Darish. “But her father knew just what to do. He says, ‘let’s show your brother.’ And she instantly wanted to know more.”
Anna’s father, Andrea, and mother, Grazia, are engineers for competing telecommunications companies. They grasped the technology. They were “a bit overwhelmed by it all,” says Darish. “And very grateful.”
He may patent the device, and he’s already thinking of other ways to improve Anna’s life.
“As I said to her father, I don’t think this is the end. This is just the beginning.” D
arish will graduate in a few weeks, with a bachelor’s in electrical engineering. He returns for the master’s program in the fall. Those things are for him.
Along the way, he found his purpose. And that was for Anna. “If I never do anything else,” he says, “this was great.”””””””””””
Now there’s some Yankee ingenuity. Great job, Michael.
His Lab Project: Change a Life
By David Perry of the Lowell Sun 2007-05-18
Also see: Anna’s Smile Begins a Journey in the UML News
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
And now it’s out to Pelham, where elementary school principal Alicia LaFrance treated her students to a rare sight – smooching a hog!
“”””””””””””””During the week of May 11, the school participated in Dollars for Diabetes, a fundraising walk that supports programs aimed at curing and preventing diabetes.
Because the first successful insulin preparations came from cows and later pigs, founders of the fundraising program came up with the “kiss a pig” or “kiss a cow” incentive to encourage student participation, said school nurse Susan Hancock.
LaFrance agreed to kiss a pig during each of the five regularly scheduled recesses if the school reached its goal of $5,000. Organizers were pleasantly surprised when the final count approached $10,000.
Elementary School Principal Alicia LaFrance freshened her lipstick before going in for one last kiss. Diamond the pig was not happy with the unexpected affection. But LaFrance wanted to make sure her students got their money’s worth.
She gently grabbed the piglet’s head and planted a firm smooch on top of it. The crowd cheered in approval.
For more information or to make a donation, call Hancock at (603) 635-8875.”””””””””””””””””””
Principal keeps her porcine promise
By Heidi Smith of the Lowell Sun 2007/05/18
+++++++++++++++++++
And finally, our thoughts go out to the family of Spc. Alex R. Jimenez, of Lawrence, who went missing in Iraq over the weekend. About 4,000 troops are searching for Spc. Martinez and two other missing soldiers in Mahmoudiyah, about 20 miles south of Baghdad.
Zachery Taylor of 
Andover, who is home on leave after serving seven months in Iraq, sums it up:
””””””””””””””“I wish him luck,” he said of Jimenez. “I hope he gets out of there safely.”””””””””””””””””””””””
Please click here to see the Eagle Tribune Special Feature Page.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
That’s all for this week, folks… Stay dry this weekend and stay tuned next week for more news of what makes Massachusetts, Massachusetts.
