Amanda Leonard won first place, Jahn Pearson won second, and Emma Mirabile and Jen Rivera shared third place for their essays telling their real-life stories.

Photo by Jim RussellEssay contest winner Amanda Leonard, 12, center, a seventh-grader at Ware Junior High School, stands with, from left rear, Barbara Topor, seventh-grade teacher and contest coordinator; Melanie Leonard, Amanda's mother; Susanne Demers, Amanda's grandmother; and Yvon Demers, Amanda's grandfather.

WARE - Students shared life-shaking events sprinkled with the social drama, emotional pain and their ability to transcend hardship, injustice and terror in front of classmates at Ware Junior High School’s 11th annual Laws of Life Essay Contest.

The four finalists who read their essays had their papers judged by a panel of retired teachers and the high school faculty.

Each seventh- and eighth-grader was required to write an essay exploring and discussing how they live their lives and how they came to be who they are, although competing in the contest - for $100 first prize, $50 second prize and $25 third prize - was optional.

The audience in the auditorium that included many parents listened intently to real-life stories from the young teens - about leaving their parents, overcoming bullying and debilitating medical conditions, suicide attempts, the trauma of loved ones killed overseas - and how the environment at Ware public schools has nurtured their development during the June 15 assembly.

“The first law of life I have is determination,” essay winner Amanda Leonard said. “Three years ago I was diagnosed with severe anxiety and bipolar depression.”

She recounted how the medical condition led to a suicide attempt, her moving out of her mother’s home, permanently away from her father, and in with her grandparents.

“That day I will always remember and regret for the rest of my life,” Leonard said. “I had problems with my father. I felt abandoned. I felt like I always came last .¤.¤. One day I put my foot down and said to my dad I didn’t deserve this and my mother saw my pain and she asked him not to contact me in any way.”

She said, “The second law of life I have is coping with my issues. I feel that I am the happy person I am today because of my grandmother and my grandfather.”

Second-place winner was Jahn Pearson for his essay on overcoming bullying in the foster homes he’s lived at and the public schools he’s attended. Pearson said Ware is the only school system in his experience that took the bullying problem seriously and prevented it from recurring.

Emma Mirabile and Jen Rivera each earned third place for their essays.

English teacher Barbara Topor organized the contest. Sponsors were Country Bank for Savings, D&D Fitness Factory, Quabbin Wire and Cable, and Big Y Foods Inc.

While competing in nationals, Saito, of the Massachusetts Academy of Ballet, caught the eye of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School in Canada and is studying there for the month of July.

Photo by Janice Beetle GodleskiLiam Saito, of the Florence section of Northampton, performs with the Massachusetts Academy of Ballet.

NORTHAMPTON - Liam Saito is 15 and the oldest of three siblings. Every day, they all rise at 6 a.m. and practice the violin for 90 minutes with their uncle, a professional violinist. Only on Sundays do they get to sleep in.

What’s amazing is that, for Saito, this is just a hobby, a sign that he understands hard work. Where he spends the bulk of his time - and his passion - is in ballet dancing and laying the foundation for a future in the arts.

“I really like the strength and the ease of motion that comes with training in classical ballet,” said Saito. “It’s very physically demanding but extremely satisfying.”

Saito, of Florence, is a student at the Holyoke-based Massachusetts Academy of Ballet, and he’s been studying dance since he was in first grade and took a eurhythmics class in Northampton that he thought was fun.

That led to a discipline that now occupies roughly 20 hours of his time each week and led him to compete in March for the first time in an international Youth America Grand Prix Junior Division Semi-Finals in Torrington, Conn.

Photo by Janice Beetle GodleskiLiam Saito, of the Florence section of Northampton, says "I really like the strength and the ease of motion that comes with training in classical ballet."

Saito earned first place in the contemporary category and placed in the top 12 in the classical category and earned a spot in April at the grand prix competition in New York City, the largest international student ballet scholarship competition for dancers ages 9 to 19.

While he was eliminated from competition early on in New York, he performed at a gala at Lincoln Center’s Koch Theatre and was exposed to teachers and ballet companies across the globe. He caught the eye of one.

He is spending the month of July studying at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School in Manitoba, Canada, on a scholarship he earned at the Youth America Grand Prix.

“I’m excited,” he said in an interview prior to his departure, adding quickly, “I’m also very nervous.”

Saito spent two weeks this spring at the Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet, where his teachers at the Holyoke academy, Rose and Charles Flachs, professors of dance at Mount Holyoke College, also studied.

Saito’s parents, Loran and Max Saito, have homeschooled their four children. Three years ago, when he was entering eighth grade, Liam Saito began attending North Star in Hadley, a center for self-directed learning that affords him the flexibility to dance so many hours each week because school is held on only three days from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Now a sophomore, he enjoys the North Star community and the freedom to study subjects of interest to him; he also takes part in modern and experimental dance and theater there.

Saito performs twice a year with the Massachusetts Academy of Ballet, which offers a “Nutcracker” performance based around the Skinner family of Holyoke as well as a spring performance at Holyoke High School.

He also is part of the school’s studio company, Massachusetts Academy of Ballet Educational Training Association, which does smaller benefit performances three or four times a year.

Spending so many hours with his fellow dancers, Saito said he’s formed great friendships over the years. “We’ve come to be quite close,” he said.

While the Pioneer Valley is a liberal region to live in, Saito said he still sometimes bumps into the stereotypical view that “ballet is easy and ridiculous and not for guys.”

To that he says: “I don’t really care that much what people think of it. I know if they ever took a ballet class, they would never assume it’s not masculine.”

Stacey Funston rallied volunteers to clean the dingle as a way to validate the importance of students making the shift from middle to high school, both physically and internally.

The Republican | Michael S. GordonStacey Funston, of Massachusetts Promise Fellows - part of the Americorp volunteer service - organized about 50 volunteers to clean and landscape the area around the new walking trail between William R. Peck School and Holyoke High School. Behind her are Maria Luisa Arroyo, family access and engagement co-ordinator at Peck, and Paul Hyry-Dermith, principal at Peck.

HOLYOKE - In between Peck School and Holyoke High School is a small path leading down a hill, connecting the two schools and known by Holyokers for many years as “the dingle.”

Students traverse the rocky path on their way to and from school and home and to other locales in the surrounding neighborhood.

While the dingle may be just a path to some, Stacey Funston, a 2011 Mount Holyoke graduate working at Peck, realized it was much more. Funston, who has been working with eighth-graders at Peck to ease their movement into high school, said the dingle is a literal symbol of the physical transition of middle schoolers into high school students.

Funston decided to work with students and families to “reclaim” the dingle and spruce it up as a way to validate the importance of students making this shift, both physically and internally.

Funston is a Massachusetts Promise Fellow who worked the past school year with eighth-graders at Peck to ease their transition into ninth grade in a position funded by Mount Holyoke College through its community based learning program.

Funston said there is a high dropout rate district wide among ninth-graders, and educators have identified a need to strengthen the link between eighth and ninth grade.

“We decided to do a project around the dingle,” Funston said. “It really is a transition for many students from Peck to Holyoke High School, and it hasn’t really been reclaimed in a way that students and families feel is safe. It is a shared property between the two schools and a lot of people were interested in making improvements to it.”

Funston worked with students, parents, school staffers and community members connected to both schools to organize a day of service at the dingle this spring.

Whitney Anderson, maintenance director for the schools, first worked with local landscape designer Nancy Howard to improve water drainage in the area and reduce erosion. A drainage path was created, gravel was put in, and lighting was installed to improve safety for people traversing the path at night. Dead and downed trees were cut and removed, and brush was cleared, paving the way for a “day of service” at the site.

“It was a major concern for parents that their kids were walking in the dark on the path in winter,” Funston said. She added that over the years, kids skipping school have hidden in the brush around the path, so volunteers had an extra incentive to thin it out.

Students, parents, and staffers from both schools, along with community members, turned out for a cleanup and planting day this spring at the dingle. Funston said the group planted more than 150 trees and plants that were donated to the project and cleaned up debris.

City Councilor David Bartley provided lunch to the more than 60 volunteers who participated; some 58 percent of the volunteers were students and families from Peck School and Holyoke High School. The city’s Parks and Recreation department provided tools and took away trash that was collected.

“It was a pretty amazing day,” Funston said. “A lot of teachers showed up, too. It was a really successful day and it was just amazing to see all these people working together to reclaim this path. We picked up tons of trash.”

Funston has organized additional days of service at the dingle to pick up trash and maintain the path and surrounding property.

“We want this to be a continuing community effort to keep this path clean and beautiful,” she said. “There is definitely a sense of ‘this is our responsibility now’ and a lot of pride and ownership over the dingle. A lot of kids have said they didn’t feel any ownership over it before, even though they used the path so much.”Victor Cabassa, 13, an eighth-grader at Peck who volunteered at the service day, said the path is much safer now and the area around it, more attractive.

“Before the rocks on the path were too big and it was unstable,” he said. “You could twist your ankle walking on it. Now there are smaller rocks on it and you can get a better grip.”

Cabassa said he was especially concerned with the younger children at Peck who walked along the path, but feels it is safe for them now.

“It’s good, because for the little kids, it’s not as dangerous,” he said. “Most people are saying it’s much better now.”

Nineteen adults and 18 children provided a collective 132 hours’ worth of work at the property. It was all part of a "Journey" program, in which the fourth-graders were taking part to learn to become "agents of change."

Members of Westfield Girl Scout Troop 40222 have cleaned, weeded and planted flowers outside the Amelia Park Children's Museum.

WESTFIELD - Members of Girl Scout Troop 40222 have had a lasting impact on one of the city’s most popular venues for children.

The 10-member group of Girl Scout juniors cleaned, weeded and planted flowers outside the Amelia Park Children’s Museum as part of a service project over the Memorial Day weekend.

In all, there were 19 adults and 18 children who provided a collective 132 hours’ worth of work at the property. It was all part of a “Journey” program, in which the fourth-graders were taking part to learn to become “agents of change.”

“They learn about themselves, and then the power of teamwork and then the power of community,” said their troop leader, Patricia O’Connor.

The girls came up with a list of possible projects in which they could make a difference in their community. The troop members decided they wanted to do a clean-up project.

“They wrote a letter, and sent it to the mayor, our state representative, Don Humason, and the head of Parks and (Recreation Department),” O’Connor said. “We heard back from the mayor’s office almost right away, with the suggestion of (cleaning up) Amelia Park Children’s Museum.”

Last year, the landscaping around the museum building had been completed through a grant. This year, the troop was told the city didn’t get the grant, but the gardening work still needed to be done.

O’Connor said the girls did a lot of preparation before the actual clean-up day.

“They did all the planning,” she said. “They had to meet with community sponsors. They had to create flyers.”

The girls sought help from the community and put up flyers at school and in stores. They also put an announcement up on the local public access cable channel.

O’Connor said everyone was ready by 8 a.m. and worked diligently to get their tasks done.

“The weeds were amazingly huge,” she said. “Some were taller than the girls were.”

The girls were grouped with a parent and someone from the community, and the Girl Scouts were designated the “crew chiefs,” giving them some extra responsibility.

After weeding the flower beds, the girls planted annuals and put down mulch, donated by the Home Depot store.

Volunteers also enjoyed coffee and lunch courtesy of donations from Dunkin’ Donuts, McDonald’s, WalMart and Big Y. Rocky’s Hardware donated leaf bags for the weed disposal.

Amelia Park Children’s Museum executive director Karen Rubin said she looks to the community for help with such projects as the Girl Scout clean-up because she doesn’t have the staff to keep on top of it.

“It just makes the museum look that much better,” she said. “When you drive up and see weeds, people think maybe the building isn’t open. If you drive up and see flowers and mulch, it’s very welcoming.”

O’Connor said the girls in the troop have talked about coming back to do another cleanup at the museum, possibly next year.

"They learned a lot of leadership skills and organizational skills," she said. "I think they learned a lot and they had fun.”

Caregivers must take responsibility to ensure their children have a learning and educational focus to some degree during the summer months.

A mom reads with her young son at the kitchen table. Caregivers must take responsibility to ensure their children have a learning and educational focus to some degree during the summer months.

By ROBERT BARDWELL

MONSON - It’s summer and that means fun, vacations, camp, sleeping late and, for school-age children, not having to go to school. Generations ago, summers also meant working on the family farm, but that’s hardly the case these days. So, with two plus months off from school, what’s a student to do?

Well, there’s plenty that students can and should be doing during summer. While they do not have to report to school every day, learning does not end with the last day of school.

And in fact, it is best to continue some academic focus so as not to regress or lose what they have learned during the past school year.

In order to maintain an academic focus for all students, many school districts have instituted a summer reading program. Such programs require students to read a book or two and complete an accompanying assignment. High school students might also find that they have additional reading requirements or other assignments for accelerated courses, such as Advanced Placement. In an effort to ensure the reading and assignments are completed, they are often graded and then incorporated into a student’s grade for the course.

Robert Bardwell is a school counselor and director of guidance and student support services at Monson High School; he is a past president of the Massachusetts School Counselors Association and the New England Association for College Admission Counseling and former vice president of the American School Counselor Association.

Some students find themselves in summer school, either for remedial or enrichment purposes. Middle and high school students who fail a required course during the school year may have to spend anywhere from 20 to 60 hours making up that class in an abbreviated summer school program. There is a cost associated with summer school and the major inconvenience of getting to school, especially in areas with no public transportation and for families where caregivers are working.

On the flip side, families of younger students may have their children take part in a program to enhance their abilities in an effort to improve upon and avoid regression of skills. Such enrichment activities can occur in a traditional school setting but also might be delivered through individual tutoring or even through online opportunities. Regardless of the reason for summer coursework, the bottom line is that the experience should benefit students if taken seriously and the proper effort is given.

Summer is also the time for college-bound students to begin or continue to research their college options and choices after graduation. Summer offers an ideal time to take tours of college campuses, attend information sessions and gather information about prospective colleges as the demand of daily school and other various activities does not exist or is greatly reduced.

Summer also provides time to practice for standardized testing (SAT or ACT), get a start on completing college applications and essays or to volunteer for a community service or internship experience. If rising seniors do not take the opportunity to begin working on their application requirements, they will find themselves having to scramble to fit them in during the fall among classes, homework and other school-based activities such as sports and after-school clubs. For many, if requirements aren’t started during the summer, then the fall is just overwhelming.

Not to be forgotten is that summer also provides time for many teens to work. Although job prospects these days for young people are severely limited, the opportunity to work is critical for youth to learn necessary skills for success later in life.

Aside from the financial benefit, a summer job can teach time management and organizational skills as well as provide an opportunity to demonstrate responsibility and a strong work ethic. This is especially critical for the child getting his first job, say mowing the neighbor’s lawn while they are on vacation or babysitting for a family whose caregivers are at work.

Whatever the task, it is critical for school-age children not to sit idly by and do nothing but watch television, play video games, sleep excessively or hang out with their friends getting into trouble. This is especially challenging in families in which adult caregivers work and the children are old enough to be home alone. Without adult supervision, Johnny or Suzie may have little to no interest in pursuing educational types of activities simply in order to improve their academic skills.

The bottom line is that students must be engaged in meaningful, productive activities during their two-month hiatus from school. And. even though it is tempting to give their children a break, caregivers must take responsibility to ensure a learning and educational focus to some degree during the summer months.

Certainly there must be time for vacation and rest, but little to no academic work is simply not acceptable. Our future success as a world leader of innovation and solving problems is dependent upon having well-educated and trained high school and college graduates. This begins with strong academic skills and a work ethic developed by year-long learning, not just 10 months out of the year.

A behavior contract is a written document that describes a specific behavior or habit you want to change and the reward you will receive if you succeed.

Behavior contracts are great ways to promote independence at home. Parents can use them to help their children complete household activities, finish homework assignments and improve hygiene habits.

By TEKA HARRIS

WEST SPRINGFIELD - A behavior contract, also known as a contingency contract, is an extremely powerful tool that uses positive reinforcement to modify a person’s behavior. It is a written document that describes a specific behavior or habit you want to change and the reward you will receive if you succeed.

Behavior contracts can be used in a variety of settings. They can help typically developing students and those with special needs achieve academic, vocational and athletic goals. In addition, they can help all of us make healthy lifestyle changes such as quitting smoking or losing weight.

Teka J. Harris is the clinical director for the Western Massachusetts division of the May Center for Adult Services. She can be contacted in West Springfield at (413) 734-0300, ext. 261, or by email to tharris@mayinstitute.org

In schools, behavior contracts can be used to enhance academic performance, facilitate a student’s task completion and address problematic behaviors.

Behavior contracts are also great ways to promote independence at home. Parents can use them to help their children complete household activities, finish homework assignments and improve hygiene habits.

Let’s say 12-year-old David, a student with Asperger’s syndrome, is having difficulty getting ready for school in the morning. His parents must constantly remind him to stay “on task.” Still, he is often late for the bus.

A behavior contract might be the perfect way to help David do everything he needs to do in order to make it to the bus on time. Not only would this document provide him with the structure and organization he needs to succeed, it would describe the reward he will earn if he meets all the requirements of the contract.

Behavior contracts are typically divided into three essential sections. The first section describes the “task,” or the job to be done. This description includes the name of the person who will complete the task, the name of the task (such as “preparing for school”), and when the task should be completed. It also includes a detailed description of the behavioral expectation (how well the behavior should be performed in order for the reward to be earned). For example, “David will make his bed, get dressed, and pack his lunch every morning by 6:30 a.m. with no more than one reminder. This must be completed for four out of five days of the school week for the reward to be earned.”

The second section of the contract describes the reward (such as “staying up later”), who will provide the reward, and when it will be earned. It also includes a description of how much of the reward will be earned. For example, “David can stay up an extra hour for two consecutive nights.”

The third section of the contract describes the “task record,” which is where David will record his progress toward earning the reward. The task record might list the days of the week, and include two empty boxes next to each day. One box would be for David to check off after he completes the task(s); the other box would be for his parents to verify that he completed the required tasks and received his reward.

In designing the behavior contract, David and his parents would sit down together and identify a reward that would be highly motivating to David. They would also determine which tasks David would need to complete in order to earn the reward. The contract should include his parents’ expectations, but must also include David’s expectations for what he will earn. David’s input is extremely valuable, as it increases the likelihood that he will commit to completing the tasks, be motivated by the reward, and abide by the rules.

Behavior contracts can be fun and easy to create, and they have many advantages. They not only provide clear expectations for the person doing the work, but also for the person providing the reward.

Well designed behavior contracts provide consistency, structure, and organization, and can be helpful to anyone working toward an important goal. They can be applied to almost any behavior, and they have the added benefit of facilitating and improving communication between the parties involved.

May Institute is a national nonprofit organization that provides educational, rehabilitative, and behavioral health services to individuals with autism spectrum disorders and other developmental disabilities, brain injury, mental illness, and behavioral health needs. The May Center for Adult Services in West Springfield provides day and residential services to adults with developmental disabilities living in Western Massachusetts. For more information, call (800) 778-7601, or visit www.mayinstitute.org

After 60 years Richard S. Thomas, 82, finally graduated from AIC

Staff photo by MARK M. MURRAYIts official, Richard S. Thomas, second from left, holds his bachelor's degree from American International College, following a ceremony at school Wednesday. With him with are Provost Todd G. Fritch, left along with College President Vince M. Maniaci, and Ronald J. Addow, right a member of the A.I.C. Board of Trustees.

After 60 years, a long career in public life as a Hampden County Commissioner and raising a family, Richard S. Thomas, 82, of West Springfield, finally graduated from American International College on Aug. 8 during a special ceremony and luncheon in his honor.

“Even after a lifetime of success he still felt that it was important to go back to school,” said Vince M. Maniaci, president of American International College, before he presented Thomas with his diploma.

Thomas made earning his bachelor of arts degree in liberal arts a priority 12 months ago.

“It was a piece of unfinished business and I wanted to finish it,” said Thomas, who served as commissioner until the state takeover in 1998. “It feels great. I’m very grateful to the college that they would hold this special ceremony.”

Thomas contacted Pamela Robinson, the director of continuing education at AIC, and told her he wanted to return to AIC to earn his degree after an absence of six decades and not making it academically the first time.

“When he contacted me a year ago, I thought he was kidding,” Robinson said. “I thought to myself who is this gentleman.”

Robinson said Thomas had to overcome some obstacles to earn his degree.

“He had a low grade point average the first time around, so he not only needed credits, but also had to improve the G.P.A. to at least a 2.0,” she said.

Robinson, who became Thomas’ advisor, said as a student she “would characterize him as very diligent, eager to learn and humble. With all of the success in his life, this was something that haunted him.”

Thomas took nine classes and “got eight A’s and a pass.”

“I felt I was able to understand the professors better, the book reading was easier. As a young man I didn’t have the focus I have now. As a student I was mediocre,” said Thomas who got his first A upon returning to school.

A 1949 graduate of Cathedral High School, Thomas attended St. Michael’s College in Colchester, Vt., his freshmen year, transferring to AIC in 1952. He got academically dismissed in 1956 with a little more that a semester left.

“I had recently been married and was starting my business. I just wasn’t focused on college,” Thomas said about failing AIC the first time and the following years devoted to building a career in real estate.

“I waited 60 years because I was busy opening a business and felt an obligation to my wife. I wasn’t concentrating on college; I was concentrating on my family and my business.”

Thomas found success as president and owner of Richard S. Thomas Real Estate which, two decades ago, had 13 brokerage offices in Massachusetts and Connecticut with a total of some 100 employees.

Thomas was first elected as county commissioner in 1972, serving until 1980. He was re-elected in 1984, and went on to serve a total of 24 years as a commissioner, making him the longest serving member in the commission’s 186-year history. During this time, the Hampden County Hall of Justice as well as the court houses in Chicopee, Palmer and Holyoke were built and dedicated.

Thomas was also an advisor to the Springfield-born Mike Gravel, who represented Alaska as a Democrat in the U.S. Senate from 1969 to 1981, and who ran for president in 2008.

The diploma ceremony was attended by a number of professors and family members including wife Barbara and children Gayle, Cheryl and Paul Thomas as well as grandchildren Steven Merrill, Meghan Holstein, and Natalie and Alana Thomas and godson Wayne Thomas. His brother Norman attended with wife Jane.

“I thought it was great. Personally I have the same ideals about education, and I think it’s imperative to continue with education after high school,” Gayle Thomas said of her father.

Barbara Thomas, whom her husband said was invaluable in starting his real estate business as well as his recent return to school, also said it was “great” her husband had wanted to return to college and “was able to.”

“He’s always been a hard worker and provided for his family,” Barbara Thomas said.

As a recent graduate, Thomas had advice for students yet to go to college.

“If you don’t have much confidence in yourself, go to college because it will open doors to you,” he said.

“I’m particularly talking to C students because they can do it. They’ll get A’s and B’s if they focus and concentrate.”

What’s next for Thomas?

“I’m going to enjoy my wife who I love very much and my kids, and I’m going to push my grandkids to go to AIC,” said Thomas whose family also included another son, Richard Thomas Jr., who died in 1996.

By DARCY FITZGERALD DURFEE Two summers ago, I created a small paradise. After 20 years of bemoaning my shady back yard as unsuitable for growing any produce, I built a vegetable garden in my front yard. A small, suburban front yard, lined up precisely with the next front yard, zoned for a homogenous façade straight down the street. And...

Photo by DARCY FITZGERALD DURFEEA variety of vegetables are nestled into the front yard garden of Darcy Fitzgerald Durfee.

Two summers ago, I created a small paradise. After 20 years of bemoaning my shady back yard as unsuitable for growing any produce, I built a vegetable garden in my front yard.

A small, suburban front yard, lined up precisely with the next front yard, zoned for a homogenous façade straight down the street. And wondrously, this garden grew into so much more than vegetables.

The inspiration for the front garden came to me in many ways over many years – little urgings and desires which gradually piled up into such a heap that I finally had to do something about them.

I’d been stuffing vegetable plants into crevices in my perennial garden in the back yard, with limited shady success and unlimited complaining.

My persuasive stop-the-grass daughter, studying sustainable environmental systems in grad school, kept raising her eyebrows at me and gesturing to the full sun in the front yard.

SubmittedDarcy Fitzgerald Durfee has planted a world of good food in her front yard garden.

Portland is the most progressively green, and literally green, place I’ve ever visited. Beautiful public green spaces are built into the city everywhere.

There are parks seemingly every few blocks. It was there, walking through thickly populated neighborhoods, that I started seeing the gems.

Fruit and vegetable plants tucked into the landscaping, or rather being the landscaping, in front yards everywhere.

Produce plants gushing right up to the sidewalks, treebelts loaded with berry bushes and fruit trees. What a revelation!

These were not “Farmer Joe’s” scrawly fenced-in vegetable gardens, looking like misplaced clotheslines in the front yard.

The plants chosen were beautiful additions to the flower gardens and landscaped borders, artfully arranged, meticulously maintained.

The residents definitely knew how to have their cake and eat it, too.

Beyond the attractiveness, the edible plants spoke volumes about the values and moral character of the neighborhood – plenty of fruits were there for the taking, but they weren’t taken. The respect others gave to this culture of food-raising really impressed me.

Several months after returning from that Portland trip, in the fall, I carved out a 75-square-foot semi-circle in my front yard.

I did this while my husband, a lawn-lover, was away on a business trip. When he returned, and when he noticed the garden space (not the same day), the deed was done.

I filled the semi-circle with grass clippings and leaves throughout the fall, day-dreamed about the garden all winter, and in the spring, I planted it.

Photo by DARCY FITZGERALD DURFEE

It was pretty ridiculous looking in the beginning – nearly invisible baby sprigs in a raised sea of brown soil.

I knew neighbors were questioning my intention and sanity. I was questioning my intention and sanity, and how I would save face now that I had gone so public with my ambition.

The garden flourished into the most exciting, productive, success I could have ever imagined. All the while, it stayed beautifully camouflaged by the flowers I had craftily inserted into the design.

Throughout the summer, people walking by constantly stopped to say how much they were enjoying looking at my garden, and were completely surprised to be told it was a vegetable garden.

I’d hand them an eggplant, and tell them to go home and plant something to eat. I was so happy with this garden, I wanted everyone to have one.

Submitted photo by DARCY FITGERALD DURFEEPeppers growing in the front yard garden of Darcy Durfee Fitzgerald.

Everything about it felt so right. The step-in-and-decompress therapy of any type of garden is intoxicating, but to be able to collect food this way is powerfully rewarding.

For the front yard vegetable garden, I try to concentrate on vegetable plants that are attractive throughout the growing season. My No. 1 beauty is kale — frilly green or purple, or long-bladed dinosaur kale.

Kale can be planted early and stays beautiful right through fall. The first year, I planted kale for its eye-appeal, but then we started eating it. Now we are addicted to a lemony-garlic raw kale salad that we can’t ever get enough of.

Other handsome mainstays are broccoli – have to have that dusky blue-green in any garden – peppers and eggplant. The eggplants dangling off the plants are like jewelry in the garden and I place them near the front.

Glossy pepper plants are attractive on their own, but their colorful fruits really contribute. I plant many varieties, but always include chartreuse-green Cubanelle peppers and small upright red Thai peppers, which look like little firecracker bursts in late summer.

I like to border the garden with lettuces of different colors, though it does cause me some angst when I have to start harvesting some!

Photo by DARCY FITZGERALD DURFEEAn eggplant grows in the front yard garden of Darcy Fitzgerald Durfee.

The good thing about lettuce is, you can sow seeds again in mid-summer and have the same display and plentiful salads for fall. Nasturtiums or marigolds around the border are other pleasing options.

The last stand-by in the garden is a green-bean tree .¤.¤. pole beans which climb up strings in a tent shape.

t’s a late-season crop, kids like to pick them, and it’s just fun! Besides, every garden needs an upright element.

Other vegetables take their turns, but kale, broccoli, eggplant, peppers and the pole beans are the backbone every year. This year, I have a surprise cabbage, which has been quite fun to watch.

Luckily, it ended up in front so it shows, since it’s a low plant. It must have been included in a set of broccoli seedlings and escaped my notice.

Less-attractive vegetable plants have to go struggle in the shaded back yard, though I usually sneak a tomato or two into the front. The new bright-colored tomato cages are a great invention!

Flowers are a critical part of the garden, but not only for the eye-appeal. They call the bees, and you want the bees. Again, I choose perennials that remain attractive spring to fall.

Photo by DARCY FITZGERALD DURFEENeighborhood children enjoy the front yard garden.

Two tremendous work horses in this department are Salvia May Night and anise hyssop. Salvia explodes in May and the bees can’t get enough of it. Continuous dead-heading keeps it full of dark purple flower spikes into July.

In July, the hyssop takes over and keeps the garden literally humming all the way through August. I’ve never been stung, even though I have to push the hyssop around to get by – the bees are way too content to be bothered.

Sedum helps out in mid-August and September, though there’s not too much pollinating left to do by then.

I use a few other perennials and add annuals for full-season color. I will likely always put a batch of pink cosmos on the sidewalk side because I like how they billow around in the breeze.

We have well-supervised dogs in my neighborhood, but it’s good to keep in mind what you plant within their reach.

The desire and ability to grow our own food is lurking there in our genetic code, and we would feel its timeless pull if we could just get out of the grocery store.

Photo by DARCY FITZGERALD DURFEE

We are lucky to have a very friendly and cohesive street tied together with sidewalks and monthly get-togethers.

Since the garden came nearly to the sidewalk, it was fun to tend the plants and chat with neighbors as they walked by with their children or dogs, and it was also an easy way meet new people.

I invited the young children into the garden (of course there were paths – I’m a firm believer that one must be able to enter a garden, not just visit it from its edges), and enjoyed seeing their natural delight at the “baby” foods.

The children especially loved picking the green beans from the towering green bean tree, and seeing the leaves stick to their T-shirts like Velcro.

The older kids asked questions and some took little transplants home to their own yards. A few people began stopping by for advice and suggestions.

The garden changed so much about our thinking, eating and lifestyle. This surprised me because I’m already a long-time vegetarian, have planted vegetables one way or another for decades, and count Michael Pollan as one of my favorite authors. So I did not expect the astounding gratification this garden brought.

There was something magical about the beauty and serenity of it, the wholesomeness of chemical-free food grown right at home, sharing the garden with my neighbors and seeing their interest grow, and the simplicity and immense satisfaction of walking out the front door nearly every evening to pick dinner.

And of course, watching the conversion of my husband, who began to surpass even me in vegetable consumption, schemed to beat me out the door to “get” the harvest first, and proclaimed we should make the garden larger the next year.

Darcy Fitzgerald Durfee and her husband, Rob, are long-time residents of Longmeadow, where they raised four children, all of whom have their own vegetable gardens where they live.

The YMCA of Greater Springfield CEO says, "Answer the call to the cause. ... Encourage our youth to play, talk, develop their interests and build meaningful relationships. Their educations are depending on us!"

Kirk Smith is president and CEO of the YMCA of Greater Springfield.

By KIRK SMITH

SPRINGFIELD - As someone who has worked closely with educators for most of my career, I have encountered many wonderful women and men who have answered a calling to work with children and young adults and provide opportunities for our youth to succeed in school and beyond.

Whether we’re talking about pre-school, elementary school, middle school, high school or college, it takes a very special person to be a teacher and to take on the many responsibilities that come with a job in this field. I have the utmost respect for people who choose this career path.

In reflecting back on my own school years, I realize that my successes and failures - both inside and outside the classroom - came more from my ability to learn than my ability to be taught. The most influential teachers I had recognized the difference between these two often-interchanged, but very different, words.

I also firmly believe that the best teachers are those men and women who appreciate that our youth have as much to teach as they have to learn.

We’ve all heard the adage that “learning starts at home.” Children are the products of what they see and hear in their daily routines from day one. Language, cultural habits, familial rituals - these are all part of what we learn at home.

My love of basketball was not taught. My love for my family was not taught. My love for fish and chips was not taught. These are all things that I learned about myself through my own experiences.

Similarly, my competitive spirit was learned in this way, and enabled me to want to be taught. I never wanted to be outdone by my peers in the classroom or on the basketball court.

As we continue to work toward closing the education gap that plagues our region, it is more important than ever before that we avoid separating social interaction from academic performance when we talk about the best methods for teaching our youth. We mustn’t minimize the impact that healthy competition, be it through athletics, academics, fine arts or otherwise, has on our kids’ ability to be taught and to learn.

Accountability to our peers goes a long way in our motivation to do more and be better.

Answer the call to the cause. Help us find ways to inspire our youth to take what they have learned and use that as a tool to be taught. Encourage our youth to play, talk, develop their interests and build meaningful relationships. Their educations are depending on us!

The YMCA of Greater Springfield was founded in 1852 and is the second oldest YMCA in the United States. The YMCA of Greater Springfield serves 105,000 people annually in 14 cities and towns throughout the region.

For more information on YMCA programs or how you can get involved, call 739-6951 (Downtown Springfield Y Family Center), 596-2749 (Scantic Valley Y Family Center), or 788-6143 (Dunbar Y Family & Community Center) or visit www.springfieldy.org

Alyssa Werbicki gets four-year, full-tuition scholarship as one of the nominees in The Republican's Student of Character series.

Staff photo by MARK M. MURRAYAlyssa D. Werbicki, the recipient of American International College'€™s Student-of-Character four-year, full-tuition scholarship through The Republican's Newspaper in Education program, was formally awarded the scholarship by Vincent A. Maniaci, college president, at a college reception Aug. 24.

Someday, Chicopee Comprehensive graduate Alyssa D. Werbicki wants to run a day care for children of all abilities and she gets a bit closer to that dream this fall as the student at American International College awarded the college’s Student-of-Character four-year, full-tuition scholarship.

“It feels pretty amazing knowing that I don’t have to worry about college financially,” said Werbicki, 18, who plans to be a commuter student, at an Aug. 24 college reception in her honor.

Mom Beverly Werbicki added, “We’re just overwhelmed; they picked her out of so many amazing kids. She’s grown into such an amazing woman. She’s the first of my immediate family to go to college.”

Werbicki won the scholarship by first being nominated as a Student of Character by Chicopee Comprehensive counselor Donna Hall Adams.

The program is part of The Republican’s Newspaper in Education program in which the paper and MassLive.com partnered, in the 2011-2012 academic year, with abc/40 WGGB-TV. The Republican invites area schools to nominate students on the basis of their qualities of character and community service. Nominees, who apply and are accepted by AIC and enroll as full-time students, are eligible for a full-tuition scholarship that is renewable for four years.

In her nomination to The Republican, Adams wrote: “Alyssa has certainly had an impact on our school. She stands out as an outstanding role model and a student of strong character and values. She has been a library aide, peer mentor and a peer mediator. In these roles she has gone out of her way to make sure everyone feels good about themselves and that everyone is included. That is a special talent and one that is appreciated in our high school.”

Hall also noted: “Alyssa has been a member of our varsity soccer team for the past four years. During her junior year she scored 17 goals and was named Most Valuable Player of Western Massachusetts. The team won the Western Massachusetts Championship and they were the MIAA Tournament sectional champions. During her senior year, Alyssa was the captain of the soccer team. Her coach, Noel Carvalho, describes her as a ‘coach’s dream’ and said that she was a role model on the field and that ‘she always set an example for the team.’”

Werbicki said AIC was the only college to which she applied because it was where she wanted to attend. She plans on majoring in psychology with a focus on young people.

“I want to plan it around children,” she said of her career, adding that she wants to open a daycare center for all kids “so that they can learn from each other.”

Werbicki hopes that this integrated daycare center will help special needs children better acclimated to their surroundings by learning from children who don’t have as many problems adjusting.

“I just don’t want them to feel different,” Werbicki said.

In her Student-of-Character application to The Republican, Werbicki had written in response to the question of how she makes a difference: “I am a very caring and outgoing person who is easy to get along with. I like to help people when they are going through rough times. Recently, I signed up to be a peer mentor with the special needs students. I love working with them. It comes with the personal experience of living with my brother David.”

Werbicki’s brothers Mason, 17, and David Jr., 22, attended as did her aunt Debra Dextraze and her parents.

“We’re ecstatic,” said David Werbicki Sr. of his daughter’s win. “She’s a good kid; she’s always worked hard and made friends easily.”

AIC’s women’s soccer team, the Yellow Jackets, were also on hand to formally welcome Werbicki.

Besides her high school team, Werbicki was also a player for the New England Munity Soccer team.

In his remarks, Vince M. Maniaci, president of the college, said “We are proud to join with the Republican and abc/40 to honor area Students of Character. It is only fitting that American International College reward these future leaders, as the college was founded on these same principles some 125 years ago.”

Studies have shown that the LGBT people have a higher likelihood of avoiding or postponing seeking medical care due to fears of discrimination or from a past experience of discrimination.

Republican fileMark R. Tolosky, president and chief executive of Baystate Medical Center.

For the second year in a row, Baystate Health has been identified as a leader in health care equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people by a human rights group that rates health systems nationwide on their inclusive policies and treatment of that population.

Baystate and its 10,000 employees at four hospitals, health centers, medical practices, home care and hospice services achieved a perfect rating in providing unbiased care for the LGBT community in Western Massachusetts and for its inclusive hiring practices, according to the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, the educational arm of the largest LGBT organization in the United States.

The HRC Healthcare Equality Index annually provides an online survey that allows health care facilities to evaluate themselves against criteria it established for LGBT patient-centered care. Facilities submit their results – with documentation – to the HRC to receive a rating, which is published in a yearly report.

The survey helps health systems identify and fix and gaps in care or hiring practices for the LGBT community and encourages participants to make public the results.

Kimberly Williams, Baystate’s interim diversity director, said the reason Baystate began participating in the survey three years ago was to give them a benchmark against other health care organizations with regard to LGBT policies and care of patients, and to help advance the work they were doing internally.

“Our focus is on providing opportunities to increase representation in our current work force so our employee base is representative of the communities we serve,” Williams said. “And to help support the delivery of culturally competent health care.”

Generally, all new Baystate employees must undergo a 30-minute orientation on inclusiveness, plus an hour-long online diversity and inclusiveness training session. Baystate also offers training on the issues related to LGBT in the workplace and on LGBT patients seeking health care.

One example is that Baystate recently offered transgender education to the employees responsible for collecting information from patients who call to make an appointment or when they show up for an appointment, Williams said. That training can be as simple as using the correct pronoun for a transgender patient and includes instructions to employees about how to act properly if they are unsure of the gender.

“Don’t use your own lens, use the person’s lens,” Williams said.

Tom Sullivan, deputy director of the HRC Family Project, said studies have shown that the LGBT people have a higher likelihood of avoiding or postponing seeking medical care due to fears of discrimination or from a past experience of discrimination.

The HEI results for Baystate and other health care organizations will send a message to the LGBT community that these are safe and welcoming places to receive care, Sullivan said.

“People should seek health care when they need it and not fear discrimination,” he said.

Through HEI, 14 of Baystate’s top-level managers, including Mark R. Tolosky, president and chief executive officer, participated in a webinar “to review current policies and practices to enhance LGBT patient-centered care and ensure compliance with legal and other requirements,” according to HRC.

“This is a significant demonstration of our commitment,” Williams said.

Since last year’s results, there has been a 40 percent increase in rated facilities, with a 162 percent increase in the number of organizations that achieved a perfect rating by meeting four core areas: patient non-discrimination policies, visitation policies, employment non-discrimination policies and training on LGBT patient-centered care.

Reception will be held Sept. 9 at gallery in Classical High Condominiums.

Photo by JEAN GERMAINGuitar great Bucky Pizzarelli, left, and son John, were captured in this photo by Jean Germain at the Jazz Club of Sarasota.

Springfield’s Art for the Soul Gallery will host an exhibition by Jean Germain, noted for her photography of many of the country’s jazz greats, through Sept. 30. Nearly 50 images area on display from her tenure spent as the photographer for the Jazz Club of Sarasota.

In 1980, Germain retired from teaching Montessori school and moved to Sarasota, Florida. There she met Hal Davis, the long-time publicist and manager for Benny Goodman, who was looking to start a jazz club.

“I was retired and didn’t know what to do with my life. My husband told him I loved photography and when he asked if I would take pictures, I said I didn’t know the difference between an f stop and a truck stop,” Germain said in a phone interview.

Davis encouraged Germain and she attended a few workshops and bought two Nikons with a cluster of accessories. After setting up for her first show at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Center, she was promptly told by Davis to ditch the lighting and tripod and head up to row six.

“He said to use the stage lighting and take pictures there so I wouldn’t bother anybody. That’s why the book is called ‘Jazz from Row Six’ because it’s where I was every time,” said Germain.

From her seat, Germain photographed jazz greats like Benny Waters, Milt Hinton, Gerry Mulligan, Clark Terry, Tito Puente, Diana Krall and Bucky Pizzarelli.

She took one of the last performance pictures of Eartha Kitt before the singer passed away in 2008 and was the only photographer invited to rehearsals when Bobby Rosengarden reunited Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show band.

“The most important part of my being a photographer, the thrill of my life and will be forever, is meeting these jazz legends, most in their 70s, 80s and some in their 90s, who came down every single year from 1980 and continued to come down,” she said.

Jean Germain

The Jazz Club of Sarasota’s jazz festival continues today because of the commitment inspired by the late Davis when he formed the club to keep the America’s original art form alive.

Germain’s photographs reflect her effort.

“I’d shoot a roll for each performance because if I didn’t get the shot, I’d be out of a job and really be retired,” she said.

Germain used high speed film to catch her quick-moving subjects in low light. It added a grit and grain, further stylized by the occasional Cokin filter. She snapped with rich KodaChrome color but ultimately discovered a love for black and white pictures. To this day, she still only shoots film.

The daughter of a women’s coat and suit manufacturer, Germain grew up in New York City. Her father encouraged her to take an art class in college.

“I used to just draw. I loved to draw. I have this eye of seeing things and it started with my father recognizing that,” said Germain. “I went to NYU to take a course and at the end the professor said I shouldn’t take another. From that day on, I never picked up a charcoal pencil or anything but I was always interested in art.”

When her children were young, she would bring them to New York’s Museum for Modern Art for programs then walk around the exhibition halls. She was fascinated by Impressionism. She keeps a meticulously organized archive, which proved visionary when a publisher approached her to put a book together called “Jazz from Row Six: Photographs 1981 -2007.”

“I have a period of 20 years where I followed these musicians and have boxes with thousands of negative and photographs. They came back each year and I’m probably the only one to have such a collection,” she said about her meticulously organized archive.

The coffee table book features hundreds of images and stories from Germain’s career as a photographer. Dick Hyman, Sarasota Jazz Club supporter and film composer for Woody Allen, wrote the forward to the book. Trumpeteer Joe Wilder snapped the casual artist photo of Germain from the time when she shared a photography show with Milt Hinton in New York.

“The book is not about me,” she said. “The book is really about these wonderful musicians who came and they played their hearts out and they responded to the audience, they’d clown around with each other and I was just very happy to be there for it all and watch some of the mentored musicians grow up into today’s top people.”

A reception for the jazz photography exhibition will be held on Sept. 9 from 3 to 6 p.m. Springfield’s High School of Science and Technology Jazz Band will perform under the direction of director Gary Bernice. She will donate $5 from the sale of copies of her book to the school’s music program.

“All these experiences coming together in my mother’s life, her background in New York City and music and jazz and art, it echoes with her so deeply,” said Wendy Germain, her daughter and publicist.

“Mom will engage people about the idea that jazz is an important history to be keep going and, having been a school teacher, it resonates with her so deeply that students have an opportunity to be mentored. She loves young people and loves the energy.”

The exhibit at Art for the Soul Gallery, located in Classical High Condominiums, at 235 State St., is supported in part by the Springfield Cultural Council, the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Governor’s Initiative to create arts in downtown spaces. For more information, call Tracy Woods at (413) 231-4598 or (413) 788-3903.

Related: www.jeangermainphotography.com/

The event raises money for scholarships in memory of 6th-grader who dreamed of going to college.

Republican file photoFrom left, Patricia L. Caliento, Emily Y. Kocot and Sherika T. Anderson, all of Springfield, were among the participants in the first anti-bullying 5K Road Race and 2K walk, held in memory of Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, at Forest Park on Sept. 19, 2010. This year's race in memory of the Springfield sixth-grader, who committed suicide in 2009 after repeating bullying, is scheduled for Sept. 15. The Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover Foundation uses the money raised for scholarships for area high school students. The 2011 event raised more than $11,000.

The third annual Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover Foundation Back-to-School Anti-Bullying 5K Road Race/2K Walk takes place on Sept. 15 at Forest Park, and organizers are promising a lively fund-raiser in the name of bully prevention.

“This year we will mix things up a little with entertainment from California recording artist Ty Lyricz, local guitarist Eva Snyder of The MacDuffie School and Zumba with staff from Best Fitness,” said Gwynnetta Sneed, president of the foundation she started in memory of the Springfield sixth-grader who hanged himself in 2009 after repeated school bullying.

People from as far away as Houston, Texas, are signed up to work side-by-side for the day with volunteers from the Enfield, West Springfield and Springfield Kohl’s stores, the Springfield Police Department and the Fraternal Order of Eagles No. 148, Springfield auxiliary.

Since the foundation began in 2010 with the blessing of Sirdeaner Walker, Carl’s mother, it has awarded $23,000 in scholarship monies to 26 high school graduating seniors from around New England. It hopes to raise $15,000 at this year’s walk-run.

“As we continue our efforts to combat bullying, we give Carl a voice even in his silence,” Sneed said.

Carl’s oldest sister, Dominique Walker, feels people empower themselves by participating in the event.

“I absolutely love that there is positive energy coming from a foundation and scholarship set up in Carl’s name,” she said. “ I’m incredibly touched and humbled to have so many people support my family, and the sole purpose behind the foundation — bullying prevention — is wonderful.”

A sophomore and political science major at Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, N.C., Walker has been greatly influence by her mother.

Since her son’s death, Sirdeaner Walker, a breast cancer survivor who heads a transitional housing program for families work as director of homeless programs for the Massachusetts Career Development Institute, has been a tireless advocate for laws that recognize bullying as a crime that needs to be reported, addressed and ultimately prevented.

“My mom is definitely my rock, my backbone. Role model isn’t the word, she’s my inspiration,” Dominique Walker said. “Whenever I feel like I can’t do something, I think of everything that she’s gone through and know that if she can do it, I can do it, too.”

She added she would not be where she is in life “without her guidance and without her.”

“I want to go to law school like she did and eventually get my JD,” Dominique Walker said.

A graduate of Suffolk University Law School, Sirdeaner Walker has appeared on national media in support of anti-bullying legislation, spoken before countless school groups of all ages and was instrumental in the passage of anti-bully legislation in Massachusetts in 2010.

Republican photo by DON TREEGERGloria Walker-Hoover, of Springfield, shows off the T-shirt for the Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, founded in memory of her brother.

She had a brief private meeting at the White House with President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama during the president’s all-day conference on bullying prevention on March 10, 2011.

When the now canceled ABC television show, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” built the family a new home last year, the event was as much about empowering the public to stand against bullies as it was about the family no longer having to grieve in the home where Carl died. A website was established where individuals can “stand together” against bullying at standtogether.tv.

Sirdeaner Walker is also on the national board of directors of GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network, and collaborates with the Safe Schools Coalition, an international public-private partnership in support of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth.

What happened to her brother, her mother’s advocacy and her own discussions have helped influence Dominique Walker’s desire to do related public advocacy work.

“I wasn’t bullied in school but I definitely take with me the conversations that I’ve had with people who were. I carry their stories with me as I pursue becoming an advocate for change,” she said. “I think my mother and our journey together, to GLSEN awards and seeing her speak about our story, definitely proves that we have so much in store for our future.”

Sirdeaner Walker believes that professional development and training, a large component of the proposed federal anti-bully legislation known as Safe Schools Improvement Act, needs to be an ongoing process so students will reach out to teachers and administration when bullying occurs.

The act, introduced into the US House of Representatives in 2009 to amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, calls on schools and districts that receive federal funds to enact measures to prohibit bullying or harassment on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability, sexual orientation and perceived or actual gender identity.

“You always go in thinking there will be some headway made so we’re always hopeful that we will get the support that we need to make that into a federal law,” said Sirdeaner Walker of her advocacy for an updated law.

She hopes that this year more parents, teachers, administrators and leaders in the community will work together to build stronger school communities. She has two younger children, Gloria and Charles.

“The main point of the run walk is to really get people to come out and bring them together,” said Sirdeaner Walker . “It’s a lighthearted time but it has a serious mission and meaning and it’s really a great day. We raise money for the scholarships that the foundation gives out so it has a wonderful purpose as well. I’m really looking forward to it.”

This year, Carl Walker-Hoover would have been 15 years-old and a sophomore in high school. Foundation members will wear T- shirts that say Morehouse College, the all-male, historically black institution in the United States that Carl was interested in, on the front with Carl’s name and with the number 15 on the back.

“I probably would have been thinking about colleges for him,” Sirdeaner Walker said. “The foundation’s scholarship helps other students who have the same dream that Carl did.”

The scholarship, made out to students in their names, helps to provide relief for students to get whatever they need, be it a laptop, books or things for their dorm room, so they can be successful at college.

For the first time, the foundation, with money given by The Republican's Newspaper in Education program, will award a scholarship of $1,500 at its 2013 spring gala in memory of both Carl and Phoebe Prince.

Prince, 15, who had enrolled as a freshman at South Hadley High after moving here from Ireland with her mother and sister, committed suicide in 2010 following intensive bullying from other students.

Sirdeaner Walker hopes students will empower themselves and see there are times they can “ stand up and make a difference.” “This is what we want in our schools. If we have it, people will hold each other accountable for their actions. We will have pride, community and school spirit and everyone will well, “ she said. “We forget in everything that we do, it’s very simple, just to be nice.”

Want to become more engaged this year in your child’s school?

Republican photo by MARK M. MURRAYSirdeaner Walker sits in the memorial garden to her son, Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, at her Springfield home.

Parent and anti-bullying advocate Sirdeaner Walker recommends five key ways to get involved and make a difference this upcoming year:

Patrick Rowan writes that Neil Armstrong, who died on Aug. 25 at age 82, "never let the whole moon thing get to his head. Not in the beginning, and not to his dying day. The man was extraordinary. And that feels good to say."

NASANeil Armstrong is shown on July 20, 1969, the day he and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin landed on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission.

By PATRICK ROWAN

On Aug. 25, I emailed a remarkable picture of the flank of Mount Sharp on Mars taken by the Curiosity rover (see below) to a friend. Later that day came the news of Neil Armstrong’s passing. In an instant, images branded into my consciousness more than four decades ago flashed through my mind.

The end of an era, I thought. Life goes on, but Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon. On The Moon! Ever! How could it get any bigger? And I saw it.

I never knew him, but knew that I shared this world with the first man to walk on another. Now he’s gone, and it doesn’t feel the same. The other day, my wife Clara and I looked to the Sea of Tranquility (where Apollo 11 set down 43 years ago) before realizing we were treating the moon as a memorial. That was new.

Like so many, I could have picked him out in any crowd, anytime. I never got the chance, but I was among the 600 million people -- a sixth of the world’s population -- they say watched the moon landing on television. What a privilege. Most of the seven billion people currently on our planet were born too late for that.

NASANeil Armstrong is shown outside the lunar lander in a photo taken by Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin on July 20, 1969.

When the crew of Apollo 11 got back to Earth, they were honored with ticker tape parades, greeted by royalty, and welcomed by countries around the world. Not mere celebrities, they were icons, reaching the deepest recesses of our society.

In Carl Sagan’s 1994 book, "Pale Blue Dot," he writes of an isolated stone age culture in the New Guinea highlands “ignorant of wristwatches, soft drinks, and frozen food. But they knew about Apollo 11. They knew that humans had walked on the Moon. They knew the names of Armstrong and Aldrin and Collins.” This event belonged to everybody.

At press conferences after Apollo 11, Armstrong always seemed seated in the middle, flanked by his crewmates. The spotlight shone on him. They were in supporting roles. To his credit, Armstrong disapproved.

Sure, he matter-of-factly radioed to Earth “Houston, uh… Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” Everybody knows that. He touched to moon first too. But he downplayed his piloting role in steering the lander away from boulders that might have doomed the mission, setting it down in a safer location with 20 seconds of fuel left.

He’d done this kind of thing before, practicing many, many scenarios -- in both simulators and real aircraft back on Earth. Some contraptions were impossible to control, but he was a test pilot. His job was to tame the unruly creations of engineers. An incredibly experienced and brave guy, he cheated death many times on his journey into the history books.

NASANeil Armstrong takes his "one small step" onto the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969.

Finally standing on the lunar dust, Armstrong uttered the words so famous that I almost feel silly repeating them here: “That’s one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind.” These word came to him from “a simple correlation of thoughts.” To him, it was the obvious thing to say since he literally took a small step that carried immense importance for the rest of us.

This was true to his personality. The soft-spoken commander of the Eagle was a reserved, even humble man who didn’t want credit for anything without first acknowledging his crewmates, all the astronauts who flew before them, and the thousands of people who worked so diligently to make it all possible.

As the initial ruckus after the Apollo 11 success subsided, Armstrong seemed to withdraw from the public eye. There was a perception that he was not fulfilling his obligations as First Man On The Moon… that he had become a reclusive eccentric. And somewhere along the line I picked up the notion that -- accomplished and courageous as he was -- he was also kind of boring.

It was a vague impression I just took as a given… one I admit to discarding only after his death. Viewing clips from early press conferences, interviews, and later public appearances, I saw a friendly man concerned with setting the record straight without losing perspective. He really didn’t see himself as anyone special.

Although he never considered himself a good public speaker, the depth of his emotions engaged me. His gratitude was on full display. Enamored of his sincerity, I marveled at his thoughtful responses careful precision. In short, this old fan came back for new reasons.

Again, I looked at the image from Curiosity and puzzled over how to reconcile those ancient ghostly black and white live television images of Armstrong’s first steps on the lunar surface with the crisp new color views of Mars. Were they in any way comparable? Was it even fair to ask the question? Maybe the contrasting images illustrate how far we’ve come… or how far we have not?

The year after Armstrong walked on the moon, the Apollo program was four-for-four with its moon shots: two missions had orbited the moon, and two more made successful landings. All 12 astronauts (three per mission) safely returned to Earth. The near disaster of Apollo 13 was yet to come.

It was against this backdrop that a television interviewer asked him if he thought we could build bases on the moon, or perhaps even Mars: “Oh, I’m quite certain that we’ll have such bases there in our lifetime” answered Armstrong, “somewhat like the Antarctic stations and similar outposts.”

It was not to be. The space race was over, and we grew complacent. In recent years, the normally soft-spoken Armstrong grew more vocal about the lack of any serious plan to get us back to the moon and beyond. He lamented the lack of political will for a bold new adventure that would inspire and motivate new generations, believing that our increasingly restless culture would again rally around such a grand vision.

Could he be right? Many sense a new stirring in our now half a century old space age. Events don’t always follow the originally envisioned script. Could awareness of our cosmic surroundings gained through telescopes and space probes be nearing a threshold where civilization must confront the stifling effects of our planetary confinement?

The capabilities of robotic craft were less evident during Apollo than now. But instead of writing off human space exploration as some have suggested, such craft as the Martian rovers may actually be fueling the urge to get going. It’s too soon to tell, but Curiosity could be a game changer in that regard if it survives for the next few years.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSSThis color image from NASA's Curiosity rover shows the base of Mount Sharp, the rover's eventual science destination. Scientists enhanced the color in one version to show the Martian scene under the lighting conditions we have on Earth, which helps in analyzing the terrain. The pointy mound in the center of the image is about 1,000 feet across and 300 feet high.

And lest we forget, as Curiosity gears up inside Gale Crater to head off for Mount Sharp (officially named Aeolis Mons), the Opportunity rover continues functioning on the rim of Endeavour Crater. (Oppy was left alone two years ago when its twin, the rover Spirit succumbed to the Martian winter while bogged down in a sand trap.) So we’ve got two seeing-eye rovers there again!

Opportunity, by the way, has now been working on the surface of Mars for 8-1/2 years -- just shy of the nine years it took us to get to the moon after President John F. Kennedy challenged the nation to do so. And now we have Curiosity on the ground. Curious indeed.

Three years ago, as Armstrong accepted the Congressional Gold Medal (also awarded to Aldrin and Collins), he recalled how Collins calmed him and Buzz, telling them to “take it easy. Everything is fine. All this stuff is easy. Don’t worry!” And they didn’t, Armstrong said, because “most of the work had already been done” by those before them.

Associated PressNeil Armstrong attends a graveside service for Wilbur Wright on the 100th anniversary of Wright's burial in Dayton, Ohio, on June 1. Armstrong died on Aug. 25 at age 82.

Armstrong added that he and his crew were merely “the final leg of a relay race… Every one of those previous relay participants deserves it (the Medal) as well - or more - than the three of us.”

But despite his protestations to the contrary, he was not thrust into that place by happenstance. His lifetime of commitment, hard work, and even temperament got him there. It is now more difficult to imagine a man more suited to his role in history.

Armstrong never let the whole moon thing get to his head. Not in the beginning, and not to his dying day. The man was extraordinary. And that feels good to say.

You’ll find tonight’s waning gibbous moon coming up in the east late, and reaching its highest in the south near dawn tomorrow morning. Jupiter is east of the moon. Venus appears low in the east before dawn.

Follow ever-changing celestial highlights in the Skywatch section of the Weather Almanac in the Daily Republican and Sunday Republican.

Patrick Rowan has written Skywatch for The Republican since 1987 and has been a Weather Almanac contributor since the mid 1990s. A native of Long Island, Rowan graduated from Northampton High School, studied astronomy at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in the '70s and was a research assistant for the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory. From 1981 to 1994, Rowan worked at the Springfield Science Museum's Seymour Planetarium, most of that time as planetarium manager. Rowan lives in the Florence section of Northampton with his wife, Clara, and cat, Luna.

The anti-bullying 5K Road Race and 2K walk, held in memory of Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, steps off at 9 a.m. in Springfield's Forest Park.

2011 Republican file photoLast year's anti-bullying 5K Road Race and 2K Walk, held in memory of Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, drew lots of participants to Forest Park. This year's race, in memory of the Springfield sixth-grader, who committed suicide in 2009, after repeating bullying, is scheduled for Sept. 15. The Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover Foundation uses the money raised for scholarships for area high school students. The 2011 event raised more than $11,000.

By BETH J. HARPAZ
Associated Press

Teaching kids to become “bullyproof” is all the rage. Books, videos and websites promise to show parents how to protect their kids from being bullied; school districts are buying curricula with names like “Bully-Proofing Your School,” a well-regarded program used in thousands of classrooms. Even martial arts programs are getting into the act: “Bullyproofing the world, one child at a time,” is the motto for a jujitsu program called Gracie Bullyproof.

But can you really make a child invulnerable to getting picked on? And even if you could, should the burden really be on potential victims to learn these skills, rather than on punishing or reforming the bullies?

Parents and educators say when bullyproofing programs are done right, kids can be taught the social and emotional skills they need to avoid becoming victims. But bullyproofing is not just about getting bullies to move on to a different target. It’s also about creating a culture of kindness, beginning in preschool, and encouraging kids to develop strong friendships that can prevent the social isolation sometimes caused by extreme bullying.

Bullies “sniff out kids who lack connections or who are isolated because of depression, mental health issues, disabilities or differences in size and shape,” said Malcolm Smith, a family education and policy specialist at the University of New Hampshire who has been researching peer victimization for more than 30 years.

“So if you’re worried about your child being a victim, the best thing a parent can do from a very young age, starting in preschool, is ask, ‘Who’s got your back? When you’re on the bus, when you’re in the hall, who’s got your back?’ If they can’t name someone, you should help them establish connections to their peers.”

Smith, who is working on a program called “Courage to Care” that’s being tested in three rural New Hampshire schools, cited an example of a new boy who was being pushed and shoved by other boys in the hallway. “We didn’t know how to empower him,” Smith said, until the staff noticed that he’d become friends with a girl.

“This girl is sweet but really assertive. What are seventh grade boys more afraid of than anything? Girls! So having her walk down the hall with this boy was the immediate solution to ending the bullying.”

Psychologist Joel Haber, a consultant on the recent documentary “Bully,” says kids should also have “backup friends” outside school through sports, hobbies, summer camp or religious groups. “That’s hugely important, especially as kids move from elementary to middle school.”

Haber says “most kids can learn skills to make themselves less likely to have the big reactions” that feed bullies.

“Let’s say you’re one of those kids who, when I make fun of your clothes, you get really angry and dramatic. If I taught you in a role-play situation as a parent or a therapist to react differently, even if you felt upset inside, you would get a totally different reaction from the bully. And if you saw that kids wouldn’t tease you, your confidence would go up,” Haber said.

One way parents can help is to normalize conversations about school social life so that kids are comfortable talking about it. Don’t just ask “How was school today?” Ask, “Who’d you have lunch with, who’d you sit with, who’d you play with, what happens on the bus, do you ever notice kids getting teased or picked on or excluded?” advises Haber, who offers other bullyproofing tips and resources at Re 

spectU.com and is co-authored of a new book called “The Resilience Formula.”

Bullies “feed on the body language of fear. It’s a physical reaction — how the victim responds, how they hold their head and shoulders, the tone of voice,” said Jim Bisenius, a therapist who has taught his “Bully-Proofing Youth” program in more than 400 schools in Ohio and elsewhere.

Teaching a kid to appear confident physically can sometimes be easier to teach than verbal skills, Bisenius said. “If a kid who’s never been mean in his life tries to fake it, or tries to outdo a bully with a verbal comeback, the bully sees right through that.”

Lisa Suhay, a mom in Norfolk, Va., said her 8-year-old son Quin was helped by Gracie Bullyproof, a martial arts program taught in 55 locations that combines verbal strategies with defensive jujitsu moves. Quin had been bullied so much on the playground that Suhay stopped taking him there. But she decided to give the park one last try after he completed the Gracie training.

No sooner did Quin begin playing on a pirate ship than a bigger boy knocked him down and ordered him to leave. But this time, as his mom watched in amazement, Quin grabbed the other kid around the waist “and landed on him like a big mattress, all while saying, ‘That was an incredibly bad idea you just had. But I’m not afraid of you.’” The other boy swung again, and Quin took him down again, then asked, “Now do you want to play nice?” They played pirates for the rest of the afternoon.

“It’s about respect and self-confidence,” Suhay said. “You’re not teaching them to beat up the bully. But they’re not cowering. They make eye contact. They talk to the bully. So much of the time they avert the situation because the bully doesn’t expect them to say, ‘I’m not scared of you.’”

The classic bully profile is a child who was neglected, abused, or raised in an authoritarian home where punishment was the norm. But lack of discipline is just as bad: Children who have no boundaries, who feel entitled to whatever they want, can also become bullies.

Smith worries that misguided efforts to boost kids’ self-esteem have produced a “sense of entitlement that we’ve never seen before.” He worries that we’re raising “the meanest generation” and says schools and parents must create a culture where meanness is not tolerated. “Kindness, empathy, caring and giving — you can teach those things.”

Haber says parents and schools can start in preschool years by discouraging hitting, pushing and teasing: “Ask, how would you feel if someone did that to you?”

Children can even be taught that being kind is fun. “Addict your child to kindness,” said Smith. “There are releases in the brain that feed endorphins that are very positive when you act with kindness. Encourage your kids to go over to a kid who’s alone and bring them in.”

Some kids who bully need help learning to read social cues. “If I tease you and you cry, most kids will realize they crossed a line and will apologize, but if I’m a bully, I want more power, more status, and I see there’s an opportunity to go after you,” said Haber. “If you see your child bullying a child, the child not only has to apologize but do something nice, practice atonement. Being a bully is less exciting when you have other skills.”

And beware the example you set when you treat a waitress or clerk rudely. “If you’re the kind of person who is constantly criticizing, you’re unconsciously role-modeling behaviors that kids will test out,” Haber said.



Given what Smith calls “a history of failure” in reducing bullying, it’s easy to be cynical about whether bullyproofing can work. At one time, bullies were seen as having low self-esteem; now they’re seen as narcissists who think they’re superior. Conflict resolution was big in the 1990s, but that didn’t work because bullies don’t want to give up the power they have over their victims — even when they pretend to be conciliatory.

“They say what we want to hear. But they’ll go back and do it again when nobody’s watching,” Bisenius said.

But experts are hopeful about this new generation of bullyproofing programs, which teach social and emotional skills while promoting a caring school culture. Susan Swearer Napolitano, a Nebraska-based psychologist and co-director of the Bullying Research Network, who recommends a half-dozen bullyproofing programs on her website, TargetBully.com, says “if these programs are implemented with fidelity and the messages are consistently communicated across a school community, then bullying prevention and intervention programs can help change the culture of bullying behaviors. However, ultimately it’s about people treating each other with kindness and respect that will stop bullying.”

They will be honored at a tea on Oct. 2, and with a special exhibit in March 2013.

Republican file photo by MICHAEL S. GORDONRecipient and civil rights activist Ruth B. Loving, of Springfield

The Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts has announced the recipients of its "Standing on Her Shoulders" award and that they will be honored on Oct. 2 at the Amherst Women's Club.

According to a fund release, the award celebrates "risk-takers and innovators in our counties who, through their determination and leadership. have increased opportunities and blazed trails. They are all 70 years old and older."

The women were nominated on the basis that their "stories have not been told or are not known beyond their immediate circles. The recipients and their field of impact:

Franklin County:

Elaine Barkin, Social Services

Ethel “Risky” Case, Education

Berkshire County:

Claire Cox, Media/Journalism

Vera Kalm, International Health/UN Women

Hampden County:

Gloria Lomax, Early Childhood Education/Religion

Ruth Loving, Civil Rights

Venessa O’Brien, Business

Marlene Wierensky, Law Enforcement

Angela Wright, Philanthropy

Hampshire County:

Verda Dale, International Training/Education

Ruth Hooke, Peace and Justice

Gail Kielson, Domestic Violence

Susan Lowenstein Kitchell, Reproductive Rights

Ruth Moore, Deaf Community/ Human Rights

Lorna Peterson, WomensStudies/5 College Inc.

Linda Slakey, Science Education/NSF

“Women have made great strides in the last 100 years in this country,” said Carla Oleska, chief executive officer of the fund, in the release.

“While we have so much more to do, we know that we owe so much to the women who opened doors for us. Our Standing on Her Shoulders award seeks to shine a spotlight on bold and inspiring lives marked by significant accomplishments – efforts that not only benefitted diverse women and girls, but also played a critical role in bringing about broader social change."

In addition to the tea on Oct. 2, the women will be honored at the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts’ 15th Anniversary Celebration on March 14, 2013. In addition to other aspects of the event, Robert Charles Photography will unveil a gallery of the award recipients’ portraits.

As part of the ongoing 15th anniversary celebration, the fund is also initiating a multi-year pledge program to enhance its investment in women and girls.

"We want 300 women giving $3,000 over three years," Oleska said.

For more information or to make your pledge contact us at: (413) 529-0087 or go to: www.womensfund.net.

The Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts advances social change to create economic and social equality for women and girls in Western Massachusetts through grantmaking and strategic initiatives.

Retired District Court Judge Daniel M. Keyes Jr. and the late Murray Harris – whose family owned Harris Market on Liberty Street – were major contributors, sharing their memories from the early days.

Republican photo by MICHAEL GORDON Joan Morris Reilly's "€œOther Voices, Other Times . . . Hungry Hill Remembered" is a sequel to her first book, "A Hungry Hill Trinity: Life and Times of Three Generations."

After Joan Morris Reilly published her book, “A Hungry Hill Trinity: Life and Times of Three Generations,” two years ago, it was so well received “with genuine fondness for the neighborhood” whose name it bears that she decided to write a sequel.

“Other Voices, Other Times – Hungry Hill Remembered” is the sequel, telling the story of the Springfield neighborhood from the 1920s to the 1960s in the words of other residents of “the Hill.”

The first book was a collection of memories from three generations of her family. It included stories of school days, Prohibition, World War II and how people coped with everyday life through three generations of her family – the Cabey Family – who lived in the Hungry Hill neighborhood beginning in the early 1900s.

Reilly and her six siblings grew up across Laurence Street from their maternal grandfather, James J. Cabey; he was part of their everyday life.

Reilly is a freelance writer and a former mayoral aide for former Springfield Mayor Charles V. Ryan. She is a retired administrative assistant to the regional district court administrative judge.

“People associate Hungry Hill with the Irish, but in actuality it was a real melting pot,” she said.

Reilly has “been living and breathing (the sequel) for a year and a half,” she said, interviewing representatives of the Greek, Italian and Jewish communities in the neighborhood.

Republican file photo by MICHAEL S. GORDONThe late U.S. Rep. Edward Boland, left, who grew up in Hungry Hill, talks with his successor apparent, Springfield Mayor Richard E. Neal prior to the start of a Democratic Party campaign rally at Springfield City Hall at Nov. 5, 1988.

“During the first part of the twentieth century, Hungry Hill could best be described as a small, tightly-knit neighborhood, populated by a friendly, gregarious people, bonded by a heritage of suffering and desolation; a people who could be brawling, quarrelsome, and at times hostile, but who, even in their worst moments, were men and women with virtues and human failings circumscribed by an unwavering faith in their Catholicism, and in a loving God’s infinite mercy and justice. They were hard working, intensely loyal, deeply religious and family oriented.”

The new book includes a mini-history of the neighborhood as it was developed, a Leaders and Legends section, notes and nostalgia from various streets, five decades of children growing up on Hungry Hill, a trivia quiz and photos.

“It’s amazing from such a small area the number of people who became community leaders,” Reilly said, mentioning a U.S. congressman, three judges, three mayors, three police chiefs, a district attorney and a sheriff from Hungry Hill.

“Eddie Boland was endeared in this neighborhood; everyone loved him,” Reilly said of the late Congressman Edward P. Boland.

When she wrote “A Hungry Hill Trinity,” Reilly, now of East Springfield, said she never intended to publish it but simply to record recollections for the benefit of her two grown children. “But it took off,” she said.

And the sequel was in order because “people love Hungry Hill,” she explained. “There is such a fondness for the neighborhood. It was a safe, easy place to grow up.”

“In addition to the Italian, Greek and Jewish people that I interviewed, I received many contributions from others which, for the most part, are listed in the section called Notes and Nostalgia from the Neighborhood. Also, most of the research about the building of this neighborhood was from the archives at the Wood Museum of Springfield History,” Reilly said.

The 168-page, self-published “Other Voices, Other Times – Hungry Hill Remembered” sells for $14.95 in soft cover. It is available at www.amazon.com or by calling the author at (413) 733-5519.

Seminar on Sept. 30 for "Why Does My Dog Do That and How Do I Get Him to Stop?"

Republican photo by DAVID MOLNARLuna winds down on her towel after Animal Alliances Puppy Starter Kit Class at the dog training school in Northampton.

Kelley Bollen’s Animal Alliances Dog Training and Educational Center, in Northampton, isn’t just about teaching Sparky simple tricks. Instead, her goal is to help build a bond between owner and dog to create an understanding about why dogs do what they do.

“I don’t want you to come here and just learn how to get them to sit or lie down. I want you to really understand how to reward behaviors you like so they continue and how to deal with behaviors you don’t like so they go away,” she said.

Bollen, who is a certified animal behavior consultant and has a master’s degree in animal behavior, opened her training center at 137-E Damon Road in July. The 1,500-square-foot center features non-slip, shock-absorbing rubberized flooring to protect the animals’ feet and showcases framed black-and-white photos of dogs she found in dog books to create a “welcoming and classy” setting, she said.

Republican photo by DAVID MOLNARKelley Bollen, of Animal Alliances, works with Dan and Beatrice O'Shea, of Northampton, with their puppy Clark during the dog trainig school's Puppy Starter Kit Class.

Each week, Bollen, 50, offers a variety of educational classes and seminars. She also conducts private behavior consultations for owners experiencing difficulties with their dogs such as aggression, fear and separation anxiety.

Bollen previously owned a similar dog training center in Easthampton in the mid-90s.

The Chesterfield resident said early intervention at the first sign of difficult behavior is a key to establishing a good relationship between owner and pet. Her “Puppy Starter Kit” class is designed to teach the young dogs how to socialize with other dogs, humans and with different experiences.

“Socializing is exposing them to all the things they are going to encounter in their life. When you socialize them well, you will have a well-adjusted adult dog,” she said. “If you don’t socialize your puppy, they tend to be afraid of things they’ve never encountered.”

Republican photo by DAVID MOLNAR Kelley Bollen, of Animal Alliances in Northampton, works with "Pancake" during the dog trainig school's Puppy Starter Kit Class.

One method that Bollen uses to train dogs is called “clicker training,” which is teaching based on science and often used to train animals in zoos and dolphins at aquariums, she said.

For example, she would make the clicking sound and then offer the dog a small treat at the point it sat down. She would repeat that process quickly a few times in a row.

She would repeat that process to teach other behaviors such as laying down. The noise is significant, she said, because when the dog hears it he knows he will get a treat. But, she cautioned owners should not have the treats on them and show them upfront as the dog will see it as a bribe instead.

Bollen recommends using healthy treats, such as part of their dog food and about the size of baby pea, or a little bigger for larger dogs. If the owner does a lot of training in one day, she suggests cutting the dog’s food in half.

“The idea is to pinpoint behavior so the dog learns faster and better. Once the dog knows the behavior, we fade off the clicker and the treats,” said Bollen, who owns a dog, a cat and five pet goats.

Northampton City Councilor Paul D. Spector brought his Golden Retriever Dakota to Bollen last year for a private consultation so his pet could learn to not bother people while they’re eating.

Spector was impressed with Bollen’s ability to identify the process needed to train Dakota and provided him with step-by-step commands to progressively teach the dog how to behave during mealtime.

“She’s very clear on how to walk you through the process,” Spector said. “She’s compassionate, intelligent and really bright and fun.”

Republican photo by DAVID MOLNAR Families work with their puppies during Animal Alliances Puppy Starter Kit class in Northampton.

In 1990, Bollen was hired as the first behaviorist for Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and was in charge of the behavioral health of all the animals in terms of enrichment and stress reduction to ultimately make them more adoptable.

She also previously served as director of behavior programs for the Shelter Medicine Program at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, and continues to serve as a consultant to the program.

Bollen likes to dispel the notion that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

“I’ve had 12-year-old dogs in my class. You can train a dog at any age,” she said.

“Why Does My Dog Do That and How Do I Get Him to Stop?"

This is the name of a 90-minute seminar on Sept. 30 at 2 p.m. at the Animal Alliances Dog Training and Educational Center, 137-E Damon Road, in Northampton.

The seminar seeks to help owners understand a dog’s behavior, how dogs learn, and how to resolve certain behaviors.

Cost is $20

“When we understand how dog’s learn, resolving behavior problems becomes a lot easier,” said Kelley Bollen.

“For example, dogs are great at learning how to get our attention. They bark at us, scratch at the door, whine, nudge us with their noses, paw at our hands — anything to get us to pay attention to them. The way we respond to these behaviors can unintentionally encourage them. This seminar will give you the information you need to resolve many common behavior challenges and develop a more satisfying relationship with your dog.”

For more information on classes or to sign up seminar, call (413) 585-5868 or visit Animal Alliances on Facebook or at www.animalalliances.com.

Baystate Health Foundation walk scheduled Oct. 28 in Springfield and Greenfield with run in Springfield, expected to drawn thousands.

SubmittedParticipant in 2011 Rays of Hope Walk

Once again this October, as the nation observes Breast Cancer Awareness Month, thousands of walkers, as well as runners, will be hitting the pavement on Oct. 28 to support breast health in Western Massachusetts as part of Baystate Health Foundation's 19th annual Rays of Hope – A Walk Toward the Cure of Breast Cancer and its accompanying 3rd annual Run Toward the Cure 8K.

This year’s annual walk events, presented by Health New England, are set for
Springfield and Greenfield, while the run is only held in Springfield. Last year, some 21,000 combined walkers and runners from Springfield and Greenfield, including over 600 teams, participated in the Rays of Hope, according to a Baystate Medical Center release.

Since 1994, Rays of Hope has raised $10.25 million, all of which has remained in our local communities, on behalf of patients and their families affected by breast cancer.

As in past years, the Springfield walk and run begin at Temple Beth El on Dickinson Street where registration is set for 9 a.m. The Walk in Greenfield begins at Energy Park on Miles Street with registration at 10 a.m.

The Springfield Walk steps off at 10:30 a.m., preceded at 10:15 a.m. by the run, followed later at noon in Greenfield.

Walkers in Springfield can choose from a two- or five-mile route. The shorter route follows the loop around the ball field in Forest Park, then back to Temple Beth El. It is accessible to handicapped participants.

The five-mile stroll, with its beautiful fall scenery in and around historic Forest Park, is a little more challenging with some hills.

In Greenfield, participants can select a two- or three-mile route, both of which travel up Main Street before taking different directions. The three-mile route is a little more challenging, with both routes winding through Greenfield neighborhoods, past Baystate Franklin Medical Center, then back to Energy Park.

Large tents, pink balloons, music, colorful flags and a festive, hopeful atmosphere welcome all participants in both Springfield and Greenfield. Local businesses and services will offer information and giveaways in the Exhibitor Tent.

The Rays of Hope Store will be selling sweatshirts, quilted vests, eco-friendly shopping bags, aprons, and more. There will also be a Food Tent with all kinds of treats to purchase, with sales benefiting Rays of Hope.

Also, the Pink Hope Lounge in Springfield, sponsored by The Walking Company, and in Greenfield, will welcome breast cancer survivors with special treats followed by the 2012 survivors’ photo at 10 a.m. in Springfield and 11:30 a.m. in Greenfield.

The 3nd Annual Run Toward the Cure 8K continues this year with the help of Fast Feet in West Springfield and Westfield. While the event is considered a “fun run,” there will be a time clock at the finish line for runners who want to see and record what may hopefully be their “personal best.”

Participants can register for both the Walk and Fun Run online at baystatehealth.org/raysofhope, where they can also create their own personal webpage to assist them in their fundraising efforts.

Anna Symington, a breast cancer survivor from South Hadley, who has been involved in the Rays of Hope for the past 10 years as both a walker and exhibitor selling handmade creations with proceeds benefiting Rays of Hope, is serving as the 2012-2013 event chair.

“I believe education is the most powerful tool an individual can have in meeting this disease head on. I’m looking forward to advocating for and working with the dedicated and impassioned Rays of Hope staff and volunteers in building upon our resources in western Massachusetts,” said Symington.

All monies raised through the Rays of Hope remain local and are administered by the Baystate Health Foundation.

Over the years, funds have supported the Rays of Hope Center for Breast Cancer Research, as well as treatment, breast health outreach and education, and the purchase of state-of-the art equipment through the Baystate Health Breast Network, including Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield, Baystate Mary Lane Hospital in Ware, and various community projects throughout western Massachusetts.

Those who want to support the Rays of Hope, but are unable to walk due to other commitments, can participate in the 10,000 Steps Toward A Cure program. Participants receive a pedometer to keep track of their steps throughout the month of October, while raising donations similar to other walkers.

Rays of Hope, the most successful fund raising walk in western Massachusetts for breast cancer, was founded in 1994 by Lucy Giuggio Carvalho.

For the Springfield Walk, free parking with shuttle service is available at locations near Temple Beth El, including in East Longmeadow at American Saw, East Longmeadow High School, as well as in Longmeadow at Blueberry Hill School and at Longmeadow High School, and at other locations found on the Rays of Hope website.

Participants are asked to refrain from parking on the side streets near the Temple in consideration of those who live in the surrounding neighborhoods and to allow easy, safe access for the runners participating in the 8K.

In Greenfield, free parking is available in the public lots behind Green Fields Market, on Chapman Street behind Wilson’s Department Store, behind the Franklin County Court House, and in the Freedom Credit Union parking lot. Walkers are asked not to park in the Wilson’s Department Store lot for the benefit of its customers.

There is no shuttle service, however, all lots are within walking distance of Energy Park.

Handicapped parking is available at Temple Beth El and at Energy Park for those with an official handicapped parking permit and/or license plate only.

No pets, other than service dogs, are allowed at either the Springfield or Greenfield locations for the safety of both the pets and participating
walkers and runners.

This year’s Rays of Hope major sponsors are Health New England, Gale Toyota, Balise, Chicopee Savings Charitable Foundation, Doctor’s Express, Kinsley Power Systems, The Pink Petal, and Radiology & Imaging. A listing of all sponsors can be found on the Rays of Hope website.

For more information about this year’s Rays of Hope Walk and 8K Run, held rain or shine, call 413-794-8001 or visit baystatehealth.org/raysofhope.

Nominations of women of any age will be accepted through Oct. 14.

SubmittedNominations are being sought through Oct. 14 by the American Heart Association for area women for its 2013 Go Red Leading Ladies of Western Massachusetts campaign against heart disease. Participants will be featured in a poster like the 2012 one shown above.

The American Heart Association is holding a search to find area women for its 2013 Go Red Leading Ladies of Western Massachusetts campaign against heart disease. Nominations of women of any age will be accepted through Oct. 14.

Cardiovascular disease claimed the lives of nearly 500,000 American women each year, yet many women still do not know their risks and consider it to be an “older man’s disease,” according to an association release.

To dispel the myths and raise awareness of heart disease as the No. 1 killer of women, the association created Go Red For Women to raise awareness of heart disease and empower women to reduce their risk by learning the steps to prevent it.

“We are looking for women who are heart healthy role models by taking the time to be active, eat healthy and maintain a positive attitude,” said Mary Ann Burns, association regional director of communications for Springfield and the Berkshires, in the release.

“We are not looking for women who are in perfect health but who know their risk for heart disease and are taking steps to live a stronger, healthier life.”

Women selected for the 2013 campaign will participate in a professional photo shoot and will be featured on a poster that will travel throughout Western Massachusetts bringing attention to heart disease.

Throughout the year, many of the women also will raise awareness of women’s heart health by attending or volunteering at Go Red events.

The names of the women selected will be revealed on Wear Red Day on Feb. 1, when the new poster will be unveiled. The day is when individuals, corporations, landmarks, schools and even landmarks “Go Red” to help raise crucial awareness and significant funds.

Nomination forms can be found by visiting Mix931.com or by calling the association at (413) 735-2103. Go to www.goredforwomen.org for information on the Go Red For Women movement.