Tag: boston

Newton South Student Wins Operation Sail 2012 Essay Contest

15-year-old Joshua Sander, a junior at Newton South High School, is the winner of Boston’s Operation Sail essay competition and will ride on the U.S. Coast Guard tall ship, Eagle, at the start of OpSail Boston on June 30. – Photo – Tamir Kalifa for The Boston Globe

As part of Operation Sail 2012, high school essay contests were held in all the participating cities. This is the winning essay from Boston, written by Newton South High School junior Josh Sander. It was chosen by the chief judge of the OpSail Essay contest, William H. White, author, historian, and board member of both the USS Constitution Museum and Operation Sail, Inc.

The story of the Revenue Cutter Service

By Josh Sander

During the Revolutionary War, many captains smuggled their goods past the British to avoid paying taxes on it, and many saw no reason to stop at the end of the war. As a federal debt crisis loomed, the Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton saw an opportunity to seize revenue and submitted a proposal for the creation of a “Revenue Cutter Service” to “seize vessels and goods in the cases in which they are liable to seizure for breaches of the Revenue laws.” In 1790, the Revenue Cutter Service was created. Later, its mission was expanded to include enforcing the unpopular embargoes passed by Congress to protest European violation of American neutrality.

Despite the unpopular laws, the RCS earned respect for their quality, responsibility, and fairness in administering them. The Revenue Cutters were also responsible for rescuing distressed sailors, bringing supplies to lighthouses, carrying messages, and charting the coast. To do this, the RCS was equipped with ten fast and agile shallow-draft cutters, each based at a major trading port. The cutters could be equipped with ten carronades (though the ships rarely carried a full complement of guns), and a crew of fifteen to thirty men. The RCS, most notably the USRC Pickering, first fired in anger during the “Quasi War” with France, which took place almost entirely at sea. By the time the War of 1812 had begun, the Service had expanded to fourteen ships.

This is an excerpt…click here to read the rest of this essay on Boston.com – The story of the Revenue Cutter Service.

June 30, 2012
Boston: Hiring QA Automation Engineer for Back Bay Start Up litl

QA Automation Engineer

litl is looking for a QA Automation Engineer to join our growing Copley Square-based software team. litl is the company that brought you the litl webbook, a computer that lets you enjoy the web without worrying about anything else and winner of numerous national and international awards. litl is now looking to bring multiple consumer photography applications to market.litl is looking for a motivated developer with testing experience to help the QA team identify automation opportunities in our existing test suites and build automated test cases. As a Quality Assurance Engineer you will work as part of the larger software team that’s building exciting mobile applications for iOS, Android and Windows mobile.
(more…)

March 30, 2012
2 MOMtrepreneurs Juggling It All: Meet Celeste and Laura of Well Within, Massage and Integrated Health

Starting a business with a friend can be tricky endeavor, but it’s working for Celeste Woodside and Laura Viale of Well Within on Washington Street (between Cabots and Whole Foods). As business owners, they each balance the other’s strengths and weaknesses. In fact, it’s this collaborative culture that infuses Well Within with an integrative approach.

Not only do they offer multiple modalities that includes massage (many, many types!), yoga, accupuncture, mat pilates, guided meditation, Reiki and holistic health coaching for nutrition, but they will actually refer clients to outside wellness practitioners if they feel that is best for the client!

Let’s meet them!

1. When did you decide to work together?
Celeste Woodside

Celeste: “We have worked together in the integrative health community for 8 years and have developed a wonderful friendship during that time. We both shared office space in Newton for about 5 years before coming together in October of 2010 to form Well Within.”

2. Tell me about your families. How many kids and what ages?

Laura Viale

Laura: “I remember the day we were running around Newton Town Hall with kids in tow and thinking, “What are we getting ourselves into??” I had my 2 year old daughter, and Celeste had her 4 year old daughter and her 6 month old son. We had just made the decision to create Well Within and had to file the proper documents with the town. Since we were in a time crunch, we had to get many things done without childcare – it was a bit interesting, but we pushed through and made it happen. Celeste and I are blessed with supportive, loving husbands, and our joyful children.

Celeste has two beautiful children: her super smart, energetic 5 year old daughter, who is an avid gymnast and clearly has her parents’ gifts of creativity; and her adorable son, who will be 2 in a couple weeks and just idolizes his big sister. My happy 3 year old daughter keeps us entertained with endless “dance recitals” in every room of our house. Our extended families have also been incredibly supportive of us in every way allowing us extra time to do what it takes run a proper business.”

3. What is the most challenging aspect of juggling your own business with parenting and taking care of yourself?

Celeste: “Time. More specifically, not having enough. We are definitely learning (on the job training) the delicate and unique art of how a work-from-home-and-also-in-the-office-stay-at-home(ish)-PTO-Mom gets the job(s) done. The gas in the tank comes, not-surprisingly, from practicing what we preach … eating well, moving our bodies, being mindful, getting good sleep (when children allow) and making time for relaxation. With this fuel, we are more grounded and energized and can use our time more thoughtfully. We’ve learned that turning off all devices, getting down on the floor and building a block tower for 20 minutes or so, followed by a good snuggle is a really effective way to get a toddler to understand that sometimes you have to answer emails.”

4. What made you decide to take an integrative approach to health?

Laura: “One of the reasons our private practices were quite successful was because we actively sought out opportunities to work in combination with other health care practitioners to improve the results of our clients’ treatments. The dramatic improvements our clients experienced when integrating treatments really inspired us to create a place where our clients could come and utilize both massage and acupuncture, for example, to relieve their symptoms. The team approach of our staff and the variety of services available, gives us a great opportunity to really make a difference in the health and wellness of our clients.”

5. You also have a blog? Tell me more! What do you write about?

Celeste: “In our blog we talk about all things integrative health. We share articles we love, have guest posts by other local wellness professionals (and authors!) and sometimes we even talk about our kids!”

Well Within is going to host a FREE event in March for cancer patients and their caregivers. They will enjoy a day of pampering and treatments and go home with a goody bag. More on that later…

February 17, 2012
litl Hiring Backend Engineer to join our Copley Square-based development team
Backend Engineer
The Woven team is looking for a Senior DevOps Engineer to join our Copley Square-based development team. We are the company that brought you the litl webbook, a computer that lets you enjoy the web without worrying about anything else and winner of numerous national and international awards. We’re now looking to bring multiple consumer photography applications to market.

You will work with our product teams to build a secure, robust, scalable backend platform for our mobile and web applications. You will have the opportunity of developing a robust backend architecture to manage massive amounts of data and leverage it to deliver a compelling experience to users. You will have the flexibility to both develop software as well as operate it in a large-scale environment. If you believe that development and operations work best when they work together, then this position is for you!

Skills & Requirements
- Experience developing web-based applications using Python and/or Flask
- Experience with Linux system administration and automation tools such as puppet, chef or cfengine
- Experience developing, tuning and administering NoSQL databases such as MongoDB or Redis
- Excellent system-level design ability
- Experience building highly-available and scalable systems
- Ideally you have built systems-level tools and back-end infrastructureservices
- Experience with monitoring and alerting software such as nagios, zabbix, munin, cacti, etc.
- Production level experience using Rackspace Cloud and/or Amazon EC2 is desirable
- Strong understanding of load testing strategies and best practices
- Familiarity with git is desirable
To Apply: mia@litl.com

About Us
We’re a small technology company with big ideas. Located in Boston, we also have people in London, Brazil, the Greek Isles…you get the idea. Our 60 person team consists of software developers, hardware engineers, industrial designers, user experience experts, graphic designers, evangelists, logistics gurus, and top-notch customer support. An unlikely mix, perhaps, but what we have in common is passion for creating compelling user experiences. Our four-year pursuit has been continually fueled by enthusiasm and excitement about our diverse set of projects. The results are always simple, useful and delightful.
February 8, 2012
Fun Stuff For Kids and Families Do During February Break in Boston and Newton

February vacation nears and here’s some activities and camps ideas. There are full week programs for parents who need to work that week, but there are also programs and activities with shorter time frames. Another option: sometimes if the vacation week isn’t full, they will let you do a partial week and prorate the price. What are your kids doing during this break? Please share!

Jackson Homestead and Museum, Newton

21 Tuesday, February 21, 2:00 PM
THE MA 54TH: A BLACK REGIMENT IN THE CIVIL WAR
A Vacation Week Family Program
Did you know that Massachusetts raised one of the first black regiments of the Civil War, led by a man who grew up in Newton? Come learn about their stories, and make a popular civil-war era toy to take home. Cost: $20 per family ($15 for members) includes museum admission, snack, and materials. Prepaid registration is required, limit 25; call 617.796.1450 to register.

23 Thursday, February 23, 2:00 PM
FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM
A Vacation Week Family Program
Learn about slavery in New England and what people did to fight against it. Hear stories of escapes on the Underground Railroad, and then explore our brand new, hands-on exhibit, Confronting Our Legacy: Slavery and Anti-Slavery in the North. Cost: $20 per family ($15 for members) includes museum admission, snack, and materials. Prepaid registration is required, limit 25; call 617.796.1450 to register.

Evolution Sports, Norwood

February 22 and 24th for all day fun including Alien Tag, Trampoline, Manhunt Middle Earth Wrestling, Hoops Sports Yoga, Capture the Crystal Slam Dunking, Dodge Ball, Open Gym and more. It’s a day of non-competitive sports activities for kids. They have so much fun that they don’t realize that they are exercising their bodies. 10-4.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Cogan Family Foundation Vacation Week Adventures

February 20, 2012 – February 24, 2012

Beasts and Beauties
10 am–4 pm (Wed to 8 pm)

Free activities for kids all week!* Discover wild beasts and beauties in art all week long. Enjoy making art, go on a fun tour of the galleries, and see and draw live animals.
ASL interpretation provided Feb 22.

*And did you know that kids get free admission to the Museum every day? Kids 6 and under are always free, and kids 7 to 17 are free during non school hours.

Special Events

Children’s Tours, Sharf Visitor Center
Every 15 minutes from 10:15 am–Noon; ASL Interpretation Wed at 11 am and Noon
Visit the galleries in search of beasts and beauties on this kid-friendly 30-minute tour.
Story Hour, Gallery 274
10:30 am and 1:30 pm; ASL Interpretation Wed at 1:30 pm
Drop in to enjoy stories about princesses, maidens, goddesses, and more. Stay for a story or for the whole hour. Great for toddlers.
Drumlin Farms Presents, Druker Family Pavilion
11 am, 11:45 am, 12:30 pm, 1:30 pm, 2:15 pm, and 3 pm; ASL Interpretation Wed at 2:15 pm
Join naturalists from Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary to meet live animals. Learn about our local animals and environment, and before you leave, sketch the animals you’ve encountered. Sessions last 30 minutes. Space is limited to 30 visitors per session. First come, first served; pick up tickets at the door 10 minutes prior to session. Please choose one adult for your group to allow more children to attend.

Art-Making Activities

Ongoing: 10 am–4 pm (until 8 pm on Wed)

Works on Paper, Part I—Drawing, Lower Rotunda
Pick up your drawing materials and explore “Paper Zoo” in Gallery 170to sketch some of your favorite animals. Take your sketch to Part II to create a series of prints!

Works on Paper, Part II—Printmaking, Druker Family Pavilion 159
Visit the studio to turn your animal drawing into prints to take home.

Masks, Shapiro Family Courtyard
Make a cuddly—or scary—mask of your favorite animal to wear around the Museum! Afterward, go see the beautiful masks on Level LG of the Art of the Americas Wing.

Wire Sculpture, Level 3 landing, Art of Americas
Get inspired by Alexander Calder’s wire Cow. Use wire, string, paper, and glue to make your own animal sculpture.

Clay Sculpture, Workshop Studio G85
Visit our menagerie of porcelain animals in Gallery 142. Find birds and other creatures. Then go to the workshop studio and sculpt your favorite beast or beauty in clay to take home!

New Art Center, Newton

February Vacation Week for students in grades K – 5
February 21 to February 24, 2012 (4 days)

Escape with us to the island of Madagascar, off the coast of East Africa! From lemurs, giant baobab trees, and the cultural richness of the Malagasy people, to the amazing biodiversity of its wildlife; this vacation week will give us plenty of inspiration to paint, draw, sculpt and create rich, colorful pieces of art!

Arsenal Center for the Arts, Watertown

February Vacation Workshops
Tuesday – Friday
February 21 ,22, 23, 24

COMICS, CARTOONS & CREATIVE CREATURES
Cultivate the cartoonist within! Create your own characters and watch them come alive using drawing, painting, clay and more.
617-923-0100 x309 | www.arsenalarts.org

Weston Cross Country Skiing, Newton

Weston Ski Track is a cross-country ski and snowshoeing center located on the Leo J. Martin Golf Course and serving the Greater Boston area.

With natural snow, we groom 15km oftrails. Snowmaking on our 2km lighted loop provides consistent snow conditions and reliable night skiing. Drop in for a beginner lesson and then warm up in oursnack bar.

Newton Parks and Recreation

Family Movie Day and Night at the West Newton Cinema February 21 & 22, 2012
Special $6.00 price includes a MOVIE, POPCORN, and SODA. See The Muppets or Alvin & the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked. Tickets will be sold on the day of the event at the West Newton Cinema at 1296 Washington St. This is a very popular event and tickets may sell out. Ticket sales will begin at 10:00 AM for the Movie Day on Tuesday and Wednesday with movies starting at 11:00 AM. Ticket sales will begin at 4:15 PM for the Movie Night on Tuesday with movies starting at 6:15 PM.

For Children in Grades K-6 at the Newton Centre Hut February 21 – 24, 2012
It’s like summer camp in the winter. Participate in sports, arts and crafts, inside games and more. Each day features a special event including a Movie Day, Sports Party, Dance Party and Portable Planetarium. Sign up by day or for all 4 days. Standard Day 8:30–3:30 PM, extended day 8:15-5:30 PM. $45.00 per day or $160.00 for all 4 days (add $12.50/day for extended day)

For Children in Grades K-3 at Burr Park February 21 – 24, 2012
Enjoy an exciting field trip each day including Cosmic Bowling, Chuck E Cheese, CoCo Key, and Plaster Fun Time. Sports, arts and crafts, and inside games are offered before or after the field trips. Sign up by day or for all 4 days. Standard Day 8:30 AM–3:30 PM $45.00* per day or $175.00 for all 4 days *Thursdays cost is $60.00

For Children in Grades 3-6 at the Lower Falls Community Center February 21 – 24, 2012
Enjoy an exciting field trip each day including Chunky’s Cinema, Glow Golf, Amesbury Sports Park and Chuck E Cheese. Sports, arts and crafts, and inside games are offered before or after the field trips. Sign up by day or for all 4 days. Standard Day 8:30 – 3:30, extended day 8:15 – 5:30. $45.00* per day or $175.00 for all 4 days (add $12.50/day for extended day) *Thursday is $60.00

Thundercat Sports Clinic for Children Ages 7-12 February 21 – 24, 2012
Play a variety of sports including basketball, floor hockey, soccer and more all in a relaxed, fun atmosphere. Located at Pelligrini Park. Be sure to bring a snack and lunch. $45.00 per day
Half Day program for ages 5 – 7 9:00 – 12:00noon $120.00 ($130.00 non residents)
Full Day program for ages 7 – 12 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM $162.00 ($170.00 non residents)

Contact Newton Parks and Recreation at 617-796-1500 or visit our website atwww.newtonma.gov/parks for more information. Register online at www.activityreg.com

JCC Kid’s Choice February School Vacation Program

Monday, Feb 20 9:00a to 4:00p

at Leventhal-Sidman Jewish Community Center, Newton, MA

Kids rule at the JCC! During the JCC Kids Choice February school vacation program, February 20-24, children in grades K-6 choose what they want to do each day. The daily choice of electives includes sports, swimming, arts and crafts, dance, drama, cooking, board games and rock wall climbing. Special activities are planned each day.

Newton Girls Soccer

Newton Girls Soccer is pleased to offer for the second year running a 4-day Soccer Skills Clinic series that will be held over February Break at Oak Hill Middle School. The Clinic is open to all NGS players in the U9-U12 age groups.

These sessions will be headed up by Newton Girls Soccer Director of Coaching, Gary Beatty. Based on the actual number of registered players, we will have the appropriate number of Assistant Coaches for each session. Please note that due to the size of the Oak Hill gym, each session will be limited to 20 players. In addition, sessions must have a minimum of 10 registered players to take place (a full refund will be offered if this minimum number is not met).

The focus of these sessions will be on individual technical skill development and small group tactical concepts. Each day, players will work on a variety of different technical elements (skills), game related exercises and small sided futsal scrimmages.

Full program details are as follows:

Dates:             Feb 21/22/23/24, 2012 (Tues-Fri)

Location:         Oak Hill Middle School, Newton – Gymnasium

Times:             U9/10 Girls – 9.00am – 11.30am
U11/12 Girls – 12.30 – 3.00pm

Cost:               $150 Click Here to Register Online

Create A Cook, Newton

We will be offering classes for Teens at 9:30am, 1:30pm and 5:30pm (with few exceptions), and for 7-11/Adult & Child at 9:30 (with few exceptions), 1pm, and 5pm. Click here to see a one page list of the classes on offer. Click here to register.

February 6, 2012
Wegmans Food Market Coming to Newton!!

Wegmans Food Markets Inc. said Monday it plans to bring a smaller urban concept store to Newton, Mass.

The Rochester, N.Y. family-owned supermarket chain, which opened a full-scale store in Northborough in October, plans to build a 70,000-square-foot food store at the Chestnut Hill Square development on Route 9 (Boylston Street), directly across from The Mall at Chestnut Hill in Newton. The company does not have a construction schedule or opening date planned, however, according to a press release.

“Though smaller in size, this store will have almost everything customers have come to expect from Wegmans, including a Market Café,” says Bill Congdon, vice president and New England division manager, in a press release. “We are thrilled with the success of our Northborough store, which broke every previous grand opening record set by our company.

“We’re delighted that Wegmans will be part of our Chestnut Hill Square development,” said Douglass Karp, executive vice president of New England Development, in the release. “We’ve always wanted to have a grocery store as part of this development – a sentiment that has been expressed both by Newton residents and by prospective retailers. Wegmans, with its emphasis on customer service, quality, value pricing, and community outreach, is the ideal grocery store for this location.”

Founded in 1916, Wegmans Food Market is a 79-store supermarket chain with stores in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland and Massachusetts.

p.s. This exciting news is via my mom friend Nathalie and The Boston Business Journal.

——————

They will be hiring for the new store and CNNMoney voted Wegmans #3 for Best Companies to Work For.

Rank: 3 (Previous rank: 3)

What makes it so great?

This customer-friendly supermarket chain cares about the well-being of its workers, too. This year, 11,000 employees took part in a challenge to eat five cups of fruit and vegetables a day and walk up to 10,000 steps a day for eight weeks.Another 8,000 took advantage of health screenings that included a flu shot and H1N1 vaccine — all covered by Wegmans.

Headquarters:
1500 Brooks Avenue

Rochester, NY 14603

2009 revenue ($ millions): 5,193
Website: www.wegmans.com

December 9, 2011
Newton Ranks #3 As Best Place to Live According to CNN!

According to CNN, Newton ranked as the number 3 best place to live in America!

WINNER

Top 100 rank: 3
Population: 82,000
Unemployment: 6.0%
Compare Newton to Top 10 Best Places

Less than 45 minutes from downtown Boston via train, subway, or express bus, Newton is divided into 13 “villages” loaded with classic New England charm. Most have pedestrian-friendly shopping districts, parks, and playgrounds.The town weathered the economic downturn fairly well, thanks to such stable local employers as Boston College and Newton-Wellesley Hospital. And Greater Boston, of course, offers a wealth of health care, education, and government jobs.Residents rave about the top-ranked schools, and parents are excited for the new high school opening this fall. “It’s absolutely beautiful,” says Claudia Wu, 51, an attorney with three school-age kids who has lived in Newton for 20 years. It should be: The school cost $197 million, an amount that sparked plenty of local outrage.After all, living in this community is expensive enough: a three-bedroom house runs nearly $600,000. If it weren’t for those hefty price tags, this town would be pretty close to perfect. —Beth Braverman

August 27, 2011