Our Westwood

**IMPORTANT - the meeting time has been moved up to 6:45 PM**

The School Committee is scheduled to meet next Thursday, June 17 at 6:45 in the small theater at the high school. A discussion of the FY 2011 budget is on the agenda. We are encouraging all strings parents and supporters of the performing arts to turn out to show their support for our Platinum Award winning strings program. Please mark it on your calendar. 

From now until June 14th, Liberty Mutual is hosting a contest allowing towns across America to compete for $10,000 Bring Back the 4th grants.  Liberty Mutual is offering 10 grants total, divided between small, medium and large towns.

To help Westwood win this grant, click this link to take a brief quiz on "Responsible Moments in U.S. History," focusing on people and events that helped shape our nation and inspire others. Each completed quiz counts as one credit towards a BringBackThe4th.com visitor's town, and credits are earned by quiz completion alone, not by quiz score.

The 10 U.S. towns that successfully encourage the highest quiz participation among their residents will be eligible to win $10,000 grants! Winners will be notified and announced during the week of June 14th.

To Live In
Westwood

Wouldn't it be great if we could get a bunch of parents together at school for a day to play games with the kids outside like it was one long recess? It's called "Field Day."

It was my good fortune to run the "Orbit Ball" game with John Crehan at Hanlon Elementary last week. The object of the game is for the kids to keep a 4-foot ball aloft by batting it into the air. We counted each touch. The first group did well, we thought, but as the day continued, the maximum number kept going up until one group kept the ball up for an amazing 531 hits. John and I ran around the edges of the group to help keep it going. Two hours later, I walked home and felt like I'd run a half marathon. I think the kids had fun too. :)

Field Day is not unique to Westwood, but it's one of those things where you walk away thinking how great it is that it already exists and parents turn out to support it. There's no competition, no winners and losers, just a lot of fun and teamwork. And, of course, popsicles.

To all Supporters of the Performing Arts in Westwood,

Our school strings program is in real trouble. Our school administrators have decided to cut, entirely, the middle school orchestra from next year's school budget. This means there will be no in-school orchestra for incoming 6th, 7th and 8th graders to play in.

The irony is that the middle school orchestra just earned Westwood's first ever Platinum Medal (scoring an impressive 96%) at the Great East Music Festival this past weekend. 

We are asking every Westwood resident who loves the arts to support our children, our students and our community by sending an email to school administrators asking them to restore this program to it's rightful place in our middle school curriculum. 

Please visit  saveourstringsprogram.com for information on three simple steps you can take to help us get the message out.

• Saturday, June 12, 2010, 1:00 pm (Rain date Sat. June 19th)

• Dedham, Riverdale Park, near the Irish Ale House

• Ducks are $5.00 each OR get four – plus one FREE – for $20.00
Ducks can be "adopted" at Roche Brothers in Westwood on:
Friday, May 28 between 4 pm - 9 pm & Saturday, May 29 between 8 am and 8 pm
and again on
Friday, June 4 between 4 pm - 9 pm & Saturday, June 5 between 8 am and 8 pm

• Winning Duck wins $1,000 cash prize.
Second - $500; Third - $250; Fourth - $100

• FREE family fun – food, pony-rides, clowns, games, and more

• Corporate / individual sponsorships available from $2,500 to $100
(detailed information avail in Corporate Package)

• In-Kind Donations accepted

• Sponsored by the Neponset Valley Sunrise Rotary Club. Proceeds are donated to local and international charities such as Dedham and Norwood Food Pantries, Dedham Community House, Boy Scouts, Easter Seals, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Blue Hills Regional Scholarships (complete list in Corporate Package)

• Visit nvsrotary.org for more information
Call (or fax form) 781-752-2423, can email nvsrclub@gmail.com

• Checks or money orders may be sent to Neponset Valley Sunrise Rotary, PO Box 4031, Dedham, MA 02027. (Duck money MUST be RECEIVED by June 12, 2010. Include name, address, phone, email, and # of ducks).

Westwood's lacrosse team finished the season undefeated (20-0) and remains ranked number 1 in New England after a victory over Wellesley yesterday. Read more about it at boston.com/yourtown.

Number 1 Westwood travels to Wellesely tomorrow afternoon...read more about it on boston.com/yourtown.

I have installed some new spam-blocking software on WestwoodBlog. Please let me know by emailing me at datkinsg@gmail.com if you have tried to comment or register on the site and experienced problems. Most of the spam activity gets blocked automatically, but what you occasionally see slipping through is about 1% of what's going on.

About a year ago, Westwood resident Anne Marie McIntyre sent me an email about her idea for "emotionally-intelligent" or "empathetic" signs and I posted this article. She was motivated to do something about more effectively reminding drivers of the importance of respecting the speed limits and was inspired by a book, A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink. She observed what Needham had done already, then set out to make this happen in Westwood.

She wrote and received a WEF grant for the Westwood Empathetic Signs Thurston Initiative (W.E.S.T.I). Through this generous grant funding, 8th grade art students at Thurston Middle School (in collaboration with Ms. Maribeth Amber, Thurston art teacher) designed empathetic street signs that are now installed in the Hanlon school zone. Mrs. McIntyre coordinated with Principal Allison Borchers of Thurston Middle School, Sergeant Paul Sicard, Town Administrator Mike Jaillet and the Westwood Educational Foundation to have her vision come to fruition. Additionally, she worked with the Westwood Department of Public Works who provided the sign posts and installed them this past week.

She plans to work with Thurston Middle School again to expand the sign project with other schools and anyone else who may have an interest. (Editor's note: thanks to Hanlon Principal Beth Herlihy who wrote up an announcement about this in the Hanlon newsletter that I am am using here.)