On Sunday, May 1, the South Boston Little League held its opening ceremonies at Evans Field adjacent to the Murphy Rink. Players, parents, managers, and league officials gathered together to acknowledge the beginning of the South Boston Little League baseball season. The rain held off and everyone had an opportunity to say hello and get pumped up for the 2016 season. -Kevin Devlin
By KAY FORDE On Thursday evening, April 28, the South Boston Girls’ Softball League conducted its opening night ceremony at the Shore Road softball field next to the Murphy Rink. It was cold and a bit windy but the players, managers and parents enjoyed the event. Sponsored by the league, the Sausage Man was on hand cooking hot dogs and sausages for those in attendance. Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry and Boston City Councilor President Michelle Wu were present and threw out the first two balls of the new season. Then several shortened exhibition games were played and a skill’s clinic was conducted next to the softball diamond. Founded in 2007, the South Boston Girls Softball League is a non-profit organization that continues to encourage and [...]
By KEVIN DEVLIN We’ve read so many sad stories in the news that many people have become immune to the heartache that people suffer as a consequence. But this story is an emotionally uplifting one with a happy ending that all can empathize with, and cheer, as life goes on. On Tuesday, April 19, Joseph M. Tierney Center site coordinator, Milagros “Mille” Pena, was outside the front door of the center talking with a parent. Across the street near the side of an Old Colony Development building, Mille noticed a woman holding a toddler. But something in Mille’s gut told her something was wrong with the picture. She continued talking with the parent, went back inside the center to get paperwork and walked back outside [...]
By RICK WINTERSON The Artists for Humanity’s EpiCenter will expand by more than twice its current size in less than two years, the South Boston center, city officials and private business leaders announced Monday morning. The reception to announce the expanded EpiCenter Building on A and Second Streets was a joyful celebration. Susan Rodgerson, the founder and executive/artistic director of Artists for Humanity, was the hostess. The expansion is expected to start with groundbreaking this fall; completion is slated for the end of 2017. The South Boston organization “is a national leader in youth arts enterprise whose mission is to bridge economic, racial, and social divisions by providing under-resourced urban youth with the keys to self-sufficiency through paid employment in art and design,” a press [...]
By RICK WINTERSON There are two stories here: To begin with, a staunch South Bostonian named Marjorie M. Gibbons endowed an annual series of lectures to be given in her memory at the South Boston Branch Library. These have taken place in the spring of each year since 1981; the 36th Annual Gibbons Lecture is at hand. It will be Thursday, May 5, at 6:30 p.m., in the Public Room of the South Boston Branch Library at 646 East Broadway. Everyone is welcome. There is no charge. Second, George LoCascio, a local naturalist, will deliver the 2016 Gibbons Lecture that he has entitled “A Beautiful Dismissal: The Unnoticed Nature of South Boston.” Specifically, the topic of his talk will be his “Wildflowers of South Boston” [...]
By RICK WINTERSON Saturday, April 16, was the closing day for three exhibitions in South Boston. It has become a custom in local galleries to mark these closings with what might be termed “retrospective celebrations.” Medicine Wheel’s Spoke Gallery closed out its most recent show, expertly curated by South Boston’s Kathy Bitetti. The exhibition was named “On the Line.” (It was reviewed by South Boston Online in our Feb. 11 issue.) There are two galleries in The Distillery, which has really become a thriving artists’ colony on 516 East Second St. The closed shows in Proof Gallery and the main Distillery Gallery were entitled respectively “worlds within worlds” (Philip Fryer, Faith Johnson, Trevor Powers) and “Post Gay?” (The Boston LGTBQIA Artists Alliance - BLAA). Both [...]
By KEVIN DEVLIN and BOBBY MCGARRELL The South Boston Mites were named the champions of the inaugural Mayor’s Cup street hockey tournament that came to an end in Charlestown on Friday. They’re a talented group of kids and Coach Bobby McGarrell was proud of their performance. “Southie played tremendous,” McGarrell said, “with a great display of teamwork and effort. They imposed their will on each opponent and controlled each game from the opening faceoff.” Starting off, Southie defeated the Parkway Bruins, 6-1, in a resounding victory. The Southie team then cruised to victory against the South End team, 11-0. Next up was the unbeaten West Roxbury squad. Southie prevailed 6-3. In the championship final, Southie played West Roxbury again (who were their bracket winners). Southie jumped all [...]
By KEVIN DEVLIN I remember this young man when he was a kid playing basketball for the former Saint William’s CYO program in Savin Hill. Then I watched him coach CYO games for Saint William’s and also manage Little League teams at McConnell Park which is located adjacent to Savin Hill beach. After talking with him last week, it only solidified the positive impression I’ve held about him and know he’ll do a great job as the Curley Community Center’s new youth worker. His name is Shawn McDonagh. McDonagh grew up and still lives in Savin Hill. He is one of seven children and the father of two. He attended Don Bosco, but when the school closed he went to Trinity Catholic in Newton, which [...]
By KEVIN DEVLIN While children were home from school for April vacation last week, the Tynan Community Center kept many of them happily occupied. On Thursday afternoon, April 21, the Tynan staff held a wiffle ball tournament at the center’s gym. And while kids were competing in the wiffle ball tournament inside, others played Frisbee, Cam Jam and other games in the schoolyard area. Staff cooked hot dogs, sausages and hamburgers, and distributed ice cream, chips and drinks to the participants. The food was donated by the Tynan Council. The wiffle ball finals pitted Jonathan Walsh, Matt Hogan, and Cormac Lafferty, against Sean Collins, James Arlauskas, and Danny Potember. The game was tied 1-1 at the end of regulation play and went into extra innings. [...]
Lately, all that we are hearing about are racial issues inside Boston Latin and all we see on the TV news is Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson, who chairs the City Council’s Education Committee. Back in the day, before they eliminated the elected school committee, issues such as this current one would have been dealt with by members of the elected school board. Parents would have applied pressure and the elected members would have held court. Parents back then had a voice, either on the original five-member citywide committee or the 13-member district/citywide committee. Today, Boston has a mayoral appointed Boston school committee. I see them on BNN-TV all the time, but when it comes to issues such as the ones at Boston Latin, it [...]
