1 12, 2023

Victor Baldassari: A Community Champion and the Heart of Kickoff for Kids

2023-12-01T17:42:04-05:00December 1st, 2023|Categories: Featured, Happenings, Lifestyle|Comments Off on Victor Baldassari: A Community Champion and the Heart of Kickoff for Kids

By Ginger DeShaney When Victor Baldassari was told he was being considered for an ABCD Community Heroes Award for his work with Kickoff for Kids, he asked if it could be a group award. “There's a couple of us that make the magic happen down there,” Victor said. But ABCD doesn’t present group awards.  So he had to think about it. “It’s not just Victor Baldassari,” he said, crediting Kickoff for Kids founder Allison Baker and Al Mallon, as well as Jackie Beggan, Lily Joyce, Haley Dillon, Ashley Miller, Lisa Maki, and DCR’s Bobby Ferrara. But after some contemplation, and a push from his cohorts, he decided to accept the honor, which was handed out in November. “Victor is the heart and soul of Kickoff [...]

2 11, 2023

Community Effort: Seven2 Foundation Rallies Support for Kids, Small Businesses

2023-11-02T15:09:44-04:00November 2nd, 2023|Categories: Featured, Happenings, Lifestyle|Comments Off on Community Effort: Seven2 Foundation Rallies Support for Kids, Small Businesses

By Ginger DeShaney Campbell Marchant has been in South Boston since March 2022, but he’s already making an impact on the neighborhood.  After getting the lay of the land last November and not wanting to step on any toes, Campbell launched his first Southie Kids Food Drive 12 days before Thanksgiving, raising $7,000 for 700 meals for kids at the Condon, Tynan, Excel High School, and more.  This year, his goal is to raise $30,000 for 2,000 meals for Boston Public Schools students and others in need. He’s already at $10,000 and has a Southie Kids Food Drive fundraiser at Capo on Nov. 9 from 6-9 p.m. “I’d like everyone to be aware of the work we are doing. We’ve put long hours into this [...]

27 10, 2023

Over Thirty and Under Three: Bob Monahan

2023-10-27T08:47:09-04:00October 27th, 2023|Categories: Lifestyle|Comments Off on Over Thirty and Under Three: Bob Monahan

The series features residents who have made SB home for more than thirty years or fewer than three by alternating weeks.) South Boston non-profit leader and engaged community member, Bob Monahan, has made South Boston home for all of his sixty-nine years. He has never stopped appreciating and working toward better lives for the families in a familiar and changing landscape. It is here that his values and aspirations developed, and his contributions and professional life shaped. At every bend, he credits his late mother, Marion Monahan. “Growing up as one of five brothers, we played sports, went to see whatever was happening in the city, played in the streets. What really mattered though were the examples of people giving back, and that hasn’t changed,” [...]

24 10, 2023

Over Thirty and Under Three: Julia Sprofera

2023-10-24T09:44:16-04:00October 24th, 2023|Categories: Featured, Lifestyle|Comments Off on Over Thirty and Under Three: Julia Sprofera

Twenty-five-year-old Julia Sprofera grew up in Medfield, went to college at Wake Forest in North Carolina, worked in Charlotte, but it seems as if she was destined to call South Boston home. “I knew I had to come “home” to Massachusetts after working for a year in Charlotte and so looked at a lot of neighborhoods. South Boston appealed to me because it was more of a community,” she said. Moving from apartment to apartment over three years, she is busy without seeming pressured. Working at Arbella Insurance, and pursuing an MBA at Boston College, Julia listens, observes, and engages. She has developed an appreciation of South Boston, and a recognition that it is not always easy for those who have been in the community [...]

19 10, 2023

Lifting Spirits of Deployed Soldiers, One Care Package at a Time

2023-10-19T18:33:54-04:00October 19th, 2023|Categories: Featured, Happenings, Lifestyle|Comments Off on Lifting Spirits of Deployed Soldiers, One Care Package at a Time

By Ginger DeShaney Coming from a military family, Kelly Conroy has always been passionate about taking care of soldiers. “Our troops don't get what they need and certainly not what they deserve,” said the lifelong South Bostonian. “I feel like it's something we can do just to lift them up. Some of them are just so young and they're so far away from home. “It's such a big sacrifice on everyone. I just figured, you know, if I can do a little something, why not?” Kelly isn’t doing a little something. She’s doing a BIG something. After years of sending care packages to a handful of soldiers, she has kicked it up several notches by becoming a local organizer for the AdoptaPlatoon organization. Her Adopt [...]

6 10, 2023

Over Thirty and Under Three: Dolly Pickup

2023-10-06T09:06:24-04:00October 6th, 2023|Categories: Featured, Lifestyle|Comments Off on Over Thirty and Under Three: Dolly Pickup

Dolly Pickup has lived all of her sixty-three years in South Boston and could write her own book about a community she knows from experience at four 02127 addresses. Asked about almost anything and she quickly recollects the history of an area, business, family or landscape. One of the eight children, with grandparents and extended family houses away, has raised four daughters in South Boston, ran her own day care program, and commutes to her job at the Copley Fairmount Hotel. She chooses to focus on her joy and pride in all of life, and not on the challenges that required her to work hard and stay on course. “We had it all,” she said, recounting days of skating on a flooded “M” St. Park, [...]

29 09, 2023

Over Thirty and Under Three

2023-09-29T08:42:00-04:00September 29th, 2023|Categories: Featured, Lifestyle|Comments Off on Over Thirty and Under Three

(This series features those who have made South Boston home for thirty years plus and those who are new to the neighborhood.) If you are ever tempted to think that all new neighbors to South Boston, bring ill-regard and annoyance to the treasured neighborhood, you haven’t met Alabama born and raised, Alan Barlow. At twenty-seven, he completed undergraduate and graduate degrees in Alabama, is a Physician’s Assistant and visited forty-eight states. He has now landed in South Boston, the only place he has lived outside of Mobile. “I absolutely love my job at Mass. Eye and Ear,” he said. “Everyone who works there seems to want to be there. I randomly applied through Indeed, and interviewed at other Boston places, too, but I couldn’t have [...]

15 09, 2023

Over Thirty Years in South Boston Featuring: Lynn Morris

2023-09-15T08:36:24-04:00September 15th, 2023|Categories: Featured, Lifestyle|Comments Off on Over Thirty Years in South Boston Featuring: Lynn Morris

Over Thirty Years in South Boston Featuring: Lynn Morris By Carol Masshardt (This series will introduce people who have called South Boston home for more than thirty years and others for three and under) Any neighborhood would be lucky to have a Lynn Morris, and South Boston has been that for the past fifty-eight years. Working for over twenty-five years in Corporate and Event Marketing and Graphic Design, Lynn still manages to keep a loving and astute eye on the neighborhood where she was born, raised and lives. She represents the best of South Boston to those who have known her for generations and the many who move in from different states, cities, and countries. Her roots are deep but that doesn’t imply a lack [...]

5 08, 2023

Back Home

2023-08-05T11:10:21-04:00August 5th, 2023|Categories: Education, Featured, Happenings, Lifestyle|Comments Off on Back Home

Josh Davis Returns to Southie to Take Helm at Boys & Girls Club By Ginger DeShaney Josh Davis’ career has come full circle. His first job after graduating from Tulane with a degree in Sociology was Education Director at the Edgerley Family South Boston Boys & Girls Club from 2001-2007. He then held several other positions with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, including Director at the Orchard Gardens and Dearborn Clubs, before coming back to Southie to replace Harry Duvall as Executive Director.  “Ever since I was able to work, I was working with children in some capacity,” said Josh, who credits his passion to his parents. “Just the idea of giving back to the community has always been instilled in me since [...]

28 07, 2023

Smooth Sailing

2023-07-28T11:49:46-04:00July 28th, 2023|Categories: Education, Featured, Happenings, Lifestyle|Comments Off on Smooth Sailing

Harry McDonough Sailing Center’s Free Program Unlocks Ocean's Magic for Local Youth By Ginger DeShaney It may just be the most unique summer experience for youths in South Boston. Or anywhere else, for that matter. The nonprofit Harry McDonough Sailing Center, in existence since 1972, spreads the love of sailing and the ocean by teaching youngsters how to sail. For free. The center’s mission is to provide inner-city youth with a fun, safe, and accessible environment while promoting positive life skills and values through sailing. There are sailing lessons in the morning and open sailing in the afternoon. There’s also swimming (in a designated area), paddleboarding, kayaking, friendship, and so much more. “It's an amazing activity to do in the summer,” said Wil Hingston, assistant [...]

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