ORR Swimming Summer Soiree

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It is that time of year again! The Second Annual Summer Soiree at the Inn at Shipyard Park in Mattapoisett brought to you by the Friends of Old Rochester Swimming. The event will be held on August 2, from 5:00 to 8:00pm at the Inn at Shipyard Park. There will be plenty of appetizers as well as a silent auction. Items for the silent auction include Patriots tickets, 4 RT tickets on the Cuttyhunk Ferry, a 9hp outboard motor, and many other great items. Tickets are $25 each. Please email orrbulldogswimming@gmail.com for tickets or more information. Monies raised by this event go directly to support the ORR Varsity Swim Team, which will begin its second season this November.

National Night Out Highlights Prevention

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The Tri-Town will host its inaugural National Night Out event on Tuesday, August 6, 5:00 pm at Old Rochester Regional High School.

Though National Night Out focuses on crime and drug prevention, it does so with an emphasis on community policing, presenting an opportunity for residents and first responders to meet, discuss and build camaraderie. While most small towns are unable to hold National Night Out events because of personnel demands at any given time, Marion Police Department Public Information Officer Karen Ballinger said this edition is emblematic of the cooperation typically enjoyed by Tri-Town departments.

“We work together so cohesively in Marion, Mattapoisett and Rochester, that it only made sense to get everyone together to meet each other,” Ballinger said. “Our main goal is to get residents and EMS, Police and Fire acquainted not just professionally, but in a friendly way, too. We’re able to do that because of the three communities coming together.”

The Marion Harbormaster Department and Marion Recreation Department – as well as the Southeastern Law Enforcement Council, Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department K-9 Unit and Massachusetts Air National Guard – will also have representatives in attendance.

Admission to the event is free, and gift bags will be given out to the first 150 children. There will be music, food, a moonwalk, basketball, and photo ops with first responder vehicles. Handi Mandi will do free face painting.

For more information, call 508-748-1212.

By Shawn Badgley

Tri-Town Graduates and Awards

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Henry Blanchette of Marion graduated from Tufts University with a Bachelor’s degree in Biology.

Ryan Muther, a Computer Science and History major from Marion, was named to the Dean’s List at Union College for the 2012-13 academic year.

Marion Concert Band

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On Friday, August 2, the Marion Concert Band will continue its Friday evening concert series with a program of music from the Broadway stage. The program, which includes highlights from some of Broadway’s most memorable shows, is as follows:

The Purple Carnival March – H. Alford; Broadway Show-Stoppers Overture – arr. W. Barker; O Mio Babbino Caro – G. Puccini; Tracy Gendreau, soprano; Selections from Wicked – S. Schwartz; The Showman – H. Akers; Opening Night on Broadway – arr. M. Brown; People (from Funny Girl) – J. Styne; Tracy Gendreau, soprano; West Side Story Selections – L. Bernstein; Selections from My Fair Lady – F. Loewe; American Legion March – C. Parker

Tracy Gendreau is a cantor at Holy Name Church (Fall River) and teaches Musical Theatre at the Onstage Academy of Performing Arts in Fall River. Her recent theatrical credits include Glinda/Auntie Em for the Little Theatre of Fall River’s performance of The Wizard of Oz, The Baroness in The Sound of Music, the Mother in the opera Amahl & the Night Visitors and Maggie in Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (all with LTFR). Gendreau has sung in an American Pop review in Downtown Disney, Orlando, for the Magic Music days program, the Rockin’ America review at Disney (2009) as well as the Swingin’ on a Star Musical review in several venues in Tenn. (2007).

The concert, under the direction of Tobias Monte, will begin at 7:30 pm at the Robert Broomhead Bandstand, Island Wharf, off of Front Street in Marion.

Stop Harassing Local Dog Owners

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To the Editor:

About two weeks ago, you ran a letter from a reader complaining about dog feces on Ned’s Point Road. I walk on that road every day with my dog and rarely ever see any dog droppings. However, I do see miscellaneous paper cups, napkins, wrappers, etc., from local fast-food restaurants. Perhaps town resources should be used to clean up the street rather than harassing local dog owners.

Art Layton

Mattapoisett

 

The views expressed in the “Letters to the Editor” column are not necessarily those of The Wanderer, its staff or advertisers. The Wanderer will gladly accept any and all correspondence relating to timely and pertinent issues in the great Marion, Mattapoisett and Rochester area, provided they include the author’s name, address and phone number for verification. We cannot publish anonymous, unsigned or unconfirmed submissions. The Wanderer reserves the right to edit, condense and otherwise alter submissions for purposes of clarity and/or spacing considerations. The Wanderer may choose to not run letters that thank businesses, and The Wanderer has the right to edit letters to omit business names. The Wanderer also reserves the right to deny publication of any submitted correspondence.

Open Space Survey

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To the Editor:

It’s time to wake up. The survey that is available on the Mattapoisett town website needs to be addressed by the people who live here. As of the last Conservation Committee meeting, only 49 responses had been received. Don’t start complaining when things are happening to your town that you don’t like. Express your feelings as to how Open Space should be should be managed in your town. Don’t just be sheep and allow someone else to make your decisions. Go to the town website and click on the button that says “Open Space Survey” and answer the questions. It might take five minutes to complete. And it might have a lasting effect on your home.

Paul E. Osenkowski

Mattapoisett

 

The views expressed in the “Letters to the Editor” column are not necessarily those of The Wanderer, its staff or advertisers. The Wanderer will gladly accept any and all correspondence relating to timely and pertinent issues in the great Marion, Mattapoisett and Rochester area, provided they include the author’s name, address and phone number for verification. We cannot publish anonymous, unsigned or unconfirmed submissions. The Wanderer reserves the right to edit, condense and otherwise alter submissions for purposes of clarity and/or spacing considerations. The Wanderer may choose to not run letters that thank businesses, and The Wanderer has the right to edit letters to omit business names. The Wanderer also reserves the right to deny publication of any submitted correspondence.

Old Colony Teacher Attends Camp

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Old Colony’s Metal Fabrication and Joining teacher, Kris Garcia, attended the first-ever ASM Materials Science camp at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston during the second week of July. Twenty-two teachers, mainly science teachers or technical-education teachers, attended the 5-day workshop. They learned the basics of Materials Science and its applications, and conducted many labs and activities which elucidated the properties of materials, and which are low-cost and suitable for students.

Materials Science involves physics, chemistry and engineering and is called “the enabling technology”: most inventions rely on some new material with special properties. New England is a center of Materials Science research and development work, and there is always a need for experts in this field. All those attending said at the end of the week, that they had learned many new ways to engage their students in the coming school year, and they thought that many of the activities would be “fun and fascinating” for the students, and easy to integrate into their lessons.

The camp was free for the teachers. Major contributions to the camp’s organization were made by the Educational Foundation, and the Boston and Rhode Island chapters of ASM International, the National Association of Corrosion Engineers, and also by local companies H.C. Starck Inc. of Newton, Instron Corp. of Norwood and Wyman- Gordon of Grafton, as well as Wentworth Institute of Technology. For more information, see the ASM website at www.asminternational.org.

ORR Revue Celebrates Irving Berlin

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In planning Old Rochester Regional High School’s 2013 Alumni Summer Production, Director Paul Sardinha was forced to drop the contemporary in favor of the classic just four days before auditions were set to start.

Because a Broadway touring company was presenting “Legally Blonde” within a certain geographical radius and time frame, rights issues dictated that Sardinha and his crew find a new musical.

“It was two months before we were going to open,” said Sardinha, who has led the Drama Club for 21 of his 24 years at ORR. “We needed to produce something really quick.”

So, he and his Assistant Director, Sheila Furtado, reached back into the past for a show they put together in 1995: The “Irving Berlin Revue.” Their celebration of the legendary songwriter’s catalog had found success in locales as close as the Marion Art Center and as far-flung as Bainbridge Performing Arts in Seattle.

“It’s a great journey across Irving Berlin’s huge body of work,” Sardinha said. “It’s family-oriented, cabaret-style, with black dresses and tuxedos and costume pieces and props. Everybody knows at least 10 of these songs.”

The revue, at two and a half hours, contains 40 songs, including “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” “Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better,” “My Wife’s Gone to the Country,” and “God Bless America.” The cast is comprised of 46 ORR Drama Club alumni and current students.

Conductor Michael Amaral, Class of 2007, said he was commuting from Danvers, where he teaches music, to participate in the production.

“It’s a thrill to be back working with Paul and Sheila,” Amaral said. “This is my third alumni production. It’s always nice to be back. Paul says ‘Jump,’ and I say ‘How high?’”

During a recent rehearsal, Sardinha, Furtado, Amaral and Costume Designer Helen Blake took the cast through various numbers and exercises for upward of three hours on a Wednesday evening, with opening night a week away. Furtado, for her part, was impressed.

“These are young adults who understandably had little concept of the Great American Songbook,” she said. “Their homework was to YouTube all of the videos. They are embracing it, enjoying it, and making it their own. I admire them. These young voices doing the songs: It gives me goose bumps.”

The “Irving Berlin Revue” runs August 1, 2 and 3 at 7:30 pm, and August 4 at 2:00 pm, at the ORR Auditorium. Tickets ($15 general admission/$12 students and seniors) are available at the Marion General Store, the Plumb Corner Market and Pen & Pendulum. For more information, call 774-265-0081.

By Shawn Badgley

Life Along the Shore

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The Marion Natural History Museum’s Life Along the Shore program enjoyed learning a little something about the crabs that inhabit the Marion shoreline during the July 2013 session. Photos courtesy of Elizabeth Leidhold

House to Be Moved on Delano Road

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A house dating to 1690 at 370 Delano Road will be moved to another location on the same property. Owners Thomas and Susan Dexter presented their plans to the Commission and said that the dwelling would be moved from 370 Delano Road to 366 Delano Road onto a new foundation south of the old dwelling. A 14-by-20-foot addition and a deck between the existing dwelling and the moved dwelling will be built.

In other business, the Commission took under consideration a Request for Determination of Applicability to demolish and reconstruct a dwelling at 16 South Street, as well as construct a gravel driveway to access the new garage.

Next up was a discussion about a Notice of Intent for a six-acre parcel on Planting Island to landscape. The proposed work includes trimming or removal of select trees, underbrush, and ground cover, and the replacement of said vegetation as shown on the Landscape Design Plan presented to the Conservation Commission. A spirited discussion followed the presentation, and the Commission agreed to revisit the extensive property and meet again with the owners.

In committee, the group agreed to respond in favor of the Marion Zoning Board of Appeals request for comments regarding the request to slightly relocate the access road/driveway in order to eliminate the bridge entry into the proposed complex.

By Joan Hartnett-Barry