You’re invited to an eclectic evening celebrating Women’s History Month. Enjoy a Renaissance comedy play co-written and performed by Chiara Durazzini, a short film from Bosnia-Herzegovina directed by Sanja Zdjelar, and Israeli artisanal pastries from Galit’s Treats! Laugh, cry, and break some bread (and pastries) together!
Free Admission and Free Refreshments! Everyone is welcome (not recommended for younger than 6 years).
March 25th, 5:00 pm
Newton City Hall, War Memorial Auditorium
If you are ready for winter to be over, start dusting off those running (or walking) shoes! The 26th annual Heartbreak Hill Road Race and Family Walk is a perfect way to shake off some of that cabin fever! Just one mile, up and down famed Heartbreak Hill! Every runner receives an official digital-clock time, a race medallion, goody bag and a free ticket to the pre-race pasta party at Newton City Hall on Saturday, April 14th.
The 1st, 2nd & 3rd place runners in each category win a trophy! The first 500 registrations receive a free t-shirt. There are free activities for kids organized by the Lasell College Special Events students.
Not a runner? Everyone can walk the course at 11:30. Registration is easy at www.newtoncommunitypride.org $10.00 child/$12.00 adult.
April 15th, Newton City Hall
Try the Y!
The Y is free and open to all on Mondays throughout March. Just stop by 276 Church
Street with a valid ID, and they’ll waive the regular guest fees.
Registration for Late Spring Programs
Registration for Late Spring Programs opens March 26th for Y members and April 2nd for the community. Programs begin the week of April 23rd. Some highlights include:
Visit wsymca.org to register online or stop by the Y’s Welcome Center at 276 Church Street, Newton.
School Holiday Programs on March 30th
The West Suburban YMCA is offering full day and half day program options on Good Friday.
Blue Waves Swim Try Outs
The Blue Waves Swim Team at the West Suburban YMCA is a nationally ranked competitive swim team for ages 6-17. All new swimmers looking to join the Blue Waves Swim Team for the Spring/Summer Long Course Season are required to try out. Try outs will be held April 3rd – 5th and swimmers must pre-register for a try out slot ($5 for members / $10 for non-members). Try out registration is available online at wsymca.org or by calling 617-244-6050 x3086.
Sign Up for Summer Camps!
All summer long, the West Suburban YMCA keeps kids engaged and safe with camp
programs. They inspire kids to work and play together, creating friendships that can last a
lifetime, and make sure all kids feel welcome and comfortable being themselves.
Registration is currently open for all WSYMCA summer camps! Sign up with a $100 deposit per session.
Day Camps – Weekly sessions, Monday-Friday, 9:00 am – 4:00 pm. Daily Swim lessons are included and extended care is available both in the morning and afternoon.
Camp Chickami is a traditional outdoor camp located in Wayland welcoming boys and girls ages 6-15. Bus transportation is available from the West Suburban YMCA and stops throughout Newton.
Camp Pikati, located at the West Suburban YMCA, welcomes kids between the ages of 3-15
years with a half-day option for our youngest campers (ages 3-4). Pikati campers enjoy weekly themes in the traditional camp program, or they can participate in Pikati Sports Camp.
Overnight Camp – Camp Frank A. Day is located in East Brookfield and welcomes boys and girls ages 7-15. Spanning 52 acres, Camp Frank A. Day has direct lake access with a beachfront, athletic fields, modern cabins, basketball courts, climbing towers and all the
facilities needed to run a fun and safe summer camp.
For more information on summer camps contact ca******@****ca.org, or call 617-244-
6050 x3008.
Summer Sessions from the YCCA (Ages 12 and up)
Summer Sessions is a one-of-a-kind collaborative summer music program where participants write and record their own songs over the course of two weeks.
Participants will build and improve upon the creative skills of songwriting, filming, audio
engineering, video editing, production, and instrumental or vocal performance while creating a complete, professional project featured on Spotify!
Session 1: July 2nd – 13th
Session 2: July 16th – 27th
Session 3: July 30th – August 10th
Session 4: August 13th – 24th
For more information, contact Kevin O’Connell at ke****@****ca.org or 617-244-6050
x3208.
Financial Assistance is always available for Y Memberships and Programs
The West Suburban YMCA is a non-profit charitable organization and it is our mission to never turn anyone away due to their inability to pay. Please contact the Membership Department at 617-244-6050 x3653 for financial assistance with membership or program participation.
Prospective families are invited to an Open House at a Sunday morning Jewish learning community. Join at 9:30 for z’man rishon, where everyone comes together for a weekly assembly. When the students go to class, there will be time to meet with the school director and hear about the outline of the program. After that, a parent volunteer will take you on a tour of the school so you can see the learning in action. Childcare will be provided upon request.
To sign up to participate, please contact our Director of Congregational Learning, Rabbi Shahar Colt – dc*@***********ek.org. For more information on the West Newton congregation, please visit https://dorsheitzedek.org/
April 29th, 9:30 – 11:30 am
Jewish Community Day School, 57 Stanley Avenue, Watertown
Join the Newton Food Pantry team participating in the Ride for Food! On September 23rd, their first ever team will be participating in this annual ride that supports food pantries, community farms and food rescue organizations and they need your help.
Why ride?
The NFP numbers demonstrate the need. They serve over 750 Newton residents each month and that number has been rising. There has been a 16% rise in the average number of households served in 2017.
Total Bags Distributed in 2017 = 16,381 (37% increase). $10,000+ matters. As an independent fully volunteer-run organization, every chance to raise significant amounts of money matters. Expand our community. Develop new friendships and deepen your own commitment to this effort to respond to food insecurity in our city.
How can you help?
How do you sign up?
Sign up by contacting Lisa Tieszen at la*******@***il.com or 617-875-9047.
Dear NPS Community,
On Monday night at the School Committee meeting, I shared with the community that the district is postponing the Family Conference scheduled for Saturday, March 24th. A new date has not yet been set, but we aim to reschedule the event in Fall 2018.
We are disappointed to postpone the conference as it has been such a valuable experience for participants in previous years. However, there are March for Our Lives events in Boston and across the country now occurring that afternoon and some of our facilitators and participants would like to attend. In order to have a successful conference, it is essential that we have the right facilitators there to share information and guide the conversations.
The Newton Family Conference is one way in which the Newton Public School District is seeking to create culturally responsive school communities. While the conference is postponed for now, our work with faculty and staff around Courageous Conversations on Race will continue, as laid out in our six-year plan. Families Organizing for Racial Justice (FORJ) will also continue to support parent/family groups as they seek to explore issues of race in their individual schools.
We look forward to continuing this work through the end of the year and hope that we will see you next fall at the Family Conference.
Sincerely,
David Fleishman
The Calculus Project at Newton’s middle and high schools is closing the achievement gap in higher-level mathematics. Newton Schools Foundation is honored for the third consecutive year to have a very generous donor who will match up to $25,000 in contributions from the community to the Calculus Project during the month of March.
The Calculus Project has been transformational for Newton students. Since the program’s 2013 launch, enrollment growth in higher-level mathematics among traditionally underrepresented student groups has been significant:
• Hispanic student enrollment has increased 70 percent.
• African-American student enrollment has tripled.
• Low-income student enrollment has increased nine-fold!
Additionally, the enrollment rate of Calculus Project 9th graders in honors math exceeds that of total Newton Public Schools 9th graders, and is nearly twice the rate of 9th graders who were eligible for The Calculus Project but did not participate.
Here’s how the program works: Students selected to participate in the Calculus Project attend intensive small-group summer classes to preview upcoming curriculum, boost their math skills, foster attitudes that support academic risk-taking and perseverance, and cultivate relationships among peers in the program.
The 2018 summer program includes Continue reading
Free Psychological First Aid training. Psychological First Aid has long been established as the gold standard of disaster responses. Created by a global team of experts, it is the only intervention endorsed by both the World Health Organization & the U.S. government for use in the aftermath of traumatic events.
The goal of this comprehensive two-day training is to prepare participants to deliver basic behavioral health disaster response skills following large-scale disasters or critical incidents, such as homicides, suicides, accidental deaths, & similarly distressing events.
This program is free & open to all. Nursing CEUs available. Registration is required. To sign up, go to region4bvolunteer.org and register as ‘guest’. For more information, view this flyer.
March 13th and 14th, 5:00 – 9:00 pm
345 Walnut Street, Newton
The City of Newton is developing a plan for a new electricity program called Newton Power Choice, which will provide an opportunity for Newton to significantly increase the amount of renewable energy in the community’s electricity supply. Newton Power Choice is a form of group purchasing known as an electricity aggregation.
Newton Power Choice will provide:
As a program participant, you will have greater control over the environmental characteristics and price of your electricity supply. You will receive a standard amount of renewable electricity automatically, above the minimum amount required by state law, without choosing any of the options. (The standard amount is still to be determined.) Continue reading