BROOKLINE, MA, May 3, 2012 – Brookline Bank formally opened its doors to its newest location in Wellesley, located at 448 Washington Street, across from Whole Foods. The new branch will provide a convenient, second Wellesley location for personal and business banking customers to access Brookline Bank’s customized, flexible banking solutions. The Bank’s first Wellesley office is located in Lower Falls at 5 Washington Street.

A Grand Opening reception was held on May 1st and attended by Brookline Bank customers, Bank officers and local officials including: State Representative Alice Peisch, and Selectmen, Don McCauley and Katherine L. Babson, Jr.

The Bank marked the occasion by making a $5,000 “Founding” contribution to The Fund for Wellesley. Founded in 2008, The Fund is endowed fund that makes grants to deserving programs and projects for the benefit of Wellesley’s residents and the community as a whole. “We are grateful to Brookline Bank for their generous support for The Fund. We are excited that businesses like Brookline Bank are demonstrating their investment in the Wellesley community in this way.” said Amy Axelrod, Community Board Member of The Fund.

Pictured left to right: Paul Perrault, CEO, Brookline Bank, Laurel Lyle, Community Board Member of The Fund, Olena Pantyukhin Brookline Bank Wellesley Hills Branch Manager, Amy Axelrod, Community Board Member of The Fund and Jane Wolchonok, Senior Vice President, Brookline Bank.

State Representative Alice Peisch presented the bank with a citation commemorating the opening of the Bank’s newest branch. Jane Wolchonok, a Wellesley resident and Senior Vice President at Brookline Bank commented, “We are so pleased to have our new branch open for customers to enjoy. It has been designed to offer customers the most modern services in an elegant, inviting and comfortable setting.”
Pictured left to right: Jane Wolchonok, Senior Vice President, Brookline Bank and Alice Peisch, State Representative.

To showcase the new branch to local residents and businesses, Brookline Bank conducted a Grand Opening Celebration, offering daily drawings for gift certificates to the following Wellesley merchants:

The new branch is managed by Olena Pantyukhin, joined by Business Banking Officer, Edward Besinger and a staff of banking professionals who specialize in meeting the needs of both personal and business banking customers. The Wellesley Hills branch is open Monday through Saturday and has a 24-hour ATM located at the main entrance. With the addition of the new Wellesley Hills branch office, Brookline Bank now has 21 branches in Greater Boston.

Brookline Bank is a subsidiary of Brookline Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: BRKL), and is headquartered in Brookline, Massachusetts. A full-service financial institution, Brookline Bank provides individuals and businesses with deposit and lending services, residential mortgages and home equity lending, commercial and CRE lending, cash management, merchant services, and access to investment services. Brookline Bank operates 21 branches in the Greater Boston. For more information visit BrooklineBank.com. Member FDIC.

Amy Axelrod, Laurel Lyle and Ernie Parizeau

Congratulations to our Phund 4 Wellsly spellers Amy Axelrod, Laurel Lyle and Ernie Parizeau for nearly making it to the final round of the WEF Spelling Bee. They correctly spelled glossolalia, but went out on arachnophagous.

Wellesley — They’re truly a driving force in helping the town’s seniors gets around.

So on Thursday, Oct. 20, in the Arnold Room of the Wellesley Free Library, the Wellesley Council on Aging celebrated the success of its Volunteer Drivers Program.

The drivers were given appreciation certificates for their efforts, and Susan Hurwitz, chairman of the Fund for Wellesley, was presented a bouquet for her involvement in the program.

During the six-month pilot (Feb. 28, 2011, through Aug. 28, 2011), the Volunteer Drivers Program recruited and trained 30 volunteers. Twenty-six of them have provided rides. Of the 99 registered passengers, 52 have used the program. In total, the volunteers provided 333 rides to 91 destinations, logging 1,156 miles and 189 hours during the pilot period.

Getting started

In order to offer the Volunteer Drivers Program, said Gayle Thieme, director of the Wellesley Council on Aging, “we went to seek outside funding for it to be implemented and sustained.”

The program started with a $10,000 grant from The Fund for Wellesley and after “doing so well we went back to them to continue it,” Thieme said.

Since the program had met several objectives of The Fund for Wellesley — developing a strong sense of community, encouraging generosity, tolerance and appreciation of diversity, and integrating senior citizens into the life of the town — The Fund awarded the Wellesley Council on Aging a grant to continue the program through at least February 2012.

“The Fund for Wellesley is so supportive of the program,” said Thieme.

In addition to the $15,000 of grant money it has contributed for this specific program, the Fund for Wellesley has, in addition to that, contributed another $20,000 over time to the COA.

The proposal for the Volunteer Drivers Program was intended to help fill gaps in transportation for seniors.

According to Thieme, over the course of the last five years, through surveys, focus groups and face-to-face meetings, transportation has always ranked highest as a concern of seniors.

The COA did an assessment of all the kinds of transportation that exists for seniors, such as the COA bus, the MBTA’s The Ride, and Busy Bee Transportation.

Some seniors in town weren’t aware of or were overwhelmed about the variety of transportation options available, Thieme said.

Lois Camberg, the program coordinator for the Volunteer Drivers Program, has been educating seniors about their options.

Thieme wrote a grant proposal to Springwell aimed at helping seniors understand and make involved decisions about transportation choices. Now the COA is in the process of interviewing for a transportation options coordinator, whose position will be paid for by the Title 3 (federal money) one-year grant funded by Springwell.

“The Volunteer Drivers Program helps to fill the gaps,” Thieme said, but in certain instances there are better ride options available, she said.

When the ride requests come in, the COA spends time assessing the needs and can refer or coordinate for the rides.

“People need to know how to get where they want to go. It’s not where you need to go, but where you want to go,” Thieme said.

In the case of the Volunteer Drivers Program, the way the rides are matched is through a data base. At least once a day, the volunteer drivers receive an email with all of the pending rides. Drivers click on a button for a ride they can provide and Camberg calls them to make arrangements.

Although the COA prefers that drivers have access to email it isn’t necessary. The drivers can call in with their availability.

To become a volunteer driver, the volunteer meets with the program coordinator and fills out a form. The volunteer provides a copy of their driver’s license, their auto insurance coverage page and their registration.

The purpose of the Volunteer Drivers program is to build community. “The program is about neighbors helping neighbors,” Thieme said.

Everybody seems to be benefiting. Thieme said that some volunteer drivers have had their children with them when giving seniors rides and find it’s beneficial for them to be along for the ride. In one instance, some children in a grocery store spotted a senior to whom their mom had given a ride and were so excited they ran up to greet her.

Who needs the rides?

One fiercely independent rider who had had cataract surgery couldn’t drive, Thieme said. However, she wanted to continue her volunteer work at a Framingham family shelter, and before long the Volunteer Drivers Program had lined up volunteers to get her there.

A repeat customer of the volunteer driver program is normally very active, but has voluntarily given up driving. Now she even gets rides to her longtime hairdresser in another town.

Someone else gets a lift to Sunday Mass at St. Paul Church, and a woman who wanted to see her grandson performing in a school play in Holliston got a ride there.

Normally the catchment area for the program is in the MetroWest area — mainly Wellesley and contiguous towns, plus  Framingham since it’s such a shopping mecca. However, in some cases exceptions are made to get the seniors to outlying MetroWest towns. (The Volunteer Drives Program does not offer rides to Boston.)

The goal is to increase ridership in the Volunteer Drivers Program, Thieme said. “In order to do this we need to grow the pool of volunteers.” So far, the Volunteer Drivers Program has been able to fulfill all of the requests it has  received.

The Volunteer Drivers Program Committee supports Thieme and Camberg in their efforts. The committee includes Barbara Peacock-Coady, Shirley Quinn, Penny Lawrence and Susan Rosefsky, who have been involved since the beginning. Thieme said that Peacock-Coady went out to between three to five communities to do research before the program was established in Wellesley.

“Just because you can’t drive anymore doesn’t mean you have to be confined to your home,” Thieme said.

To obtain a ride, call the Volunteer Drivers Program: 508-479-9301, or email drive@wellesleyma.gov.

Read more: Wellesley Council on Aging’s Volunteer Drivers Program a success – Wellesley, Massachusetts – The Wellesley Townsman

ESL classes up and running at various Wellesley locations

By Staff reports
Posted Sep 22, 2011 @ 05:46 PM
Source Article

Individual writing styles will be evaluated and basic grammatical instruction will be provided at these writing classes led by Jacqueline Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick has been a one-on-one ESL tutor for two years. She is a retired middle school English teacher who also taught at community colleges and later worked as a reference librarian at Wellesley College.

Participants in a Wellesley ESL Program.

Fitzpatrick’s plans for the writing class include 15 solid minutes of writing work. The rest of the time will be devoted to answering questions to help the students work through any problems that are revealed by the writing samples. The intent is to make sure the finished product it is the students’ own writing in their own voice.

Fitzpatrick is looking forward to helping ESL students learn about English language grammar and sentence structure. She was inspired by one of her current ESL students, who is working hard to pass the American citizenship exam. Fitzpatrick has been helping her study the naturalization booklet. “She wants to know everything American!” says Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick also occasionally leads the weekly ESL conversation classes held at Hills Branch Library. “It is a very satisfying and fun thing to do,” said Fitzpatrick. Based on these experiences, both she and Wellesley ESL Coordinator Philippa Biggers believe the new writing class will be successful. “I am excited and anxious to start.”

Wellesley’s ESL Program is made possible through a generous grant from The Fund for Wellesley, administered by the Wellesley Free Library, with additional assistance from Wellesley Friendly Aid. Beginner classes are held at Barton Road and Wellesley’s senior housing complexes as well as at the Main and Hills Libraries. ESL students at all levels are welcome to attend Conversation Class, held every Thursday from 10:30 a.m. to noon at the Hills Branch Library.

Anyone interested in receiving training to become an ESL tutor can attend a six-week class to be held on Friday mornings this fall at the Main Library. To sign up for classes and trainings, or for more information about any aspect of the Wellesley ESL program, contact Philippa Biggers at 781-591-1247 or email wellesleyESL@minlib.net.

Read more: ESL classes up and running at various Wellesley locations – Wellesley, Massachusetts – The Wellesley Townsman http://www.wickedlocal.com/wellesley/archive/x789273499/ESL-classes-up-and-running-at-various-Wellesley-locations#ixzz1YmLNiwDH