The scoop on hoop

Some 200 Wellesley College seniors, many wearing academic gowns, rambled across campus this morning for the 113th Annual Hoop Rolling competition. Students needed to roll the wooden hoops by any means and the winner, Rachel Goldstein of Bloomfield Hills, Mich. (shown here), got tossed into Lake Waban by classmates after finishing the 1/8 of a mile course. Goldstein is a political science and women's studies major.

Video of start of 2008 Wellesley College hoop rolling competition 

MassBay art exhibit opens in May

The annual Massachusetts Bay Community College (MassBay) Student Artist Exhibit will be held May 1-29, 2008 in the Felix Juliani Art Gallery. The exhibit will feature works from 32 MassBay students in the disciplines of landscape, the figure, fantasy, portraits, still life, and architecture.

Wellesley memories of 2008 Boston Marathon

Thanks to Rich Gastwirt for sending along these excellent pictures from the Wellesley portion of the Boston Marathon. Top to bottom: eventual winner Robert Cheruiyot (bib #1), Dick and Rick Hoyt, and a very brave Yankees fan.

Clean-up along the Charles Saturday

NRC's 9th Annual Wellesley Earth Day Clean-up, 9 a.m.- 12 noon on Saturday, April 26.  Free refreshments and T- Shirts. Meet at the intersection of River St., and Rt. 16 to help clean up along the Charles River.  Sponsored by the Natural Resources Commission and the Charles River Watershed Assoc.

Wellesley's fleetest

Congratulations to Jonathan Fortescue (time of 2:44:02) and Amanda Zarle (3:16:48), Wellesley's fastest male and female runners in today's Boston Marathon. More results. 

Sexy in the suburbs

An outfit called In Full Force is holding an event called Fabulous in Full Force West of Boston at the Bentley Boston Dealership in Wayland on May 1 from 6-10pm. The event is designed to celebrate the fabulousness of women in Wellesley and neighboring communities, bringing them all together with area businesses, including Lyn Evans for Potpourri Designs of Wellesley. The event will feature gourmet food, music, a fashion show and more.

Author Rick Riordan coming to Wellesley 

Rick Riordan, author of the popular Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, is coming to Wellesley Middle School on May 10 at 3pm (doors open at 2:30pm) for a free public event. His new book, coming out in May, is called The Battle of the Labyrinth. Event hosted by Wellesley Booksmith, which is also holding a raffle in advance of the event that will reward winners with a chance to meet separately with Riordan.

The book on Wellesley

Have you ever seen those photographic history books with the sepia-toned images on the cover about Framingham, Needham and other local communities and wondered: Why isn't there one on Wellesley? Now there is.

The book, being made available in May by Arcadia Publishing, was written by Jennifer Jovin, curator of the Newton History Museum. She traces Wellesley's development since the 19th century. We'll share some more on this when we get ahold of a copy.

Organ transplant, Wellesley style

The Eagle Tribune reports that St. John the Evangelist Church in Wellesley Hills is installing an Opus 1531 pipe organ from a Lawrence church that was shuttered 3 years ago as part of the Boston archdiocese church closings. From the story:

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime event," said Laurence Carson, organist at St. John. "You rarely see it in pieces, and it's not every day that you see it being built."

A Jaguar or the Taj Mahal. Now which is it?

Critics of the Wellesley High School building plans argue that whichever of the two options gets the go ahead is going to be over the top.  In its recap of the town's recent vote to move ahead with the high school building project, the Globe quotes a couple of high profile critics:

* Gerry Murphy, a Town Meeting member and, for 36 years, a teacher at Wellesley High School, urged the assembly to reject the funding request.... "We can have any one of two models of a Jaguar as long as it's a Jaguar," he said. "Why can't we have a Saab or a Toyota? 

*  "This high school is not a Taj Mahal," said longtime Town Meeting member Roy Switzler, "but it's a palace in both of the versions that are offered to us."

Wellesley in pictures

Wellesley is a favorite topic of the photographer who shares  pictures on this web site.