When Lou Pasquale was a 19-year-old machine gunner in World War II, he was badly injured when an Okinawa ammunition dump exploded. He prayed to God to spare his life for his mother, and promised he would help someone every day of his life from then on. After the war, Lou managed a bowling alley in Boston, and always looked after the kids who played there, giving them free shoes and games, driving them to school, counseling them and helping their families.
And almost seventy years later, Lou continues to keep his promise. For the past seven years, the vet has been raising money through candy bar sales and an annual golf tournament to buy specially-equipped vans to take injured veterans to their medical appointments. The Massachusetts Disabled American Veterans has been able to purchase 19 vans because of Lou’s efforts. That’s a lot of mileage out of one long-ago promise.
Tag: massachusetts
Growing Red Cranberries the Green Way
Twenty percent of the nation’s cranberry crop was enjoyed on Thanksgiving, and this year some cranberry farmers in Cape Cod have a new high-tech, water-saving growing system to be thankful for. Growing cranberries takes a lot of water. Farmers spray their cranberry bogs when temperatures dip because the water generates heat as it freezes, protecting the berries. The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave a conservation innovation grant to cranberry growers in Cape Cod so they could update their irrigation systems to include sensors that automatically detect when it’s time to turn on the water and when it’s time to turn it off instead of using old-fashioned manual watering. Switching to automated water delivery can save 280,000 gallons of water a season.
Boston Students Help Low-Income Families Get Online
Students at Northeastern University have formed a partnership with Comcast to help low-income Boston residents access the Internet. Comcast’s Internet Essentials program, which offers broadband access for $9.95 a month to any family with a child who qualifies for free lunch, recently marked its third anniversary, and has helped a million people across the country get online. As a part of the program, low-income families can purchase a computer for less than $150. In the coming year, Northeastern students will staff digital literacy training programs, and Comcast will publicize its low-income broadband access program throughout Boston.
Why 5 States Are Introducing Longer School Days
Schools in Connecticut, Colorado, Massachusetts, New York and Tennessee are redesigning their 2014-2015 schedules to include an extra 300 hours per year. Those hours will be used to provide students (most in high-poverty areas) with extra instruction and enrichment, like letting students experiment with personalized learning technologies or teaching them about world cultures, healthy living, foreign languages, independent study, and art. “We really did this because we really believe that students can benefit from these enrichment activities and the typical school does not accommodate all of that learning,” said one Connecticut superintendent.