Sam Carter
Two famous landmarks on Cape Ann were visited yesterday by two globe-trotting Scottish terriers who have developed a cult following by other Scottie owners, thanks to a Web site frequently updated by the dogs’ owners.
Boone and Kenzie, ages 6 and 3, respectively, stopped to have their photos taken at the Man at the Wheel statue on the Boulevard and at Motif No. 1 in Rockport around noontime yesterday, and even had a short photo session with Gloucester Mayor John Bell.
The two small dogs were invited to visit Cape Ann by Rockport resident Ballee Bordinaro, a Scottie lover who has watched via the Internet the daily progress of Boone and Kenzie as they and their owners have traveled across the country.
Owners Ben and Shelby Dobbs, both 29, have been on the road since the end of March, stopping at cities and towns on a route that has gone south from their hometown of Seattle, through Oregon, Utah and Texas, over to Florida and up the east coast to Massachusetts. Next they will go through New York and the midwest, and expect to be back in Washington state by the end of this month.
Last year’s travels took them to 11 European nations, including, but not limited to, stops at the Eiffel Tower, Vatican City, the Pantheon and Monte Carlo. It seems, then, that Boone and Kenzie have made more international visits than a huge
number of humans.
As for how the Dobbs can afford to spend so much time traveling, they explained that Microsoft Corporation employs them to handle online marketing, and that leaves ample time for them to work from home. Getting business done on the road is not a problem, they said, unless the hotels they stay in do not have Internet access or, worse, are not pet friendly.
ScottieTails.com, Boone and Kenzie’s Web site, is updated almost daily by the Dobbs, and includes a recent trip to Fenway Park in Boston. No doubt the photos of their visit to Cape Ann will be up soon.
Locks of Love donation
Six-year-old Diane Story watched without trepidation as her hair stylist cut in mere seconds what years of patience had taken to grow. With a few snips of her scissors, Lisa Jenkins sliced through Story’s fine brunette strands and held up the remains of her 10-inch ponytail.
The ponytail was handed to Story’s mother, Darlene Story, and then went into a plastic Ziploc bag, ready to be mailed to Locks of Love.
“I read about (donating my ponytail to Locks of Love) in my Highlights magazine,” Diane wrote in a note that went with the bag, “and I hope this helps.”
It was yet another display of caring by a child for other children. Locks of Love takes donated ponytails 10 inches in length or longer and uses the hair to make custom hairpieces, costing anywhere from $3,500 to $6,000, for children who are undergoing cancer treatment or, more commonly, alopecia areata.
But Diane’s story is not as common as other little girls’. She was born almost 15 weeks premature, weighing a paltry 1 1/2 pounds, and spent 110 days recovering in Children’s Hospital Boston.
She considers herself lucky, and, according to her mother, has been thinking of the welfare of other children before her own for the last couple of years. Donating her hair to Locks of Love is just one of the many ways she wants to help others and hopes her story will inspire other little girls to do the same.
When she grows up, Diane wants to go to Africa and help less-fortunate children there. Today she will be at Stage Fort Park helping the Clean City Initiative pick up trash.
But despite her positive civic nature, Diane is still an average little girl. She is signed up to play T-Ball this spring and summer and loves going to her kindergarten class at East Gloucester Elementary School.
For others interested in donating to Locks of Love, see the organization’s Web site: www.LocksOfLove.org.
Research vessel departs this morning
The ocean research vessel Odyssey, a 93-foot, steel-hulled ketch built in New Zealand 32 years ago, is departing Gloucester’s inner harbor at 7 a.m. today, bound for a shakedown cruise to the Bahamas.
Iain Kerr, the ship’s captain and CEO of The Ocean Alliance, said yesterday he and the 10 other crew members are sad to be leaving Gloucester after having spent almost 10 months at Marine Railways Inc., overhauling onboard equipment and welding new steel plates to the hull.
But, Kerr added, he expects the Odyssey will be back in the area in about two months after spending a few weeks out at sea to research beaked whales, which are particularly vulnerable to oceanic noise pollution.
The Ocean Alliance was created 18 years ago by Roger Payne, who discovered in the 1960s that humpback whales sing to each other, and who in a 1979 National Geographic article predicted that pollution would replace the harpoon as next great threat to whales.
Odyssey and its crew pulled into Gloucester last July after an 80,000-mile, five-year circumnavigation, in which about 250 visiting scientists conducted research at various marine locations. Kerr said one surprising find was the abundance of pollutants in the most remote places on Earth.
“In the middle of the Pacific we found high levels of chromium and hexachlorobenzene, a fungicide,” he said. “We found industrial and agricultural chemicals in the middle of nowhere.”
Information gathered by Odyssey scientists is used to educate U.S. legislators and the public about just how volatile the pollutants are in the ocean, and how sustained, low-level exposure to those pollutants can be more dangerous to humans and other lifeforms than rapid, high-level exposures.
Recently the Odyssey was used as the base platform for filming the IMAX movie, “Whales: The IMAX Experience,” which is currently showing at the New England Aquarium. More information regarding the vessel’s current operations can be found on The Ocean Alliance’s Web site: OceanAlliance.org.
Spring chamber music concert
A special spring concert will be held a week from tomorrow, featuring a Bulgarian violinist, a Polish cellist and a Peruvian pianist. Violinist Biliana Voutchkova and cellist Agnieszka Dziubak will be performing together under the name “Duokaya,” with accompaniment from pianist Hwaen Choque in music composed by Ravel, Gubiadulina and Hughes.
The string duo will be in the area performing at Salem State College as part of the Distinguished Artists Series, and they have been invited to Rockport by Dr. Phillip Swanson, who teaches at Salem in addition to being music director at the First Congregational Church in Rockport.
Voutchkova has played with the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra and the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra, as well as with the New England String Ensemble. She has played at some of the world’s most celebrated concert venues, including the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Jordon Hall in Boston, and the Manuel de Falla Auditorium in Granada, Spain.
Dziubak has performed throughout Europe and North America and has received top honors at numerous international music competitions, including the Hamburg International Chamber Music Competition and the Artist International Music Association Competition in Toronto.
The concert will be held at 4 p.m. next Sunday, April 29, at the First Congregational Church on School Street in Rockport. Tickets are $15 for general admission, $10 for seniors and students. Tickets are available at the door or may be reserved in advance by calling Cynthia Westland at the church office at 978-546-6638 or sending an e-mail to: OldSloopR@aol.com.
Finding God through U2
The West Gloucester Trinitarian Congregational Church will hold a six-week series on “Finding God Through U2,” as a follow-up to the congregation’s successful U2 Eucharist workshop services.
The Rev. Christopher Ney said the series, which started Wednesday this week, will employ recorded music, video clips, concert footage, Bible study and discussion.
“Our experience with the U2 Eucharist has been so powerful,” Ney said. “This curriculum is the next step to engage seekers and believers in conversation about some of the issues that matter most in our world today.”
Two U2 Eucharist services have been held since November, designed to raise awareness and funds to overcome extreme poverty and HIV/AIDS in less-fortunate parts of the world. The services involved more than 120 people and raised more than $1,300 for local and international organizations.
“God offers so many different paths to discovering the sacred in our lives,” Ney said, “and popular music is just one more way that God can reach us.”
The series will take a break this coming Wednesday, April 25, but will continue on Wednesday, May 2, at 7 p.m. and run every Wednesday through the rest of May.
Time to celebrate at YMCA
YMCA staff and volunteers on the Cape will commend five individuals who have demonstrated leadership and philanthropy in their communities.
The Distinguished Service Award this year goes to two recipients. Wilfred Gouzie and Joseph Orange, known as “Uncle Will” and “Uncle Joe,” have both touched the lives of thousands of Cape Ann students and athletes, many of whom are now parents or grandparents.
Gouzie first became involved with the YMCA back when Camp Spindrift was called Camp Allen Earle, and he was involved in every aspect of summer camp life.
Orange came to Gloucester from New York and quickly became the Y’s physical director. He was known as a stickler for safety in the pool. He also has an affinity for classical literature, poetry and Shakespeare. People on Cape Ann still remember the dory Gouzie and Orange spent months restoring, which sank the minute it was launched.
The Youth of the Year Award will be presented to Christopher Brayton, who, now 17 years old, has been a YMCA member since he was 5. By the time he was 14, Brayton was already a counselor-in-training at Camp Spindrift. Typical of Brayton’s drive and dedication, he was first asked to fill in for an instructor for one week, but was so well-liked by the children that he took over the program.
The Dedication to Youth Award will be presented to Dale Black, who grew up lobstering off the Rockport coast and paid his way through college with money he earned from tending 200 traps. He went on to teach high school students for 39 years, and in 1990 became the Y’s after-school program coordinator in Rockport. He retired from teaching in 2005 and offered to take up the before-school program as well as the after-school program. In the 17 years that he has been Rockport’s coordinator, Black has missed only one day, the day he retired from teaching.
The Cape Ann YMCA President’s Award will be presented to Jamie S. Mayer, who grew up in the Y’s programs starting 23 years ago. In 1997 he first began working with the small fries (kids ages 4 to 6) at Camp Spindrift and has not looked back. He now teaches Saturday morning swim lessons to preschoolers and is a Head Start teacher at Pathways for Children. In Mayer’s words, he cannot justify living in Gloucester and not being involved with the YMCA.
Staff Tenure Awards will be presented to: Lisa Kangas and Marlee Nelson, 20+ years; Grover Cronin, Steve Panunzio and Carleen Muniz, 10 years; and Mamadou Diop, Robert Lopilato and Jolena Rogers, 5 years.
The Annual Celebration Event will be held at the Gloucester House Restaurant on Thursday. A cocktail/hors d’oeuvres hour will take place from 6 to 7 p.m., with the awards ceremony from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
Taekwondo Kick-a-Thon
Demetri’s Taekwondo Academy on Main Street in Gloucester will feature a Kick-a-Thon on Thursday evening to raise money for monthly special-needs dances at the Gloucester Fraternity Club. The goal will be for students to see how many kicks they can perform in a 20-minute period.
Fourteen-year-old black belt Amber Sears raised $360 last year and kicked 1,500 times. This year she hopes to convince friends and neighbors to donate more than $500 for the event, and expects even more, faster kicks.
Phil Demetri, owner and master at the academy, has been putting on spring Kick-a-Thons for the past nine years, which he touts as one of the best ways to help mentally challenged Cape Ann adults enjoy themselves and each others’ company in a fun setting.
According to Sears’s mother, Donna Sears, there will be two Kick-a-Thons on Thursday evening. The first will be held from 4:45 to 5:45. The second kicking event will be for the older, more experienced students, and will take place from 7:15 to 8:45 p.m.
Honored veteran
The flag at the Veterans’ Center will fly this week in honor of Thomas Jimmy Cooper Sr., a U.S. Coast Guard veteran, and his son, Thomas Jimmy Cooper Jr., who served in the U.S. Navy.
Thomas Jimmy Cooper Sr. was born Nov. 29, 1940, and served on the U.S. coast until his discharge on April 23, 1963, with the rank of seaman’s apprentice. He died July 27, 2001.
Thomas Jimmy Cooper, Jr., was born Nov. 28, 1961, and served in peacetime as a welder from Aug. 2, 1981, until his discharge July 26, 1984.
The flag was requested to fly in both men’s honor by Sharon Cooper, wife of the elder, mother to the younger. Anyone wishing to fly a flag in honor of a deceased veteran can call the Office of Veterans’ Services at 978-281-9740.
