Fifty years ago this week, Dwight Eisenhower was America's president, U.S. Sen. John F. Kennedy had energized Massachusetts with a run for the White House, Pius XII was the Roman Catholic pope — and the Rev. Thomas J. Fleming was ordained as a Catholic priest.
Tomorrow, Father Fleming will celebrate his 50th anniversary Mass at East Gloucester's St. Anthony's By The Sea. A number of friends and supporters are expected to join him in that celebration _ and the Mass will be followed by a reception at the chapel, with Sen. Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester, Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante, D-Gloucester, and Mayor Carolyn Kirk among those slated to participate.
Fleming served as pastor of what was then St. Peters' Parish from July 23, 1991, through his retirement on Jan, 13, 2002.
During his St. Peter's tenure, Fleming formed a parish council, set up a finance board, and organized a Religious Education Commission. He also spearheaded a major renovation project that was completed in 1992, and was instrumental in the annual St. Peter's Summer Fair and Christmas Fair.
He will be joined in tomorrow's Mass by no fewer than seven concelebrants: Msgr. James E. Tierney, and Revs. Ronald J. Garibaldi, Wallace E. Blackwood, Louis Bourgeois, Gerard Brennan, Timothy A. Harrison, and Richard G. Johnson.
Students use lemons to make lemonade
Two marketing/DECA classes from Gloucester High School held a competition — and two charities were the winners.
Team Vandalay and Team Prestige World Wide challenged each other to see which could sell the most lemonade to make the most profit for charity by using the marketing skills their members learned this year.
The Vandalay team made a profit of $395 for the Susan G. Komen for a Cure, which committed to fighting breast cancer, and Prestige World Wide made $94 to benefit Cape Ann Art Haven. Both teams focused on location by choosing where they believed would have the most traffic. Team Vandalay set up at Shaw's on Railroad Avenue while Prestige set up at the Shaw's on Eastern Avenue, which allowed the group to work at its locations.
Team Vandalay credits its strategy of having a donation cup at its stand. Team members said most customers just wanted to help out with breast cancer.
Team Prestige also offered hot coffee, given the cold and dreary temperatures for the challenge day, but did not get the donations received by the other team.
Both teams learned how to follow Gloucester Health Department guidelines for setting up a cart from Health Director Rosalie Nicastro as both teams needed to be inspected in order to be in compliance of city laws.
Fred Johnson helped organize and manage the students for the day. Financial donations came from Jim's Donuts, Black Swan, Joke Shop, Cape Ann Savings, Valentino's, Virgilio's and Brian and Katherine-Ann Silva.
Poetry Without Paper winners announced
The Poetry Without Paper contest, sponsored by the Lyceum Committee of Sawyer Free Library and coordinated by vice chairman John Ronan, has announced the winners of this year's competition. An awards ceremony, hosted by Mayor Carolyn Kirk, will be held at the library next Thursday at 7 p.m., where the winners will read their poems. All are invited.
The winners are:
High school — First Place: "5 Ways How He's Not Like the Water and 10 More How He Is" by Lucina Fox, Grade 12, GHS; Second Place: "Transformations" by Ellie Cornavaca, Grade 10, GHS; Third Place: "The Christmas Man" by Leah Breen, Grade 10, Waring School
Middle school — First Place: "Love" by Meghaen Favazza, Grade 7, St. Ann School; Second Place: "Writing" by Grace Papp, Grade 6, St. Ann School; Third Place: "Luck" by Morey Ronan, Grade 6, O'Maley School
Elementary school — First Place: "Earth Day" by Jordan Gentile, Grade 4, Veteran's Memorial School; Second Place: "When I Grow Up" by Tyler Figueiredo, Grade 5, Veteran's Memorial School; Third Place: "New Shoes" by Matilda Grow, Grade 5, East Gloucester School
Honorable Mention — Jessica Blazewicz, Kelly Broe, Eric Brown, Louisa Brown, Isaac Carpenter, Maggie Chandler, Nancy Frye, Alexandra Lees, Akiyo Nishimiya, SooHwa Ono, Lauren Sperry, Lucas Struppe, Talia Tarbox, Phoebe Weissblum and Fiaba Zakarian.
Honored veteran
The flag at the Veterans' Center will fly this week in honor of World War I veteran Arthur Sirois. He was born May 15, 1892. A horseshoer with the U.S. Army, Sirois served in France.
He died in November 1945.
The flag was requested to fly in his honor by his son, Roger Sirois.
Anyone wishing to fly a flag in honor of a deceased veteran can call the Office of Veterans' Services at (978) 281-9740.
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