PHOTO CAPTION: Tom Desmond (seated) is seen with participants from the CHAD tennis program.

In the winter of 1989, Charlestown residents Tom Desmond and Nick Adams approached Charlestown Against Drugs Chairman Peter Looney with the idea of launching a sports program that would help deter adolescents from succumbing to substance abuse and other reckless behavior. While the community had a long tradition of youth athletic leagues, Desmond and Adams proposed introducing at-risk kids to tennis, a sport that they might not otherwise have a chance to play.
With CHAD on board, the program was launched at the Charlestown Community Center on Medford Street. Its tennis clinics initially served about 20 kids, who all shared a single racket. To date, the program runs year round and has served hundreds of kids in the community who benefit not only from the athletic component, but from tutoring in their studies as well.
“It’s a very healthy, constructive activity for kids who would otherwise be walking the streets,” said Desmond, the treasurer and past president of the Charlestown Community Centers and the treasurer of CHAD.
Desmond has also found the kids to be surprisingly honest when discussing the peer pressure they often face, including the temptations of drugs.
“Sometimes the kids open up to you and tell you about their personal lives,” Desmond said. “You get a sense of the pressures of growing up in Charlestown. There’s no doubt that drugs have been the scourge of this community. We’ve lost a lot of good kids to drugs.”
One of the program’s first participants, David Burns, grew up in the Bunker Hill housing development before going on to play Division 1 tennis at Virginia Military Institute and appearing on MTV’s “The Real World” during its 1999 season. Now an executive at Las Vegas-based Wendoh Media Companies, Burns attributes much of his success to the tennis program, as well as its tutoring component.
“[The tennis program] set the course for the rest of my life, and I’ve been very successful as a result of it,” Burns said. “There weren’t a lot of role models and programs available at that time. It allowed us to get out of Charlestown… and to see how other people lived.”
Daniel Cayarga, who served as a coach during the program’s early days, immigrated to the U.S. from Caracas, Venezuela, where, much like the kids in the CHAD program, tennis provided a way for him to escape the inner city as a youth.
“I saw a lot of similarities between the kids from Charlestown and the ones I grew up with in Venezuela,” Cayarga said.
Karyl Resnick, who recently rejoined the program as a coach after spending several years away, believes the experience is as rewarding for the coaches as it is the kids themselves.
“I enjoy sharing a sport with the kids that I love playing,” Resnick said. “As much as I give to the kids, I feel like I get just as much back.”
Looney of CHAD, meanwhile, said the program is particularly unique because it is entirely based in the neighborhood and is open to all local youth.
“It’s a neighborhood program run by neighborhood people that is open to everyone,” Looney said. “Tom has taken it to a level where Charlestown should be an example to the rest of the city.”
Today, Desmond also hopes that the program can help familiarize kids with computers. While Desmond began videotaping kids playing tennis early on so they could review their performances on the court, he now uses a computer for this purpose. “It teaches them to see what they’re doing wrong and to use a laptop as a learning tool,” he said.
But above all else, Desmond is just pleased that kids still find the program enjoyable and are benefiting from it more than 18 years after its inception.
“It’s just evidence that if you give kids a constructive program to take part in, they will,” he said.
The CHAD tennis program currently runs at the Charlestown Community Center, 255 Medford St., on Saturdays and Sundays from 4 to 6 p.m., but the hours of operation will be expanded beginning in January. Anyone interested in participating in the program can reach Tom Desmond via email at Desmond2@aol.com.

PHOTO CAPTION: Michael and Jill Kelleher are seen with Fr. Aubrey MacNeil at the couple’s wedding in August.

While most newlyweds travel Hawaii or some other exotic location for their honeymoon, Charlestown residents Michael and Jill Kelleher will spend part of their getaway visiting a secondary school in the Republic of Uganda in East Africa that serves orphaned children whose parents have fallen prey to malnourishment and AIDS.
“It’s one way of taking a honeymoon, which is always filled with happiness and great expectations, and using it to remind ourselves that there are others with unmet needs, especially during the holiday season,” Michael said.
Jill added, “I’ve always wanted to travel there and what better chance or opportunity would you have than your honeymoon?”
Before taking a safari in Tanzania later this month, the Kellehers will spend six days at Great Aubrey Memorial College, where they will stay and speak with classes. The school was named after Jill’s grandfather and established in part by her uncle, Fr. Aubrey MacNeil, in 2001 Fr. MacNeil spent more than eight years working with children suffering from AIDS and malnourishment in Ugandan villages before re turned to the U.S. and was ordained as a priest in 1985. (Fr. MacNeil also presided over the Kellehers’ wedding ceremony at St. Mary’s Church in August).
“Without the assistance provided by this college, these children would be forced to leave school and, most likely, lead lives of illiteracy, poverty, petty crime and prostitution,” Michael said.
The Kellehers are also hoping to raise money to support the school’s new library, which will provide access to books, multi media and the Internet in a part of the world where these conveniences are nearly non-existent.
“This is something that is near and dear to our hearts and not something we want kudos for,” Jill said. “We just wanted raise awareness of the school and its students needs. Even the smallest donations are very much appreciated.”
To donate to Great Aubrey Memorial College, visit http://www.globalgiving.com/pr/1200/proj1132a.html on the Web.

PHOTO CAPTION: Tom MacDonald, director of social ministries St. Mary-St. Catherine of Siena Parish (center), is seen harvest on Vine volunteers Maggie Urquhart (left) and Kay Curtin (right).

Coming off a successful Thanksgiving food drive that fed around 270 families in Charlestown, Harvest on Vine food pantry hopes to expand its services to better serve those in need throughout the rest of the year.
“I see it expanding in what we give regularly,” said Tom MacDonald, director of social ministries for St. Mary-St. Catherine of Siena Parish, which operates the food pantry. “We now have the capacity for perishables, including milk and meats, in an on-site freezer.”
Harvest on Vine was launched at St. Catherine of Siena Hall on Vine Street circa 2002, with only had seven families in its database at that time. Its recipients had grown to include between 125 and 130 families by the time MacDonald came on board as St. Catherine of Siena’s pastoral administrator in November 2003. Nowadays, Harvest on Vine serves 250 families each month, providing them with enough food to typically last between a week and 10 days.
MacDonald attributes much of the food pantry’s growth to the merger of St. Mary and St. Catherine of Siena parishes in 2006 and expects that the food pantry will continue to expand as the new parish matures.
“The parish will continue to evolve, and our commitment to the needy will continue to be a focal point of parish life,” MacDonald said, adding that the parishioners are of the backbone of the food pantry. “The parish is very committed to keeping a presence in the poorest area of town.”
MacDonald also credits St. Mary-St. Catherine of Siena pastor, Fr. James Ronan, with promoting the work of Harvest on Vine, as well as other programs that reach out to the community’s disadvantaged.
“Fr. Ronan is completely committed to this church’s teachings on social justice and serving those most in need,” MacDonald said.
In regard to the increasing number of recipients that Harvest on Vine now serves, MacDonald points to a growing need for assistance in today’s harsh economic climate. “I think people are really struggling to get by,” he said.
Harvest on Vine has also expanded its services to provide the needy with furniture, affordable housing via the Boston Housing Authority and substance abuse treatment programs, MacDonald said.
With so many in need, MacDonald believes that residents of a community as diverse and tightly knit as Charlestown feel a genuine desire to help their neighbors.
“Charlestown is a real living example of the divide between the rich and poor,” MacDonald said. “Because people live in such close proximity, the wealthy people reach out and are very generous.”
MacDonald said many local businesses and organizations have helped Harvest on Vine fulfill its mission as well.
For the Thanksgiving food drive, Harvest on Vine received generous donations from the Charlestown Mothers Association, Johnnies Foodmaster, McCarthy Brothers Liquors, Jenny’s Pizza, Friends of the Charlestown Navy Yard, St. Vincent De Paul Society and MissionSAFE Charlestown, which provided transportation to and from the food pantry for elderly recipients.
Among those who helped with the preparation of the Thanksgiving baskets were Officer Mike Charbonnier and Sgt. Tom Lema of the Boston Police Area A-1 Community Service Office, Billy Ryan of Charlestown Connects and Charlestown Against Drugs Chairman Peter Looney.
In addition, Harvest on Vine receives regular contributions from Project Bread, the state’s leading anti-hunger organization, and the Greater Boston Food Bank.
“This seems to be one thing that everyone can agree on,” MacDonald said. “Regardless of what your political bent might be, people want to step up when it comes to feeding the poor.”
If you’re interested in contributing to Harvest on Vine, Tom MacDonald can be reached at 617-242-1750.

The Artists Group of Charlestown sponsored the Charlestown Open Studios, in coordination with the Boston Open Studio Coalition, and the Holiday Boutique on Saturday and Sunday. The event showcased artists and artisans, including the artist’s studios within the StoveFactory building and the artist members of the AGC in the StoveFactory Gallery, as well as invited artisans and craftspeople.

PHOTO 1 CAPTION: Artist and art therapist Anne Pennington (right) putting one of her home made hats that she was selling on Gina Shropshire's head.

PHOTO 2 CAPTION: Anne's mother Marilyn Woodworth hanging some of Anne's work.

PHOTO 3 CAPTION: Luette Bourne and Dara Pannebaker offering calendars with Charlestown artists work to benefit the Charlestown Branch Library.

PHOTO 4 CAPTION: Pictured is guest artist Judith Miller from Bristol.

It is a time in Charlestown when everything we look at takes on the essence of the coming holiday. It is a time to step back and take inventory of our lives with the holiday coming, as well as the future, which looks so bright.
The snow on Sunday evening covered Charlestown with a patina of white. The white snow mixing with the colored Christmas lights and wreaths and decorated trees glowing inside warm houses throughout the neighborhood painted a picture that is quintessential New England.
It has always been this way in Charlestown, and frankly, it will always be this way when Christmas is just around the corner.
Many of the homes here have been standing for more than 250 years, or long before Christmas was even a holiday in the United States. Many more have been standing for 200 years – and so – we know how this place looked in centuries past.
The look and feel of Charlestown at Christmas coalesces into something very special. There is that rush of good feeling, of tables filled with food, of homes gushing with good cheer and presents, and children awaiting Santa.
There is no way to know what awaits us this Christmas. We cannot look into the future to know what next Christmas will be like – who will be here, who will not, what the economy will be doing, what the nation’s state of mind is.
We cannot know what awaits us in this world.
Only God knows that – and he doesn’t let us know about what he has in store for any of us.
That being said, we are fairly certain that God’s work on this earth is our own.
Our celebration of the Christmas holiday is what we make it, not what it makes us.
There is much talk about how Christmas has been commercialized and how the holiday begins its rush toward us earlier and earlier every year.
However, Christmas remains the one unifying holiday that does more to bring people and families together than all the others.
It remains the holiday that marks a significant birth and so when Christmas is just 19 days away, we begin to think about our lives, our faith, our dreams and about how lucky we are to be living as free men and women in the United States of America in a place called Charlestown.