PHOTO CREDITS: Courtesy of Pat Simpson

PHOTO 1 CAPTION: Pat Simpson (in back) is seen with Peruvian students.

PHOTO 2 CAPTION: Peruvian students display their artwork.

Charlestown community activist Pat Simpson hopes to unite kids from the Warren-Prescott School with students from a school in Peru using the idea of peace.
Earlier this month, Simpson was visiting her daughter Chelsea in Pisco, Peru, a city that was devastated by a 8.0 magnitude earthquake on Aug. 15 of this year. As a volunteer for the non-profit organization Hands On U.S.A., Chelsea was helping remove rubble from homes stricken by the earthquake. Two other Hands On U.S.A. volunteers arranged to teach local English at a local school and invited Pat to join them.
At the school, Pat told the principal about her involvement with Book Peace, a program established in 2001 and funded by the Massachusetts General Hospital Associates’ Smart Choices grant in which children express their personal notions of peace using different artistic mediums. The principal was very enthusiastic about the idea and arranged an emergency meeting where 10 teachers drew up a curriculum for bringing the peace program to the school.
With the program in place, children were asked to write peace in English and Spanish and to draw a peace sign, as well as pictures of other things that brought them peace, such as their parents and pets. Pat was also able to give each of the 75 kindergarten through sixth-grade students a single crayon — a seemingly small gesture that meant a lot to kids who had recently lost everything in the earthquake.
Dr. Domenic Amara, principal of the Warren-Prescott School, views Pat’s trip to Peru as an extension of her work in helping to implement Charlestown’s emergency preparedness program.
“This is in line with what she does in Charlestown,” Amara said. “She was certainly in an emergency situation. Being in an environment like that is an experience in itself.”
Amara also hopes that putting Warren-Prescott kids in touch with students from Peru will hope to break down language and cultural barriers.
“By inviting them to be our sister school, we hope we can both help them and develop a mutual cultural awareness,” he said. “The Warren-Prescott kids can write in Spanish, and the kids from Peru can write back in English.”
Besides sharing correspondence, Simpson said she hopes that Warren-Prescott kids can also furnish Peruvian kids with the art supplies that are now sorely lacking from their school.
Meanwhile, Simpson said she found it difficult to say goodbye to the Peruvian students, even though she met them only four day earlier.
“They were all hugging me and holding me and wouldn’t let me go,” Simpson said. “Even though I only knew them a short time, I felt like they fell in love with me, and I with them.”

Charlestown attorney Claudia McKelway said her decision to apply for the position of general counsel for the Chelsea Soldiers’ Home came from a desire to honor her father.
As a teenager, McKelway took a stand against the Vietnam War – an opinion that often put her at odds with her father, a career Naval officer who volunteered for the war. She now admits that she was sometimes guilty of allowing her opposition to the war to negatively color her view of those who served in it. As McKelway grew older, she learned that she could resist the war yet still support the troops.
“When I saw the posting for the position, everything came full circle,” she said. “[The job] allows me to give back to the veterans community and to correct my youthful rush to judgment. I kind of felt like I made things right with my father.”
McKelway spent much of her childhood moving from one military base to another, but she calls Hawaii her true home during this time. Her family was stationed there while she was in grammar school, and her parents vowed to settle there after her father retired from the military. Before her junior year of high school, the family permanently relocated to Honolulu and McKelway finished high school at the Punahou School, a private school founded by the first missionaries to the island in 1841.
Afterwards, McKelway attended the University of Hawaii and graduated with a double major in psychology and political science in 1976. Upon earning her degree, McKelway moved to Boston and enrolled at Suffolk University Law School. She had never visited Boston before but had strong family ties to the city since her father was an East Cambridge native and her mother came from South Boston.
“When I got to Boston, I felt immediately at home,’ she said. “I lived on Beacon Hill during law school and loved being a part of a small city neighborhood. You really don’t have that kind of experience in Hawaii.”
Upon earning her law degree in 1979, McKelway returned to Hawaii and clerked for the Associate Justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court in Honolulu. One year later, she was back in Boston, where she divided her time between teaching legal research and writing at Boston University School of Law and working as a member of the in-house legal team for St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company at the Boston-based law firm Adams & Smith.
At Adams & Smith, McKelway handled medical malpractice cases and worked closely with doctors. She left the firm in 1984 and joined Boston-based Powers & Hall. In this position as a medical malpractice defense associate, she represented physicians, hospitals and other health care providers on behalf of medical malpractice insurers.
McKelway left Powers & Hall in 1986. Because of the firm’s structure, associates were ineligible to become partners. She took an associate position at Boston’s Davis, Malm & D’Agostine and broadened her focus to include business and commercial litigation. And the move paid off: She was named a partner at the firm in 1988.
In 1991, McKelway left Davis, Malm & D’Agostine after she adopted her first daughter, Anne. “I found it very difficult to be a full-time mom and a full-time partner at a law firm,” she said.
McKelway returned to the work force the following year, however, when she took the position of Deputy Corporation Counsel for Litigation for the City of Boston. For the next four years, she represented the city in all matters under the Flynn and Menino administrations.
In the early ‘90s, McKelway defended the City of Boston after Chief Marshall of the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade in South Boston, James “Wacko” Hurley, denied the Boston branch of the Irish-American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Coalition permission to join the parade. Gay activists maintained that the First Amendment guaranteed their right to participate in the parade, while Hurley said they had no right to march in the parade because it was a private function. After the lower courts ruled against Hurley, the case ultimately went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled 9-0 in his favor.
In 1996, McKelway adopted her second daughter, Brett, and resigned from her position with the city. She began handling small business litigation from her Essex Street home and volunteering as an Educational Surrogate Parent. As a participant in this program, McKelway stands in as a parent for special-needs children to ensure that their educational necessities are met.
Most recently, McKelway focused mainly on raising her children and her volunteer work before taking the position at the Chelsea Veterans’ Home in October. Besides representing a facility that cares for the state’s veterans, she also serves as legal consul for the Quigley Memorial Hospital, a Chelsea-based, medical center that cares for eligible Massachusetts veterans.
In her new position, she works closely with Charlestown resident Jim Conway, who serves as chairman of the home’s board of trustees. “He is a tireless supporter of veterans and veterans issues,” she said.
But perhaps the most rewarding part aspect of the new job for McKelway is she finds herself in constant contact with veterans.
“One thing I really love about the home is the administrative building where I work includes veterans’ dormitories, private rooms and canteens,” she said. “During the course of any work day, I interact with many veterans.”

A traditional candlelight service of Lessons and Carols took place at St. John's Episcopal Church on Dec.15. Pictured are scenes from the event.

CAPTION: Edwards School students are seen preparing care packages for soldiers in Iraq.

In honor of Veterans Day, teacher Karen Ziminski of the Clarence R. Edwards Middle School ran a commemorative assembly for students sixth- through eighth-graders.
“The goal of this assembly was to increase student awareness about what our American soldiers have endured and what they continue to endure on their mission to ensure the American people of their freedom,” Ziminski said.
Following an overview of past wars and a touching PowerPoint presentation of our current troops stationed in Iraq, teary-eyed students made cards of encouragement and inspiration to mail to those overseas. This was the first phase of a month long project to honor and commend the men and women in our military.
The second phase of this project was handled by Ziminski’s health class, yet was supported school wide with a two-week-long coin drive that kicked off on Nov. 13. Between the students and staff at the Edwards Middle School, Ziminski and her students raised over $700! During the weeks of the coin drive, students spent a good deal of time researching soldiers who were stationed in Iraq, and compiling a wish list of what each troop was requesting. After choosing soldiers to send care packages to from those who had not yet received any parcels, more than 100 students wrote letters to these men and women introducing themselves and telling their reasons for participating in this project.
Once the items on the wish list were purchased, students then began the task of assembling boxes for specific soldiers and troops, organizing a pile of cards and letters to accompany each box, and topping it off with a mini Christmas tree, a string of lights and a holiday card.
Ziminski and the students at the Edwards Middle School worked together tediously over the past month in an attempt to bring some holiday cheer to the faces of our brave soldiers and let them know that they are truly appreciated. Luckily, a group called Local Heroes from Malden volunteered to send the boxes, allowing the money for postage to instead be spent on additional supplies.
It turned out to be a fantastic group effort during the season of giving in honor of those who give themselves unselfishly to the American people all year long.