CAPTION: Neil Swidey, author of “The Assist” and co-founder of the Alray Taylor Second Chance Scholarship Fund.

Upon first meeting Coach Jack O’Brien during the summer of 2004, “The Assist” author Neil Swidey quickly learned that O’Brien takes as much pride in his players from the Charlestown High basketball team reaching college as he does in their victories on the court.
“O’Brien leveraged interest in being part of a dominant basketball program and helped and used it to propel them to college,” Swidey said. “Just by his relentlessness in hammering away at the goals of hard work, he made kids see college as a realistic expectation.”
But, as Swidey also came to realize, a misstep that might result in no more than a minor setback for suburban kids from privileged backgrounds can derail the futures of their inner-city counterparts. For this reason, Swidey has partnered with C-town Spirit, a non-profit entrepreneurship program based out of Charlestown High, and the City Square accounting firm Vitale, Caturano & Company to establish the Alray Taylor Second Chance Scholarship Fund.
The endowment, named in memory of a popular Charlestown High basketball player who earned a Division 1 college basketball scholarship before he was killed in 2006, is designed to help promising inner-city students find a way back to college.
Michael Wanyo Jr., chairman of the board of C-town Spirit and a business consultant for Vitale, Caturano & Company, said the new scholarship furthers C-town spirit’s mission to put students on the path to continued education and success.
“The Second Chance Fund is to keep students on the path to continued education and success,” he said. “There are students who make their ways to college who can’t stay there for one reason or another. We want to keep them there and take what C-town Spirit has already done to another level.”
Meanwhile, C-Town Spirit CEO and instructor Lama Jarudi said her involvement with the organization’s alumni association has opened her eyes to the pressures that inner-city students face in college.
“Through keeping in touch with Charlestown High alumni, I’ve realized that the transition from high school to college is much harder that we ever expected,” Jarudi said. “Students make mistakes that are trivial but have serious ramifications for their lives.”
For more information on the scholarship, visit http://c-townspirit.org/scholarships.html. Donations can be sent to The Alray Taylor Second Chance Scholarship Fund,
 c/o C-town Spirit,
 80 City Square,
 Charlestown, MA 02129.

Neil Swidey’s “The Assist” follows the Charlestown High School basketball team on its road to the State Championship during the 2004-05 season and in its aftermath. What emerges is a revealing and moving glimpse into the lives of Coach Jack O’Brien and the players whom he tries to help rise above the pitfalls of inner-city life.
The book, which has its origins in a three-part series that Swidey wrote for The Boston Globe Magazine in the spring of 2005, traces the disconnect between Charlestown High and the community from that began with busing in the 1970s and continues to this day. Of this strained relationship, Swidey wrote, “The high school, to which Townie culture had been tethered for generations, was now so detached from the community around it that it might has well have been a barge floating in Boston Harbor.” This rift has grown so deep that O’Brien’s players, who are predominately black and from other downtrodden city neighborhoods, eschew the Townies team name and instead choose to call themselves “Riders.”
O’Brien, who led the Charlestown team to win four State Championships between 1999 and 2005, is portrayed as impossibly tough coach on the court but also as someone who clearly places the futures of his players above a winning record. A bachelor in his 40s from a white, middle-class background, O’Brien finds an unlikely surrogate family in the team, and like any parent, he goes to great lengths to ensure that his players attend college and go on to lead successful lives. When asked why he chooses to stay at Charlestown High instead of opting for a higher-paying coaching career at the college level, O’Brien offers this as his pat response: “This is where I feel I can have the biggest impact.” But, as Swidey observes, although O’Brien has seemingly become “a priest without a collar,” his players undoubtedly fill a void in his life.
Another member of O’Brien’s surrogate family is Michael Fung, the mild-mannered and at times aloof headmaster of Charlestown High. Fung, who attended nearly every game and became one of the basketball program’s biggest proponents, is something of a father figure to O’Brien. But, over time, the relationship between the two men suffers when Fung fails to secure a teaching position for one of O’Brien’s assistant coaches and ultimately bows to the pressures associated with boosting the school’s MCAS scores, which does not bode well for some of O’Brien’s players. This leads to a flip-flop decision by O’Brien to leave Charlestown High for another basketball program at Lynn Classical High School. (O’Brien ultimately stays at Charlestown High but not as the basketball coach).
O’Brien also must face the harsh realization that he can only help his players so much, as is made evident by the fates of the two Charlestown co-captains, Ridley Johnson and Jason “Hood” White. While Johnson earns a scholarship to the University of Toledo and enjoys success both on and off the court, White risks losing his chance to attend college after he becomes implicated in a street crime. And, as other players learn after Charlestown High, life without O’Brien’s constant presence can be a tough readjustment.
Swidey is a skilled storyteller who makes the game of basketball come alive, but one need not be a sports enthusiast to enjoy “The Assist.” By immersing himself in the daily lives of O’Brien and his players for three years, he provides an honest – and often heartbreaking – look at urban America.
“The Assist” is now available at bookstores. For more information on the book, visit www.theassist.net.

As of Dec. 20, Mike Charbonnier is no longer the Boston Police Department’s Community Service officer for Area A-1, which includes Charlestown. He has been transferred to the department’s Crime Stoppers division.
In his new role as Crime Stoppers commander, Charbonnier will oversee postings, posters and media releases related to serious crimes, including shootings, that take place throughout Boston, as well as the citywide tip line. He is now based out of the Investigative Services Department at Boston Police Headquarters at One Shroeder Plaza in Roxbury.
“I’m looking forward to working with Charlestown and the rest of the city in regard to serious crimes and solving these crimes,” Charbonnier said.
Charbonnier expressed gratitude to Captain Bernie O’Rourke of Area A-1 for encouraging Charbonnier’s community outreach efforts in his former position.
“The Community Service office was a unique opportunity for me, and I have to thank my superior, Captain O’Rourke, for allowing me to forge partnerships in the community that otherwise might not have happened,” Charbonnier said. “Captain O’Rourke took the approach that arrests were not the only solution to some of the problems in Charlestown. The Community Service office created education and awareness to help solve problems in Charlestown, and there is every reason to believe that this will continue.”
Charbonnier, a lifelong Charlestown resident who served as the Area A-1 Community Service officer for approximately the last six years, said he plans to sustain his relationship with the community and will continue to serve as a member of the Charlestown Neighborhood Council. Charlestown Against Drugs, the Charlestown Substance Abuse Coalition and other local organizations. He will be on hand at tonight’s CNC meeting, the Jan. 15 CNC Public Safety Committee meeting and other upcoming meetings to explain the transition.
For Charbonnier, this marks the fifth time he has physically moved in a little more than a year. Besides moving to and from his home while it was undergoing renovations, he has moved from Area A-1 headquarters at 40 New Sudbury St. to its temporary outpost in the North End to the Charlestown police substation on Vine Street.
O’Rourke said he believes the Crime Stoppers position will be a good fit for Charbonnier.
“We hate to lose him here, but we know he’ll do a good job [in his new role],” O’Rourke said. “He’s personable, a hard worker and a self-starter. That’s the type of person who needs to be assigned to the unit. The new assignment works well for all involved.”
While Charbonnier’s former position hasn’t been filled yet, O’Rourke said he expects a new Area A-1 Community Service officer to be named in the coming weeks.

On Dec. 22, Christmas carolers performed at the Cooperative Bank on Main Street. The carolers pictured are Jordan Cannady, Staci Morin, Marsha Stephens and Paul Morin of the Very Merry Dickens Carolers.

CAPTION: Charlestown Yoga owner Sue Lynch.

Charlestown Yoga owner Sue Lynch got an unpleasant surprise when she discovered that her business was burglarized last month.
On Dec. 20 at 6:30 a.m., she received a phone call from a teacher at the Main Street yoga studio alerting her of the crime. Lynch ascertained that the culprit(s) had cut themselves in the process of climbing in through an 8˝-inch window by the dried blood that covered the floor. Even more disturbing, however, was what was stolen: Besides electronic equipment, over $500 was taken from a donation box for establishing a yoga program at the Charlestown Boys & Girls Club, as well as gifts intended for soldiers serving overseas.
And this wasn’t the first time that Lynch had been victimized in the community. Since moving to Charlestown in 1994, she has had car stolen three times, and in 2006, her mother’s car was broken into outside of Charlestown Yoga. (Under the previous ownership, Charlestown Yoga was also broken into two times between the time that the business opened in 2002 and when Lynch bought it in September of 2005).
But rather than dwelling on these wrongdoings, Lynch hopes to reach out to the young people she believes are responsible.
“These kids in the community obviously need help because they’re acting out,” Lynch said. “We need to ask ourselves, ‘What can we do to solve the problem, rather than just getting mad?’”
Lynch believes that theft, violence and substance abuse prevalent among young people are really just symptoms of the bigger issue: These kids feel that they’re not being heard.
In addition, Lynch also points to the disparity within a community where the upper middle-class residents live alongside the lower class. While she believes that the two populations coexist, Lynch believes that they aren’t truly integrated, and this is a large part of the problem.
Now, Lynch is reaching out to the community to not only rebuild the fund for the Boys & Girls Club, but she also hopes to open a dialogue aimed at finding ways to help these kids who she believes are obviously hurting.
“I guess what I’m looking at is how can we change what’s going on?” she said.
If you are interested in joining this discussion or helping rebuild the Boys & Girls Club fund, Sue Lynch can be reached at sue@charlestowyoga.com or 617-241-0824.

The Boston Redevelopment Authority asserts that its proposal to move the water shuttle dock from Pier 4 to Pier 3 will improve access to service, but others fear that it will result in an extended commute for some Navy Yard residents.
“By moving the water shuttle dock to Pier 3, residents of Flagship Wharf, Constellation Wharf, Shipyard Quarters and some parts of Paris Landing will have to walk an additional quarter of a mile [to reach the service],” said Michael Parker, chairman of Friends of the Charlestown Navy Yard.
BRA spokesman Rich McGuiness counters that the move will extend people’s commutes “by five minutes at the most” and that the pros for this projects far outweigh the cons. “We see this as a success story, not as extending people’s commutes to water shuttle service,” he said.
The BRA received $1.5 million from the state’s Executive Office of Transportation to rehabilitate Pier 3, which McGuiness said has been inaccessible for decades. This is the first round of funding and future monies would be used to build a bridge over Dry Dock 2, he said.
In addition, the Governor’s Seaport Council allocated $300,000 to dredge along Pier 4 last month.
Among the benefits of relocating the water shuttle dock are enabling Courageous Sailing Center to expend its programming and permitting the Navy to maintain an active presence in the Navy Yard.
“The Navy prefers to berth its vessels at Pier 3,” McGuiness said, adding that the move would bring a “higher class of destroyers.”
McGuiness also said the move would allow the 1 million visitors to the Freedom Trail each year to easily commute between the Navy Yard and Long Wharf in the North End. Pier 3’s additional capacity would also facilitate water shuttle service to a docking facility planned for Fort Point Channel in South Boston, he said.
Still, Parker believes the extended commute could result in hardship for some commuters who have not been allowed to weigh in on this issue in a timely manner.
“Giving the conflicting natures of maintaining the Harbor Walk and the streets in the Navy Yard between the BRA, the National Park Service, the Boston Transportation Department and the city, it’s not clear to me who is going to be responsible for snow and ice removal along the Harbor Walk in the vicinity of Dry Dock 2,” Parker said. “You would think there would be public input for something of this nature. “