CAPTION: Stan Leonard and Joseph Zuffante, co-chairs of the Abraham Lincoln Post 11 Vietnam Memorial Committee, at Memorial Hall.

Plans are now underway to honor the six Charlestown men who lost their lives in the Vietnam War with a new monument on the grounds of Memorial Hall, which the Green Street veterans club hopes will eventually be the centerpiece of a memorial garden dedicated to the neighborhood’s fallen soldiers from all wars.
“We realized there wasn’t an appropriate Vietnam memorial anywhere in Charlestown to honor the six who gave their lives,” said Joseph Zuffante, chairman of the Abraham Lincoln Post 11 Vietnam Memorial Committee and a veteran member of Memorial Hall who served two tours in Vietnam. “As a veterans organization in Charlestown, we want to erect a monument that recognizes the sacrifices people made and continues the legacy of the Grand Army of the Republic.” (Memorial Hall is home to Abraham Lincoln Post 11 Grand Army of the Republic).
Located on the front lawn of Memorial Hall, the monument would consist of a polished granite stone with six bronze or brass plaques engraved with the names, life spans, branches of military service and ranks, and likenesses of Lawrence Thomas Borden, Edward Lee Johnson, William James McNamara, Francis Edward Powers, David Thomas Pugh and Michael Patrick Quinn. The memorial committee is currently trying to make contact with the families of these veterans and hopes to unveil this tribute in the spring of 2009.
“Eventually, we’d like to turn the space into a garden commemorating veterans from all the American conflicts,” Zuffante said.
For Florence Johnson, a Vietnam memorial committee member, a veteran board member of Memorial Hall and a veteran of World war II, the project has personal significance: Johnson served as president of Gold Star Mothers of Massachusetts and Rhode Island after her son Edward, a Lance Corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps, was killed in Vietnam on Aug. 27, 1967.
“Our poor boys came home and got nothing, and it’s too bad that there is [no memorial] for them,” Johnson said. “As a veteran, I think there should be something to honor them.”
The idea of a memorial is also particularly moving for another committee member, Judy Evers, whose brother Capt. Francis Edward Powers of the U.S. Army was killed in Vietnam on Oct. 12, 1970.
“I think it’s wonderful and timely,” Evers said. “We have lost a lot of wonderful young men in their prime who would have gone on to do a lot for the community and beyond.”
Evers also credited Zuffante and fellow memorial committee co-chair and Memorial Hall vice president and treasurer Stan Leonard for their hard work so far. “I feel honored and privileged to be a part of this committee,” she said.
Zuffante said the memorial committee received a recent boost after Sean O’Brien, president of Sullivan Square-based Teamsters Local 25, and John Murphy of Teamsters Local 122 and New England Teamsters Joint Council 10 made the initial contributions for the project.
“We’ve begun reaching out to community and fraternal groups, religious groups, labor unions and businesses to make this dream a reality,” Zuffante said, adding that the committee hopes to hold its first fundraiser in the fall and is also looking for a local graphic designer to assist in the project’s design phase. “It’s really about time someone did something like this.”
If you would like to contribute to the memorial, make checks payable to “The Vietnam Memorial Fund” and send them to: The Vietnam Memorial Fund c/o Abraham Lincoln Post 11 GAR, P.O. Box 291797, Charlestown, MA 02129. For more information on how you can volunteer for this project, contact Joseph Zuffante at 781-389-4006 or via e-mail at joezuff@yahoo.com.

CAPTION: Proposed site of the Learning garden at School and High streets.

Almost immediately after learning of the city’s Small Changes program, which offers grants to non-profit organizations for beautification projects throughout Boston, three parents from the Warren-Prescott School submitted an application in the hope of bringing a sustainable native garden to its campus.
Stephanie Goldberg, Petra Eldh and Ruth Raphael, two architects and a planner for the National Park Service respectively, collaborated on the preliminary design for the Warren-Prescott Learning Garden. According to the application, the proposed project would transform a barren, largely asphalt area at School and High streets into “a garden consisting of a variety of types of planting beds that will provide a hands-on, creative learning environment for students to plant, maintain and observe how small changes to their surroundings can have a great impact on the environment.”
The city recently awarded a $5,000 Small Changes grant for the project to the Warren-Prescott Foundation, a non-profit corporation that raises money to provide enrichment programs at the K-8 school that aren’t currently offered as part of the Boston Public Schools curriculum. The total estimated cost for the project is only $9,000, thanks largely to community members who have offered labor and building materials at no cost, Goldberg said.
Groundbreaking is scheduled for later this month, and the garden is expected to take no more than a year to complete. The first phase of the project would consist of asphalt removal, the construction of flowerbeds and the installation of a fence around the garden, although Goldberg said funding for the fence isn’t in place yet. During the second phase, a bench or two would be erected outside the fence, allowing passersby to enjoy the garden.
“We’re trying to promote community ownership of the space,” Golderberg said.
As opposed to the asphalt currently in place at the site, Raphael said the new soil surface would minimize rain runoff that reaches the sewer system during heavy storms and help to reduce radiant heat emitted from the ground on hot days. A “drip irrigation system” would also be installed to help conserve water used to hydrate the plants and recharge the water table, Goldberg added.
Warren-Prescott students, however, will likely reap the biggest benefits from the garden after it is tied into the school’s curriculum, including science, social studies and art courses.
“One idea is to bring science outdoors,” said Christine Amisano, the Warren-Prescott Foundation director of development. “Kids will have the chance to watch and participate in the cycle of life.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Domenic Amara, principal of the Warren-Prescott School, said the idea of rehabilitating the dreary section of the schoolyard where the Learning garden will still soon stand was first broached approximately 15 years ago, but it was put on the backburner until now.
“The idea is to do something in keeping with what the community and the kids needed that was also green,” Amara said.
If you would like to donate garden tools, seeds and bulbs for the spring, contact Christine Amisano at 617-241-0648.

CAPTION: Japanese youngsters who recently visited Charlestown and Fenway Park.

While Red Sox Nation was absorbed with the comings and eventual goings of Manny Ramirez last week, two Charlestown families, the Dye-Swabs of Warren Street and the Samelson-Runcis of Elm Street, were absorbed in welcoming new members of Red Sox Nation — four elite youth baseball players from Chiba and Kyoto, Japan.
The Japanese youngsters were in Boston as part of a 10-day youth baseball exchange program created by the Red Sox Foundation and Japan Society of Boston and sponsored by the Japanese global electronics giant Funai Electric. The program brought 12 talented young baseball players, ages 12 to 14, and three coaches and chaperones from Chiba, a suburb of Tokyo, and Kyoto, Boston’s sister city. The idea was to promote better appreciation and understanding between the two countries through the youngsters shared love of baseball.
“What I loved the most was I felt I had made new brothers,” declared 11-year-old Max Runci, the son of one Charlestown host family. “I will really miss them!”
The Japanese players stayed with host families in the Greater Boston area, with four living in Charlestown. To ward off possible homesickness and allow the boys to get to know not only American culture but also boys from another part of Japan, each host family welcomed two boys to live with them — one from Chiba and one from Kyoto.
“They didn’t speak a lot of English and we didn’t speak Japanese so it was pretty quiet the first few hours,” said 11-year-old Eli Swab, the son of another Charlestown host family. “But once we went out and started playing baseball we understood each other perfectly. It wasn’t a regular conversation like you normally have, but we were really communicating, and having a lot of fun.”
As members of host families, both Max and Eli had the opportunity to tag along with their Japanese guests as they met Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Gov. Deval Patrick and participated in baseball games with South End and Hill House youth baseball teams and baseball clinics at Harvard, Northeastern, and Boston College.
The Charlestown boys and the Japanese youth also attended a clinic offered by Red Sox Pitcher Hideki Okajima, a Kyoto native, and got autographs and pictures with Red Sox starting pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka. The boys were all honored at a special pre-game ceremony at the Red Sox home game against the Oakland Athletics on Aug. 1. They also enjoyed many of Massachusetts’ historic sites, including visits to Old Ironsides and Cape Cod.
The idea was the brainchild of Rico Mochizuki, executive director of The Japan Society of Boston, and Navy Yard resident Meg Vaillancourt, senior vice president of the Boston Red Sox and executive director of the Red Sox Foundation, the official team charity. The program followed the Red Sox historic Opening Day in Tokyo earlier this year.
“When kids connect, the world can change in small ways that lead to more significant ones,” noted Mochizuki. “Everyone who participated, host families and guests from Japan alike, now has a lifetime of fabulous memories.”
Vaillancourt added, “It was an honor to have these fine young people in Boston and to introduce them to the excitement and passion of being part of Red Sox Nation and to learn more about their customs. We all learned a lot and had a great time. It was clear that like music, that magic of baseball is an international language that knows no boundaries.”
Menino, who was the guest of honor at the Welcome Breakfast held at the Union Oyster House, stated that the exchange was “a homerun for all of us, the city of Boston, the cities of Kyoto and China, and all these fine young athletes.” At a ceremony at his State House office, Patrick also welcomed the boys, calling them “terrific ambassadors for Japan” and encouraging them to maintain the new friendships they made with their host families once they returned to home.
When asked what he learned from the Japanese, Eli said, “They are extremely polite and like saying ‘thank you,’ which was a good reminder to me. And they bow as sign of respect, which we thought was cool.”
Eli’s friend from Charlestown and fellow host, Max added, “Eli and I learned they are just like us, only they are really good at baseball. And their arms aren’t really like ours. They are more like cannons because they can throw the ball really, really hard.”
So while Manny went off to LA, little leaguers were making global hits right here in Charlestown.

CAPTION: Participants in the youth karate program.

Left with the daunting task of finding an activity that would attract neighborhood kids who don’t enjoy football, baseball and other popular youth sports, Steven Tower settled on a truly unique alternative: karate.
“My overall job is to get kids and make them healthier,” said Tower, the urban sports/health coordinator for Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for the Study of Sport in Society. “One of the biggest challenges I face is getting them involved in non-traditional sports.”
Tower launched the six-week karate program that meets Wednesdays at Eden Street Park with a $4,000 grant for the MGH Charlestown HealthCare Center and the Charlestown Substance Abuse Coalition. To ensure that the program reached kids in need, he handpicked 25 Charlestown youth between the ages of 7 and 14 from referrals made by the MGH Charlestown HealthCare Center and the Boston Housing Authority.
Gary Card, a fifth-degree black belt with extensive experience teaching martial arts to children, was selected as the instructor.
“He has such a great reputation working with kids,” Tower said of Card. “The amount of experience he brings is unprecedented.”
Tower said kids who were initially intimidated by the program were soon enthralled by their martial arts training.
“At first, they didn’t know what to expect and they were a little overwhelmed,” Tower said. “Every single one of them is now quiet and attentive because they’re learning so many things.”
Besides the fundamentals of karate, Tower said participating kids will have better concentration abilities when it comes to their schoolwork and are learning bigger lessons, including respect for others and confidence in themselves.
“It’s empowering for them,” Tower said. “You can see their confidence grow every week as they learn new skills.”
Meanwhile, Tower hopes to expand the non-traditional offerings when he launches a yoga program for 8- to 14-year-olds in the winter. He also intends to make karate a continuous program in the fall so kids participating now can continue to refine their skills.