Plympton-Halifax-Kingston Express

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Benefit on Sunday to help Amy Breault

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PLYMPTON -The Amy Breault benefit event at the Upland Sportsman Club, Upland Road, Plympton, will be held Sunday, July 17, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Amy, a resident of Plympton, was diagnosed with relapsing-remitting Multiple Sclerosis, which progressed to secondary-progressive MS.  She has been invited to Russia to take part in an experimental treatment to use her own body’s stem cells to treat her MS.  Because this highly effective treatment is not available in the United States, Amy will go to Russia to receive her stem cell treatment.

Amy, with her companion Brendan Bibaud, invites the community to join them at the Upland Sportsman Club in Plympton on Sunday, July 17, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

There will be a DJ, raffles, and much more for a family afternoon for all ages.  There is no charge to come and meet Amy under the Upland Club Pavilion and lend support to her mission.

Optional tickets for the chicken bake dinner are $20 per person and can be purchased at the Upland Club or by calling Kim at (781) 585-5741.  All proceeds will go to Amy for her stem cell treatment in Russia.

For those who wish to help but cannot attend, donations may be made directly at http://www.youcaring.com/amy-breault-360701.

HOW HALIFAX REGARDS PRISON PLAN

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“They want to take our good old town of Halifax for a State prison and wipe us off the map, do they? Well, we be long-standing Plymouth Rock Yankees round these parts. There’s people that have tried to drive the Yankees before, but they didn’t drive. So they can’t drive us out of here, by gum!” said Oliver Holmes, one of the oldest inhabitants of Halifax, as he raised his voice in protest against what he terms the “terrible aggression” of a syndicate of Boston real estate dealers who have offered their holdings as a site for a new State prison instead of the island of Nashawena.

In a letter which they have sent to the members of the General Court and the State Board of Prison Commissioners, this syndicate has pointed out how feasible it is to remove the residents of Halifax, who now number about 500, from their homes and how easily the beautiful Cape town may be converted into a vast state farm of over 9000 acres of rich land, situated on the shores of the two Monponsett lakes.

The news that the town had been proposed for a prison site has stirred up the inhabitants. Few approved the idea. Many opposed it. “If those convicts land here,” said George Estes, keeper of the general store, “I would get a Gatling gun, plant it on the Methodist steeple and shot down every mother’s son of them.” A large gathering of village gossips who were in the store at the time nodded approval.

Only one man, Selectman Henry Haywood, approved of selling the town. Mr. Haywood said: “If they want to clean us off the map, let them clean away, provided they use water enough by way of compensation. By ‘water’ I mean good old greenbacks.”

From the collections of

Susan Basile

Halifax Historian

Upland Club event will help Amy Breault: Go to Russia for stem cell treatment

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Amy Breault, who grew up on West Street, Plympton, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when she was just 16 years olf.  That was in the year 2000.  Since then, she has become legally blind and needs assistance walking.  She hasn’t let that slow her down, though, or dulled the smile she always wears.

Today, Amy is a loving 32-year old mother fo a beautiful 3-year old daughter, Arianna.

Since her initial diagnosis of relapsing-remitting MS, she has continued to jump life’s hurdles as she now battles secondary-progressive MS.  There are few effective treatments for this type of the disease. Local practicioners have been unable to find an effective FDA-approved medication to slow the MS progression.

Amy has the opportunity to use her own body’s stem cells to repair what was once considered permanent damage.  Because this highly-effective treatment is not available in the United States, she will travel to Russia to receiver her autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant, where she has been invited for treatment.

Amy, with her sidekick Brendan Bibaud, invite the community to join them at the Upland Club, Upland Road, Plympton, Saturday, July 17, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. for a chicken bake.  There will be a DJ, raffles, and much more for a family afternoon for all ages.  There is no charge to come and meet Amy under the Upland Club Pavilion and lend your support to her mission.  Optional tickets for the chicken bake dinner are $20 per person and can be purchased at the Upland Club r by calling Kim at (781) 585-5741.  All proceeds will go to Amy for her stem cell treatment in Russia.

For those who wish to help but cannot attend, donations may be made directly at http://www.youcaring.com/amy-breault-360701.

2016 Gatorade Softball Player of The Year!

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Silver Lake Regional High School super softball star Maddy Barone from Halifax has added yet another title to her impressive collection – she’s been named the Massachusetts 2016 Gatorade Softball Player of The Year!

This has been a year full of recognition for Barone, who closed out her senior year with the Lakers June 12, when her team’s perfect season record fell to King Phillip Regional in the Division 1 South Championship.

Barone is a four time Patriot League All Star and was named to the Boston Herald All Scholastic.

She signed a letter of intent earlier this spring to play for the University Southern New Hampshire.  .

Barone hoped to lead her team to the Division 1 South Championship, but were unable to bring it home after King Phillip Regional’s win June 12 5 -2.

At 25-1, their season was still one for the books.

In addition to play on the ball field, basketball court, and in the gymnasium, Barone is an excellent student, maintaining a weighted 4.26 GPA, and also donates her time as a youth softball instructor and umpire.

An active member of her community, she volunteers in the Holidays in Halifax Committee among others.

Come on Down to the Farm!

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The Plympton Agricultural Commission invites the public to “Come on out to the Farm” on Sunday, June 26, from noon to 3 p.m.  There will be town-wide tours at no charge for the entire family.  Come to experience the agriculture that abounds in the heart of Plympton, meet the farmers, and be inspired.

There will be demonstrations at Orion Acres on Elm Street, a 25-acre sheep farm where owner/farmer Linda Shauwecker produces fine Cotswolds and Cheviot wool.   Linda will shear a lamb at noon and speak about wool fiber and will have some woolen products for sale.

Jeff LaFleure of Mayflower Cranberries, will give a “Cranberries 101” talk at 2 p.m.  You will see bogs in bloom on the oldest working cranberry bog in Plympton.

Reunion Farm is in the very heart of Historic Plympton Village.  Geraldine and Macaela Burnet are fourth and fifth generation horsewomen.  They train horse and rider, and board horses as well.  Rick Burnet will be around town on the John Deere if the sun is shining, and you are welcome to watch the operation and even help stack some hay!

Russ Keirstead on Crescent Street’s Keirstead Farm, grows raspberries, cuts hay, and works on his family’s antique farm.  Stop by to learn from Russ about growing your own raspberries. 

Sunrise Gardens has been operated by the Harlfinger family in Plympton for the past 47 years.  Come visit and let Dick and Pat give you a tour of their commercial greenhouses and their ‘mum field.

Just Right Farm is a 300-year old farm that grows produce for its farm to table restaurant.  Talk with Kimberly about starting seed, vegetable gardening, and recipe ideas for your own produce. 

Call 781-936-5330 for more information.

Silver Lake HS Standout named Gatorade’s Massachusetts Baseball Player of the Year

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In its 31st year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in collaboration with USA TODAY High School Sports,  announced Anthony Videtto of Silver Lake Regional High School as its 2015-16 Gatorade Massachusetts Baseball Player of the Year.

Videtto is the first Gatorade Massachusetts Baseball Player of the Year to be chosen from Silver Lake Regional High School.

The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field, distinguishes Videtto as Massachusetts’s best high school baseball player, and now is a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Baseball Player of the Year,

Videtto joins an elite alumni association of past state award-winners in 12 sports, including Derek Jeter (1991-92, Kalamazoo HS, Mich.), Roy Halladay (1994-95, Arvada West HS, Colo.), David Price (2003-04, Blackman HS, Tenn.), Chipper Jones (1989-90, Bolles School, Fla.), Derek Lee (1992-93, El Camino HS, Calif.) and Jon Lester (2001-02).

The 6-foot-2, 195-pound senior infielder, outfielder and right-handed pitcher had led Silver Lake Regional High to a  14-2 record at the time of his selection. Videtto produced a .458 average with four home runs and 14 RBI with the bat through 16 games.

The 2016 Patriot League MVP, he also posted a 2-1 record with a 1.35 ERA and 43 strikeouts in 26.

Videtto has maintained a 4.21 weighted GPA in the classroom. A member of the National Honor Society, he has volunteered locally on behalf of the Yawkey Family Inn and as a youth baseball coach.

”We have played against Silver Lake Regional High for the past two years and Anthony Videtto is the best player we have faced,” said Leo Duggan, Oliver Ames High head coach. “He played the infield against us and was awesome, taking away a couple of hits. At the plate, he had four hits and we had a hard time figuring out how to pitch to him.”

Videtto has signed a National Letter of Intent to play baseball on scholarship at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one winner in the District of Columbia and each of the 50 states that sanction high school football, girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, baseball, softball, and boys and girls track & field, and awards one National Player of the Year in each sport. The selection process is administered by the Gatorade high school sports leadership team in partnership with USA TODAY High School Sports, which work with top sport-specific experts and a media advisory board of accomplished, veteran prep sports journalists to determine the state winners in each sport.

Videtto joins recent Gatorade Massachusetts Baseball Players of the Year Joe Walsh (2014-15, Plymouth North High School), Joe Freiday (2013-14, Bridgewater-Raynham Regional High School), Ben Bowden (2012-13, Lynn English High School), Rhett Wiseman (2011-12, Buckingham Browne & Nichols School), John Gorman (2010ñ11, Catholic Memorial School), Kevin Ziomek (2009-10, Amherst Regional High School), Kyle McKenzie (2008ñ09, Thayer Academy), Scott Weismann (2007-08, Acton-Boxborough High School), and Jack McGeary (2006-07, Roxbury Latin).

To keep up to date on the latest happenings, become a fan of Gatorade Player of the Year on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. For more on the Gatorade Player of the Year program, including nomination information, a complete list of past winners and the announcement of the Gatorade National Player of the Year, visit www.gatorade.com/poy.

First Saturday brings first class guitar performance

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First Saturday at the Plympton Public Library brought many patrons to hear a classical guitar performance by Glorianne Collver-Jacobson, a recent Plympton transplant, whose considerable education in music entertained many at the library for more than an hour.

Collver-Jacobson grew up in California and received her B.A. in music from the University of California, Berkley.  She took her junior year abroad in France, and summer in Spain.

Her classical guitar studies began when she was 14 and continued in Barcelona, Spain with Renata Tarrago.  She took international Master Classes with Julian Bream, Antonio Laro, Alirio Diaz and Manuel Barrueco, augmenting her training.  She also studied lute with Eugen Dombois and Hopkinson Smith at the Schola Cantorum Basilliensis in Basel, Switzerland.

Glorianne lived in Europe for some time, continuing her studies in music and also teaching.

After returning to the United States, she and her husband moved to New England in the 1980s, and moved to Plympton last July.   

She has performed in concert in Europe and the United States, both as soloist and with other artists.

Glorianne is a Senior Music Performance Faculty at Wellesley College teaching guitar and lute, and coaches ensembles for the Mather Chamber Music Program at Harvard University.

She promises to keep us informed of other concerts planned in the area.

Narrow miss for Fire and Police

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Narrow miss for Fire and Police  at the scene of the rollover motor vehicle accident

Saturday night around midnight, Halifax fire and police with mutual aid from Plympton, were dispatched to a single vehicle rollover on Monponsett Street near the Plympton town line. 

Narrow miss for Fire and Police

Fire and Police narrowly avoid being struck by a vehicle at the scene of this rollover on Saturday. Photo courtesy of Halifax Fire Dept.

The single occupant, a 21-year-old woman from Bridgewater, said she lost control of the vehicle when she swerved to avoid an animal in the road. She was transported to South Shore Hospital to be treated for non life-threatening injuries.

First responders narrowly missed being hit by a speeding automobile while at the scene of the rollover motor vehicle accident on Monponsett Street at the intersection of Palmer Mill Road.

Patrolmen Ryan Simpson and Herbert Wiltshire, Jr., pursued the vehicle and pulled it over.  The driver, a Kingston man, Jeffrey Jones, 19, was arrested, charged with operating under the influence of liquor, operating to endanger, and license not in possession.

“Firefighters and police officers face all kinds of inherent dangers that can’t be avoided; almost getting struck by drunk motorists at accident scenes should not be one of them,” said Fire Chief Jason Vivieros.

Halifax debuts SeeClickFix program

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The Town of Halifax debuts SeeClickFix program with options to report concerns with a mobile app

Halifax is now using a new program that will allow residents to report quality-of-life issues and request services through an online and mobile interface. Powered by SeeClickFix, the place-based reporting Commonwealth Connect platform allows residents to document neighborhood  concerns and improvements alike, ranging from litter and flooding to damaged sidewalks and malfunctioning traffic signals.

Halifax debuts SeeClickFix programWith the online and mobile reporting platform, residents can report quality-of-life concerns through service request categories via Halifax’s website at

http://www.town.halifax.ma.us/Pages/HalifaxMA_Webdocs/seeclickfix or use mobile applications available for download from the Town’s web site. When submitting issues via mobile app, for example, residents can  provide locational, descriptive, and photographic information as they see the issue in real time. Once the resident submits an issue, the person reporting the issue, the Town, and anyone ‘watching’ the area will receive an alert. Halifax can then acknowledge the service request, and route it to the proper department.

The request can be updated—and residents following the issue—once it has been resolved.

Launched in 2008, SeeClickFix allows citizens anywhere in the world to report and monitor non-emergency community issues, ranging from potholes and planted trees to garbage and graffiti. Through web and mobile applications, as well as embeddable widgets, SeeClickFix empowers citizens, community groups, media organizations, and governments to work together to improve neighborhoods. It is the most widely distributed citizen-reporting tool in the country, having recently surpassed one million fixed issues. In 2012, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts initiated a grant program to  launch the platform, powered by SeeClickFix and titled Commonwealth  Connect, to communities throughout the state.

Mathias service is Sunday Oct. 25

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Mathias service is Sunday Oct. 25: In memory of Jeffrey A. Mathias, 42, of Kingston, Lost at Sea with El Faro

Jeffrey A. Mathias, 42, was lost at sea on October 1, 2015 when the ship SS El Faro sank near the Bahamas during Hurricane Joaquin.

Mathias service is Sunday Oct. 25He leaves his beloved wife, Jennifer (Brides) Mathias, his three adored children; daughters, Hayden 7, Heidi 5, and son Caleb 3, all of Kingston; his parents J. Barry and Lydia (Jones) Mathias of Kingston; his brother John, his wife Carrie and daughter Meghan of Plympton; his uncle, Philip Jones and wife Mary of Plymouth, his aunt, Ellen Jones-Roth and husband Vincent of Hull, and his 97 year old great-uncle Francis (Brud) Phillips of Kingston.  He also leaves behind his in-laws, Philip and Joan Brides of Halifax, brother-in-law J. Michael Brides and his wife Janet and their children Matthew, Nathaniel, William and Sarah.

Feeling the loss of Jeffrey also are the multitude of friends he had here and all over the world.

Jeff attended Silver Lake schools and graduated in 1992 from Tabor Academy in Marion.  While attending Tabor Academy he spent many hours working and sailing aboard the school’s sailing ship the Tabor Boy. His expertise in engineering and love of the water steered him to Massachusetts Maritime Academy, where in 1996 he graduated with a degree in Marine Engineering. Upon graduation he worked at Seamass followed by Altran where he was involved with nuclear power plants. His dream, however, was to sail the seas and in 1998 shipped out aboard cargo vessels.

Jeff sailed all over the world in his chosen career traveling to Africa, Europe, North Korea, Alaska, Hawaii, California, and the Caribbean. He was sought after for his incredible knowledge and vast experience in engineering. He reached the officer’s position of Chief Engineer. 

During this time he also worked as a consultant for the marine engineering firm Maritech out of Acton, MA.  He traveled far and wide for this firm and was responsible for shaft repairs on many vessels. Jeffrey had worked on two of the coast guard ships out of Miami that were used in the search for him and the El Faro. He also worked on the Massachusetts Maritime training ship the TS Enterprise and in 2003 delivered it to its home berth at the Academy. 

Jeff was involved in his family’s cranberry business and Bog Hollow Farm. He had his own bogs, one in Kingston and one in Pembroke. Anything that Jeff could create, fix, fly, or sail he did with the best of his abilities.   He designed and built the amazing maze, slide and children’s play area at Bog Hollow. His dream was to further expand the family’s Pumpkin Patch business with his many ideas for creating an even better place where families could enjoy the beauty of nature, spend quality time with each other, and escape the hustle and bustle of daily living.

His friends and family called him “The Pied Piper” because wherever Jeff was, people were always around him. They loved his outgoing personality, many stories and jokes, and his magnetic smile. A huge beacon of light has gone out in his family and friend’s worlds. The devastation is immeasurable.

A memorial service and reception for Jeffrey will be held at Massachusetts Maritime Academy on the canal at Mariner’s Park on Sunday, October 25, at 1 o’clock. All are welcome.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Jeffrey Mathias Family Memorial Fund at Weymouth Bank, 83 Summer Street, Kingston, MA 02364.

For online condolences, please visit www.shepherdfuneralhome.com