Man stabs driver after mom fatally struck

Shortly after 11 a.m. Wednesday morning, a woman was struck and killed by a large, flatbed tow truck just south of Watertown Square. A man she was walking with then stabbed the truck driver multiple times, according to investigators.

The woman, who was in her late 60s or early 70s, had been struck by the truck while crossing the street and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan, speaking at a press conference at the scene.

At 11:20 a.m., the Watertown Police initially responded to a report of a "road rage episode" at the intersection Watertown and California streets, just across the Charles River from Watertown Square. On an audio recording of police radio traffic, a police officer can be heard saying "a person got stabbed here, supposedly someone's got a knife."

LISTEN: Scanner audio of the police response

According to Ryan, a younger man walking with the deceased woman, who investigators believe is related to her, stabbed the truck driver five times in the torso. The driver was been transported to a Boston hospital in critical condition. The younger man was also taken to the hospital.

"When the police arrived, the [stabbing] suspect was still there and was placed under arrest," Ryan said.

Witness Zeidan Taha told the TAB he saw a man in his mid-40s, "yelling and screaming," jump up on the truck after it struck the woman, and begin to stab the driver. The driver then threw his assailant from the cab and both landed on the ground.

"The guy kept stabbing [the driver] and chasing him all around the truck. The guy was screaming 'I didn't see her! I didn't see her," he said.

Approximate location of the incident

His brother, Moe Taha, said the pair had taken cell phone video of the altercation, which they gave to police. Zeidan manages Watertown Taxi. Moe owns the company and nearby Jana Grill.

Watertown and California streets are closed just south of Watertown Square. California Street at Galen Street has been blocked off, and the Watertown Police Department Twitter account states Watertown Street is also closed. In addition, police have stretched bright red screens across California Street to block the view of the incident scene.

"This is a very active scene and we are going to be here for a number of hours," Ryan said.

Drivers are urged to find an alternate route if their normal path takes them through Watertown Square.

"I just want to let everyone know it is a safe area right now," said Watertown Police Chief Michael Lawn.

The victim's identity is not being released pending notification of next of kin, Ryan said.

This incident is under investigation by the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, Watertown Police Department, Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office and the Massachusetts State Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section

Is the Retail Apocalypse Coming to Watertown?

The rise of e-commerce and Amazon has created new challenges in traditional retail space. So far, in 2019, more than 7,000 retailers in the United States have shut their doors. This is according to a report released Sept. 11 by global accounting network BDO USA LLP.

Store closures this year have already surpassed the number of stores closed in 2018, which was just under 6,000. Before the end of 2019, global marketing research firm Coresight Research predicts there could be upwards of 12,000 store closures.

With the fate of brick and mortar uncertain, what does this mean for the not one, but two shopping centers, both located on Arsenal Street in Watertown?

A change in consumer preferences

Many factors are impacting the increase in store closures. Watertown Mall General Manager Pat Stenson and Arsenal Yards developer Tom Wilder pinpointed one in particular, a change in consumer preferences.

More consumers are using the internet to purchase everything from groceries to cars. E-commerce sales have been growing nine times faster than traditional in-store sales since 1998, according to a 2017 report from the U.S. Census Bureau.

As more and more consumers opt to shop online, shopping centers and traditional brick and mortar stores around the country have to adapt or risk shutting down.

“People want an experience when they come to the mall,” Stenson said. “They don’t just want stores and a place to grab something quick to eat.”

Wilder has noticed the same trend. Shopping centers, he said, have to become a destination not just for transactions but for social and cultural experiences.

Give the people what they want

To stay relevant with modern consumers, both the Watertown Mall and Arsenal Yards are ditching traditional retailing.

The Watertown Mall has changed the makeup of their tenancy. The most recent change was to the Registry of Motor Vehicle.

The RMV occupied 6,500 square feet of the mall. After a recent construction project that combined five stores in the mall, it now occupies over 12,000 square feet.

The registry, which was already busy, now brings thousands of people into the mall every day which, Stenson said, creates traffic for the other stores. The mall has also added an upscale dining option, a Chinese restaurant called Joyful Garden, and a new dance studio that will open soon.

The new tenants should increase traffic to the mall, and these are not the only changes coming. Stenson would not give specifics but said there are more changes to come.

A new neighborhood in town

Arsenal Yards’ approach is even more extensive. The site, which used to house the Arsenal Mall, is being redeveloped by the Wilder Companies, where Wilder is a principal, and Boylston Properties. Instead of designing a traditional shopping center, Wilder said they are creating a neighborhood.

Arsenal Yards will have an open-air design and will house a mix of retail and office space, a hotel, and 300 apartments. The new design, which eliminates the old mall, is meant to reinforce Arsenal Yards as a destination, and to ensure every storefront is accessible from the street.

The developers have also focused on finding a diverse variety of tenants. In the past, Wilder said apparel stores could make up 40 to 50 percent of new developments. With the rise of e-commerce, new developments need to diversify what stores and services they offer to consumers.

Focusing on more than apparel, the developers have rented space to a variety of local and regional restaurants, Roche Bros. grocery store, The Majestic Movie Theater, and more. They will also rent out space for fitness classes, such as spin and yoga, as well as personal services, like therapeutic massages and salons.

You cannot get these services online, Wilder said.

A new model of relevancy

E-commerce and the subsequent change in consumer expectations have made their mark on the retail industry. While traditional shopping centers and malls seem to be running their course, both Stenson and Wilder see a place for a new kind of retail space. A space that provides more to consumers than apparel stores and a quick bite to eat.

“I see malls as being relevant for a long, long time,” Stenson said. “Not the way they were relevant, 10 or 20 years ago, but this kind of new model for relevancy.”

Watertown’s Hayley Sutter crawls to qualify for Olympic trials

Hayley Sutter had 30 seconds to cross the finish line if she wanted to qualify for the 2020 Olympic trials. Hurting and fighting to stay conscious, Sutter kept running. 10 seconds left. A few meters away from the finish line, Sutter’s legs buckled. She dropped to the ground. Five seconds left. On her knees, Sutter crawled the last few meters across the finish line.

There are two ways to time a race. Gun time tracks how long it takes a runner to complete the course from when the initial pistol is shot. This method does not consider whether a runner began the race at the start line. Chip time uses radio-frequency identification tags to measure how long it takes a runner to complete the course. RFID mats are placed at the courses’s start and finish line. A runner’s time begins at the moment they cross the mat at the start line and ends when they cross the mat at the finish line. USA Track and Field use gun times to determine who qualifies for the Olympic trials.

There are time variations between the two methods. The difference is less significant in a smaller race but, in a larger, more crowded race, the variances are noticeable. For Sutter, this difference determined whether or not she would qualify for the 2020 Olympic Trials.

Houston we have a runner

Sutter remembers the exact date her career in running began. When she was 12 years old, Sutter severed her Achilles tendon.  Sutter recalls sitting in the surgeon’s office, where she was told her she would never run again and would most likely walk with a limp for the rest of her life.

“I am very fortunate that I was a very defiant little girl,” Sutter said. “I remember sitting in that office, thinking ‘I will show you. Don’t tell me what I can’t do’”

A year and a half later, Sutter competed for her middle school track team.

Sutter ran her first full marathon in Houston, at 27 years old, placing 12th overall in women. Sutter learned she was seven and a half minutes away from qualifying for the Olympic trials. She had run the course in 2:52:36. To qualify for the Olympics, she would need to shave her time down to 2:45:00.

The next year she started training with qualifying for the Olympic trials as her goal.

“You just have to get there”

On Dec. 2, 2018, at the California International Marathon, Sutter started off the course well. If she continued at the same pace, Sutter would finish the course in about 2:43:00.

“In the moment I adapted this mindset ‘you are going to do it, you just have to get to the finish line.’” she said. “This became ironic in the later stages of the race, when this became the motto I had to keep telling myself over and over.”

At mile 23, she hit a wall. Her pace had slowed from a 6:12 mile to a 6:38. She kept pushing, but Sutter said wondered if she would even finish the race. If she kept running she knew she could still make the qualifying time. With the finish in sight, she had 30 seconds to run across the line.

“I am trying to sprint as hard as I can because I have 30 seconds, 28, 27, and I can see the clock right there with the time” she said.

A few meters away from the finish line, with the clock ticking, Sutter collapsed. Unable to get back up, she dragged her body across the finish line and crumpled back to the ground.

Sutter’s chip time clocked 2:45:00, but her gun time was 2:45:07. She was seven seconds over the qualifying time. A few hours later, after she recovered, Sutter petitioned the USA Track and Field to accept her chip time.

Sutter and her boyfriend researched her case. They found two cases the previous Olympic cycle similar to Sutter. In both cases, the USATF accepted the runners’ chip scores. About a month after the marathon, Sutter received the news. USATF told her they would accept her chip time. Sutter would be going to the 2020 Olympic trials.

Setting the sights high

The trials will be held Feb. 29, 2020 in Atlanta. Sutter’s goal is not to qualify for the Olympics but to finish in the top 50. The USATF has put out a list showing the athletes who have met the qualifying standards. The list is ranked by time, and Sutter is last on that list.

“It is definitely an audacious goal,” Sutter said “I figure, set the sights high and, even if I don’t make it, I have at least given myself the ability to try to compete my best.”

A motto of relentless positivity

Sutter said a motto of relentless positivity fuels her. It gets her out running when she would rather stay inside, sitting on the couch. It helped her get through a month of not knowing whether she had qualified for the trials. It is what motivated her at 12 years old when the surgeon told her she would never run again, and it is what carried her across the finish line.

To see USATF’s list of athletes who have met the Olympic trials qualifying standards visit: http://www.usatf.org/Events---Calendar/2020/U-S--Olympic-Team-Trials---Marathon/QualifyingStandards/Eligible-List/Women-Marathon.aspx

Watertown is making Common Street safer for pedestrians

Common Street just got safer for pedestrians.

Residents traveling down the street will notice bright orange traffic cones directing cars into a new roundabout at the Common and Orchard streets intersection. Travel further down the street, and residents will notice a new traffic signal at the Spring Street intersection.

These changes are one piece of a larger complete streets project that the Town and the Department of Public Works has undertaken to make traffic conditions in the area safer. (Complete streets are streets that are designed to enable safe use for all users: pedestrians, bicyclists, drivers, commuters, etc.)

Making safety a priority

The decision to reconstruct Common Street came to the forefront in 2015. Prior to this, town administrators had discussions about the street’s sidewalks and pavement conditions, as well as various safety concerns in the area.

Town Engineer Matthew Shuman said the project was designed to address multiple issues and concerns. Common Street is a major throughway.  It is also an access point to Watertown High School and, with the many students in the area, there is heavy pedestrian traffic.

In 2015, a public works subcommittee began meeting to discuss how the town could improve the street. The major concern, Shuman said, was getting students to and from school safely, and slowing down traffic at the Common and Orchard Streets intersection.

The town settled on concept that added two noticeable features: the roundabout at the Orchard and Common Streets intersection, and the traffic signal at the Spring and Common Streets intersection. The design also included a northbound bike lane, road repaving, new curbing, and utility improvements.

Common Street is getting more than a face lift

Construction on the project started last year but, even prior to that, National Grid upgraded the gas mains. Shuman said the construction last year focused on the section from Mt. Auburn to Columbia streets.

The road in this section was ripped up and removed using a process called reclamation. Shuman said this process grinds the road in place, and provides a base for new pavement.

“It was not just a face lift. It was a real reconstruction,” he said.

The curbs and sidewalks in this section were also replaced. In the past the DPW had difficulties plowing the sidewalks, because they were so narrow. As a result, the walkways were widened for easier maintenance.

The new traffic signal at the Spring Street intersection, an access point to the high school, was also installed.

Shuman said the traffic signal channels the pedestrian traffic going to and from school, and is probably the safest way for pedestrians to cross the street versus the signal-less crosswalks that were there before.

In addition to these more obvious changes, there was also water, drainage, and electrical work in the area.

What’s happening now?

This summer construction started where the town left off last year at Columbia Street. Early on, the roundabout and a new crosswalk were installed at the Orchard Street intersection.

According to Shuman roundabouts tend to slow driving speeds down and better organized traffic. He said the changes should make traveling to Victory Field and the High School easier for people.

There are inspectors monitoring the traffic to see how everything is functioning.

“I think the sense is that the roundabout is making things safer and slowing down the speeds. It seems to not be having major traffic impacts. So far, we are pleased with it."

Now, curbs and sidewalks are being replaced. Construction this year will go up to Orchard Street.

The project’s completion is slated for next year.

Watertown officer restores a piece of policing history

Parked in the lot behind the Watertown police station is a relic of the past, an old 1991 Ford Crown Victoria police cruiser.

The cruiser, which was used for policing in Arizona, looks brand-new. No one would suspect that a little over a year ago this Crown Vic was in rough shape, covered in chipped paint and barely working.

Officer Michael Hill bought the car in 2018 and has spent the past year restoring the cruiser to its original state.

Born a car guy

Hill remembers having an interest in cars as a kid and said he has always been a car guy. In college, Hill worked at Perfection Auto Body on Pleasant Street, where he picked up the knowledge and mechanical skills needed to do car restorations.

Hill’s interest in restoring old police cars also ties back to his childhood. His father was an officer for the Newton Police Department and, as a kid, Hill would go to the station and play in the old Ford cruisers.

The Arizona cruiser is not the first police car that Hill has restored. He got the idea a few years ago at an event that showcased restored police cruisers.

“I remember seeing the old cars and thinking that is a good idea,” he said.

At the time Hill worked in the Boston Sheriff’s Department, so he bought an old Boston cruiser. Restoring the car took about a year and, after finishing it, Hill sold the cruiser to a collector in New Hampshire.

Restoring the cruiser to its original state

Hill purchased the car for under $2,000 and paid another $1,000 to have it shipped from Arizona to Watertown.

The Arizona cruiser was in rough shape. The paint was so chipped that the “DIAL 911” lettering on the side of the car was illegible.

“Old police cars are pretty much used and abused and then sent to the junkyard,” Hill said.

He had to repaint the exterior and rip out most of the interior, as well as replace some of the older parts. The hardest part of restoring the police cruiser, according to Hill, is finding the parts.

“These cars are not well sought after, so there is not that big of a market for them, and there are not a lot of places that reproduce parts for them,” he said.

Hill used a search engine for mechanics and auto body shops to locate the parts. Most of the parts, he said, came from the South or West where there are fewer issues with salt and subsequent corrosion.

Hill spent a day a week on average working on the car, slowly making repairs and putting it back together. He works odd hours at the police station, but whenever he had some free time he would spend it working on the car.

“It is a stress reliever. Everyone has their own thing. I enjoy working on cars,” he said.

What will happen to the Arizona cruiser?

Hill’s plan for the Arizona cruiser is a little different from the Boston cruiser.

“I will probably end up keeping this for a while anyway, until I get the itch to build a new one,” he said.

Hill plans to show the restored cruiser at various car shows around New England, and will drive it in Watertown’s annual Memorial Day Parade in May.

After working on the car for more than a year, Hill said he is satisfied and will take a break from restoring old cruisers, for now anyway.

Watertown to honor Vietnam War vet Paul Gorman

In 2011, Watertown native and war veteran Bonnie Gorman traveled to Khe Sanh Valley in Vietnam to see Hill 606, the spot where her younger brother Paul had died 51 years earlier.

Today, the area is all beautiful hillside, she said. Bonnie searched and searched, but she never did find Hill 606. Despite this, visiting the site felt therapeutic, Bonnie said.

This week, Paul Gorman will be honored by his home town.

Watertown honors Paul

A few months ago, Marines Joe Derian and James Prendergast got in touch with Bonnie. Derian and Prendergast had both joined the Marine Corps with Paul back in 1967.

The pair told Bonnie they planned to ask the town’s veterans service officer to hold a dedication ceremony for Paul. Derian and Prengergast had requested dedications for other veterans in the past and told Bonnie they had wanted to have one for Paul for some time.

Patrick George, Watertown’s veterans service officer, gave the Marines the go ahead. Bonnie filled out the required paperwork, and the memorial plaque was ordered.

“It has been wonderful to see the Watertown veterans come forward; those from his high school class and those who knew him,” Bonnie said.

Paul joined the U.S. Marines after graduating from Watertown High School in 1967. He was 18 when he was deployed to Vietnam.

“[Gorman] signed up for the Marines at a time when young men sign up as teenagers, not thinking about what the consequences might actually be, and what they are being asked to do,” Bonnie said.

Bonnie also served in Vietnam. She worked for two years in the Vietnam Air Evacuation Hospital network as a military nurse. Bonnie had been studying nursing at Boston College, when she decided to join the military for financial reasons in 1963.

“They had no idea, and neither did I, as to what we were in for,” she said.

In July, 1968 Gorman and his company were defending Hill 606 in the Khe Sanh Valley. At the time, the military saw Khe Sanh as a key region to control Vietnam’s northern provinces. Hill 606 was in an area nicknamed the DMZ, or dead marine zone.

Robert "Bob" Fasano, Paul’s comrade, described how Paul died in a letter he wrote to his wife Donna on July 31, 1968. According to Fasano their company had left for Hill 606 the morning of July 30 and reached the hilltop with no problems.

At around 1 p.m. the first platoon went to patrol at the base of the hill on the opposite side which they came up. The platoon was attacked, and two of their men were killed. They called for help and Paul and Fasano fired back at the enemy’s position.

“Paul was only about 10 to 12 feet from me when he was hit. I watched him fall,” Fasano wrote. “Paul died instantly. The bullet went through his jaw and hit his right side of the neck.”

A lasting impact

Paul’s death rocked the Gorman family. He left behind four older siblings, a mother and a father. Soon after Paul’s death, his mother, Madeline had a massive heart attack.

The heart attack left Madeline to live as an invalid until she died two years later. Bonnie attributes her mother’s heart attack to Paul’s death.

“She died of a broken heart,” Bonnie said.

Bonnie’s losses led her to join peace groups advocating to end the Vietnam War and to prevent future war. Today she works with a number of advocacy groups to provide veterans with access to medical and mental health services.

'An honor for the family'

The shadow of Paul’s death is omnipresent. Over 50 years have passed, and Bonnie’s eyes still brim with tears as she reminisces about her lost brother.

The dedication ceremony, Bonnie said, is an honor for her, her family, and for Paul. To Bonnie, the ceremony will also give Paul’s fellow veterans the opportunity to come together and acknowledge their time and service, and to celebrate that they are still here.

“This is a comfortable venue for men to be able to come and talk about the consequences of war, and their experiences in the war, and to get support. For that, I am very happy,” Bonnie said.

The dedication ceremony takes place on July 12 at 11 a.m. at the intersection of Emerson Road and Main Street. At that time, the town will recognize the intersection, near the house where Gorman grew up, as “Private First Class Paul James Gorman Memorial Square.”

Paul is buried alongside his parents at Ridgelawn Cemetery.

Should Watertown schools require summer reading?

With July 4 in the rear view mirror, and back-to-school around the corner, the time students have to finish their summer assignments is quickly coming to a close.

Summer reading is a norm for many schools in the United States trying to negate the effects of a phenomenon called summer slide.

Summer slide is when students, especially those from low-income families, lose some of the achievement gains they made during the previous school year over the summer.

To avoid this many schools assign summer reading, but the Watertown High School English Language Arts Department found that these requirements were not necessarily helping all of their students.

What happened to summer reading?

Last summer, the ELA Department implemented new summer reading requirements for students. The new requirements are more relaxed and based on the students’ chosen ELA course level.

For college prep classes summer reading is optional, but students can choose to do it for extra credit. The department also scaled back some of the reading expectations for AP and honors students. All senior English courses still require summer reading.

Maureen Regan, the ELA curriculum coordinator for grades six through 12, said the district made the decision after evaluating what had been happening with summer reading at the high school over the years.

“What we were finding was that, regardless of whether [summer reading] was a requirement or an option, there were students who were not doing it,” Regan said.

Before Regan became the department chair, summer reading assignments counted as 10 percent of a student’s first quarter grade. Regan said those students who did not complete the reading found themselves starting the year at a deficit and often became even more embittered about the process of reading.

The department found that tying a grade to summer reading, or punishing those who did not do it had a negative effect on students.

“We found that was punitive and that didn’t really work for our college prep students,” Regan said. “Kids who were inclined to read anyway did so, and the kids who weren’t, it didn’t motivate them to do so.”

A new set of requirements for Watertown students

Over the last decade, the department has implemented various changes to summer reading assignments. Regan said they have tried giving students more choice about what they could read over the summer and even scaled back the grade percentage reading assignments counted for in the first quarter.

Even with these changes the Department found there were still populations of students who were choosing not to do the summer reading.

The department issued surveys to students in an effort to understand why some students were choosing not to complete their summer assignments. Regan said the responses were eye opening and that she thought the results surprised many teachers.

“There were students who were opposed to the idea of summer reading and, no matter what we did, no matter what the consequence was, they were going to choose not to do it,” Regan said.

In the surveys, students wrote about their other responsibilities during the summer months, and other issues that precluded them from being able to select or read a book.

Regan said the department also heard from parents who felt their children were overburdened with the sheer volume of summer work from all the various honors and AP courses.

Another factor the department considered is how technology has impacted students' ability to read long-form texts. Regan said that, with the rise in technology, books can no longer compete in the same way for their students' attention.

All of these factors led the department to implement the new set of summer reading standards last summer. They decided to reward the students who were invested in reading, but not punish those who were not.

“We don’t care what you read, we care that you read.”

The more relaxed requirements have not significantly impacted the number of students choosing to read over the summer. Regan said a few more students did choose to read, but this was in part because some classes now offered extra credit.

Conversations in the department about best practices for summer assignments are ongoing, and they have not settled on a final solution.

“We have tried a number of things over the last decade, and we are still examining where does it work, and how can we get our kids engaged,” Regan said.

In the meantime, the department has implemented other methods during the school year to motivate students to read.

Last year, the department worked in tandem with the High School’s librarian Erin Piazza to create “speed dating for books.” Piazza set up different book stations about the High School Library, with tea and hot cocoa, reminiscent of a cafe, so students could pick up a book, read a few pages, and have time to engage with some of the texts.

“Our hope is that we model that reading is really fun,” Regan said. “In some ways, what we were trying to say to kids is we don’t care what you read, we care that you read. We are hopeful that eventually that message will get through.”

Plumbing Museum gets Reel

Watertown’s Plumbing Museum is paying homage to the town’s namesake with its first-ever film festival.

Next week, June 27-28, the museum will screen 21 short-length films that center around the theme of water. The event is free, so everyone has the opportunity to visit the museum and enjoy some thought-provoking films.

“We want people to build more awareness about the importance of [water] culturally and physically as a resource,”  Museum Program Manager Sasha Parfenova said.

Parfenova is the film festival’s director. She recruited two others, Demitra Papadinis and Paul Taft, to help her organize the festival. The three have worked together on events at the museum in the past. Last summer they staged Theater Playfest, a two-day event, which featured short comedy plays centered around the theme of plumbing. Parfenova said the event worked out well. Playfest ran for two nights, and each night the Plumbing Museum had a full house.

Post-event, Parfenova started to mull over what type of events the museum might host next. When she discussed this with Papadinis, Parfenova said Papadinis was excited about bringing a film festival to the museum. The pair started researching local film festivals and then asked Taft if he would hop on board. He agreed, and the trio started planning.

How did the trio select the films?

At first, Taft said, Parfenova thought they could put the festival together by November.

“I had no idea how much really goes into putting together an event like this,” Parfenova said.

Parfenova soon realized creating a successful festival would take some time. The trio have been planning the June event since early last fall.

One of the first things the team did, Parfenova said, was to come up with an application guide for filmmakers. They decided to limit the entries to short-length films, 30 minutes or less. The trio also decided on water as the theme for the festival.

“We are in Watertown, [FilmFest] is hosted at the Plumbing Museum, so water is the central theme of the festival.” Taft said.

This done, the team put out a call for submissions. The museum received 41 submissions. Reviewing the films was a lot of work, Parfenova said. The team watched the film submissions individually and scored them using a rubric Parfenova developed. The three then came together to make the final selection.

“It was a difficult choice actually deciding which films we would screen,” Parfenova said. “There were really good submissions.”

In the end, they chose 21 films. The films’ genres vary. There are animated films, documentaries, as well as experimental and narrative films. The shortest film, “Sea,” is one minute long and the longest, “Bass by Kayak,” is 30 minutes. The filmmakers hail from Iran, Uzbekistan, Australia, and from the more familiar neighboring city of Cambridge.

“I really feel like we have a strong lineup of films. I couldn’t be prouder of the ability to showcase these films, because I think people are going to walk through the doors and be thoroughly entertained,” Taft said.

The beginnings of a new Watertown tradition

The event is broken up into four sessions over two days. Session one and two will be held Thursday, June 27, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. and 7:45 to 8:45 p.m. Session three and four will be held at the same times respectively Friday June 28.

Taft said the team has worked hard to ensure the festival is legitimate. They want people to feel like they are a part of something, he said, whether they are an audience member, or somebody showcasing their work.

“We want more people to come back next year, because we don’t just want it to be a novelty,” he said.

Parfenova also said she foresees continuing the film festival in the future.

“I hope our festival will inspire other people to be creative and to think outside of the box,” Parfenova said.

To reserve a seat, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/o/the-plumbing-museum-14197500663

How an old-fashioned bread bakery inspired a career for Watertown native

Most high school jobs do not turn into a career, but Watertown native Andrew Holden’s high school gig at an old-fashioned bread bakery, called Iggy’s Bread of the World, was a game-changer.

Today, Holden is the owner of Branchline in Watertown and, in August, he opened the doors to his new all-day cafe, Shy Bird, in Cambridge's Kendall Square.

Working at Iggy’s

Holden’s career in the food industry began in 1994. Husband and wife duo Igor Ivanovic and Ludmilla Luft had just opened Iggy’s in the East End of Watertown on Arsenal Street.

A high school student looking for a part-time gig, Holden said he walked into Iggy’s not knowing much about the store or what they did. He asked for a job anyway and got hired.

“It turns out they were the first people to bring old-style artisanal bread to the Boston area,” Holden said.

Holden worked at Iggy’s for three years, where he said he did a little bit of everything. He ran the retail store, went to farmers markets, made deliveries and learned how to bake bread, croissants and flatbread.

During this time Ivanovic and Luft became Holden’s mentors.

“I got to work with some people who treated their employees really well, and who you wanted to do a good job working for,” he said.

Although Holden enjoyed the job, it would take him many more years working in restaurants until he decided to commit to a career in the food industry.

Jobs in restaurants

After high school, Holden moved south to New Orleans to attend Tulane University. He continued working in restaurants and served on the waiting staff at a Ralph Brennan restaurant in the city’s French Quarter as well as at the Upperline, a fine dining establishment in the Garden District.

Holden said he enjoyed his work in the food industry and found it to be fun, but he was hesitant to say this was what he wanted to do for his whole life.

“When I was growing up, no one I knew talked about a career in restaurants,” he said. “If anything it was just a job until you figure out what you were going to do in life.”

After a few years in New Orleans, Holden returned to the Greater Boston area. He transferred from Tulane University and enrolled at Boston University’s School of Hospitality and Administration.

Again, Holden found jobs at restaurants. He became the manager at Ambrosia on Huntington, then went on to manage Ken Oringer’s restaurant Clio in 2002.

Right before Holden accepted the job at Clio, he said something clicked for him.

“I had that moment where I knew I always loved this, and I was looking at a job opportunity at what I considered to be the best fine dining restaurant in the city,” he said. “Something finally clicked that said why are you fighting this? It’s what you love.”

From then on, Holden did not consider anything other than restaurants for work.

More than a transaction

Holden worked at Clio for four years, then became general manager at Eastern Standard in Kenmore Square in 2006. He went on to partner with Eastern Standard's owner Garrett Harker, who had also become a mentor, and together they opened Branchline in 2016.

Last month, on the corner of Third Avenue in Kendall Square, Holden opened Shy Bird, something he has been planning for over two years.

Holden said restaurant openings are hard and that, at first, you make a lot of mistakes but, so far, everyone in the neighborhood has been welcoming.

If there is any key to his success, Holden said it is letting the people around you have a part in everything you are doing.

“I have learned over the years not to influence when and where you can, but to spend more time worrying about what you can do a little bit less, and letting people on the team contribute,” he said.

Part of the community

With more than two decades in the food industry, Holden says the part that stands out the most to him are the incredible guests and regulars he has met, and who, in some cases, have become close friends.

"When our restaurants do what we want to do right, it is not about a transactional experience," Holden said. “It is about looking for a moment to have the restaurant be a little part of the community."

This article has been updated Sept. 18 to reflect that Andrew Holden partnered with Eastern Standard owner Garrett Harker to open Branchline in 2016.

No soldier left behind: A Watertown family's mission to bring a little piece of home to U.S. troops

Operation American Soldier awarded $5,000 grant

Throughout history, mail has bridged the distance between deployed troops and their loved ones. Living overseas, in often dangerous conditions, can cause soldiers to feel isolated from the world they left behind. Receiving a letter or package, can help keep troops connected to their families and friends back home. While the digital age has made instant communication from one corner of the world to another possible, physical mail can provide a more tangible connection to a loved one than an email.

With this in mind, Watertown residents, and power couple, John and Wendy Rocca, began Operation American Soldier (OAS). OAS is a nonprofit organization that sends care packages to deployed U.S. troops. Their mission, said Wendy, is to serve all U.S. deployed troops and to ensure no one walks away from mail call empty handed.

The organization meets at the Marine Corps League on Mt. Auburn Street every four to six weeks. Each session they mail between 125 to 160 packages. The packages contain items such as instant food and clothing, like socks and T-shirts. Volunteers make up 100 percent of the operation. They donate money and supplies, and help put together the packages for shipment. Some volunteers also write personal letters to the troops.

Origins

The idea of OAS took shape after John’s daughter, Tracy, joined the Army. Tracy was deployed to Kuwait in 2003. When she arrived at the base, she found supplies at the Army store were limited.

“We got a communication from [Tracy] saying we just hit boots on the ground and they are not set up for us, and I need everything,” Wendy said.

Wendy and John assembled the essentials and mailed a care package to Kuwait. A couple weeks later, Tracy sent the pair a letter thanking them for her package. She also told them about a few troops in her unit who had not received any mail, and passed along their names.

What the Rocca’s did next, later became the framework for OAS. Wendy and John sent each troop their own care package. Inside the package, they included a letter asking the troops to send them the names of any others who were not receiving mail. As troops passed along more names, the duo continued to send more packages. Using their own money, the Rocca’s filled the boxes with provisions and shipped them to soldiers all over the world.

“The lowest part of your tour is when you come back in from a mission, and you go look at the board, and if your name is not up there you don’t have any mail,” Wendy said. “We don’t want that to ever happen.”

The stems of OAS had begun to take root. Soon the Rocca’s had to move their operation from the kitchen table to their basement. When that became too small, the local Marine Corps League offered Wendy and John a free space at their Mount Auburn Street headquarters. OAS has been located at 215 Mt. Auburn St. ever since.

Making an impact

Many of the soldiers, who receive packages from OAS, send letters back to thank the organization. One marine from Tewksbury even came to help pack boxes during one of his two weeks off.

“We get a lot of people who have come back, if they are local, and they want to speak to the group, and they want to show their appreciation for how much it meant to get a box,” Wendy said.

On their website, OAS features some of the letters they have received from grateful soldiers. In one of the letters a commanding officer, who identifies himself as Christopher K., described two soldiers’ reactions to receiving a package. Both soldiers had been deployed for two months, but had not received any mail until that point.

“One of them, a 19-old PFC on his very first deployment, was almost able to get the words “thank you” out before his eyes welled up. I nearly shed a tear myself when he was out of the office,” wrote Christopher K. “The other, a 23-year old SP4, was so selfless when he received it that he immediately told me he didn’t deserve it, and he had not done anything special.”

Wendy also told a story about a soldier in her son, Nick’s, unit. Nick had been deployed to Iraq. One day, a girl he did not even know came flying up to him and started crying. When Nick asked her what was wrong, the girl said she had just received a package from his parents. She was overjoyed, because the box was the first piece of mail she had gotten since being deployed. Later that night, Nick called his parents and told them how much of impact the package had on this girl.

The impact of OAS has not been isolated to deployed troops. According to Wendy, OAS never has a shortage of people volunteering. Often, volunteers include personal letters in the packages with a return address. Troops have started communications with volunteers and have even flown flags for them in appreciation. Local business have also gotten involved and have donated supplies or money for postage. What began as a small family effort has blossomed into a community affair.

“The community spirit has been fabulous,” Wendy said.

OAS receives a grant

In November, OAS received a $5,000 grant from the Tufts Health Plan foundation. With this money, Wendy said, OAS plans to pack and ship even more boxes.

The organization does not have much in overhead, maybe a couple hundred in shipping supplies each year, according to Wendy. It costs $10.61 to mail one package, and all of the money the organization raises goes to postage and product. Without receiving grants from great companies, said Wendy, OAS would not be possible.

Looking forward

Both the Rocca’s work full time. While Wendy hopes to continue growing the organization, she and John will need much more support to achieve this goal.

“I need some logistical help,” Wendy said. “I need people who can help with PR. I need people who know how to mess with our website and can send out newsletters.”

Right now, the pair are working together to form an official board. Wendy would also like to hire a grant writer.

“The more grants we get, the more people we can serve,” she said.

In the meantime, the Rocca’s will continue to pursue their mission, ensuring every U.S. troop walks away from mail call with something special in-hand.

To help Operation American Soldier in Watertown or make a donation, visit their website operationamericansoldier.org/

Arax Market brings the world to Watertown

Arax Market celebrates 45 years in Watertown

On the corner of Mount Auburn Street and Melendy Avenue a large, olive green sign with bright, white lettering marks the entrance to Watertown landmark Arax Market. The mom-and-pop shop sells specialty Armenian and Middle Eastern food products. In the front of the market, an array of  fresh produce overflows from cardboard cartons. Various selections of cheese line the refrigerator shelves in the back, and glass displays hold  pastries like nutella chocolate baklava.

Elizabeth Bassmajian opened Arax Market with her brothers and husband Hagop in 1974. Ownership has stayed in the family, and Elizabeth and Hagop’s three children have since taken over the every day business operations. This year the family celebrates the market’s 45 anniversary.

Bringing a piece of Armenia to Watertown

The Bassmajian family roots derive from Armenia where the cuisine differs from traditional American hamburgers and New England clam chowder. When they first came to Watertown, the Bassmajians had trouble finding the ingredients and food  they ate growing up. The family decided if they could not find the food they needed, they would have to sell it themselves.

“They needed their cuisine, and the only way to do it was to do it themselves.” Betty, Elizabeth and Hagop’s daughter, said.

With a large and growing Armenian population in Watertown, the demand for specialty food existed. The challenging part was growing the market by selling to their non-Armenian neighbors.

“They were foreigners in a foreign land,” Betty said. “They had to introduce all this food and culture to the Americans and get them used to the cuisine, the culture, and everything like that.”

The Bassmajians spent most of the 70s and 80s establishing their market. Hagop used to travel all over the United States looking for vendors selling specialty foods he could bring back to Watertown. He did this until Arax Market became secure enough that vendors sought them out instead of the reverse. Now, 45 years later Arax Market has become a staple in the Greater Boston Area.

A family affair

Elizabeth and Hagop have three children: Harout, Betty, and Shant. All three were born in Watertown and have worked in their parents shop since childhood. In the past few years, Elizabeth and Hagop have passed on their business’s proverbial reins to their children.

Every morning at 5 a.m. Harout heads to Boston’s produce market. He hand-picks all the produce and fruit for the store. When he finishes, he loads everything onto a truck and heads back to Watertown. Shant and Betty run the business side of the shop. They find vendors and order supplies. All three supervise daily operations.

“There is always something to do,” Harout said. “You can work 24 hours a day non-stop and there would be something to do.”

The three are at the market seven days a week, often working more than 12 hour days. They hardly ever close the store or take time off. According to Betty, the longest they have ever closed the store was for her wedding.

“It’s a love-hate relationship with the store. We don’t have a life.” she said. “My parents gave their whole lives to the store, and now we have given our whole lives to the store. It is our baby. We do everything for this business.”

Modernizing mom and pop

Elizabeth, Hagop, and their children have kept tradition at the center of the market. They sell traditional food they cook with natural ingredients and try to keep the store as old fashioned as possible.

“We upgrade stuff, but people don’t want us to make it look like a big box market,” Betty said. “They like us to keep it the way they remember it and how it is back home. They want that kind of feeling.”

The new generation has brought some changes. Betty experiments with the food. She uses Armenian and American influences to create concoctions like Nutella chocolate baklava, pesto hummus, and quinoa salad mixed with Armenian spices.

At first, Elizabeth and Hagop uncertain of their daughter’s experiments. However, they warmed to the changes as customers reacted positively. Some experiments aret better than others.

“We were brought up with this food, but you need to play with it and have fun with it,” she said.

As society continues to change, Harout said, the shop also has to adjust. In the future, he thinks the market will offer more meals to go and maybe start delivering.

“I find more people have less time to cook,” Harout said. “That is why you see more of the meals in the boxes, on the go, and stuff like that. That is the scary thing. I don’t know what is going to happen in ten years. Everyone is so busy with work. People just don’t have time to sit there and cook.”

With all the new shops and restaurants opening up, Betty said the family has to stay one step ahead of the game to keep up with all the transitions in Watertown. The town’s upcoming construction plan at Mount Auburn Street concerns the family. Watertown plans to narrow Mount Auburn Street down to one lane traffic and to remove some parking spots in the area. While it is hard to predict the impact, Betty believes it will hurt the business.

“I get ten to 12 deliveries a day. If my delivery truck don’t have anywhere to put their car, how am I going to get deliveries? If there is nowhere to park in front of the store, how am I going to get my customers? It is running the convenience.” she said.

Preserving a tradition

The family does not want to go anywhere and is determined to keep up with the improvements of the town. After 45 years in Watertown, the Bassmajians and Arax Market is ingrained in the community.

“Our customers are our family. We cry with them we live with them. I see a lot of them almost every day. It is a different bond. It’s not like your typical grocery store,” Betty said. “You can buy apples everywhere but you cannot buy that relationship. It is amazing.”

As the Bassmajians say, for over four decades Arax Market has been bringing the world to Watertown, and they hope to continue that tradition.

Watertown Works: Building innovation and openness with HATCH's Liz Helfer

Machines whir and chatter inside the HATCH makerspace at 50 Summer St. It is a hot summer day and Elizabeth “Liz” Helfer is demonstrating how to use some of the tools at the studio to a group of kids.

The studio is a large industrial looking room. Light wooden figurines are placed on display in the front window. Inside, on the far left wall, 3-D printers perch on top of wooden tables. The room is filled with  various electronics, and arts and crafts.

Hatching a makerspace

HATCH makerspace is a public workshop, run by the Watertown Public Library, where anyone can stop by and learn creative skills, from how to sew, to using a 3D printer, to soldering. The roster of programs has something for everyone and, one of the best parts, it’s free.

Helfer is the HATCH coordinator. She organizes the programing and runs the everyday operations of the studio. HATCH has changed a lot since the studio first opened its doors in 2015, Helfer said. Before she started, volunteers ran the studio.

Watertown Public Library’s Assistant Director Caitlin Browne spearheaded the project back in 2013. At the time library staff already organized most of maker programs at the library. Browne and the library staff started discussing whether a public workshop would interest the community.

“It was a very organic process. It wasn’t something super planned out,” Browne said.

In 2015, the library procured a free space at the Arsenal Mall for their new project. Once that happened, things began taking off.

As the space continued to grow, Browne realized they needed to hire a full-time employee to sustain the space. This is where Helfer came in.

HATCH needed more oversight, a person to run the show and give the studio more consistency. Browne spoke with Helfer and thought her artistic background as a sculptor and maker would make Helfer a great fit for the space.

“[Helfer] has brought an artistic lens to the project,” Browne said. “Up until she came along we were focused on tech and more on skills and trade and less on the art. She is folding the art back into it.”

The “artsy” twin

Helfer knew at an early age she would be a creator. She has an identical twin sister Rebecca and, together, they decided that Liz would be the “artsy” twin and Rebecca would be the “bookish” twin.

Helfer won the “most artistic” superlative every year at school. After graduating high school, she studied sculpture at Alfred University. Helfer has her own studio now where she creates cast metal and mixed sculptures.

When Helfer first applied to work at the HATCH, she said she did not know a lot about the space. As she learned more, Helfer said she realized what a cool place it was.

Run entirely by volunteers at the start, Helfer said HATCH’s success was incredible.

“Very few places can operate just from volunteers,” she said.

"The epicenter of something cool"

In the two years since Helfer started as coordinator she has helped HATCH to create and standardized a core program. The studio now has a number of regular participants and HATCH continues to grow and further establish its presence in town.

“Every day I come in here and learn something which is really incredible,” she said.

At the moment, Browne said the makerspace has reached its capacity in terms of what they can do and the programs they can offer. She said HATCH can not accommodate too many more people at the Summer Street location.

The Residence, an independent and assisted living facility, donated the Summer Street space to the Hatch. Browne said they are grateful to use the space, but there is no guarantee they can stay there for the long-term.

“We would really love to find a space someday that is permanent. That we know is ours, and is probably bigger so we could establish a few more skills and trade in there,” Browne said.

Right now, Liz is the only full-time employee at the studio but, they are on the crisp of hiring a Hatch Makerspace Assistant.

As HATCH continues to grow, Helfer said the makerspace is becoming a more integral part of the community and is part of an identity Watertown would like to build.

“It is about accessibility, openness and innovation. I think that is a message the Town Council, Town Manager, and different businesses in Watertown would all like to convey to an outside community. We would like to be an epicenter of something cool, and I think HATCH embodies that,” Helfer said.

For a more about HATCH and a list of classes and programs visit: watertownlib.org/148/Hatch

Watertown filmmaker shares an untold civil rights story

In 1974, 11 women defied the leadership of the Episcopal Church to become ordained as priests. While no canon law forbade their ordination, the norm was to deny women priesthood. These women, who are now known as “The Philadelphia Eleven,” became a catalyst for change in the Episcopal Church. Their defiance paved the way for the Church to authorize the ordination of women to priesthood two years later.

Struck by these women and their collective story, Watertown resident and documentary filmmaker Margo Guernsey decided to bring their history to the big screen. She has partnered with Boston-based photographer Nikki Bramley to co-produce a documentary about The Philadelphia Eleven.

Guernsey said the film’s message is likely to change as she continues the production and editing process. She described filmmaking like peeling an onion.

“There are always more layers, and it is important to me not to oversimplify,” she said.

Her goal is for people to walk away from the picture knowing the history of the 11 women who claimed their call to priesthood and changed the Church.

A story not taught in American History

Guernsey first came across The Philadelphia Eleven in 2012, while researching for a different film project. Her research led her to Rev. Isabel Carter Heyward, one of The Philadelphia Eleven. Guernsey called Heyward, who agreed to answer her questions for the project.

“I literally had no idea I was reaching out to one of the most famous lesbian, theologian seminist priests in the country,” Guernsey said.

In order to answer Guernsey’s questions,  Heyward had to tell Guernsey about her background as one of the 11.

“I couldn’t believe I didn’t know, and I couldn’t believe it wasn’t a part of our American History classes,” Guernsey said. “I felt like that was a film I should be making.”

At the time Guernsey did not have the bandwidth to pursue another film project, but over the next three years she said she kept coming back to the story. In 2015 Guernsey decided the time was right to begin work on a new film. She decided to make a documentary about The Philadelphia Eleven.

One reason Guernsey said she wanted to tell The Philadelphia Eleven’s story is because often times the Women’s Rights Movement separates itself from religion, and she believes that is a huge mistake.

“There are so many women of faith, and we should all be working together,” Guernsey said. “This story struck me as a time when as women we did come together.”

That the country's historical narrative had largely left out 11’s story also inspired Guernsey to pursue the film.

“Storytelling is old as human beings. We tell stories to understand who we are. If we only tell stories about certain leaders and certain parts of our people, than that is who we start to understand we are. It is really important to tell everyone’s story,” she said.

Guernsey has conducted interviews with all the women of the 11 who are still alive. She said the stories they told her were both inspiring but also hard to hear. During the interviews, Guernsey learned about the hate mail and death threats the 11 received, and Rev. Carter Heyward told Guernsey she was physically attacked while practicing the Eucharist. Hearing how the 11 were both physically and emotionally attacked was challenging, Guernsey said, because these were real stories and experiences.

“I think anytime any human being is denied something based on who they are, in this case it’s gender, but it could be anything, then really none of us are free,” Guernsey said.

What’s next for Guernsey?

The next step for Guernsey will be to conduct a deep archival dive. She said when the events occurred they were in the limelight, so there is a lot of news footage to sift through. Her plan is to do another year of production and another year of editing to bring the film to life.

At the end of May, Guernsey started a kickstarter campaign to fund the rest of the project. She reached her $70,000 goal a few weeks later. Guernsey said many female clergy donated and send enthusiastic messages that the 11’s story was being told.

To donate to the project visit: kickstarter.com/projects/724829692/the-philadelphia-eleven To read Guernsey's director statement visit: timetravelproductions.com/directors-statement.html