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8 WEEKLYNEWS.NET - 978-532-5880 OCTOBER 7, 2021 Water-main break causes school closure BY ANNE MARIE TOBIN A water main break on Summer Street wreaked havoc Tuesday morning, causing the closure of the Summer Street Elementary School and leaving several area residents without water. The break occurred near the Reedy Meadow Golf Course. Water was shut down to Summer Street residents from Westover Drive to Todd Lane. Water was gradually restored to affected homes and businesses starting at about 3 p.m. that afternoon. Lynnfield Center Water District Superintendent John Scenna said the initial alarms relating to a drop in storage volume and pressure started coming in STUDENT OF THE WEEK Connor Wright Connor Wright, started a nonprofit to bring gift boxes to children hospitalized with COVID. BY KATELYN SAHAGIAN In between school at Pike Academy ― where he is on the honor roll, an after-school program at Kumon, participating in chess club and the math olympiad, and hockey practice and games, seventh grader Connor Wright said that he wanted to find a way to help people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, Connor’s Kindness Project was born. “I wanted to give back,” Connor said. “So I decided to start a nonprofit.” Connor’s Kindness Project is an initiative making gift boxes for kids who were hospitalized due to COVID-19. On Saturday, Oct. 2, the twelveyear-old said that he enlisted his cousins to help him put together 40 boxes of his signature “kindness kits” in one afternoon. “Right now my great-grandfather’s basement is our home base,” Connor said. “I’m hopeful it’ll grow from there.” Connor said he doesn’t really like to brag about his Kindness Project to other people. While he said that his friends don’t really know about his nonprofit, Connor wants to start an advisory board on what should go into the boxes to make sure that he’s sticking to things kids actually want. Connor said that he wanted to do something that would make the kids feel like regular kids again. Boxes include toys ― like Rubik’s Cubes, Legos, and Pop It! ― a popular fidget toy ― and personal and school necessities, like Bomba socks between 3 and 3:30 a.m. “Those statistics showed us we were losing water somewhere in the system, initially up to 3,000 gallons per minute,” Scenna said. “Our operatives were sharp enough to drive around to find the source of the problem. We finally isolated the problem at around 5:30 a.m. after discovering ponding on the site of the golf course to the left of the parking lot, so we knew that was likely where the crack in the pipe was.” Scenna said due to the complexity of the problem, he knew that water could not be restored to Summer Street School, so the decision to close down the school for the day was made. He and a collapsible microscope called Foldscope. His last big project was giving birthday boxes to kids in homeless shelters. The boxes included everything from cake mix and a pan to bake it in, to party hats and gifts. “Not everyone can afford to have a birthday party, but everyone should have one,” Connor said. Now, Connor said his big goal is to apply for 501(c)3 status. Getting this official nonprofit status would give his Kindness Project the ability to get grants from the government. Right now, everything Connor has been doing has been through donations alone. “It’s really cool knowing that I’ve helped a lot of kids out,” Connor said. “I gave them something they wanted.” said that other areas within the town were also reporting discolored water and air in the water including King James Grant and Orchard Lane. “However, given the severity of the leak and amount of water lost, customers throughout the district will experience discoloration and loss of pressure until repair is complete and the system stabilizes,” Scenna said. “We expect everyone will have water back by Tuesday night, but it will take overnight to get back to regulated normal conditions for the system.” School Superintendent Kristen Vogel said she is “anticipating a normal school day (Wednesday) at Summer Street School.” John Robert Mitchell, 71 1950 - 2021 LYNNFIELD - John Robert Mitchell, age 71, of Lynnfield, formerly of Chelsea, died Saturday, October 2 at his residence. Born in Chelsea on July 6, 1950 he was the son of the late James Donald and Marion Viola (Spracklin) Mitchell. John was raised in Chelsea and was a graduate of Chelsea High School. He went on to graduate from the former Grahm Junior College of Boston and to attend Boston University. John had worked in media, first with NBC in New York City, then he spent time with WEEI and WXKS-AM of Boston until 1994 when he went out on his own and build the now CAM Media, which continues to this day. In his younger years, John was an avid skier and played softball and hockey – most recently he had gotten into cycling. John was a very philanthropic man and was dedicated to several causes, most importantly, the Pan-Mass Challenge, Bike MS (National MS Society,) Best Buddies, Salvation Army, ALS ONE, and Communitas of Wakefield (formerly EMARC). He was the beloved husband of Lauren (Cantalupa) Mitchell. He was the loving father of Cara A. Mitchell of Merrimac, MA and Megan E. Mitchell and her partner Chris Eriksen of Eagle Bridge, NY. He was the brother of James Mitchell and his wife Ethelyn of District seeks to improve technology with Chromebooks Revere, Nancy Belanger and her husband Daniel of Charlton, MA and the late Jean V. Montesano and her surviving husband Vincent of Revere, and the late Joan Mitchell. He is also survived by many nieces and nephews as well as his beloved dogs Gavin and Maggie. Service Information: His Funeral Service will be held in the Centre Congregational Church, 5 Summer St., Lynnfield on Saturday, Oct 9 at 10am. Visitation for relatives and friends at the McDonald Funeral Home, 19 Yale Ave., Wakefield on Friday, Oct 8 from 4-7pm. In keeping with John’s philanthropic spirt, the family asks for contributions to be made to the charity of one’s choice. BY HANNAH CHADWICK School district Director of Technology Stephanie Hoban updated the School Committee Tuesday night on the district’s plans to address its problems with technology, which include expiring devices and privacy concerns. While she cited a number of concerns, Hoban also provided a positive update regarding student access to technology. The Lynnfield Public Schools has nearly 3,000 Chromebooks, which is enough to provide each student in the district with a device, Hoban said. However, she said that each of these devices comes with an expiration date for upgrades; this means that the Chromebooks become invalid for Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) and other testing, which is currently administered via these devices. Since the Chromebooks still work after their expiration date, Hoban said, they can still be used for other non-testing purposes. In the district, an average of 130 Chromebooks expire each year, which results in them having to be replenished by the district, she said. Hoban said the district’s plan is to purchase new Chromebooks for students entering the fifth and ninth grades; this would allow four years of life for each student’s device at the middle- and highschool level, she said. The district also plans to hire a new Chromebook inventory manager, who would create an inventory system with the aim of ensuring students return their devices to the school district when they graduate. Hoban said the technology department has also implemented a privacy plan; this new database includes applications on devices that are aimed at securing privacy for students using the technology. Parents and guardians are required to sign a Google document, which permits teachers to use these applications in school. In other technology updates, a new information-management system, PowerSchool, will be implemented in the district by the 2022-23 school year, Hoban said.
OCTOBER 7, 2021 WEEKLYNEWS.NET - 978-532-5880 9 Sports PHOTO | SPENSER HASAK Lynnfield’s Ally Sykes blocks out Georgetown’s Olivia Hiltz, left, and Casey Mahoney during a win Wednesday. Seniors lead the way for Lynnfield FILE PHOTO Nick Razzaboni and the Lynnfield football team struggled on offense in a loss to Cape Ann League foe Newburyport Friday night. Lynnfield can’t contain Newburyport in road loss FOOTBALL By Mike Alongi The Lynnfield football team hung around with Newburyport for the entire first half Friday night on the road, but Newburyport took advantage of the Pioneers’ struggles in the second half to hand Lynnfield a 34-6 loss. The Clippers started out strong when quarterback Finn Sullivan found Grant Mosesian on a 10-yard touchdown connection late in the first quarter. After Sullivan added the extra point to make it 7-0, both offenses went dormant. The Clippers took that 7-0 lead into the halftime break. Newburyport drove down the field in less than two minutes to start the third quarter, scoring on Sullivan’s first TD run. The Clippers then capped their following possession with another Sullivan scamper, this one coming from the three-yard-line. The Pioneers did score to make it a 19-6 game heading into the fourth, but Sullivan finished the Clippers’ ensuing drive by finding Webster on a three-yard scoring strike to seal the win. Lynnfield (2-1) will get an extra day of rest this week before facing Hamilton-Wenham on the road Saturday (2:30). GIRLS SOCCER By Sam Minton LYNNFIELD ― The seniors on the Lynnfield Pioneers’ girls soccer team rose to the occasion on Wednesday night as they defeated the Georgetown Royals 6-1. Lynnfield head coach Mark Vermont said after the match that his team met the challenge on their home pitch. “We put it all together tonight so it was a good night to put it all together on senior night,” he said. Prior to the match, both sides’ seniors were honored. Lynnfield will be saying goodbye to nine seniors at the end of the year as Samanth Bunar, Adriana Parisi, Lexi Veglia, Abby Adamo, Marissa Corvi, Lanah Rosenwald, Anna Radulski, Lucy Cleary, and Mariella Calvani will all be graduating. Vermont said that this group of seniors was made up of some great kids. “It’s been a long haul, last year was crazy with COVID and this year we are starting to put it together so we will keep it rolling hopefully and they worked hard for it,” he said. Georgetown seniors Rebecca Doucette, Casey Mahoney, Lauren Bartlett, Maggie Jackson, Megan Skahan, Allison DeLuca, and Emma Olsen were honored before the match as well and head coach Kevin Fair said that he has a great group of seniors this year. “I have great senior leadership, two wonderful captains in Rebecca Doucette and Casey Mahoney,” he said. “They are great leaders on the field (and) in the classroom. (I’m) very blessed to have a great senior class and what was great is I got such a young mix and they are great role models for the younger kids.” The excitement of senior night was evident as both sides were energized to start the match, but struggled to control possession. Senior captain and goalkeeper Samantha Bunar showed her prowess early as she made a great save after coming off her line and nearly left the box in the ninth minute. Bunar was great throughout the match, knowing just when to come off of her line and be aggressive. The Pioneers nearly found the back of the net courtesy of a beautiful lofted shot from Anna Radulski, but the shot graced over the crossbar in the 11th minute. Nearing the midway point of the first half, Lynnfield created a flurry of chances but was not able to find the back of the net. The scoring finally arrived in the 27th minute as Parisi found the back of the net, but the Lynnfield lead didn’t last for long as sophomore Olivia Hilts tied the game up for the Royals with a goal less than a minute later. Parisi found her second goal of the match in the 36th minute as, even with a Georgetown defender dragging her down, she was able to power the ball into the bottom of the net to give Lynnfield a 2-1 lead that they would carry into the second half. The senior nearly had a hat trick as she burst away from defenders in the 67th minute, but Georgetown goalkeeper Mary Surette made an impressive diving save. The Pioneers were able to rack up five corner kicks in the first ten minutes of the half, but it took until the 50th minute for them to convert; freshman Emma Rose found the ball at her feet in the box and she was able to make it a 3-1 lead for Lynnfield. Lynnfield wasn’t done scoring, as it found the net in the 60th minute and Calvani later scored in an almost identical situation. Corner kicks actually ended up being kind to Lynnfield, helping the team score four of its six goals off of set pieces. Adamo put the game away in the last 10 minutes with the fifth and sixth goal of the match going to the Pioneers in what would cap a very successful senior night for Lynnfield. Lynnfield (5-2-2) travels to Amesbury Thursday (4).
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