Contribute

How to help (close to home) this holiday season

Are you looking for meaningful ways to give back this holiday season? Donating and volunteering locally has many benefits even beyond the most important of meeting local community needs.  Donating to a local food or toy drive or doing hands-on volunteering provides an opportunity to connect more deeply with one’s community and meet others who are spending their time giving back. Volunteering can also offer a different or broader perspective on one’s own life. The need for donations and volunteering is year-round, but giving back at this time could also help jump start a cycle of giving and volunteering during all seasons. Many sources support this notion around volunteering. The EF (Education First) blog states, “By immersing yourself in a community and surrounding yourself with people who are dedicated to bettering the world, you can learn so much about how the world works. You gain a unique sense of purpose by serving those around you, one which often manifests in other areas of your life.”  Malden is a community rich in nonprofits, service organizations and […]

Education

Community outreach project tackles heat resistance

By Shannon A. Garrido Berges Extreme heat waves and dry summers are expected to become the norm in Massachusetts. Such extreme weather may pose significant health and safety concerns in cities like Boston, Everett and Malden.  “Extreme heat is the silent killer, [because] it is the number one extreme weather killer out of hurricanes, tornadoes, or flooding,” said Marissa Zampino, a community organizer for the Mystic River Watershed Association (MyRWA), who concentrates on extreme heat safety. “We simply do not have the cultural or social know-how nor do we have the infrastructure needed to deal with heat waves.” Zampino has partnered with Museum of Science, Boston, MyRWA, the Resilient Mystic Collaborative (RMC) and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) to develop the Wicked Hot Mystic project, This is a research project that developed detailed heat maps during the hottest days of this past summer to identify the neighborhoods most in need of heat safety interventions. The results are being used to help focus efforts to close heat safety gaps among communities in the Mystic River […]