MAYOR WALSH ANNOUNCES 27TH FUNDING ROUND OF BOSTON RESILIENCY FUND, TOTALLING OVER $780,000 IN GRANTS TO 39 ORGANIZATIONS

 

MAYOR WALSH ANNOUNCES 27TH FUNDING ROUND OF BOSTON RESILIENCY FUND, TOTALLING OVER $780,000 IN GRANTS TO 39 ORGANIZATIONS     Since launching the Fund, over $30 million has been distributed to 366 organizations   BOSTON - Monday, January 4, 2021 - Mayor Martin J. Walsh and the Boston Resiliency Fund Steering Committee last week announced the Boston Resiliency Fund's 27th funding round. These grants represent over $780,000 in funding to 39 organizations in Boston, serving communities by increasing food and health care access, supporting individuals facing homelessness and assisting seniors. Since its launch at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, $34 million has been raised, and $30.3 million has been distributed to 366 organizations.   "The Boston Resiliency Fund has been an essential provider to Boston nonprofits, building a network of support to help the most vulnerable Bostonians. The organizations granted have been vital to ensuring those most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic are supported," said Mayor Walsh. "Thank you to every organization who has partnered with the City of Boston in providing resources to our community."   Of organizations receiving funding this round, 51 percent are led by a person of color and 64 percent are led by a woman. In total, since the launch of the Fund, 56 percent of the organizations that received funding are led by a percent of color and 58 percent are led by a woman. Seventy-six percent of organizations serve Dorchester, 70 percent serve Roxbury, 65 percent serve Mattapan, and 56 percent serve Hyde Park, in addition to every other neighborhood in Boston. To learn more about all Boston Resiliency Fund grant recipients and their work, visit boston.gov/resiliency-grantees.    "Young Man with a Plan, a four year mentoring program for Black and Latino males, is so grateful to the City of Boston Resiliency Fund for our initial funding and really honored to receive a second grant. Delivering direct food relief fulfills a real need and also provides us the opportunity to check in on the wellbeing of our young men and their families," said Jaykyri Simpson, Director of Young Man with a Plan. "We see the compound traumas of COVID, financial loss, racial injustice, and neighborhood violence that our young men are experiencing. We engage in what we call 'intrusive coaching'-- persistently talking to our kids about their schoolwork, housing and food security, safety, and mental health."   "Common cathedral not only never closed; common cathedral was one of the very few places where we had a voice in response to what was happening to us all," said John, a common cathedral community member. "common cathedral and its programs, common art and Boston Warm, gave our community agency over our own lives within the pandemic. We saw these spaces become not just a refuge from the disease, but a place to feel that we were actively fighting back and retaining our identity. Boston Warm will now be expanding to Fridays because the community of people experiencing homelessness requested it, planned it and will be helping to run. We are able to do this meaningful work because of the funding from the Boston Resiliency Fund.  We are grateful to the City!"    "We are deeply honored by the recognition and faith the Boston Resiliency Fund has shown in our work at Rose's Bounty. This year has been a tough year for our neighbors already facing food insecurity, and for those who now find themselves in this situation for the first time. Serving twice as many families as we did in 2019, Rose's Bounty now serves over 950 Families per month; feeding 2700+ individuals every month," said Darra Slagle, Executive Director of Rose's Bounty. "With the help of this grant, we can meet many of the increased costs associated with the pandemic. Rose's Bounty has worked tirelessly to adapt to these changing times in order to make sure that families and seniors in West Roxbury, Roslindale, Mattapan, Jamaica Plain and Hyde Park have access to fresh and healthy foods."    This funding round represents support for organizations working to provide basic needs to youth, families and seniors, assist youth and young adults facing homelessness, expand food access, and increase accessibility to healthcare, including COVID-19 testing.    2Life Communities Inc.: 2Life Communities will use this BRF grant to deliver emergency frozen meals and provide emergency boxes containing produce, perishables, shelf-stable supplies, and personal care items. They will also use the grant to connect residents equitably to services, programming, and telehealth/telemedicine, and conduct intensive disinfection to protect the health and safety of residents and frontline essential workers.     Advocates: Advocates will use this BRF grant to support families that care for a loved one who has a developmental/intellectual disability. These families also have a reduced income and are also balancing remote learning, while sometimes struggling with a language barrier.  With support from the Boston Resiliency Fund, they will provide families with stipends to buy essential items like food and hygiene products.   BEST Corp. Hospitality Training: BEST Corp. will use this BRF grant to provide grocery gift cards to families struggling because of the pandemic. They will continue to use their Local 26 network to determine the people most in need.   Boston BullPen Project, Inc.: The Boston BullPen Project will use this BRF grant to continue to help people facing eviction, homelessness, food insecurity, technology deficits and medical crises.    Boston Girls Empowerment Network: Boston Girls Empowerment Network will use this BRF grant to support immigrant women ages 18-40, who are financially impacted by the COVID-19 Crisis. BGEN will expand its staff by hiring a women's service coordinator and work across ethnic communities to create support services, which includes food and personal/feminine hygiene products distribution for undocumented women who are unemployed, underemployed and are not be able to collect state or federal unemployment benefits.   Boston Missionary Baptist Community Center Inc.: Boston Missionary Baptist Community Center will use this BRF grant to distribute food from their pantry in Roxbury, deliver food door-to-door throughout the week to seniors and people with disabilities, and work in partnership with local partners who host distribution at locations around Boston and nearby communities. In addition, they will train and deploy volunteers to provide nutrition guidance and respond to signs of COVID-19 and advise them about social distancing.   Breaktime: Breaktime will use this BRF grant to support young adults experiencing homelessness with living-wage employment and deliver groceries to families in need through their non-profit partners.   Building Audacity: Building Audacity's will use this BRF grant to offset costs of their grocery delivery program.   Call for Action: Call for Action will use this BRF grant for outreach and educational workshops in Spanish about COVID-19 testing, prevention, and education. These materials will also include information about the vaccine once it is available to the general public. They will create digital content and do educational workshops, forums, and digital support groups.     Cape Verdean Association of Boston: The Cape Verdean Association of Boston  will use this BRF grant to partner with local restaurants and grocery stores to provide an ethnically-appropriate hot dinner to seniors. In addition, they will be working with low-income families, undocumented immigrants, and the older Bostonians to connect them to City and State resources and provide them with weekly grocery bags filled with fresh produce and food, gift cards, interpretation, and translation services about COVID-19 information.   Catholic Charitable Bureau of the Archdiocese of Boston, Inc.: Catholic Charities will use BRF funding to support staff who are packing and distributing food bags to more than 1,500 households at their pantries in Dorchester and in the South End. The two pantries distribute approximately 80,000 pounds of food each week.   Catie's Closet, Inc: Catie's Closet will use the BRF to fund basic essentials, including toiletries, feminine products, socks, underwear and clothing. This will help close gaps in product availability for people of color by improving and meeting the need for culturally-appropriate products.   Children's Services of Roxbury: Children's Services of Roxbury will use this Boston Resiliency Fund grant to support the families in their homeless shelters, home-based childcare programs, and their behavioral health programs. In addition, this grant will support education and access to COVID-19 testing, deliver gift cards to families to purchase food and basic needs, and provide bags of groceries.   City Mission, Inc.:  City Mission will use this BRF grant to purchase online gift cards for groceries and essential items and distribute the cards to the families on their waiting list. In addition, City Mission will provide information about additional available community resources, and support families facing special circumstances or challenges.   Common Cathedral: Common Cathedral will use this BRF grant to expand their Boston Warm day center to include Fridays from January through April. The day center provides people experiencing homelessness access to bathrooms, food, essential supplies and a safe space to warm up.   Community Servings:  Community Servings will use this BRF grant to cover raw food costs, packaging, and home-delivery of 650 medically-tailored Blizzard Boxes, containing a week's worth of shelf-stable meals, a recipe booklet to support understanding of the box contents and easy meal preparation. Each box will also contain disposable masks. In addition, Community Servings will use this BRF grant to support safety and sanitation costs, including weekly electrostatic cleaning of their kitchens and delivery vans and masks for their kitchen staff, drivers, and volunteers.   Dignity Matters, Inc.: Dignity Matters will use this BRF grant to distribute menstrual care products to women in Boston through their COVID-19 partners. They will allocate the items purchased through this grant to the Greater Boston YMCA, Family Aid Boston and Catie's Closet/BPS Emergency Centers.    Elizabeth Stone House: Elizabeth Stone House will use the BRF grant to ensure the safety and emergency daily needs for clients including food, prescription medicine, personal hygiene products, and disinfection services. In addition, the grant will ensure the safety of clients and staff from COVID-19 exposure and to ensure the continuity of emergency staff payments for direct service on-site staff at their emergency shelter /transitional housing location.   FamilyAid Boston: FamilyAid Boston will use the BRF grant to continue to deliver high-quality fresh food to 870 homeless and unstably-housed children and parents, while keeping them safe from community spread of the coronavirus.    Families First Parenting Programs, Inc: Families First will use this BRF grant to provide grocery store gift cards for parents attending their programming to purchase food and basic needs items.    The First Baptist Church in Jamaica Plain: The First Church in Jamaica Plain will use this BRF grant to purchase additional food, equipment and supplies for the pantry. Additionally, this grant will support the Food Pantry Program Coordinator, who works directly with food insecure households to assess needs and oversees volunteers and the delivery of groceries.    Hyde Square Task Force: Hyde Square Task Force will use this BRF grant to support their ongoing efforts to provide youth and low-income families of color with gift cards that enable them to purchase food and groceries.    Livable Streets Alliance: This BRF grant will provide continued support for the LivableStreets "ChatBot," an interactive tool that monitors Boston EMS staff for COVID-like illness symptoms. This tool is important for Boston EMS's infection control doctors and nurses to keep the front-line EMTs and paramedics safe. The "ChatBot" tool provides early notification of symptoms, a key to keeping the department safe, and to decrease the spread of the virus.   Love Your Menses, Inc.: Love Your Menses will continue providing menstrual care packages with essential menstrual hygiene items in a reusable bag for people in need. They will also install period product dispensers in community organizations, such as homeless shelters, youth organizations, and community health centers across the city so people can easily access products.   Presentation School Foundation Community Center: Presentation School Foundation Community Center will use this Boston Resiliency Fund grant to support the "Allston-Brighton Pandemic Relief Center" in response to a need for storage space for pandemic relief items. This grant will enable the PSF Community Center to make 750 square feet of space available to Allston-Brighton organizations seeking space to store and disseminate pandemic relief items including, but not limited to, food, diapers, toiletries, school supplies.   Rosie's Place: Rosie's Place will use this BRF grant to continue to serve hundreds of women experiencing homelessness each day by providing prepared and to-go meals from their dining room, and a week's worth of groceries from their food pantry.     Rose's Bounty COVID Surge Support: Rose's Bounty will use this BRF grant to procure food as well as to purchase COVID-19 safety items.   Rounding the Bases: Rounding the Bases will use this BRF grant to conduct virtual training classes to teach seniors basic computer skills.   Silver Lining Mentoring: Silver Lining Mentoring will use this BRF grant to provide financial help for basic utility bills and food for 50 families.    Sociedad Latina: Sociedad Latina will use this BRF grant to pay for their alumni Youth Leaders who outreach in Mission Hill/Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan. The Youth Leaders will distribute Personal Protective Equipment and bilingual reading materials on the importance of mask wearing and social distancing. This campaign targets young Latinos and immigrants and their families to take measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and contribute to keeping their community healthy.    The South Boston Association of Non-Profits (SBANP): The South Boston Association of Non-Profits will bring together nine partner organizations and use the BRF grant to bring fresh food, perishable and non-perishable food items, grocery store gift cards, and prepared meals to vulnerable populations of children, families and seniors in South Boston. Those nine organizations will also help provide health, safety and hygiene items such as diapers, wipes, hand sanitizer, and cleaning products to families and seniors who are struggling to access them during the pandemic.   South Boston en Accion, Inc.: South Boston en Accion will use this BRF grant to purchase needed supplies, create PPE kits, available at two central distribution points at Boston Housing Authority buildings in South Boston. Kits will contain disposable masks, hand sanitizer, hand soap, disinfectant wipes, and useful information.     St. Stephen's Youth Programs: St. Stephen's Youth Programs will use the BRF grant to support families through cash assistance and grocery store gift cards.    Tifereth Raphael Inc: Tifereth Raphael will use this BRF grant to support storage costs that will help optimize their kosher food pantry facility in Brighton.      We Are Better Together The Warren Daniel Hairston Project: We Are Better Together will use this BRF grant to identify, reach out, and engage the individuals and families at risk of domestic or other violence. They will provide information on community forums/workshops and existing community resources to address violence, trauma and community healing. We Are Better Together will also provide gift cards and essential supplies to people in need.     West End House Inc.: Due to the loss of USDA Farmers to Families boxes, West End House will use this BRF grant to support the purchase of similar produce boxes from Fresh Truck, as well as food purchases from Greater Boston Food Bank, and the costs associated with delivering and storing food. Groceries will be distributed every two weeks through volunteer led delivery to elderly or disabled individuals, or families without transportation.   Wilahmena's Place Inc.: Wilahmena's Place Inc. will use this BRF grant to sustain their efforts to provide non-perishables, fresh fruit and vegetables, toiletries, sanitizer, soap, cleaning supplies and gift cards to students, seniors and families in need, with a focus on the Grove Hall neighborhood.    Young Man with a Plan: Young Man with a Plan will use this BRF grant to deliver food gift cards and food to students and families.   Youth Vybz Inc.: Youth Vybz Inc. will use the BRF for fresh vegetable pre-packaged food care boxes, PPE and gift cards.    ###

第二屆波士頓台灣影展圓滿落幕 2021盼更多義工加入

波士頓台灣影展工作團隊月前聚會。(TFF of Boston提供)

           (Boston Orange)

波士頓台灣影展工作團隊拜會波士頓經文處。左三起，藍凡耘，
經文處處長孫儉元，僑教中心主任潘昭文，許祐湉。

在波士頓這學術，科技，金融名城談第八藝術?遠有波士頓亞美電影節，近有波士頓台灣影展，為中國古諺的「有志者，事竟成」，做了最佳註腳。

波士頓亞美電影節(BAAFF)原本是亞裔文化資源中心(AARW)麾下的一項活動，已有多年歷史，直到2008年起甄翠嬿(Susan Chinsen)鍥而不舍經營，才逐漸發展出規模，不但曾請到國際大導演李安做嘉賓，在四，五日間放映十幾部長、短片，還有將近40人的工作團隊。

波士頓台灣影展工作人員康麗雪(左排第三)等人開網會討論。

波士頓台灣影展(TFF of Boston)則是一批來自台灣，對電影有興趣的年輕人，想要藉電影來發揮連接，對話作用，在北美建立起一個台灣影展圈，用電影的軟實力，讓更多人認識台灣的環境，歷史，文化，以及台灣的電影人。

哈佛大學台灣同學會的前任會長藍凡耘、許祐湉，波士頓僑務促進委員康麗雪，紐英崙中華專業人員協會會長康雅雰，波士頓台灣人生物科技協會前會長林致中，以及2020年加入團隊的蔡函庭，Andrew Lin等人從選片，聯絡導演，邀請嘉賓，找贊助，製作文宣，忙得不可開交。

2019

波士頓台灣影展參加活動的導演，工作人員，嘉賓。

年第一屆，他們選定5月26，27日在麻省理工學院舉辦影展，放映”我們的青春在台灣”等5部片，還從台灣請來甚至蔡英文總統都上了他節目的博恩來演出一場脫口秀。

2020年第二屆，新冠病毒(COVID-19)使得所有現場活動都成為不可能，這批年輕人”變則通”的把影展改為網上舉行，而且索性一展半年，從8月到12月，以「失物招領(Lost and Found)」為主題，每月1片至3片的共選映了10部影片，從《前世情人的情人》、《三八新娘憨子婿》的家庭關係，《老大人》的長照議題，《出發》的追夢，《滿月酒》的婚姻平權及同志伴侶代理孕母議題，《好久不見德拉奇》和《強尼凱克》的追尋自我、尋根與文化認同，到感恩節間放映的3部短片《游移之身》，《三百萬分之一》，《翻越之後》，都呈現著台灣社會文化的不同面貌。

影展團隊還很費心，每片放映後都辦座談，邀導演、專家分享拍片經驗與感想，與影片議題。

跨入2021，波士頓台灣影展團隊已更有默契，成果報告書上觀眾滿意度都高到近滿分，讓這年輕團隊對新的一年充滿期望，期待有更多義工加入他們的行列。

                          波士頓台灣影展的網址為https://www.taiwanfilmfest.org/。   (所有圖片:波士頓台灣影展提供)

MAYOR SIGNS ORDINANCE TO CREATE OFFICE OF POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY

 

MAYOR SIGNS ORDINANCE TO CREATE OFFICE OF POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY  Ordinance builds on the Walsh Administration's dedication to enacting swift reforms on policing, through recommendations by the Boston Police Reform Task Force.    BOSTON - Monday, January 4, 2020 - In maintaining his commitment to making Boston a national leader on police reform and creating long-lasting, systemic change, Mayor Martin J. Walsh today joined members of the Boston Police Reform Task Force, Chairman Wayne Budd, and Boston Police Commissioner William Gross to sign the ordinance creating the Office of Police Accountability and Transparency (OPAT) in a virtual ceremony. The office creates a single point of public access to a new standard in police accountability and community oversight, and will house and support the newly created Civilian Review Board, and the Internal Affairs Oversight Panel that builds on and strengthens the existing Community Ombudsman Oversight Panel (CO-OP) board. It also creates the overarching Office of Police Accountability and Transparency (OPAT) Commission, which collectively holds subpoena power for the OPAT, Civilian Review Board, and Internal Affairs Oversight Panel.   "Now is the time to act with urgency to dismantle systemic racism across our city," said Mayor Walsh. "The Office of Police Accountability and Transparency will support lasting, generational  change by rooting out impropriety and ensuring the type of enhanced oversight that leads to greater community trust. This is an important milestone, but it's only the beginning. I thank the Task Force members for their dedication to engaging the community to create comprehensive recommendations that will deepen our progress towards equity in Boston."  In June, Mayor Walsh created the Boston Police Reform Task Force, which was charged with reviewing a set of current Boston Police Department policies and procedures, and presenting recommendations for reform. The four main areas of review were: Use of Force policies; Implicit Bias Training, the Body-worn Camera Program, and the Community Ombudsman Oversight Panel (CO-OP). The creation of the OPAT was a central recommendation from the Task Force, which issued their final recommendations in Mid-October. Mayor Walsh is currently in the process of reviewing and implementing all of the additional recommendations. To act swiftly and enact the recommendations, Mayor Walsh previously signed two executive orders 30 days after the Task Force released their recommendations to create Boston's first-ever Civilian Review Board, a 9-member board that will be made up of community members nominated by the City Council and the Mayor's Office, and to reconstitute the existing CO-OP as a stronger Internal Affairs Oversight Panel that will have the power to review all completed Internal Affairs cases. The Panel will also be able to review the policies and procedures of Internal Affairs, as well as engage with the community about their impact. The Civilian Review Board and the Internal Affairs Oversight Panel will be housed within the Office of Police Accountability and Transparency, making up a two-pronged system with a single point of entry for residents. The OPAT will provide intake services, research, and administrative support to the Civilian Review Board and the Internal Affairs Oversight Panel, and the OPAT Commission will have subpoena power to investigate misconduct.  The City of Boston is in the process of searching for an Executive Director to lead the Office of Accountability and Transparency. The Executive Director will be tasked with leading the OPAT Office and Administrative Staff, and would serve on the 3-member OPAT Commission, alongside the appointed Chairs of the CRB and IAOP. The City has launched a search to find an Executive Director who is a member of the Massachusetts bar, with the robust experience needed to lead this critical new office, and manage its operations.  "The Boston Police Reform Task Force worked diligently to produce a set of recommendations that will create real reform within the Boston Police Department," said Boston Police Reform Task Force Chairman Wayne Budd. "I look forward to seeing how the Office of Police Accountability and Transparency enhances equity and allows the community to have greater confidence in the integrity of policing."  In addition to formally creating OPAT, the Civilian Review Board and Internal Affairs Oversight Panel, Mayor Walsh and the City of Boston have taken significant steps to enact all of the Task Force's additional recommendations. These include Mayor Walsh filing a Home Rule Petition at the Boston City Council that would give Boston high school graduates a preference in police hiring. The Mayor's Home Rule Petition was passed by the City Council on December 16, and will now go to the State House. Mayor Walsh also charged City leaders, such as Chief of Equity Karilyn Crockett, to work with the Boston Police Department on evaluating and updating their policies through a lens of equity and to create a Diversity and Inclusion Unit in the Department.  These key steps build on the City of Boston's dedication to enhancing equity within public safety offices. On June 12th, Mayor Walsh signed the "Mayor's Pledge" issued by the Obama Foundation's My Brother's Keeper Alliance as one of the strategies to address racism as an emergency and public health crisis. The Mayor committed the City of Boston to review police use of force policies; engage communities by including a diverse range of input experiences and stories; report review findings to the community and seek feedback; and reform police use of force policies. The Boston Police Reform Task Force was composed of members from the community, law enforcement, advocacy organizations, and the legal profession, to ensure that these commitments are translated to actions.  "Our success is rooted in the bonds we create with the community and the trust we build through those relationships," said Boston Police Commissioner William Gross. "The creation of the Office of Police Accountability and Transparency will ensure we are living up to the ideal standard of community policing."  On June 11, 2020, Boston Police Commissioner William Gross announced he completed a review of Boston Police's policies against the recommended use of force policies outlined in the "8 Can't Wait" effort, resulting in clarified rules and the implementation of several reforms. In addition, as part of Mayor Walsh's Fiscal Year 2021 (FY21) budget, Mayor Walsh allocated 20% (or $12 million) of the Boston Police Department's overtime budget to make a significant investment in equity and inclusion across the City.  The signing of the ordinance for an Office of Police Accountability and Transparency is a significant step forward towards a more just police department and represents the tireless work of the Boston Police Reform Task Force and the community members who engaged in this process. Over the summer, the Task Force held five separate public listening sessions, and received over 100 pieces of testimony from the community, over the course of two written comment periods. The ordinance, final report and full recommendations are available online.

麻州州長疫情匯報 1/4 : 聯邦議員應花更多時間盡快分發疫苗

 

波士頓慈濟跨年送舊迎新 勸募冬衣上健身課

  

部分出席者堅守到幾近跨年時分才道別。(周菊子攝)

          (Boston Orange 周菊子麻州報導)慈濟波士頓聯絡處12月31日在網路上”迎新送舊”，每人一分鐘分享祝福與心願，交流熱絡得差點成為跨年守歲會，每個人都希望疫情趕快過去，世上少些災難。

           波士頓慈濟的網站上記錄著，過去這一年因為新冠病毒疫情，他們比往年更忙碌，曾經到紐約支援救助，募集愛心物資，送上口罩，香積飯，蔬果食物袋，甚至衣物，護膚品到雀喜市(Chelsea)，摩頓市，羅爾市，以及亞裔家暴中心，遊民醫療中心等地，還不忘浴佛，辦”蔬福健康講座”，請珠媽廚房製作素菜支援，提倡茹素，護生，愛地球。

慈濟波士頓聯絡處負責人長金滿
感恩祝福眾人。

           慈濟波士頓聯絡處負責人長金滿指出，每個慈濟人都是利用自己的業餘時間來做公益，服務有需要的人，她很感恩波士頓有那麼多善心人。新年度他們正發起為兒童募冬衣活動，已募得50多件，另外還推出了每週六上午10點半到11點半的雲端健康養生操課程。

             在”迎新送舊”的一分鐘分享中，慈濟教育組的慈濟人文學校校長彭淑敏說，過去這一年實在不容易，這天能彼此遙距相聚，讓人很感恩，希望疫情早日結束，生活重歸正常。 

波士頓慈濟人文學校校長彭淑敏
分享慈濟在人文教育上的努力。

                      中華表演藝術基金會會長譚嘉陵表示，早就聽說慈濟助人行善事蹟，請慈濟在需要時，隨時到她家拿取她的畫作，送贈出去或用於籌款都可以。

          擅烹飪的張秀玲透露，她女兒早前得了新冠病毒，失去味覺，但沒有其他症狀，後來也痊癒了，讓她格外感到幸運。

             波克萊台灣商會前會長楊羅東透露，因為新冠疫情，今年結婚的兩個女兒，都被迫取消婚禮，改成公證結婚，讓她既感嘆女兒失去留下婚禮記憶機會，卻也為自己不必舟車勞頓的飛到東南亞出席婚禮，偷偷鬆了一口氣。 

譚嘉陵慨捐畫作。

          曾經在明尼蘇達州做了四，五年慈濟志工的宋永麒，敘述了疫情期間，生一場大病，讓他對人生無常的感悟更深，彷彿明白了”千年唯一問，萬世見因緣，悟道憑此生，慈濟證嚴行”，也頓時興發”乘願再來紅塵練，有緣今生謝眾生”之念，要盡一己之力服務眾生。

             紐約慈濟分會執行長蘇濟義這晚也特地來參加網路會，向波士頓慈濟義工拜年，感謝他們合作執行慈濟志業。波士頓僑教中心主任潘昭榮到任半年來，曾多次和慈濟互動，這晚也參加了網路聚會，同聲祝福。 

                       這場"迎新送舊"會在出席者分享得越來越多中，欲罷不能，一直進行到將近午夜，才在謝宜芳帶動唱"一家人"聲中畫下句點。(再次更新版)

          

謝宜芬帶動唱"一家人"。

宋永麒分享二度心臟停止跳動
的經驗。

麻州最年輕國會議員 32歲Jake Auchincloss 上任

 Jake Auchincloss
(圖片來自競選網站)

              (Boston Orange綜合編譯) 踏入2021年，年僅32歲的Jake Auchincloss宣誓就任麻州第四區國會議員，坐上約瑟夫甘乃迪三世(Joseph P. Kennedy III)空出來的位置，成為麻州的最年輕，最新聯邦眾議議員。

             Jake Auchincloss是猶太人，父親是外科醫生，在麻州牛頓市出生，長大，上牛頓市公校，哈佛大學畢業後加入海軍，指揮過阿富汗的步兵，巴拿馬的特種部隊，現在是後備軍少校。

             2015年他當選牛頓市議員，此後三度連任。做為牛頓市議員，他的年薪是15,000元。當選為國會議員後，他的年薪資將增為174,000元。

由於約瑟夫甘乃迪參選聯邦參議員，和在位聯邦參議員馬基(Ed Makey)競爭，他的聯邦眾議員席位因而空了出來，吸引了不下13人參選，其中甚至包括麻州財政廳廳長高柏珂(Deb Glodberg)。不過高柏珂在民主黨初選前就退出了。

Jake Auchincloss上任後第一次投票，就是支持加州民主黨的Nancy Pelocsi連任眾議院議長。他說病毒大流行是他的第一優先議題。

沈安平

           他認為政府需要加速，擴大分發疫苗，以免照川普政府的速度，恐怕要花很多年才能分給全美國人民。他也認為在拜登總統上任後的首個一百日，必須要每天發出一百萬份疫苗，而且該在夏天前把疫苗分發到所有需要送到的地方去。

             Jake Auchincloss也呼籲擴大病毒檢測，尤其是為那些到學校上課的人做檢測。他還為此在報章上發表了一份公開信。

             牛頓市人口88,411，其中亞裔13,453，佔15.3%，再細分為華裔則有7,474人，佔8.5%。牛頓市不但有個牛頓市華人協會，更有個歷史更為悠久，目前學生人數已超過1,000的牛頓中文學校。2017年，華人沈安平當選為牛頓市學校委員會第三區委員，成為八名委員之一，連任迄今。

1月3日新冠毅情 新增確診麻州3110 美國284,554 世界 504,916 新增死亡麻州105 美國2321 世界7007