The Hingham 'Cast

Will We Override?

Ally Donnelly — Thu, 13 Apr 2023 07:00:00 -0400

Residents are being asked whether or not we should override Prop 2 and half with a 7.9 million dollar override and permanently raise our property taxes so that we can maintain current services and fund different investments and needs.

Without an override, we’d be about six million dollars short. We would have to cut services and lay off 19 municipal employees and 46 positions in our schools. Both the Select Board and the Advisory Committee were unanimous in voting in favor of passing the override. Why?

My guests are Select Board Chair Bill Ramsey, School Committee Chair Michelle Ayer and George Danis, Chair of Hingham’s Advisory Committee.

You Are Not Alone

Ally Donnelly — Mon, 09 Jan 2023 05:00:00 -0400

I wish I didn't feel so woefully inadequate in finding words to describe where we are. Maybe there are no words. Maybe I have no idea.

What I do know is that people are in pain. People need help and we all need each other.

In this week's episode I talk with three women trying to help our community. Susan Sarni, Hingham's executive health officer is helping lead an effort to deliver a kind of one-stop shop for health and wellness through town resources. It's a work in progress, and they want to hear from us on what we think could help our community, but they are amplifying services for mental health, physical and spiritual health and addiction. Heather Rodriguez, director of counseling for Hingham Public Schools shares what counselors are seeing with our students and what is currently and will soon be available to help them.

Kathleen Bambrick is a social worker with Aspire Health Alliance. We talk about the importance of normalizing the conversation around mental health (whole person health!) and what resources they are offering to help local families immediately.

I hope you find value in the conversation and will lend your voice to the process. If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please call the crisis lifeline at 988. You are not alone and people want to help you.

On a mission to end 'period poverty.'

Ally Donnelly — Sat, 17 Dec 2022 08:15:00 -0400

When Kenzie Blackwell heard some public school students were using socks, dish towels and cardboard to serve as pads during their period, she knew the work she had to do. The Hingham woman launched Free . (period), a non-profit that provides free tampons and pads in public schools and to local service providers like Father Bill's and Interfaith Social Services.

Kenzie and Ann Linehan, a Brockton Public School nurse and consultant for the state Department of Public Health sit down with Ally to share their story and their mission, which is not yet done.

When Crisis Hits, Call This Woman

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 07:00:00 -0400

If your child is threatening suicide, if someone in your family is abusing drugs, if you're struggling with a mental health crisis, Aileen Walsh can help. She's Hingham's new community crisis response clinician. She's embedded in the Hingham Police Department and brought to calls where a social worker might offer a different or added resource than a police officer.

She counseled terrified residents when a man barricaded himself in his apartment and fired at police officers in the Hingham Shipyard in 2020. She's gotten immediate help for teens threatening to hurt themselves or family members. She's kept drug abusers out of jail cells and gotten them into treatment just when it seemed all hope was lost. For families who don't want to call police for fear their crisis will end up in the police blotter, Walsh can help privately, without public records being kept.

#mentalhealth #suicideprevention #diversion #communitypolicing

Back-to-School Mental Health Tips

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 06 Sep 2022 07:00:00 -0400

Ally Donnelly

Hi and welcome to the Hingham ‘Cast. I'm your host Ally Donnelly. This episode is brought to you by Derby Street Shops.

The Hingham ‘Cast is hyper local, we look at the world through the lens of one small town. My town here on Boston’s, South Shore, but the issues we explore are unfolding in communities across the country. Like Back to School. It’s an exciting time of hope and promise, but for some kids it can also be a time riddled with anxiety.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 1 in 5 kids aged 6 to 17 experience a mental disorder in a given year. Some experts, including our guest today, say it may now be as high as one in four. With an estimated $247 billion dollars spent each year to manage and treat those issues.

As we start another school year in a pandemic that just won't quit. I wanted to learn what we can do as families, as a community to meet kids where they’re at and help as best we can.

My guest today is Dr. Khadijah Booth Watkins. She's a child psychiatrist and Associate Director for the Clay Center for Young and Healthy minds at Mass General Hospital. She specializes in anxiety disorders, ADHD, and overall student mental health and suicide prevention. Dr. Booth Watkins, thank you so much for joining us.

Dr. Khadijah Booth Watkins/MGH Clay Center

Thank you for having me. I'm excited to talk with you today about our kids and what's going on with them.

Ally Donnelly

Yeah, so much. Right? Give us a sense of the state of child mental health right now.

Dr. Khadijah Booth Watkins/MGH Clay Center

Our kids are facing a mental health crisis, there has been alarms rang by the Academy of Pediatrics and of child and adolescent psychiatrists and children's hospitals. And then shortly thereafter, the Surgeon General also put out this morning saying that we're in the middle of a mental health crisis for our for our children and adolescents. They are really struggling with we're seeing an increase in depression and anxiety, suicidal thinking, loneliness. And the even scarier part is that much of this started well before the COVID-19 global pandemic.

Ally Donnelly

Yeah, yeah. You know, there's data all over the place, right. But one, data point from the CDC said 44% of high school students said they experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness with girls and the LGBTQ plus community reporting the highest levels of poor mental health and suicide attempts. You know, as kids think about going back to school on top of what they've already experienced, you know, from the pandemic, from pre pandemic, think about bullying, peer pressure, school violence, fears, relationship building anxiety, you know, what's going on for kids as they think about heading back.

Dr. Khadijah Booth Watkins/MGH Clay Center

So they are, they probably have a lot of thoughts going on. And many kids are excited to go back and they're looking forward to going back and then their kids who are dreading going back their kids who actually never liked school. So there are some kids who are more vulnerable. They they struggled with attending school for various reasons, whether it's learning issues, whether it's anxiety, whether it's social, social challenges, but they're worried about, you know, how they're going to perform, are they going to be accepted? Are people going to like them? Are they going to be able to make friends depending on whether your kid is going from a major transition from elementary to middle or middle to high school or even from high school to college, really just finding their place and and making sure that they feel secure and welcomed. They're worried about those things. And they're still many kids still worried about being healthy and staying healthy and possibly bringing back something to their, to their home. Maybe they have a vulnerable parent or living with a vulnerable grandparent. So there's, there's tons of things swirling around in their heads.

Ally Donnelly

Yeah, you know, I know, we're all trying to get back to some level of normalcy in a COVID pandemic world. I know, for my own family, my kids, sunk deeply into screens and social media as I was trying to work in the pandemic, and, and that's lasted even though you know, we're, many of us are back to work, but we're home and back to work. How, how much are we still dealing with those kinds of issues?

Dr. Khadijah Booth Watkins/MGH Clay Center

Part, I think part of it is that we have to help them with their fantasy that everything is gonna go back to normal, because I don't know that anyone thinks at this point, that thing is gonna go completely back to the way they were. So I think helping them reconcile that and helping them kind of see what things will be preserved and what things are going to be changed probably more indefinitely. And also trying to, as we think about things going back to normal in school, how do we begin to normalize some of our routines and our, our structures and our expectations really, of ourselves and our kids? Because I can agree that working from home with children was not fun. And I have a have a newfound appreciation for the work that teachers did and do. Because it was a challenge. And I have an older child, and it was still a challenge. Because like they see you, but you want to say to them pretend that I'm not here, but that's really not possible.

Ally Donnelly

Yeah. And not a great message for a kid who's struggling. Right, right. You know, the Biden administration recently announced $500 million to expand mental health services in schools. And, you know, that's on top of what there has already been some fed and state money. I know, Hingham has hired more counselors system wide, they have an emotional support dog at the high school that, you know, they're taking a lot of steps to lean into social and emotional health. But I'd love for you to talk a little bit about how you see the role of schools in helping to shoulder this mental health crisis for kids. It's I mean, I would think it's a necessity on a level.

Dr. Khadijah Booth Watkins/MGH Clay Center

Yeah, kids spend so much time at school. And so it is, it's amazing that it's taken us to get to this point before this has become a priority for schools or or at schools are able to be funded to make this a priority, because I'm sure schools have wanted to do this. But they do spend so much time at school, they're spending time learning, there's been a time socializing, you know, they're spending time kind of also discovering who they are, what their interests are. And so it makes sense to have mental health support in school. But I think above and beyond that, it'd be really important if we can really began to talk about mental health, and educate about mental health so that we can really break down the stigma that still is so strong as it relates to mental health and treatment for mental health. School is a place where it can really be normalized, because this is where place where you go every day. And if we're talking about it on a regular basis, if their counselors and psychiatrists and other mental health providers present, it becomes more normal and less scary, less taboo. So I think that's a great idea, it really is just going to have to be that it's going to be need to be well thought out, we have to think about what the qualifications of these people are, that are going to be in the school is going to be super important to have a diversity of, of counselors and therapists of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds, so they can kind of reach the kids and meet the kids and connect with the kids where they are. And also kind of thinking about if we bring them into the schools, then what happens in the summer because some kids still need therapy and treatment throughout the summer months. And so how do we bridge that gap? So I think it's going to have to be thoughtful planning around this?

Ally Donnelly

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's interesting because it feels like oftentimes, or traditionally, perhaps in the traditional model, a kid's having a mental health issue or struggling anxiety, there's so to speak. And I don't mean this in a punitive way, but sent down to talk to a counselor. Are you saying that you're you would love to see more mental health kind of woven into the school day and as part of the curriculum?

Dr. Khadijah Booth Watkins/MGH Clay Center

Absolutely is part of the the curriculum like the you know, the mental health providers are more like ever present. They might give some classes they might pop into the gym, you know, doing some observation and doing some real time in the moment teaching and taking advantage of teachable moments when they see things happen. Talking again, talking about mental health and talking about some of the challenges in struggles and making it okay to say, I'm not okay. And can I talk to someone as opposed to having to be sent down to the counselor's office, you feel now comfortable advocating for yourself, you're aware that you're having these feelings that are not okay with you. And you're now taking yourself down, there's a choice as opposed to you being directed, which is has a different feeling, you know, there's a different there's a level of competence that you feel a master that you've taken charge of something that is important to you, and that's going to help you as opposed to being almost feeling having it feel like a reprimand because sometimes that's what it feels like for kids.

[[Sponsor]]

Let’s take a quick break here to thank our fabulous new sponsor, The Derby Street Shops. We all head to Derby for everything from groceries to clothes to cocktails, but it’s also a great spot for activities and events for the whole family! Coming up, they’ve got a Boos and Brews family-friendly event at the Untold Brewing Beer Garden, trick-or-treating for the kids, and a Yappy Hour celebration for the furriest member of your family. Oh, and I almost forgot the best part, Hingham’s first Shake Shack and Pottery Barn are opening this Fall. Enjoy your Derby Days and be sure to check out derbystshops.com, that’s derby st shops dot com to see what’s new and now. Okay, back to our conversation with Dr. Kadijah Booth Watkins and some tips on how to normalize the conversation about mental health with your family.

Ally Donnelly

Yeah, yeah. You know, you touched on this earlier for a bit. But you know, you talked about taking control, control is a tough word, right? Because we're all trying to get control of our lives and our, our headspace. But as families, what can we do to help kids manage what's happening for them, or, you know, if we struggled to even, you know, you talk about normalizing the conversation, you know, some families are just not comfortable in this arena. So help us as fit as family members, or those who care for kids to figure out ways to talk with them to get at the root of their feelings, and to try and support them. I'd love some pointers.

Dr. Khadijah Booth Watkins/MGH Clay Center

So just like, you know, you don't want to be sent into the principal's office or sent to the counselor's office and have these big conversations, we want to try to have conversations on a regular basis, and small chunks, you know, finding natural opportunities, whether we're taking a walk, riding in the car, you know, watching something on TV, but really began to incorporate these conversations into our everyday life and our day to day routines. That I think is where it will begin. And so in that way, you're asking them about how they're doing, what they're feeling, what experiences they've had, and also getting from them collaborating with them, how can we work together and help you and it doesn't feel like the talk, like we're not having a big talk because something is wrong, or something didn't go? Well, we're having a normal talk. Because in this family, we talk about our feelings, we talk about, you know, our experiences, and we we work together to make things better. And I think that is going to be key to really any any of these discussions that are that are going to be had as we're trying to help our kids is that it doesn't feel like it doesn't feel like it's something out of the blue. It doesn't feel like it's something super special. But it feels like this is just what we do. And so I think normalizing conversations is going to be important, modeling for them, how we talk about feelings, and how do we express feelings, in the way that we do it and also in the way that we respond when other people kind of share with us how they feel. That's that's also like kids are watching us all the time, even when they win even when we think they're not. And so how we talk about someone who's struggling with depression or anxiety, how we jump in to help someone who's struggling, you know, how we the words we use, and we talk about how we're feeling is going to be super helpful for them to be able to begin to identify their own feelings and to be able to kind of articulate themselves to other people so that they can advocate for themselves.

Ally Donnelly

Yeah, yeah. You know, at our dinner table, we do rose and thorn. So give us a rose of your day. Give us a thorn of your day. I wonder if there's a way to try to tailor that to get at more kind of headspace questions.

Dr. Khadijah Booth Watkins/MGH Clay Center

Yeah, I love rose-thorn. And you know, we do you know, the peak in the pit of your day. I think, you know, even with the rose Thorn, you can talk about the bud and the gardener, like you went over to someone who's helped you. Other things I think that can be helpful is when you're watching something or you see something on TV that maybe relates to children and mental health or something that someone is struggling with. Kind of make it a conversation. Oh, you were watching a kid being bullied? I want Has that ever happened to you in school? Or have you seen anything like this happen to anybody that you know, do they talk about bullying, I think just using these everyday kind of experiences and things that we're exposed to to, to make a bigger conversation can be really helped because it feels natural. Like we're watching TV and now we're talking about it. Those are the those are some of the things that that I think make for really productive, fruitful discussion. Also, like when we hear about things in the media and on the news, depending on how old your kid is like you could use some of those examples to talk about, you know, when Naomi Osaka took some days off because she just didn't feel like she was able to kind of compete and also maintain her mental health stability. What did you think about that? Have you ever felt like you you needed to take some time off like, get them talking about how they see the world, how they see how people kind of navigate the world and how it fits into their view and what how they see that fitting into what they might want to do or not want to do?

Ally Donnelly

That's great advice. I'd love some practical tips. I mean, if somebody came into my house right now, they'd be horrified. You know, kids are sleeping til noon, and then they're getting up and they're, you know, they're on Snapchat and every other horrific social media platform. You know, school is a great time for reset. And again, I you know, I talk about my family a lot, my kids are constantly complaining, because I think all things can be fixed with like water, pooping, or hydrogen peroxide, but I’d love some tips about schedules about screens, physical activity, nutrition, sleep, I just, you know, kind of some of those basics, I'd love to hear what your thoughts are on kind of September reset.

Dr. Khadijah Booth Watkins/MGH Clay Center

All those things are so important. And it's all about doing it in moderation. And depending on how old your kid is, it's really going to be in your best interest and in their best interests, doing it together, kind of thinking about what this reset will look like what this kind of returning to a school schedule looks like. Because when they do it with you, they they're they're more likely to buy in and and follow it. I think it starts with can identifying also what things negotiable and what things are not negotiable. So you might feel like in the summertime, you can have your phone in your room. But when school starts back, you can't or maybe that's never a thing that's allowed, but identify in advance, you know, what's negotiable and what's not. And then find the space where you can kind of be flexible. Really, I like to just kind of think about like this, let's start with getting up close to normal waking sleep schedule. And then we kind of build the schedule from there. You know, what, what is our after school time gonna look like? So what do we want to do about homework time, you know, physical activity, and being outside is still super important. So that needs to be in the schedule as well. Are you going to have any extra curricular activities, are you going to be hanging out with friends or just thinking about all of the things that might happen after school and just begin to think about where they might fall into the schedule. And knowing that we're building the schedule, and as we begin to really live it, it's going to need to be tweaked. And being flexible about that as well. But, but just being open going into make recreating a schedule being open. As it relates to screen time. Again, I think it's really important for us to model how we kind of put the phones down, put the computers down, put the tablets down and engage just one on one or as a family. It also is really helpful if we're all going to go out and take a hike or we're all going to go out and you know, go for a swim, as opposed to saying you need to go outside and be active. But giving them something to do instead of being on the screens is going to be helpful in that being successful and kind of cutting down the screen time. I don't love the idea of defined time as an okay, time it really to me boils down to is your child making their social, emotional and academic goals? Are they engaged? Are they doing well in school? Are they still spending time with friends? Are they still healthy and active. And if they're doing those things, and they're still able to have screen time, then you strike the right balance is is has been reached is when the screens get in the way of those things, screens get in the way of them being able to go to sleep or wake up in the morning. They prefer to be on their screens and to go to a birthday party or go to a to a game or social event, that's when it becomes a problem. And I don't know that there's a number that you can put on that.

Ally Donnelly

I know I'm like an screentime jailer. I'm gonna take a new look at that.

Dr. Khadijah Booth Watkins/MGH Clay Center

And every one has a child who's different who has different needs, and we know our kids best and maybe some kids do do better with a with a defined limit. And you just have to know and try sometimes it's a little bit of trial and error. But I think as a bar knowing when there's too much because it's getting in the way...

What is Safe Anymore?

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 07 Jun 2022 05:00:00 -0400

A conversation on school safety with Hingham Public Schools Superintendent Gary Maestas.

Local Elections: School Committee

Ally Donnelly — Thu, 12 May 2022 05:00:00 -0400

There are three open seats for the Hingham School Committee. Four candidates are running: Aly Anderson, incumbent Nes Correnti, Matt Cosman and Matt LeBretton. If elected, they will help make up a volunteer body that has oversight of and responsibility for the school system, has the power to approve budgets, hire and fire the superintendent, negotiate salaries and set the direction for our schools. In partnership with the Hingham Anchor, hear where the candidates stand on spending priorities, teacher burnout, special education and out-of-district placements and working with incoming superintendent Margaret Adams.

New Head for Hingham Schools

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 05:00:00 -0400

A conversation with Dr. Margaret Adams, incoming Superintendent of Hingham Public Schools. Adams responds to the recent, explosive school committee meeting where interim Superintendent Dr. Gary Maestas said he would request "bodyguards and a bunker to be installed in my home," because of "the aggressive nature of some of our community members," around the issue of mask mandates in local schools. Adams, whose contract was approved shortly before the disturbing revelations said, "There's a lot of healing that needs to be done around the pandemic. We think the pandemic is over. It likely is not." Noting that the school committee had earlier voted to lift the mask ban in public schools, she went on, "As we drop this mandate, we likely will be wearing masks again at some point. However, we've grown so much. Let's build upon the resiliency, the perseverance of our young people, our educators, and build a stronger school and a stronger community."

We also talk with Dr. Adams about social-emotional health of students; diversity, equity and inclusion in our schools; the potential of a new arts director for Hingham and what causes her the most stress as she thinks about the challenges ahead. Have a listen!

The Blizzard of '22

Ally Donnelly — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 05:00:00 -0400

On this episode, we talk with Hingham Meteorologist Michael Page about the Blizzard of 2022. Page shares why this storm was declared a blizzard, our snow totals and how they're measured, how the blizzard ranks in terms of other historic South Shore storms and the effects of climate on this and other storms. The local meteorologist also tells us what he thinks the rest of the winter will look like. We also check in with two Hingham High School students giving back to their community in bad weather.

A Joyful Noise

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 14 Dec 2021 05:00:00 -0400

The Hingham Memorial Bell Tower is the only, freestanding tower of its kind in North America. Built in the early 1900s, it's a tribute to the ancestors of Hingham's first settlers from Hingham, England. There are 10 working bells in its belfry. The smallest bell is more than 500 pounds. The largest weighs about the same as a Honda Civic! Every Saturday, volunteers rise early to ring the bells for our community. They don't play songs in the traditional sense. This isn't chiming where a mallet or clapper hits the inside of the bell, this is a technique called change bell ringing. Ropes dangle down from the massive bells and the volunteers use their whole bodies to pull the bells upside down, through a full circle. The bells can't be turned fast enough to hit two notes in a row so the ringing is an ever-changing pattern of bell after bell after bell being rung. A joyful noise!

South Shore Brew

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 05:00:00 -0400

We sit down with three South Shore brewers to get the latest on the local craft beer scene. Joining Ally are Mike Dyer, co-owner of Untold Brewing in Scituate; Dino Funari, founder of Vitamin Sea Brewing in Weymouth; and Russ Heissner, founder of Barrel House Z also in Weymouth. Where do they get their inspiration? What beer makes them most proud? Is there an ingredient brewers are using that goes "too far" in the name of innovation? The men also weigh in on the sexual harassment allegations that tore through the craft brewing scene, first in Massachusetts and then quickly around the world, earlier this year. They share their candid responses and what changes they've made in their own breweries. It's a thoughtful conversation on the tight-knit South Shore brewing scene that continues to grow. Join us!

Thank you to episode sponsor Framebridge! Fantastic, affordable custom framing. Visit them online or at their Hingham Store at the Derby Street Shops. www.Framebridge.com. Use promo code HINGHAM for 15% off your first order.

Links:

www.TheHinghamCast.com

www.UntoldBrewing.com

www.VitaminSeaBrewing.com

www.BarrelHouseZ.net

Two Carnivores Walk Into a Plant Bar...

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 16 Nov 2021 05:00:00 -0400

We bring two of Hingham's biggest meat-eaters to Cambridge to check out Plant Pub. The concept restaurant is a new eatery from Hingham native Pat McAuley and celebrated chef Mary Dumont. Along with a thoughtful list of craft beers and seltzers, Plant Pub serves up traditional "bar food," but with a "vegan twist." The burgers, "chicken," pulled "pork," even the queso on the nachos is plant-based. Nothing is made with animal-sourced products of any kind: no meat, seafood, eggs or dairy. The concept is to try and bridge the gap, make plant-based food accessible and attractive to more traditional meat-eaters.

We ask Ben Cutler of XR BBQ and Morrell Presley of Morrell's BBQ in Hingham to test the theory. The two hungry carnivores hunker down for Impossible burgers, "chicken" wings, BBQ "chicken" pizza and much more. Their reviews are candid and their questions–and concerns–are genuine. McAuley and Chef Dumont talk through their objections, share their own journeys to a plant-based lifestyle. Dumont is an award-winning chef with an impressive resume. She headed the kitchen at Cultivar in Boston and Harvest in Cambridge for many years. She’s an Iron Chef and Top Chef alum and in 2014 was named Food & Wine’s hottest new Chef. She says her years of experience cooking meat, helped her hone the plant-based foods on the menu to appeal to a broader audience. McAuley also tells the back story behind Plant Pub and how a Covid pivot saved the business.

Storm Warning: Are You Covered?

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 02 Nov 2021 05:00:00 -0400

Hingham was bruised and battered after our first big storm of the season. The Nor'easter brought 80mph winds, knocking down trees and power lines. Thousands were in the dark and, as day broke, the damage was laid bare. Homeowners all over Hingham are assessing their losses and filing insurance claims. Some are finding nasty surprises in their coverage. Rory Earley and her husband Chris thought their Hingham home was covered for flooding, but learned they didn't buy what their agent called "sump pump failure" insurance, a $35 increase to their policy that would likely have saved them thousands of dollars.

We sit down with Frank Doyle, vice president of insurance for AAA Northeast and Barbara Targum, managing partner at Dwight Rudd Insurance in Boston. They walk us through when and how often to review your plan, special considerations for coastal communities, their thoughts on finished basements and the experts map out who is responsible when your tree falls on your neighbor's house.

We also talk with Jeanne Foy, director of the consumer action center for the public interest group MassPirg. As tree services, roofers and contractors are in hot demand, she shares the red flags to look for if working with someone new. Pro tip: always take a photo of their license!

Helpful consumer info:

MA Office of Consumer Affairs: www.mass.gov/oca

MassPirg Consumer Action Center: (781)335-0280

The Mass Attorney General's Hotline: (617)727-8400

Hingham 'Cast Profile: John Serafini, HawkEye 360

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 05:00:00 -0400

Hingham's John Serafini is the CEO of a company called HawkEye 360. It's a radio frequency and data analytics firm that uses space-based satellites to detect, locate and analyze data from devices like walkie-talkies, satellite phones and radar. Clients include the US government, some of its allies and clients Serafini can't name publicly. HawkEye's technology has applications in national defense, homeland security, environmental protection and other areas.

Serafini is a former Airborne Ranger-qualified, US Army infantry officer with the 82nd Airborne. He graduated with highest honors from the US Military Academy at West Point and holds degrees from Harvard Business School and the John F. Kennedy School of Government.

He takes us through his career, the birth of HawkEye 360 and the fascinating technology launched 500 kilometers into space.

Update: Hingham Public Schools

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 19 Oct 2021 05:00:00 -0400

We sit down with Hingham Public Schools Interim Superintendent Gary Maestes. He is two months into his temporary post and says he spends much of his day just putting out fires. "There was a void, not having a superintendent in the seat, so my time has been occupied managing crisis issues on a daily basis. Every day, it's just, do what you can."

Our conversation ranges from the lawsuit lodged against HPS by parents against the mask mandate to Covid spending and the budget to classroom priorities for the months ahead and the latest on the search for a permanent superintendent. Join us!

"My God, we are all trying our best:" Crisis in Veterinary Care

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 05:00:00 -0400

"I couldn't be treated like an abused woman every day of my life anymore:" former veterinary care staffer

Millions of people got new pets in the pandemic and the surge of new patients is stressing an already stressed system. Veterinarians offices are struggling to keep up with the flood of cases, pushing pet owners to other offices and animal hospitals. Staff shortages, staff burnout and some pet owners taking out their frustrations on veterinary staff are taking a toll. "It's like being a workhorse, and you're just continuously being beaten down every day," said one public-facing staffer at a Boston-area animal hospital. The struggle is unfolding in an industry that is already buckling from a serious mental health crisis in its ranks. One Boston veterinarian said, "I think, realistically, we have to call it a crisis. As an emergency doctor, we don't like to use that term lightly. But the influx of patients is not going away."

Guests: Dr. Jeanne Ficociello, VCA South Shore Animal Hospital; Dr. Megan Whalen, MSPCA Angell Animal Medical Center; Lenore Walker, former veterinary referral coordinator; Pet owner Laura Winters.

www.thehinghamcast.com

Mad Love

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 05 Oct 2021 05:00:00 -0400

Dave Jodka was just 44 when he was diagnosed with sinus cancer. Doctors told he and his wife Kathleen that the prognosis was good, but things took a terrible turn in 2014 and the Scituate father of four did not live through the year. In his last months, Dave and Kathleen thought hard about what Dave wanted to leave behind and how he wanted to be remembered by their children. Cancer wasn't it. He wanted his life to be marked by joy and music. As a teenager, Dave was in a fledgling rock band and spent every day from that point forward listening to music–playing, writing, dancing, singing. It was a gift he wanted to pass on to his children and his community and he did. Listen to today's episode to hear about the earliest days of The Mad Love Music Festival and the Dave Jodka Scholarship for Future Rockers at South Shore Conservatory in Hingham. Ally is joined by Dave's wife Kathleen Jodka, one of the first recipients of the music scholarship Darcy Milligan with the teen band Toast and the band's coach Erik Calderone.

Pride of Ownership: Affordable Housing

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 05:00:00 -0400

South Shore Habitat for Humanity plans to build two new homes in Hingham next year. Before Habitat breaks ground, they must raise hundreds of thousands of dollars and, of course, choose the families that will soon call the houses home. In this episode we talk with Andre and Danielle Lavoie. They purchased a Habitat home in 2007. Andre's family has been in Hingham for more than a century, but for the young couple, a home in the wealthy Boston suburb was far out of reach. Danielle Lavoie said, "It was like, 'Okay, do I go buy dinner? Or do I get sneakers for the kids?' That's how it was."

In this episode we talk about the housing crisis in Massachusetts and the challenge of building affordable housing in wealthy suburbs. We dig into the data and look at the societal and economic costs of not having diversity in available, decent and affordable housing.

www.thehinghamcast.com

www.sshabitat.org

Nature's Great Escape

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 21 Sep 2021 05:00:00 -0400

This episode was absolutely selfish. I've been in a really funky space lately. I'm not depressed, but I'm not exactly happy. I'm meh. I feel like I'm in this weird in-between. It doesn't feel like the height of Covid, but it still feels lousy. I'm vaccinated, but my 9-year-old isn't. We're wearing masks again. I worry about the kids having to quarantine or getting Covid. Damn you, Delta (and whatever else is coming!). I was looking forward to a fall and winter of unfettered indoor dining, the movies, museums. I didn't want to worry if I'd get Covid and pass it on to my kids or vulnerable friends or anyone else. I didn't want to worry school could go remote again. I didn't want to worry about traveling to see my mom at Christmas. But I do. Hitting my 50s, Covid, losing my job–has helped me narrow my focus in so many ways. I want a job I love. I want friends I can depend on, who build me up, not tear me down. I want time with my husband and family and I want to spend more time outside. I've always known nature was a healer for me. Some of my best and most peaceful memories are hikes with my mom in the White Mountains or our trip to Alaska or an ill-advised/prepared "trek" on part of the Appalachian Trail. That meal of Wheat Thins and summer sausage, cross-legged on a crest was one of the best I've eaten. So this episode celebrates people who have focused their lives to be outdoors and explores the spots they reccommend to unplug, walk, climb, breathe and be. www.thehinghamcast.com

The Human Cost of Help Wanted

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 14 Sep 2021 05:00:00 -0400

A severe work force shortage is forcing nonprofit human service organizations into turning away vulnerable clients with disabilities. The pandemic has exacerbated an already critical problem. In this episode we profile Beth and Cormac McDaid of Hingham. Cormac turned 22 during the pandemic, but his mom, Beth, has not been able to find a suitable day program that has room for Cormac. She worries she's not giving him opportunities to learn and grow while she is home with him. She also needs to be able to work to help support her family, but with no one to care for Cormac during the day, she is in an untenable position. We also talk with Chris White of Road to Responsibility. The Marshfield nonprofit serves adults with disabilities and is only able to take on about half the amount of their pre-pandemic client numbers because they simply don't have enough staff. Michael Weekes, of the Providers' Council also weighs in. His group advocates for the needs of providers who he says must be paid a higher wage to entice them to stay in the industry that cares for our most vulnerable.

Back to School with Delta

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 17 Aug 2021 05:00:00 -0400

This was supposed to be a year of healing and recovery for local schools. Instead the highly-contagious Delta variant is making this Back-to-School feel like deja vu. Ally sits down with Hingham's interim superintendant Gary Maestes. He weighs in on everything from mandating vaccines for teachers to making masks optional for some students. She also talks with Dr. Benjamin Linas from Boston Medical Center about the evidence of potential social and developmental damage for kids wearing masks and Dr. Vandana Madhavan of Mass General Hospital for Children. She helps listeners navigate the latest data on Covid and kids and what we do and don't know about long Covid in children.

Delta & The Vulnerable Among Us

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 05:00:00 -0400

"I don't feel like the high risk community as a whole is being seen." Just when things started to feel pretty normal again, the Delta variant and its brethren came in to slap us back down. Many are angry, frustrated, exhausted at the prospect of renewed restrictions, mask mandates, another abnormal school year. But people like Sonia Steele, who are immunocompromised, never got to let their guard down and now she's calling on her community to step up.

Hingham 'Cast Profile: Woody's Goodies

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 05:00:00 -0400

James "Woody" Wood owns the food truck Woody's Goodies. He parks it near the commuter ferry into Boston at the Hingham Shipyard. When Covid hit last year, pushing hundreds of Boston offices to shut down, nearly his entire customer base was wiped out with work from home. Woody was terrified. How would he feed his family? What would happen to the business he worked so hard to build? The answers were with his customers. He shares beautiful stories of struggle and generosity that saved his business and fed his soul. But as the Delta variant looms, Woody worries offices will shut down again and take his customers with them.

Pivoting in a Pandemic: Locales Tacos y Tequila

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 20 Jul 2021 05:00:00 -0400

Opening a restaurant is challenging in the best of times, but throw in a global pandemic and it's brutal. Just ask Brian McLaughlin, owner of soon-to-launch Locales Tacos y Tequila in Hingham, Massachusetts. McLaughlin had planned to open his taco shop in July 2020, but sourcing equipment, finding tradespeople to commit to the job, ever-evolving Covid protocols and regulations, supply chain disruptions, skyrocketing food costs and a restaurant staff shortage hampered his efforts. Join the conversation as McLaughlin shares the hurdles he had to clear and why pivoting to a new business model may have been the best thing that could have happened.

Help Wanted: Hingham Schools

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 13 Jul 2021 05:00:00 -0400

Hingham Public Schools is losing its superintendent and two of six principals after a difficult pandemic year plus. Experts say being a superintendent is more challenging than ever with high expectations, demanding accountability and a "loss of civility" in interactions with some parents. Hingham is among 45 or 15% of districts in the state needing new leadership and competition will be stiff. Join us for a conversation with Tom Scott, executive directors of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents; Kerry Ni, chair of the Hingham School Committee; and June Gustafson, head of the Hingham Education Association, representing teachers.

Done Hiding: Life as a Transgender Man (Rebroadcast)

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 06 Jul 2021 08:30:00 -0400

The Hingham 'Cast team took a break to celebrate the 4th of July holiday. We are reairing our conversation with Finn and Moira Congdon. Finn was born into a girl’s body. He spent his entire childhood trying to figure out why his life didn’t feel right. He wore baggy, body-hiding clothes. He avoided mirrors and sank into a deep depression. The Hingham man had a loving, accepting family, but was still terrified to finally come out as transgender. It’s a painful, but beautiful journey to self acceptance and love. #Pride

'Cast Away: Dropping Anchor in Watch Hill, RI

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 05:00:00 -0400

The Hingham 'Cast teams up with local news site the Hingham Anchor to launch a new travel series. Ally and Laura & Hilary from the Anchor head 80 miles south of Hingham to Watch Hill, Rhode Island. Watch Hill is home to beautiful beaches, stunning homes, a historic light house, the only operating "flying horse" carousel, a terrific mix of local inns and restaurants–and did we mention the Taylor Swift connection? Swift bought a summer home in Watch Hill in 2013 and penned her new song "The Last Great Dynasty" about the history of her house and its colorful former owner. Tag along as we explore this undersung New England vacation destination.

Hingham 'Cast Profile: Leslie Badger

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 05:00:00 -0400

"Completely humiliated and defeated:" that's how Leslie Badger describes reading aloud in her first grade classroom. It's the first time Hingham's Animal Control Officer shares publicly the story of her learning disablity and how a parakeet named Charlie changed the course of her life. "Animals don't judge," she says. It's a great conversation on her path to become an ACO (she was on course to work on the water!), the wacky wild stories of the animals of Hingham (do not mention spiders) and the terrifying call that threatened to end her career.

The Rebirth of Aldous Collins

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 15 Jun 2021 05:30:00 -0400

"I want that window to kind of hone in on who I really am."

Aldous Collins has emerged from the quiet of Covid to a rebirth of sorts. Like all of us, the frontman for The Aldous Collins Band is thinking more about how he wants to live, to work, to show up for his family. We talk about what that will look like in his music and why he's making changes to his high-energy, funk band. He's a father of seven kids with his second wife Melanie, a novice bassist, live-out-loud painter, beer collaborator...spiritual gangster.

South Shore Bar Pizza

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 05:30:00 -0400

We dive into the hot-from-the-oven world of South Shore bar pizza. There are fierce rivalries, ferocious loyalties and opinions on everything from burnt edges to baked beans. It's a fascinating conversation with Kerry Byrne who founded the South Shore Bar Pizza Social Club during the pandemic. The Facebook group is a landing page and debate stage for its more than 30-thousand followers. Venus? Alumni? Town Spa? Lynwood? Don't even get them started on pineapple. We also follow along with a Cohasset father and son who set out to rate their top spots. What began as covid field trips for Mark and Tyler Gould, strengthened a bond over bar pizza that has now passed down generations.

Done Hiding: Life as a Transgender Man

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 05:00:00 -0400

Finn Congdon was born into a girl’s body. He spent his entire childhood trying to figure out why his life didn’t feel right. He wore baggy, body-hiding clothes. He avoided mirrors and sank into a deep depression. The Hingham man had a loving, accepting family, but was still terrified to finally come out as transgender. It’s a painful, but beautiful journey to self acceptance and love. #Pride

High-end House Flipping

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 25 May 2021 07:00:00 -0400

With a toothy grin and disarming charm, PJ Antonik takes up all the space in a room. He is the founder and frontman of Oak Development & Design, a home renovation firm in Hingham, Massachusetts. He has his own TV show, podcast and loyal clientele snapping up his Instagram-marketed homes. Antonik bristles at the word, but is, by definition, a house flipper. He's not your typical flipper, putting "lipstick on a pig" as he says. He buys the "worst" homes in the best neighborhoods to renovate or rebuild and sell in the $1 to $3 million dollar range. For all his charisma, Antonik knows he's not everyone's cup of tea. When his projects rankle the neighbors he is unapologetic. "I don't want to be people's enemy," he says. "I go into a neighborhood with great intentions, but people don't like change."

Maddie's Promise: Real Progress

Ally Donnelly — Thu, 20 May 2021 11:30:00 -0400

Maddie McCoy lost her battle to a rare childhood cancer called rhabdomyosarcoma in 2019. She was just 11-years-old. While she was still alive, her family and friends launched Maddie's Promise. It was a sweet push to help Maddie raise money for other kids in the hospital and the people she saw living homeless on the streets of Boston.

That promise is now a promise to do everything possible to find better treatments and a cure for rhabdomyosarcoma. This episode shows it is not a shot in the dark or a Hail Mary pass. Money raised by Maddie's Promise has helped researchers create new cell lines and launch a clinical trial. The sometimes modest gifts have helped doctors show the federal government there is promise on the horizon. That promise has secured them a nearly two million dollar grant from the National Institues of Health and free cancer treatment drugs for potential patients. It is thrilling to hear how one small community can have a massive impact on helping these children who have for decades been considered largely "untreatable."

Local Elections: Select Board

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 18 May 2021 05:00:00 -0400

Local elections matter. In many communities in Massachusetts a Select Board serves as mayor and city council. There is one seat open on Hingham's Select Board and three candidates vying for the position. It's a demanding, often thankless job. Hingham's Select Board met 80 times last year. The Board calls town meeting and figures out what’s on the agenda. Members are then in charge of implementing whatever gets voted on. They manage town finances and set the budget. They hold public meetings on town issues. They appoint not only the town administrator, but department heads, most of the members for boards and commissions. They enforce town by laws and regulations. They’re the licensing board for everything from restaurants and liquor licenses to limousines and they’re the commissioners for the water and police department. When it comes to town government, these are the most powerful positions. www.thehinghamcast.com

Back on Stage: A Return to Live Theater

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 11 May 2021 05:00:00 -0400

With restrictions eased, theaters from Broadway to Boston pledge that productions will be back on stage by the fall. But exactly what that looks like for audiences and actors is still being figured out. Ally talks with Broadway actress and South Shore native Mary Callanan and Zoe Bradford, co-founder of Norwell's Company Theatre.

Local Elections: Town Clerk

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 04 May 2021 05:00:00 -0400

Local elections matter. The people we vote into office have an enormous amount of power over our town and day-to-day lives. When the pandemic hit, our worlds shrank and how, or if, our communities adapted was laid bare. From public safety and school funding to property assessments and public health enforcement, the effectiveness of local government is inextricably tied to the people we put into office. In Hingham, the Town Clerk is the only salaried, elected official and it is a critical, public-facing job. Ally sits down with the four candidates vying for the open seat: Carol Falvey, Libby Lewiecki, Laura Marwill and Tom Patch. Election day is May 22. www.votema.org

Climate Action: A Plan for Change

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 05:00:00 -0400

From the White House to the State House leaders are setting goals to combat climate change, but environmentalists say cities and towns need to step up too. Like many communities across the Commonwealth, Hingham does not have a Climate Action Plan, but soon, residents can vote to make one. In this episode we talk with Christin Eigenmann who, for most of her life, didn't think about climate change. But when she moved to Hingham and found a community of green space and abundant wildlife, she wanted to do everything she could to protect it. She shares the small changes her family is making in hopes of making a big difference. We also talk with Kathy Reardon who sits on the town's Climate Action Plan Task Force. We explore how local governments can play a significant role in the fight from greener building codes to electric police cars to using more solar and other renewable energy to heat and cool town buildings. www.thehinghamcast.com or join the conversation on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/TheHinghamCast

Self Harm: When Kids Cut

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 13 Apr 2021 05:00:00 -0400

Danielle was just 12 when she started cutting. She said, at first, it was an accident, but it quickly became deliberate. She says when the physical pain came, the emotional pain felt like it was bleeding out of her. It's called self harm or self injury and affects 1 in 5 adolescents. Experts say cutting can start for any number of reasons from a child suffering anxiety to a serious mental disorder. The number of kids getting emergency care for mental health issues like self harm are on the rise in the pandemic, according to the CDC, prompting our conversation. Ally talks with Danielle and Barry Walsh, Ph.D. from Open Sky Community Services in Worcester, MA. He shares why kids cut, what parents should look for and how to get help.

Real Estate Boom: Tight Supply, Soaring Demand

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 05:00:00 -0400

Open houses canceled before they'd begun. Buyers snatching up houses sight unseen. Inspections waived. Cash offers a hundred thousand dollars over asking with little-before-used escalation clauses. It's a pandemic-fueled real estate boom that's driven up prices and made it a kill or be killed seller's market. But what could it mean for the fabric of a small town?

Where Hurt, Hunger & Hope Collide

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 30 Mar 2021 05:00:00 -0400

Paul Deane had hit bottom. He was addicted to heroin, had just lost his wife after she overdosed and was struggling to be a father to their four sons. The Weymouth man says he drove his life into the ground and shares how therapists at a Quincy non profit helped him put the pieces back together. Interfaith Social Services is many things to many people and houses the largest food pantry on Boston's South Shore. Executive Director Rick Doane explains why hunger and struggles with mental health are inextricably entwined and how the public can help.

Surviving Screens & Getting Your Kid Back

Ally Donnelly — Mon, 22 Mar 2021 05:00:00 -0400

Ally talks with Cindy and Eliza Farina. Eliza is a 7th grader who says in the height of the pandemic, her screen time reached as high as 16 hours a day. How accurate that is, mom Cindy doesn't know, but says shutting down devices can get ugly. With light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, how do we get our kids back from the clutches of screens? Penn State Psychologist Meghan Owenz says S.P.O.I.L. them. She maps out how socializing, play, outside time, independent work and literacy can help reverse the negative effects of devices.

Back to School (Take 2)

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 16 Mar 2021 05:00:00 -0400

Ally sits down with her 9-year-old daughter Lucy to hear what it was like to go back to school after so many months remote and hybrid. She also checks in with Tony Keady, Principal of East Elementary School in Hingham on bringing the kids back not only physically, but emotionally and what their focus will be in the months ahead and as they prepare for the next school year.

Pandemic Pups

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 05:00:00 -0400

Thousands of families across the country have welcomed new pets into their lives during the pandemic. With everyone home, there is always someone to walk, feed and scratch the ears of this newest family member. But as life inches back to some level of new normal, what will that mean for your "pandemic pet?" Dr. Trish Cairns, co-chief of staff at Norwell Veterinary Hospital joins Ally to share the steps she says you should be taking "yesterday" to help your pet adjust to more time alone.

Fight Club: Booking a Vaccine in Massachusetts

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 05:00:00 -0400

People are crowdsourcing tips on Facebook. They're setting alarms to wake up in the middle of the night and refresh their browser. They've set up multiple computers and phones to be ready to pounce when the time comes. So goes the hunt to book appointments for people aged 65 and older to get vaccines in Massachusetts. "You would get halfway through the process of putting information in," said Stacey Deeds, trying to book an appointment for her elderly mother and aunt. "And then all of a sudden, the slot that you had chosen was gone. So you get kicked back out. You start again, kicked back out, start again." What a mess. Today we talk with residents about their frustration and anger that the state website set up to handle booking vaccination appointments–can't handle it. We also talk with state Senator Patrick O'Connor who sits on the Joint Committee on COVID-19 and Emergency Preparedness and Management. When will it be fixed and what happens next to get the most shots in arms in Massachusetts?

Laundry Love: Detergent & Dignity

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 23 Feb 2021 06:00:00 -0400

Laundry Love is a group of dedicated volunteers who spend hours in local laundromats helping people struggling financially. They provide free laundry cards, detergent and other supplies to clients who, without them, may be forced to make tough choices between buying food or medicine or paying their rent and doing their laundry. As need grows in the pandemic, Laundry Love offers dignity through clean clothes.

The Vaccine Line: What About Us?

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 09 Feb 2021 06:30:00 -0400

She's been a mainstay in local families' lives for decades. Maureen Fox, or "Miss Mo" as she’s affectionately called by children tall and small (and their adults) is the director of Sandcastles Childcare Center, in Hingham. Like most businesses when Covid hit, Sandcastles shut down, but reopened just four months later in July. "The fact of the matter is, if I didn't go back to work, the school wasn't going to open," she says. "My Sandcastles families needed me to show up." In the height of the pandemic, essential workers were hailed as heroes for keeping shelves stocked, grocery stores open and children cared for so desperate parents could work. But, now, Fox says, when it's time to figure out who gets vaccinated and when, it feels different. "I think people forget that we were one of the first ones to go back," she says. "You know, we're one of the only essential workers working with unmasked clients in very close proximity. You can't social distance a toddler, you can't expect an infant to wear a mask. We're holding babies and loving them and doing everything we did before the pandemic, because that's what they need. And that's what I need. It's one of the great joys of my job is get to snuggle everybody's kids. That's what daycare does, it normalizes going back to work. we are stimulating the economy in a really quiet way. So it's easy to forget that we're here."

It's Lonely: Remote Learning Too Remote for Some

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 02 Feb 2021 07:15:00 -0400

In this episode we talk with Hingham Middle Schooler Sophie Deane and her mom Karen. We hear how Sophie switched from hybrid to fully-remote learning and how lonely this pandemic can be. Karen, who works long hours as a hospice nurse was also caring for her ailing dad and knew things at home were bad. Her kids were alone for long stretches. Sophie was taking care of her little brother Connor, but many days the real babysitter for both of them was devices. Her kids were changing, Karen said, “It felt like we were getting to the point where I wasn’t going to get my old kids back. I needed to be a parent again.” So she took a drastic step and packed their bags…and passports.

Turning the Page to a New White House

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 07:00:00 -0400

In this week’s episode we talk about turning the page to a new administration. No matter who you voted for or how you feel about Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, it is a fresh start. We sit down with six people in the community to hear what their hopes are for the year ahead. It wasn’t necessarily easy. I reached out to several people I thought would have interesting things to say or diverse perspectives and some turned me down. They told me they were nervous it could get too political or some were worried what people would say about them if they talked about their true experience in Hingham. I respect it and I understand it, but it’s a shame. My hope for the podcast is to bring us closer together. To do that, we have to have hard conversations–and they’re happening–which is great. But we have to dig deeper if people still don’t feel safe to share here. Tune in to hear how a little girl who is of Indian descent felt watching someone who looked like her, who could be her, take the oath of office as America’s first female Vice President, “It kind of feels like I can just do anything now,” she told me. Listen to one woman describe her journey from fear and anxiety in hanging a Pride flag outside her home, “Here’s me I’m the gay one living on the street,” to her neighbors standing along side her, “It doesn’t feel like we’re singling ourselves out now.” Hear why one neighbor hesitated to hang her flag, an American flag. “There’s just so much anger out there,” she said. Listen to the heartache in a father’s voice as his children are forced to confront issues, most kids in Hingham don’t think about, “It’s not fair, but there’s nothing I can do about it.” And hear from a local minister, who, he says, is in the hope business. “I think so much of the work that's ahead of us is not ignoring the pain, not just burying it, but talking about it,” he said. Onward.

Code Catastrophe: Inside the ICU

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 03:30:00 -0400

Hingham native Kim Boggini is an ICU nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital. She was in the first wave of employees to be vaccinated. Her first dose was about a week before Christmas and she got her booster or second dose January 8th. Other than a sore arm, she didn’t have any side effects from the first shot, but after the second shot, she felt lousy for a day. “I felt like I couldn’t get out of bed,” she said. “My head feels full. I kind of feel like you feel when you’re starting to get sick and you’re kind of like, ‘I don’t feel that good.’ I don’t have a fever. I don’t have body aches. I don’t have chills. I don’t have a sore throat,” she said. “I’d so much rather feel this way than get Covid.”

Kim let us trail her through her through the vaccination process and sat down to talk with us about what it’s like to work in a Covid-specialty unit as cases surge. We talked with her a few times in the last month, so this is a compilation of those conversations. All while the news evolves daily. The first case of the highly contagious Covid variant has been confirmed in Massachusetts–which ups the pressure to get as many people vaccinated as possible before hospitals and healthcare workers–get overwhelmed.

Kids in a Pandemic

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 02:30:00 -0400

This episode started as a mic check. I asked my kids to do interviews with me so I could test my new microphones. But the conversations were so revealing that I asked my oldest daughter Izzie if I could share ours with you. She’s in 6th grade, 12-years-old, in middle school. Her last day of in-person elementary school was in the beginning of a pandemic and she never really got to say goodbye–to her physical classroom, her teachers, the custodian and other staff she liked so much. And her classmates in a lot of ways. We talked in November, when news of a vaccine was promising but not here yet. I’ve edited out the large majority of her “Like, likes,” for my sanity and yours.

We were eight months in and I asked her what she was thinking. “It’s really crazy.” she said. “I was thinking about last year for me and that feels like it was such a long time ago and it really wasn’t a long time ago. And how the world can change in such a short amount of time is really insane.” How does that make you feel, I asked. “Scared, honestly,” she said. “It’s kind of stressful for me like anything can kind of happened and I never really expected, obviously no one would expect this, but of all the things you would think could go wrong this–I feel like this wasn’t anything anyone really expected or ever thought of–and this is our world right now.”

I asked her what worried her, “I guess the fact that everything just kind of changed and like so much went wrong in a really short amount of time,” she said. “And it scares me kind of how much things people have lost in their lives, people, but also, activities. I lost theater and I miss it. I was thinking about that the other day how much I miss it.” She talked about how jarring it was to move between our old and new realities. “I’ll look at a picture or watch a movie and my instant thing is, ‘Why aren’t they wearing masks?’ And that’s weird,” she said. “Or we were talking about quarantine and I had no idea what that word meant and now that word is part of my vocabulary. I’ve learned a lot in a way from this but I’ve lost a lot too.”

A seismic shift for all our kids has been school. “Online school is really hard because of the online part of it,” Izzie said. “I feel like the actual screen time that I am having is crazy. I like my phone and the computer and stuff but I don’t like how much I’ve been on it. We have virtual attendance, virtual assignments, virtual everything. It’s kind of like, “Oh gosh, this is a lot.” She said she likes that she gets to go to school in person the two half days she gets, “But, it’s weird,” she said. “You don’t really make a connection with kids. Like school used to be half academic and half social and it kind of balanced out. But it’s hard to make connection 6 feet away from someone. You can’t really have a good conversation when people are really around you and you can’t connect with someone or make a good friend. There’s not really a way to talk almost. It definitely makes me like school less. And I like school. I like the academic, but I like the non-academic stuff too. I’m pretty sure every kid does. It doesn’t make you a bad student or anything it’s just kind of like oh I like seeing my friends at school but now that there’s no friends or if you’re not in their cohort or they’re going remote, it’s just a little like, ‘This is weird.’”

I asked her if she missed the level of connection she had to her elementary school teachers. In a way, that connection was tactile–they’d been hugging her since kindergarten. “Sometimes it’s really hard,” Izzie said. “My chorus teacher? I haven’t seen him at all. I haven’t seen my Spanish teacher at all. I haven’t met my art teacher in person because those are my electives and so I haven’t met any of them. I don’t know what they’re like in person. I don’t really like it.”

I asked her how she feels about the news that, at the time, the vaccine was on the horizon, but still cases were rising. “Well, my first thought is, ‘Oh goodness–more cases. I guess it’s kind of good, not good that it’s happening again, but good that it’s happened once and now we know what we should be doing, this is what’s going to happen, we’re all prepared for it,” she said. “And the vaccine, that’s great if there’s a vaccine that’s awesome but if there’s not and cases are going up then what if there isn’t a vaccine and it doesn’t work then what do we do?”

Is it hard to accept that there could be good news? I asked her. “My brain just doesn’t really doesn’t want to accept it. I know it’s probably true and I know that good things are probably happening and it’s probably going to get better and all that but I just don’t really trust, I don’t know who I don’t trust, I just don’t trust because I don’t feel like there’s really anything I can. It’s so unknown and we don’t really know anything about this. We could learn a new thing tomorrow that changes everything and I don’t really want to get my hopes up.

Asked about silver linings, she said, “I like being home. It’s kind of fun. We have a lot of family time which I like a lot. People are here and it’s kind of nice to wake up and my family is here, which wasn’t really something we had before. There’s definitely been a lot of experiences and cool things, but I also don’t like this year. If I could go back and redo fifth grade and have Mrs. C again, I would literally love that. That would be so amazing. But obviously they’re not going to have us all redo fifth grade. That wouldn’t be a good idea, but in a way, I kind of wish they would. We didn’t have a move up day. We didn’t have any transition and part of me is just kind of like, why? Just why. Why did this all have to happen?

I asked her what she wanted in the New Year. “Well, I obviously hope for Covid to go away,” she said. “But I kind of hope for more knowledge on everything. What’s gonna happen, I guess. I just want to know things. I don’t like the unknown. Is it going to come here? Is it going to be bad here? And I just don’t really feel like I really know anything right now.”

I told her to fast forward to her 50-year-old self, talking to her (then) 11-year-old self. What would she say. “I think I’d probably say, like something simple, like, ‘It’s going to be OK. Which is what you hear from everyone. But I think hearing it from yourself and knowing, I survived, we’re good, everything‘s going to be fine. This is kind of a cool story you can tell people. It’s gonna go away eventually. You got this.”

Grammy Bread with Dan Fickes

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 02:30:00 -0400

With a fistful of yeasty dough, Dan Fickes is nervous. “I’m 57 years old. I’ve never made bread in my life.” The Hingham man is not just making any bread. He’s making Grammy Bread--the simple, white bread that got a wounded woman out of bed to face life without her first-born son. “I just can’t fathom losing one of your children at any age--let alone your first child, at age five.” Fickes, who grew up in Camp Hill Pennsylvania, wasn’t yet born when his oldest brother David died. The preschooler had a brain tumor and lived only days after the operation to remove it. Their mother Shirley fell into a deep and crippling depression. “It was almost a year, maybe more,” Fickes said. “She stayed in bed. She cried. She slept.” It was a friend from church, a woman named Chickie Bresnahan, who came to the house with a brown bag of groceries that would slowly tug Shirley back to the land of the living. “She had the flour, the yeast, everything and said, ‘Shirley, get out of bed. This is what we’re doing.’ From what I understand it was a fight to get my mom out, but reluctantly she put on her robe and slippers and went to the kitchen and they made bread that day.” Fickes says his mom kept baking for decades. “I think at first it was just a way to keep herself busy, to get her mind off things. She would bake loaves for our family and then, she started giving it away.” She passed out loaves of bread and everyone would ask for it--aunts, uncles, cousins, even Fickes’ own children Kristi and Elise, now 11 and 12, who gave Grammy Bread its name.

In 2008, Shirley started to make mistakes. “Making this bread is something my mom can do with her eyes shut on a normal day, but she kept having issues in the kitchen. She’d have to start over from scratch,” Fickes said. “We should have known then that that was the beginning of her memory issues.” Over the years, her condition got worse and early this year the family decided 89-year-old Shirley needed more help than her doting husband Ralph could give her. “He would not leave her side. He would not leave the house. He had absolutely no social life whatsoever,” Fickes said. “We were worried at how rapidly my dad was aging being her caregiver.” Ralph and Shirley moved into an assisted living facility in Pennsylvania on March 1. Eleven days later, the state shutdown. “It’s tough. It’s tough,” said Fickes. “When my father first moved in, he was talking like that place was a cruise ship. He finally had people to talk to. He was walking the halls and saying hi to everybody.” Now Ralph and Shirley are forced to wave to their kids from their third floor balcony while talking to them on the phone. “But hey, at least we get to see them,” Fickes said, “And they're doing fairly well. We feel blessed they’re in a safe place.”

Because of the pandemic, their family can’t all be together for the holidays, so Fickes decided try his hand at baking his mom’s bread. “I thought the least I could do was try to make it and send it out to everybody,” he said. One Thanksgiving, years ago, he asked his mom to show him how to make it. He was worried the recipe would get lost as her memory got worse. “I can cook,” he said. “ But baking? I don’t know.” His mom laid out all the ingredients and showed him the way. “I took two pages of copious notes. We had a blast.” Fickes pulled out those notes and started baking for Thanksgiving. “It was very intimidating,” he said. “I didn’t want to just make her bread. I wanted to make her bread perfectly--down to the sesame seeds on top.” It took all day, but he made the white bread with the sesame seeds that had been such a part of their family’s life. “I was really worried,” Fickes said. I made bread, but was it Mom’s bread?’’ The day yielded six loaves. He kept some for his wife Kaja and the girls and shipped the rest to Pennsylvania. “I wanted everybody to have it on their Thanksgiving table.” Fickes choked up when he shared his brother’s reaction. “He didn’t know I was doing this,” Fickes said. “He called me and said, ‘I never thought I’d have this bread again.’ That was great.’” But there was still his mom--the woman who had poured her grief and love and generosity into this bread for years.

“My mom asked my Dad, ‘Did I make this?’” Fickes said. And when she found out that it was her youngest son that made it---the memory of them baking together more than a decade ago, wiggled forward. “She remembered! She said, ‘Danny, you finally made it. All these years and you made it.’ Yep,” he said. “Surprise.”

Introducing The Hingham 'Cast

Ally Donnelly — Tue, 05 Jan 2021 08:00:00 -0400

Welcome to the Hingham ‘Cast. I’m your host, Ally Donnelly. For the last 20 years I’ve been on your TV set--an award-winning reporter for necn and NBC Boston. But now I’m telling stories in a new way. Here, on this hyper local podcast about the people and issues at the heart of my hometown, Hingham, Massachusetts.

There’s no doubt about it, 2020 was a rough year. We lost loved ones, jobs, there’s been a racial reckoning--politics is more divisive than ever. But the pandemic has also pushed us to look inward--at our Covid numbers, our schools, our restaurants and small businesses. What can we do for people who are hurting?

This is a real opportunity to build a better community. To hear different points of view. To empathize, to challenge--to be inspired. In the episodes ahead, you’ll meet a local ICU nurse at Mass General Hospital. She takes us along as she gets vaccinated and shares her hopes and fears in this next surge of the pandemic. Next we bake bread with a local dad. He shares the gut-wrenching story behind his family tradition and why, in the end, it’s a story of healing and resilience. We also talk with our kids. What’s the pandemic doing to them? And how do we help?

We want to hear your voice too. What are you reading, cooking, bingeing, creating? What makes you happy? Where are you struggling? How much are you drinking? How are your relationships? Can we all be more connected? I say yes. Let’s start now.