Friday July 30, 2010
Bartlett Hall gets makeover Saturday

Volunteers, donors step up to the plate

May 19, 2010 - Old Colony Memorial - By Emily Wilcox

Back in the day it was a community center where dances were held.

Today, it is known as Manomet Youth Center. It’s a drop-in youth center that is open from 2:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. September through May, while school is in session, that features a gym that does double duty as a basketball court and soccer “field.”

A new gym floor is slated for installation this fall. But the hall is in desperate need of TLC to other floors, the building and its grounds.

State Rep. Vinny deMacedo, R-Plymouth, whose son, Jonathan, played basketball there, remembered a conversation he had with Joe Perry, who works at the center. Perry noted the improvements that were needed, and deMacedo noted that he could do something about that.

“I said I’d make a few phone calls,” deMacedo explained.

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deMacedo visits Haiti

Port-au-Prince reduced to rubble

May 19, 2010 - Old Colony Memorial - By Emily Wilcox

A yellow umbrella hangs over a table covered with pots and pans, a carton of eggs and recycled soda bottles. A sheet draped over a rope tied to a concrete wall provides a makeshift roof for this woman and her child, whose lives and home have been reduced to rubble, a day-to-day existence few can comprehend.

The epicenter of the magnitude 7 earthquake that hit Leogane Jan. 12 radiated out to Port-au-Prince and points beyond, leveling concrete buildings and killing more than 230,000 Haitians.

Haiti is still counting the dead.

A total of 300,000 lost limbs and suffered other life-altering injuries, 1 million were made homeless and thousands of children were orphaned.

State Rep. Vinny deMacedo, R-Plymouth, visited Haiti last week with a delegation of his fellow state representatives and his friend, Marie St. Fleur of the Haitian state legislature.

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