INFO-2022-1 : An Informational Order on Melrose Kind Day, November 20, 2021

Transcript (~9 min @ 45:48)

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▶ 45:46 Jack Eccles: november 20th 2021. councilor eccles uh mr president i would like to make a motion for media consideration on this order at this time media consideration before us this time any

▶ 45:57 Christopher Cinella: objection seeing none this matter is now before us i think believe um if we could without objection suspend our rules so that we could get a few folks to speak this evening so you know objection our rules are now under suspension shall i bring in the attendee

▶ 46:27 Speaker 2: yes ms darwin can you hear us uh yes the floor is yours

▶ 46:38 Speaker 11: There we are. Hi everyone. We just wanted to take a few minutes to talk to you about Melrose Kind. This is our sixth annual celebration of kindness in Melrose and it will take place next Saturday, November 20th. Actually this year it'll take place on November 19th

▶ 47:00 Speaker 12: which is Friday and on November 20th. November 19th we'll be celebrating in all of our public schools all of our elementary school students are writing letters to senior citizens here in town last year it was one of the biggest highlights for us the roosevelt elementary school had their students write notes to our seniors that we all know were extremely isolated uh during the pandemic and they were treasured they were you know affixed to refrigerators and windows and read countless times and the response we're still actually getting thank yous so we're super excited to say that we have over a thousand letters going to seniors this year um and then we have exciting

▶ 47:43 Speaker 11: things happening at the middle school and the high school too yeah the middle school we have the entire middle school writing um get well cards and thank you cards to the stat to the patients and staff at the high school at the hospital laura's wakefield hospital and we just today picked up 900 letters from high school students who have written to their favorite educators over the years. So we feel that it's a huge community building event and our goal is just to get the word out there to as many people as we can. Melrose Kind is also purchasing breakfast and lunch for everyone at the hospital?

▶ 48:22 Speaker 12: Dunkin' Donuts absolutely blew us away with $2,500 worth of gift cards that they sent us. Originally we had asked for a hundred gift cards for the overnight crew at the hospital. They believe in the mission and sent us 500. We met and talked about the best way to distribute and utilize those gift cards. We brought a hundred to the bread of life, 50 to the 2 food pantries here in Melrose. There's something really special about thinking about, you know, a warm cup of coffee on a cold night for someone that is struggling. So we're super excited about that part too.

▶ 49:01 Speaker 11: So, on Friday, the DPW will be getting lunch. I believe the City Council might be buying lunch for the City Clerk's office. We've got a lot of things going on in the schools. And on Friday, Chris Rodolico from Follow Your Art will be creating our mural downtown right next to the YMCA in preparation for our big day of kindness on November 20th.

▶ 49:27 Speaker 12: This year, we're really excited about having live music at the space outside of the YMCA wall. We call it the kindness patch, but we have a number of performers from Porch Fest that are coming to perform from, I think around 9, 9.30 until three o'clock. So cross your fingers for good weather for us. We have got Girl Scout troops showering love to the police. We've got Boy Scout troops doing it for the fire department. Really what we're trying to do is just connect important organizations and say thank you. So, we appreciate the opportunity to come on to share with you and we would ask that you share with your constituents. If you could just share the message that this is what we're celebrating and people can participate in any way they want.

▶ 50:21 Speaker 11: Yep, so we've done a lot of coordination for the organizations in Melrose, but really, this is a, an event for citizens in Melrose. and what we're hoping is to see lots of random acts of kindness happen between just regular old Melrosians. So the more we get the word out there and the more you help us in continuing it, the more likely that'll happen. And it'll be a big, huge day of kindness, which is what we're looking for.

▶ 50:48 Speaker 12: And the last thing, just a quick shout out, we've got some amazingly generous retailers, restaurants that have supported us with gift cards. Today, Mary Beth and I filled out about 75 letters to individuals in and around town that are making a difference in their own way. And we're just hoping that that has a ripple effect and we reach as many people as we can.

▶ 51:12 Speaker 11: Yeah. So that's it. That's all we have. Great. Any questions?

▶ 51:17 Christopher Cinella: Thank you. Councilor Tramontozzi?

▶ 51:21 John N. Tramontozzi: Yeah, thank you, Mr. President. And thank you ladies for coming in sharing uh this very exciting uh two days event um couple quick questions one is uh do you have a website that we can uh share to our constituents on social media and also um if if we can send donations is there a way to uh donate to your organization thank you very much for that question

▶ 51:51 Speaker 11: our our website john yeah our website is melrosekind.com or dot org either one will work and we're melrose kind on all social media and our uh email address is melrokind at gmail.com so basically you type in melrose kind and you'll find us and there's a donate now button right in the middle of our website oh we'll also have um t-shirts and um melrose kind mugs for sale uh with proceeds going to continue to fund kindness initiatives in the future that'll be on the 20th too yeah and just the we became a non-profit uh this is our sixth annual as we know

▶ 52:30 Speaker 12: as we said before um and what we found was the response was extremely well received and people loved the concept and they said ah we hate waiting a whole year to do something like this in and around town selfishly we love it too so we became a non-profit and we're hoping to fund initiatives like this on an ongoing basis so you know maybe it's a formal pen pal program between elementary schools and the senior housing units maybe it's a community garden you know an intergenerational dance there's a ton of opportunity so we're grateful for the support yeah that's wonderful

▶ 53:09 John N. Tramontozzi: thank you so much for uh being here and thank you for that information thank you mr president

▶ 53:19 Cory Thomas: thanks for having us council toss thank you mr president miss darwin and miss nelson i would say miss roach miss nelson uh thank you so much for being here um this is such a great event you know you don't focus on just one group or one school or one age group um you really spread this around throughout the whole community you bring the community together um it's such a positive thing as we head into the holidays uh in the winter so i just want to thank you both for being here and for all you do uh for the community so thank you very much thanks gory thanks you

▶ 53:44 Speaker 11: actually bring up a great point is that a lot of people say you know we need to teach kindness to children but our feeling is that it is a community event and there's always more kindness to learn so we appreciate you saying that it isn't just one demographic that we're targeting anybody

▶ 54:02 Christopher Cinella: Anybody else? Did I miss anybody? Councilor Garipay?

▶ 54:10 Mark Garipay: I just wanted to echo Councilor Thomas comments. Thank you both for all you do and for taking this project on and the community appreciates it. So, thank you.

▶ 54:23 Speaker 11: Thanks. Thank you.

▶ 54:25 Speaker 10: Anybody else?

▶ 54:28 Christopher Cinella: Okay, thank you very much for coming on this evening.

▶ 54:33 Speaker 12: Very kind of you.

▶ 54:35 Speaker 10: What is the will?

▶ 54:40 Speaker 11: Please come visit us on Saturday.

▶ 54:43 Christopher Cinella: Yeah, I want a motion to place this on file. Councilor Eccles motion to place on file. 2nd.

▶ 54:48 Christopher Cinella: Place on file me by Councilor Eccles 2nd, by Councilor Tramontozzi. Any discussion? Seeing none.

▶ 54:59 Speaker 2: Councilor Eccles? Yes. Councilor Garipay? Yes. Councilor Grigoraitis? Yes.