On Wednesday, Dec. 2, Mayor Thomas M. Menino, the Boston Parks and Recreation Department and the Friends of Copley Square sponsored the official Copley Square Tree Lighting.
The event featured the Salvation Army Brass Ensemble directed by Band Master Bill Rollins, the Trinity Church Children’s Choir directed by Richard Webster, a sing-along, a visit from Santa Claus, donated refreshments from local businesses and the lighting of the 40-foot blue spruce sponsored by the Friends of Copley Square and Normandy Real Estate Partners. Local businesses, including H.P. Hood, Burger King, Guckenheimer Partners LLC and Legal Sea Foods, donated food and refreshments. An after party at the Fairmont Copley Plaza hotel followed.
The evening kicked off a month of events in and around Copley Square, including musical performances, holiday book readings, fashion shows and more. For more information about the ongoing programming, visit http://www.visitbostonbackbay.com/site/holidays-at-copley-square/.

The Massachusetts Joint Committee on the Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture held a public hearing last week on proposed legislation that would take unprecedented steps to protect groundwater levels statewide.
State Reps. Marty Walz, Aaron Michlewitz and Byron Rushing are sponsoring House Bill No. 852, which advocates for safeguarding structures built on filled land and supported by wood pilings from the deterioration caused by lowered groundwater levels.
“This is a significant problem in Boston and coastal communities throughout the state,” Walz said before a standing-room crowd at the State House. “The expense isn’t covered by insurance, and it costs $250,000 to underpin a typical row house in the City of Boston.”
The proposed legislation would give the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) the sole authority to develop, implement and enforce regulations for groundwater protection throughout the Commonwealth. The bill also proposes to codify the existing City/State Groundwater Working Group.
The DEP will also be mandated to create the Groundwater Protection Board, a 15-member committee that will resolve any disputes regarding damage allegedly caused by lowered groundwater levels.
The bill also recommends the establishment of a Groundwater Protection Fund to help subsidize the cost of repairing areas impacted by lowered groundwater levels, although Walz told the Joint Committee that she realizes this might not be economically feasible at this time.
Walz said she and the other sponsors hope to work with the Joint Committee to revise the bill. The Joint Committee must act on the bill by mid-March. If the bill moves forward, it could go before the House and Senate for a vote by July 31.

Josh Nadel, who attends The Commonwealth School in the Back Bay, recently returned from a four-day mission to our nation’s capital, where he learned about hatred, racism and discrimination as part of the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) Grosfeld Family National Youth Leadership Mission.
Nadel was among ten Massachusetts high school students selected for their leadership potential and demonstrated commitment to issues of diversity to participate in a delegation of 100 diverse students from across the United States. He and his fellow delegates are now back home, ready to make a positive impact in their schools and communities.
The delegation toured the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, engaged with Holocaust survivors, concentration camp liberators, Civil Rights Movement leaders, and heard from diplomats and Darfur activists. The students also participated in interactive ADL A World Of Difference Institute anti-bias workshops and explored issues of prejudice, hate and bullying in their own lives and the lives’ of their peers. The students were special guests at ADL’s annual Concert Against Hate at the Kennedy Center, and visited the White House.
The key message of the mission was made clear to the students by Holocaust survivor Nesse Godin, who shared her personal story with the young leaders: “When you look around, don’t see a race and don’t see a religion. See a human being,” she told the students.
“This mission enables high school students to bear witness to the atrocities of the Holocaust, while also learning about modern-day prejudice,” said ADL Associate Regional Director, Jennifer Smith. “The moral and ethical issues raised help students apply lessons to their own lives, and is ultimately a call to action to combat racism, bigotry and hatred in their own schools and communities.”
Local delegates are now working with their schools and with ADL to create projects that will foster respect and inclusion.

One of the best-kept secrets in Boston's literary history concerns one of the most influential writers ever born here: Edgar Allan Poe. The current year marks the bicentennial of Poe's birth and his connections to other East Coast cities—Richmond, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York—have been celebrated and memorialized. While each of these cities hosts a museum or historic house that commemorates Poe's standing as a local author, Boston has yet to make such a tribute to the master of the macabre, widely considered America's first great critic and a foundational figure in the development of popular culture.
A new exhibition at the Boston Public Library will help set the record straight about Poe's relationship to the city of his birth. “The Raven in the Frog Pond: Edgar Allan Poe and the City of Boston” will open at the Central Library in Copley Square on the evening of Dec. 17. In its approach to Poe biography, the exhibition presents newly uncovered information about Poe's time in Boston and explores urban legends that have grown up around the Poe-Boston story.
The Raven in the Frog Pond takes a particularly close look at Poe's quarrel with Boston literary figures, presenting it as both a personal conflict and a turning point in the development of American culture. The exhibition, which runs through March of 2010, is free and open to the public during the following gallery hours: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Tuesday and Thursday 9 a.m.-7 p.m.; and Sunday 1-5 p.m. The Central Library is located at 700 Boylston St. in Copley Square.
The Raven in the Frog Pond will demonstrate Poe’s connection to the varied landscape of the city – from Long Wharf where his grandmother and mother arrived in 1796, to the neighborhood where he was born in 1809, to the Frog Pond he frequently joked about, and even to Castle Island where he served as a soldier in his late teens. The exhibition will also connect Poe to Washington Street where his first book was printed and to the Federal Street/Odeon Theater where three generations of his family appeared on stage.
According to Paul Lewis, the Boston College English professor who is curating the exhibition, “It’s true that Poe fought a career-long battle against Boston-area authors whose moralistic poems and stories sounded to him like the croaking of frogs. But it’s also true that his engagement with local literary figures contributed to his development as a writer and critic, and that he had positive feelings about the place.”
The exhibition will feature pieces from the collections of the Boston Public Library, the American Antiquarian Society, and Susan Jaffe Tane. These materials—essential to understanding both what Boston meant to Poe and what Poe meant to Boston—have never been displayed together. Included are a rare first edition of “Tamerlane and Other Poems” (1827); the iconic “Annie” daguerreotype; two letters Poe wrote to a young farmer-poet from Attleboro, Massachusetts, who contacted him in 1843 seeking friendship and advice; other letters by and to Poe; first editions of books by Boston authors Poe reviewed; and first editions of Poe’s reviews that appeared in periodicals of the 1830s and 1840s.
“Poe was no foe to Boston,” said Amy E. Ryan, president of the Boston Public Library. “The Boston Public Library is proud to help dispel that myth by sharing treasures from our special collections that connect him to this wonderful city. ‘The Raven in the Frog Pond’ exhibition creates an exciting opportunity to showcase the Library’s extensive Poe-related holdings. We are very pleased to join with Boston College in celebrating one of Boston’s most important writers and native sons.”
Along with Lewis, independent historian Dan Currie, Boston College graduate students Katherine Kim and Sarah Poulette, BC undergraduate Megan Grandmont, and independent literary historian Rob Velella have worked with library staff on the exhibition. The strength of the Boston Public Library’s Poe collection and the generous loan of materials from the American Antiquarian Society and Susan Jaffe Tane collections made this exhibition possible.
The opening on Dec. 17 will feature brief comments about the exhibition in the Cheverus Room of the Boston Public Library at 6 p.m., followed by what has been called “The Great Poe Debate” moderated by NPR’s Charles Pierce at 7 p.m. in the Boston Public Library’s Rabb Lecture Hall. In the debate, Poe advocates from Baltimore, Boston and Philadelphia will make the case for their city’s claim to the Poe legacy. “The Great Poe Debate” is also free and open to the public, like all programs of the Boston Public Library. Learn more at www.bpl.org.

Hill House will launch a new after-school program next month that will offer participants help with their homework, as well as the chance to take part in a wide range of extracurricular activities.
“Kids love coming to Hill House,” said Ian Moorhouse, associate director of the Beacon Hill community center. “This new program will allow kids to combine their homework with doing great activities in the safe and fun environment that Hill House provides.”
The program for 9- to 12-year-olds will run from 3 to 6 p.m. weekdays from June to September, excluding holidays and school vacations. Hill House staff members will assist children with their homework during the first 90 minutes of each day and instruct extracurricular activities, including photography, dance, CPR training and cooking, for the remainder of the time. Participants will also actively contribute to at least three community service projects throughout each semester. The so-called “homework club” will be limited to 12 members to start.
“There will never be hundreds of kids,” Moorhouse said. “We like to keep the ratio [of staff members to children] low because the quality is so much better.”
Families can register online for the program at www.hillhouseboston.org. For more information, contact Ian Moorhouse at 617-227-5838 ext. 18 or via e-mail at imoorhouse@hillhouseboston.org.