Northborough Passings

Longtime Food Pantry Volunteer Passes Away

This Natick native and Westborough resident volunteered at food pantries across the state, including Northborough.

Eileen (MacIntosh) Capobianco, formerly of Natick, died Sunday June 24, 2012 at her home in Westborough. Capobianco was a longtime volunteer at many nonprofits, namely food pantries. She was a longtime volunteer at the Northborough Food Pantry, staffing the pantry every Wednesday morning and making reminder calls to the volunteers about their schedules. "Eileen went out of her way to help clients feel welcome at the pantry and to help them find the specific food item they were looking for," said Sarah Rothery, director at the Northborough Food Pantry. "She had a smile and friendly word for each client. I worked with her for several years and enjoyed her stories about Nova Scotia and marveled at her energy! Her family has asked that …

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Students Begin Planting Trees This Week at Zeh

After a successful fundraiser spearheaded by a student, new trees are being planted at the Zeh school this week after a lot of help from local businesses.

Submitted by Jodi Del Re Susan Whitten, principal of the Marion E. Zeh Elementary School, announced that 12 trees will be planted at Zeh School, following the conclusion of the “Trees for Zeh” fundraising campaign. “Trees for Zeh” was founded by fifth grader Maggie Del Re after the October 2011 snow storm that devastated the trees and landscaping at Zeh. On her own initiative, Maggie met with Principal Whitten to share her sadness over the loss of the trees and set a fundraising goal of $2,000 to cover their replacement cost. She began by putting a jar in the school office, which was promptly filled with small donations made by students, staff, and families of the Zeh Elementary School. Soon, more than $200 was raised, and Maggie decided …

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Just Don't Call Her Superwoman

The Community Advocate profiles a Northborough woman who does a lot of super things.

Northborough's Dr. Sara Shields, according to a recent article in the Community Advocate, devotes time to underserved high-risk populations at the Family Medicine and Community Health Center, and is also the clinical associate professor of family medicine and community health for the University of Massachusetts Medical School. And that is just the tip of an iceberg of accolades. As the Community Advocate reports, "Her work for the last 17 years has been the focus of her busy life. As a family physician specializing in women’s health, Shields has developed a different style of prenatal care for her expectant patients." Yet another wonderful Northborough resident making a difference.

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VIDEO: When Bev Met Joe (And Other Love Stories)

Three long-married couples from Northborough share their stories of love, laughter and longevity. Watch it. We promise it'll inspire you, and it is our Valentine to you, Northborough.

It's a well-known statistic that more marriages end in divorce nowadays than stay intact. That's not what we'd like to focus on during Valentine's Day season here on Northborough Patch. We sat down recently with three couples who have been married a long time about how they got together, what makes them tick, and most importantly, what makes it last. Let's meet our couples: Bev and Joe McCaffrey have been married for 53 years. They met through Joe's sister when she was 19, and Joe was 22. Just returning from a two-year service to the U.S. Army, Bev caught Joe's eye when she went to Joe's sister Ruth's house for lunch one day. They were married in 1955, and after living for short spells in Maynard and North Concord, they settled in …

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Officer Doesn't Know Why He is Good at Catching Drunk Drivers, But He Is

Officer Jeremy Trefry, who is on the Northborough Police Department, is an all-around good cop. But he's got a certain knack for catching drunk drivers.

Officer Jeremy Trefry can remember quite a few experiences over the years that stand out to him, and many involved drunk drivers. Once, Trefry was nearly hit head on by a pickup truck on Church Street. He stopped the car, and was notified by dispatch that the state police had been getting calls about this very truck swerving all over I-290. "If I remember correctly, the driver was going to Pelham, NH, from Worcester," said Trefry. "When I stopped him, he did not know where he was. He thought he was in Windham, NH." Another time, Trefry responded to the Mass. DPW garage in Northborough during a snow storm. One of the (independent) plow drivers had shown up to work driving a ten-wheel dump truck. "He was so drunk," said Trefry," that he …

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FolderWave Transforms the Way Colleges Deal with Admissions and Financial Aid

FolderWave meets a growing need for colleges and universities.

Colleges and universities, needless to say, get inundated with stacks of financial aid and admissions paperwork. Processing all of this is involved, time consuming and opens the doors for errors. As president and founder of FolderWave, Northborough's Bob Burke developed the company to alleviate the burden from colleges. Folderwave is a cloud-based company that provides products and services to improve many aspects of higher education, helping colleges and universities to transform their operations for admissions, enrollment and supporting functions.  So what does that actually mean? "We essentially help colleges and universities process applications—admissions applications—and we work in a lot of different areas," said Burke. We do other …

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Northborough, Here's Your Athlete of the Year

The competition was stiff, but we've chosen the Northborough Patch athlete of the year based on nominations from local coaches, fans and sports club employees.

Northborough's definitely got a sporty gene running through it. But we have to pick but one, and based on a glowing nominations and stunning stats, Colin Davidson sprinted first through the finish line. Since 1976, Jean Fedak has taught and coached at Algonquin High School: JV basketball, JV volleyball, varsity volleyball and, currently, varsity swimming. She said she's seen many athletes—great ones—pass through the courts, fields and tracks at the high school, and many are deserving of the Northborough Patch Athlete of the Year Award. This year, however, her nomination went to Algonquin graduate Colin Davidson for his tremendous track and field accomplishments over the summer in Athens, Greece, at the Special Olympics Summer World Games. …

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Northborough Residents Help Pan-Massachusetts Challenge

Northborough riders help raise $35 million for Dana-Farber.

Submitted by Pan-Mass Challenge. Ten Northborough residents; Catherine Arcona, Chris Arcona, Paul Bender, Jonathan Bush, Andrew Cohen, Bradford McRae, Richard Mollin, Paul Morin, Domenic Russo, and Robert Solis; raised $45,249 of the $35 million donated by the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge (PMC) to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute through its Jimmy Fund. They were among 5,169 cyclists who rode up to 190 miles across Massachusetts to raise money for cancer research and treatment. The 2011 fundraising total is $2 million, or 5.7 percent, more than the PMC gave in 2010 and brings its 32-year Jimmy Fund contribution to $338 million. The PMC is the most successful athletic fundraising event in the nation; it raises and contributes more money to …

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A Perry Merry Christmas: Longtime Peanuts Decorations Live On in Rutland

For the fist time, the familiar Charlie Brown display isn't in Northborough this year, but the Perrys granddaughter keeps the legend alive.

Since the late '40s, a defining sign that Christmas had hit Northborough was the display of a "Perry Merry Christmas" on the Perrys' lawn on West Main Street. As Jessica Perry Stowe said on her Facebook page, "These mean more to me than I can put into words. A few of you will understand." The Christmas lawn decorations that feature wooden Peanuts figures sat on the Perrys' property in Northborough since shortly after Donald and Mary Perry bought the house, in 1946.  Made by Perry Stowe's grandfather, Donald, they carved a place in Northborough nostaglia and many from town are familiar with "A Perry Merry Christmas" and those wooden Peanuts characters that sat in the front yard during the season. Donald died in December, 1998, but his wife…

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Arms Full of Giving

Assabet Valley guidance counselor volunteers to hand out winter clothes to the needy, every year.

Submitted by Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School The holiday season often reminds people that there are those less fortunate, but few families go to the lengths that the McCabe family does to reach out to the homeless. Each year, Ryan McCabe heads to Boston Common with his parents, brothers, and respective spouses, to hand out warm coats, hats, scarves, thick socks, and shoes. “During December, there are a lot of different services, such as soup kitchens, at many of the local churches, or by the water fountain, so we set up there and hand out what we’ve all collected," said McCabe. "We usually have several vehicles full of clothing, but it varies year to year. Sometimes we see the same faces, and it’s sad that their circumstances…

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