GINGERBREAD DREAMS: The Hanson Public Library hosted a pretty sweet Gingerbread House Decorating Workshop on Thursday, Dec. 15! Mandy Roberge, of Wicked Good Henna, provided gingerbread houses and various types of frosting, fondant, and a generous candy buffet to help participants make their own unique creations.                                           Courtesy photos, Hanson Public Library

Whitman Fire Department seemed to have predicted the weather as they sponsored one of the trees receiving the most votes from visitors at the DFS Holiday Tree Lighting Dec. 9-11 in Whitman Park, left. Ryleigh Small is unsure about Santa, while her brother Brady happily poses for the camera during the vendor fair inside Town Hall, above. Mary Gallinger and daughters Elsa and Nora look through photos used to decorate ‘Are You Here?’a tree featuring photos of retired teacher Lauren Kelley’s past students, below. See more photos, page 6. Photos by Carol Livingstone

WHITMAN — What can one kid do?

Conley School Principal Karen Downey used a can of green beans and 24 laundry baskets to illustrate the answer for the students at her school during the annual Thanksgiving Basket Assembly on Friday, Nov. 18.

“You live in a wonderful community,” said Whitman Food Pantry volunteer Lauren Kelley. “Anytime we’ve asked for support, you’re always there to help us.”

But she reminded the students that she was getting older and the pantry would be looking to them to step up and help other families.  Kelley mentioned the high school volunteers, who are realty appreciated — especially lifting heavy boxes.

Members of the Whitman-Hanson football team had a hands-on answer as they volunteered as servers for the annual Knights of Columbus Thanksgiving Dinner for seniors.

The Knights prepared 24 turkeys — as well as all the fixings — to serve the early holiday meals to 305 elders and volunteer on Saturday, Nov. 19.

In both cases, the commitment of young people to their town gave comfort that Whitman is a community that cares.

“Everybody brings something and we make something very special happen,” Downey said. “We’ve been talking all year about being kind, responsible and respectful and now we’re going to see sort of the fruits of our efforts.”

She held up that can of green beans and asked the students if bringing in the one item they were asked to donate was hard.

“No!” the children yelled back.

She asked them if they thought that can would feed her whole family if she brought it home? Again, the answer was no.

“But, when I put it all together, with all these beautiful baskets, I can probably feed my family for a couple of days,” she said. “There’s leftovers and all kinds of good stuff.”

Downey then told the children, when she thinks about the assembly and what they accomplished it makes it clear what people can do when they work together.

“Sometimes it feels like we can’t do a lot on our own … and sometimes it feels like we’re just kids,” she said. “But guess what? Are you ready to see what you did?”

As Student Council members filed out of the cafeteria, Downey spoke of her pride in the student body.

“I’m so proud with the work that you have done — everybody just brought in one little thing,” she said. “We just did something special. You are going to feed 24 families. You did that.”

She challenged them to tell other kids they can do the same.

“It’s more important to me that you are good citizens and that you take care of people and each other,” Downey concluded adding that it is just as important as reading or math.

As the students sang “When Fall Comes to New England,” the Student Council members filed in carrying those 24 dinner baskets and placing them on the steps to the stage.

Kelley, herself a retired teacher was overwhelmed with the donation of the baskets.

“I want to thank you for your generosity,” she said. “We will be servicing probably 100 families this year. … We’ve had wonderful donations, moneywise, that will help offset some of our costs, we’ve also had food drives, but this is the icing on the cake for us.”

The dogs and cats sheltered by the Animal Control Department are also remembered each year by Conley School students through their year-long change drive, Pennies for Paws. This year the school raised $950.

“You guys are wonderful every year,” Animal Control Officer Laura Howe said. “These times are very challenging for families, so this year I’m even more emotional. … We always spend [the donation] on just the animals,” she said. “We tell the town, ‘You can’t spend this on anything other than toys and dog bones and things that the animals enjoy.”

During pre-dinner speeches and a blessing before the KofC dinner the next day, another kind of service to community was celebrated.

Police Chief Timothy Hanlon presented a plaque honoring the retirement of Edward DeAndrade after 28 years of service as an auxiliary police officer. The requirements of the state’s new police reform law did not provide a sufficient window in which to complete the 200 additional hours of work he needed to be fully trained as a full-time officer, in the wake of the closure of the part-time officers’ academy.

“He volunteered for every shift that he needed to, every cruise patrol, on different events in different types of weather,” Hanlon said. “He has sacrificed for this town and volunteering. I didn’t want him to go as much as he wanted to make it closer to 30 or even more.”

The pre-dinner ceremonies also included the blessing.

“It’s wonderful to gather this way to give thanks, to celebrate and to eat said the Rev. Andrian Milik, pastor of the Holy Ghost Chrurch as he said offered grace.

Whitman Council on Aging Director Mary Holland noted that some other KofCs in the state have had to cancel the last three years because of COVID ad this year, because they couldn’t get the food,

“Thank you to the Knights of Columbus for hosting this every year,” she said. “It’s amazing what these guys do and they go above and beyond to make sure we have this turkey dinner.”

During the pandemic, the meal was distributed to seniors at their homes by Whitman Police as a kind of door-dash service and it returned to an in-person event last year.

HANSON — Instead of the usual program of paeans to patriotism, speakers at the annual Veterans Day Breakfast at the Hanson Multiservice Senior Center Thursday, Nov.10, focused on the future of veterans’ health. The annual program is hosted by the Friends of the Hanson Senior Center.

Home health care programs through the Brockton VA Hospital under its Community Care Program, were discused as were the Camp LeJeune Justice Act and the newly signed PACT Act.

“I thought I’d do something a little different than we have in the past,” White said about the program he planned for the event.  “There have been many recent law changes and additional services that the Department of Veterans Affairs provides that are fairly new, and I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to inform you of [them].”

After celebrating the Nov. 10 birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps, Veterans Agent Timothy White also wished a belated birthday (the U.S. Navy — founded on Oct. 18 — as well as holding a moment of silence in honor of senior volunteer and Navy Veteran Ernest Jutras, who died Oct. 17.

Jutras’ widow and daughter surprised his gathered friends among the town’s veteran community by baking patriotically decorated cupcakes and staying to attend the program, Senior Center Director Mary Collins said.

“We’re so glad that they could be with us this morning,” Collins said.

White also spoke of a Malden Army corporal, who had been taken prisoner of war around Thanksgiving in 1950, during the Korean war, and killed in February 1951. His remains had only recently been returned to his family for reburial.

He then read the Veterans Day Proclamation issued by Gov. Charlie Baker.

Brockton VA Medical Center RN Karen McCabe spoke briefly about non-institutional care, a program she coordinates at the hospital, including home care benefits, under the VA Community Care Program.

“Basically what we do is cover services that might otherwise not get covered or things like skilled or non-skilled  services,” McCabe said. Skilled services include physical therapy needed following hip or knee replacement or daily wound care, and non-skilled are more along the lines of a non-health aide to assist with tasks that mobility impairments make difficult such as bathing, dressing or  those involving finer motor skills such as preparing meals.

Her office processes paperwork and answers questions about co-pays, or services the VA can provide that a private insurance plan may not cover and helps contract with home health aides for non-medical assistance to patients.

“Our assessment would determine how many hours you would need per week,” she said. “That’s long-term, forever, if needed.”

Caregiver support, usually linked to a percentage of how service-related the need in, can also provide respite for a veteran’s primary caregiver.

“Respite is very important,” McCabe said. “Caregiver burnout is real and you want to see that before it gets too bad.” 

Home-based primary care for “complex” cases with a service-connected need, has a waiting list at the moment, she said. Veteran do not have to change primary care physicians to take part in VA programs, and White said he could help veterans or their family members sign up for care programs.

White provided a brief overview of the Camp LeJeune Justice Act and the PACT Act.

“It adds diseases and medical complications as presumptive diseases to Agent Orange exposure,” he said. “They also added geographical locations that were not included in the past.”

Agent Orange coverage used to be limited to personnel with boots on the ground in Vietnam and had a presumptive disease linked to direct exposure to the dioxin used as a defoliant to make enemy troops more visible in jungle terrain. The list of illnesses was later expanded, and included blue water sailors in harbor waters within the path of trade winds carrying the dioxin fumes. The PACT Act expands the list of illnesses and locations further, with Guam and Enewetak — for which the act authorized a study of radiation effects for nuclear cleanup personnel where nuclear testing took place in the 1950s — among them as well as to personnel exposed to smoke and pollutants from burn pits in the Middle East.

He said he can help veterans previously denied with coverage based on the new legislation. Widows of veterans who died of presumptive diseases might be able to receive death benefits.

“My intension here is to get the word out so I can help figure out the case,” White said. “Every case is different.”

Inside the PACT Act is the Camp LeJeune Justice Act, which has been the subject of class-action lawsuits.

“Just about every other day somebody’s in my office asking about it,” White said of law firm TV commercials about the class-action lawsuit over contaminated drinking water at the Marine Corps’ Camp LeJeune in Jacksonville, N.C. “Every one of you has seen one of these commercials.”

He cautioned that, before making that 1-800 phone call, veterans should know that the compensation for any settlement could be used to compensate any funds paid by the VA for past care a veteran may have received, minus a reference fee to the lawfirm advertising.

“This is going to take years if you file,” he added.

­The program was followed by a performance of service anthems and other patriotic songs by the Senior Center’s chorus, The Swinging Singers.

HANSON — Alpacas, and chickens and goats, oh, my! Not to mention horses and rabbits and ducks — the young members of the new Chicks and Chaps 4-H Club love them all.

The new club draws its 20 members from Whitman, Hanson, Rockland and Halifax at the moment.

Special needs preschool teacher Sarah Wall of Whitman, is the leader of the group, started in August and held a Family Farm Day Oct. 29 at Channell Homestead, South Street in Hanson, with club members in costume for the Halloween-themed event. 

“I was in 4-H from the time I was in fourth-grade all the way until I graduated high school,” said Wall, who was dressed as a Minion for the Family Farm Day. “I was huge into 4-H, It was something I did with my dad for years.” 

Wall’s daughter, Lillian, also enjoys 4-H.

“It’s a good experience and a good time,” she said of her work with horses and goats in the club. “I like to learn about the goats a lot.”

So far, Lillian found a talk and demonstration on horse’s hoof care by a professional farrier to be the most interesting.

Ashlyn Savastano of Halifax became involved through the Channell Homestead, where she works in the barn, and is also particularly keen on horses and goats.

“Just being with the animals and being on the farm,” led her to get involved.

She started in a rabbit club named the Briar Patch Bunnies. While working at the Channell Homestead farm with students in the WHRHS Transition Vocation Program last year, Wall began discussing the possibility of a 4-H Club with farm owner Christianie Channell, but Wall said she didn’t have the information on how to go about it.  

“We kind of teamed up and a lot of people had said to me there’s a really big need for this in the community,” Wall explained. “Because we have this beautiful venue and access to all these animals, and a meeting spot, this was perfect.”

A bake sale the members ran brought in $121 for club programs and projects.

Horse project members are more “horse enthusiasts and riders,” none of them actually owns a horse at the moment, but their goal is to show all the animals they work with at the Marshfield Fair next year.

A couple of those horse enthusiasts were handling the pony rides inside the barn as eager visiting children in costume led their parents all around the farm to look at, feed and pet the animals. 

“The animals are always at the forefront of 4-H, but I think what a lot of people don’t realize about 4-H is there’s so much more about community service and leadership,” Wall said. “They also learn about the government.”

Wall attended a 4-H youth leadership program in Washington, DC when she was in high school as well as the National 4-H Congress in Memphis, Tenn., another year.

“When I was in high school, [it seemed] there was a stigma attached to 4-H,” she said. “People think it’s only agriculture. Even though that is such an important part of it, I always say to these guys that I can’t stress enough – service is going to be above everything else for us.”

The farm does other summer programs, including horseback riding lessons as well as running a farm stand that sells goat’s milk products. She had a table with her soaps and other goat’s milk products at the Farm Day.

Channell has given members talks on goat anatomy as well as the care of goats and horses and one of the club’s junior leader has been giving member riding lessons, as well.

They generally hold meetings of the 4-H Club twice a month in the Channell Farm bar, but winter meetings are planned for once a month at the library.

While less hands-on winter meetings will still concentrate on the animals, doing lessons on crop harvests and animal husbandry.

The club, like the others in the area are operated through Plymouth County Extension and UMass. For more information on the Chicks & Chaps 4-H Club check out their Facebook page at facebook.com/ChicksandChaps4H.

HANSON – Well, Hanson thinks she was guilty.

By a vote of about 35 to 22, the audience at Camp Kiwanee’s Needles Lodge Thursday, Oct. 20 convicted Fall River resident Lizzie Borden of the murders of her father and step-mother in 1892, despite her acquittal of the crimes in her lifetime.

“District Attorney Hosea Knowlton,” portrayed by Lynn’s Delvena Theater Company actor Joseph Zamparelli then advised the residents to gather the appropriate lumber and materials to construct a scaffold in the center of town, as “Lizzie,” portrayed by Lynne Moulton protested her innocence. 

The pair acted out vignettes about events surrounding the crime, in “Lizzie and the Forty Whacks,” which included Knowlton’s questioning of Borden during a coroner’s inquest and her defense attorney, George Dexter Robinson – also portrayed by Zamparelli. Both actors portrayed several roles.

The presentation by local author Richard Little on Thursday, Oct. 13 at the Hanson Public Library, meanwhile, revealed that the Rockland educator’s review of the circumstantial evidence of the case leads him to believe Borden was, in fact, not guilty.

That does pose a problem.

Where the productions agreed were some of the grisly details of the crime. While there were not 40 whacks for dad and 40-plus-one for the step-mother Lizzie wasn’t overly fond of – there were really 18 for step-mother Abby and 17 for dear old dad, Andrew Jackson Borden – both programs agreed that there had been two autopsies on the Bordens, including the exhumation of the remains, their decapitation and the boiling of the heads so their skulls could be examined in a coroner’s inquest and at Lizzie’s trial in front of her. 

An ax blade missing a handle, found in the basement, was even fit into the cavity at the top of Andrew Borden’s head during the trial to demonstrate it was the alleged murder weapon.

During his Oct. 13 talk, Little focused on the business arguments between Lizzie’s Uncle John Morse and her father in his book, “Cold Case to Case Closed: Lizbeth Borden, My Story.”

“We’re here to talk about poor Lizzie and she can’t wait to tell her story,” Little had said to open his program.

“Despite what you’ve heard, it was not the hottest day of the year,” he said. “It was actually a rather cool Thursday morning – so cold, that when Bridget Sullivan [the Borden’s maid] got up early that morning, she had a shawl on.”

At the trial, however, and echoed in the Delvena Theatre production on Oct. 20, it was referred to as “one of the hottest days of the summer.”

“The summer had been hot,” Little said. “But in August, it had started to cool off.”

As Little, put it, 32-year-old Lizzie Borden had two lives – the one before Aug. 4, and the one after. She had been a world traveler, embarking on a European vacation famed at the time as “the Grand Tour,” along with some of her friends. Active in civic events, Lizzie had volunteered for the Hospital League and was treasurer of the Ladies’ Flower and Fruit Society – church group that sent floral and fruit baskets to people who had been in the hospital. She also taught English to immigrants.

“She was really involved in society, and was really a pillar of society, until Aug. 4,” he said.

Where the play refers to them as the murders, Little called the deaths “the tragedies” in his talk.

Little focused on the backgrounds of the people staying in the house that day – the victims, Lizzie, Bridget and Morse, who was the brother of the first Mrs. Borden, who had died when Lizzie was a small child. Morse and Mr. Borden were in business together, shipping horses and cattle from Iowa to Swansea.

Morse, Little said, being in the livestock business, was also trained as a butcher.

“He carried with him at all times, an implement to do that,” he said. “It really looks similar to a hatchet, but it’s a type of cleaver. … This is, who I think, was the culprit.”

He theorized that the murder of Mrs. Borden was an act of rage because she was trying to talk her husband into dissolving the business. Morse returned to Iowa after the murders.

“That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it,” Little said.

Lizzie’s father had been a successful businessman, as well as a slum lord by some accounts and his livestock business was having problems that caused an argument between him and Uncle John Morse, according to Lizzie’s testimony. Mr. Borden’s estate would be valued at close to $13 million in today’s currency.

Zamparelli and Moulton focused on the inheritance in much of their play, as they acted out a portion of the transcript of her inquest testimony before the audience, serving as the jury, were invited to ask their own questions.

Lizzie explained that her tearful, often contradictory testimony was due to the heavy doses of morphine she was given after the murders.

Little also spoke of the amount of morphine with which Lizzie had been dosed. He also mentioned that the annual Fall River Police Department excurison to Rocky Point – attended by half the department – rendered the police at half-strength that day.

In the play, Lizzie also, in a winking aside, reported that the judge in her trial, was appointed to the bench by her lawyer when he was governor of Massachusetts.

“He and the governor were very dear friends,” she said, on the audience’s promise not to tell anyone. “So, it made it a lot easier being put on trial in front of Justice Dewey.”

In character as a spoiled, well-connected woman of society before the suffrage movement, Moulton’s “Lizzie” told her lawyer that the women of the audience wouldn’t know what he was talking about as “Robinson” explained the cross-examination process at her trial.

Audience questions ranged from when and why Lizzie burned her clothes, who stood to inherit her father’s money before his death, where she was during the murders, why she was allegedly shopping for poison before the murders and why she was so heavily medicated.

“You ladies understand this, don’t you?” Moulton said. “Your husband puts you on lots and lots of morphine to keep you quiet.”

Little said a doctor had given Lizzie morphine for her anxiety.

He initially gave her four-grain tablets.

“Then he doubled the dose to eight to take as needed,” Little said. “She was on morphine on Friday and the funeral was Saturday.”

Motive has been a subject of conjecture over the years, with focus honing in on Mr. Borden’s estate and his past refusal to spend much on his daughters.

“My sister and I were single women – we’re unclaimed treasures, as they say,” Moulton’s “Lizzie” said, outlining her anger over Andrew Borden’s purchase of a house for their step-mother’s sister. “We were going to need that property to take care of us as we aged – we were quite upset about it.”

Older sister Emma Borden was visiting in Fairhaven at the time of the murders. With the death of both parents, the sisters divided the estate.

When an audience member asked about whether Lizzie was coming upstairs or going downstairs when her father’s body was discovered, she said – “Oh, my goodness, she was paying attention during the inquest! Were the rest of you paying attention during the inquest?”

The district attorney asked the woman’s name.

“Angie, it is a pity you are a woman, you could be an attorney, that’s an exellent question,” he said.

The murders have become the stuff of New England legend, and people may never agree on Lizzie’s guilt or innocence – so, what do you think?

Volunteers Casey Coots and Gail Clement, above, quality check some of the nearly 1600 pumpkins for sale at Whitman First Congregational Church, 519 Washington St. last weekend. Sophia Coletti, right, hoists a hefty pumpkin. Pumpkins are available from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday to Friday and from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday and Sunday.  Proceeds help the church’s mission and operating programs as well as Pumpkin Patch USA mission programs. See more photos, page 6.

Photos by Carol Livingstone