Summerbridge Cambridge had its Celebration event last night. High school and college students teach and mentor promising middle school students in an intensive summer program and then throughout the school year.
The event was great - these 6th, 7th, and 8th graders showed such composure and talent. These kids are clearly learning some wonderful skills - I especially enjoyed the humorous presentation of conflicts in literature.
This is the kind of program that can really broaden horizons for some kids - kudos to Hilary Mead and her team.

Picnic Today

Check out pictures from today's Harvard Mayor's Picnic:

(That's Craig and Dwan, two of our interns in the green shirts, dancing to the music!)

Candidates Forum Wrap-Up

Returned from candidates’ forum at the Senior Center sponsored by DFA-Cambridge, Progressive Democrats of Cambridge and CPPAX. Amazing turnout – I’d guess 125 people on a hot August night showed up and stayed from 7 pm until 930 pm.. Fifteen of the eighteen candidates for city council showed up.

I always get dry mouth at these events – I went through three bottles of water during the evening! It’s a challenge to answer questions with any level of detail with so many candidates, but the issues discussed were crucial – affordable housing, development concerns, tax reform, and more. We had a minute to respond to each question. There was a more detailed candidate questionnaire completed in advance– my responses can be found at http://www.pdcambridge.com/ .

It was really most exciting to see that many people attend the forum this early in the season – it’s a hopeful sign that progressives will be engaged and involved in this campaign.