Category: News

Sadly and predictably, the annual student end-of-school drinking and destruction party took place again in June inside Whispering Hill Woods. The kids left several hundred empty bottles, destroyed a whole set of our trail signs and also went into Mary Cummings Park and tore down a new Trustees sign and tossed it into the brush.

We at The Friends have started to reach out the nearby community to try to establish better relations and hopefully stop the annual destruction, but we were not effective enough; there is much more to be done on this.

If you are interested in working with us to try to heal this situation use our contact form to get in touch.

Here is a video that Jon Sachs made during a break from the cleanup effort:

Here is a short ballad by our very strange board member and webmaster, Jon Sachs, that tells the story of this unusual and precious park.

We couldn’t help noticing that the lighting from inside the Oracle parking garage, across from The Trustees new parking areas, was pretty visible around dawn and dusk. Since the clearing of the wall of trees and shrubs along Blanchard, the Oracle garage has been very visually present, and the lighting was not be friendly to various critters, particularly the fireflies.

So Board Member, Ed Loturco, called up a contact at Oracle and explained the problem. And within a day or so they went out and reworked the lighting system to save electricity and minimize stray light in the park.

There are sensors now so that most lights will only come on when people actually walk in the garage.

A big thanks to Ed and Oracle, from us park lovers and fireflies.

Burlington’s Cable Access TV did a nice story on our receiving the Volunteer of the Year award from The Trustees. They interviewed Board member Jon

Sachs, and here is that video.

In August the meadow at Flyer’s Field becomes a vast, deep, sea of wildflowers. Here is a 5 minute video tour of the meadow at its height.

A colorful family takes a walk on a cold, windy January day.

The winter issue of Special Places, the magazine of The Trustees, has just come out and includes an article about The Friends of Mary Cummings Park, with photos of our founders and current board members. The article also include a number of photos by Board member Jon Sachs – plus the cover photo.

Visits to Mary Cummings Park have increased enormously since The Trustees made it an official part of their portfolio. The park we all love is now giving peace of mind and enjoyment to more people than ever, and with The Trustees in place, the park’s future is safe from development.

You can download a PDF copy of this issue of Special Places here.

There are many cute little holes in trees that you might think of as homes for little gnomes…

On Monday, November 16, 2020, Dave Cummings passed away, just a few days after Veterans Day. Dave was one of the founders of The Friends of Mary Cummings Park. He worked hard to re-establish the trails and would often take his chain saw out there to cut trees that had fallen over the trails.

Here is a link to the Della Russo Funeral Home from which you can find a link to Dave’s obituary.

Dave was very proud of his time in Vietnam with the Navy SeaBees, and usually wore a SeaBees hat.

His last years were spent at the Bedford VA, fighting off the effects of the Parkinson’s Disease that he suspected was caused by exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam.

Dave is a member of the greater Cummings family that included John and Mary Cummings. He is a descendent of a sibling of John Cummings.

(Dave’s brother Warren has been cutting the fields and mowing the landing strip for the model plane flyers for decades.)

Here is a video that we did with Dave at the Bedford VA when he was still in great shape and full of stories.

We were extremely pleased to be recognized by The Trustees as Volunteers of the Year at their recent (online) Annual Meeting.

Shown above are three of the founders of The Friends of Mary Cummings Park, the three people most responsible for saving this park: Steve Keleti, Cathy Moore, and Pat O’Reilly. Shown below the video are the current Board of Directors along with the founders.

The Trustees, who now manage Mary Cummings Park through a long-term agreement with The City of Boston, created a video for their annual meeting and the segment about our organization starts here at 20 minutes and 20 seconds in. (Supposed to start there automatically, but doesn’t always do that.)

 

Here, in a photo by The Trustees, are the founders and current Board members of The Friends of Mary Cummings Park, from left to right: Pat O’Reilly, Jane Morse, Steve O’Leary (President), Ed Loturco, Dave Webb, Jon Sachs (standing), Steve Keleti, and Cath Moore. (Not shown is Board member Betsey Hughes.)

Because of the work of The Trustees, the future of Mary Cummings Park is looking good, and the sign that hangs at the park entrance on Blanchard Road is a dream come true for so many of us.