To help kick-off Pathways for Children’s second community art endeavor, CHAIRS for CHILDREN, students from Gloucester High School designed, built, and painted an extra-large Adirondack chair – that is sure to leave your feet dangling! This wonderful piece of artwork will make it’s public debut on Friday, May 5th, to help promote the Pathway’s event.

Through a partnership between GHS Carpentry and Art Departments, this exaggerated Adirondack chair will be the CHAIRS for CHILDREN mascot – helping to build excitement and interest in the upcoming event. The chair will be located in front of the Gloucester Police Station and delivered back to the high school at the end of the summer where it will become the property of Gloucester High School. Be sure to stop by for a visit!

David McKechnie and Derek Reed of Beauport Financial Services, LLC, sponsored a chair in Honor of Richard D. Wilson, as the first representation of Beauport’s new annual award, The Richard D. Wilson Award. This will become Beauport Financial Service’s annual recognition of uncommon achievement in the service of others, quietly performed, while enriching many. The sponsorship of an Adirondack chair, with auction proceeds to benefit Pathways for Children, honors Dick and Barbara Wilson as Pathways is a charity dear to their hearts.

McKechnie says, “There are exceptional people in our lives who quietly go about achieving great things. Their extraordinary acts, often in the service of others, are usually only known by those who directly benefit. Richard Wilson’s life has been a series of great achievements that have touched so many, without fanfare, without the need for the spotlight, but clearly exhibiting a quiet greatness for achieving the remarkable - for kids, for families, for so many.”

Dick Wilson has supported community organizations such as The Pine Street Inn, The North Shore YMCA, Wellspring and Pathways for Children. Dick is perhaps best known for his role in Gloucester Little League, touching the lives of so many people, from the players, to the coaches, fans and parents. Wilson Field, named after Dick, continues to hold the hopes and dreams of our Gloucester youngsters as anyone knows who has spent time at the ball field.

Thank you Dick for taking action in shaping our community’s landscape!

Marilyn Swift, pictured here with Octopus chair, has lived in Gloucester for more than thirty years and paints primarily in watercolor, mostly outdoors on location. Her work is widely collected by individuals and corporations, most recently by Boston Private Bank and Borel Private Bank and Trust of California. As an active artist member of the Rockport and North Shore Art Associations as well as Boston’s Copley Society of Art, the New England Watercolor Society, and several national associations.

Marilyn’s Gallery is in East Gloucester, open anytime by appointment or during Cape Ann Artisan Open Studio Tour weekends in June and October. Her website is can be found at
www. marilynswiftstudio.com

“My watercolor paintings look nothing like this whimsical Octopus chair or the decorative Lobster I painted for the previous Pathways fundraiser. The Adironack chair presented its unique challenges and it seemed somehow logical to paint the arms (or legs?) of an Octopus wrapped around it, invitingly, along with fantasy fish and other sea creatures to decorate the sea green background.” Upon completion of the chair, Marilyn came across this fitting Ogden Nash poem:

THE OCTOPUS Tell me, O Octopus, I begs Is those things arms, or is they legs? I marvel at thee Octopus; If I were thou, I’d call me Us.

As we begin to plan for chair placement, we are looking for volunteers with great strength, yet gentle hands, to help with the logistics of CHAIRS for CHILDREN. The 44 chairs will need to be transported 5 different times throughout the summer. Volunteers with trucks or other large vehicles are needed to make the logistics of this event run smoothly. For more information, including dates of the moves, please contact Stephanie Walters at swalters@pw4c.org or 978-281-2400 ext. to find out how you or your community group can help.

Pathways for Children has a Literacy Program that helps caregivers and parents achieve their goals through GED and ELL (English Language Learners) programs. Our Literacy Room has computers, reading, and other materials in English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and American Sign Language – the various “first” languages of more than 50 of our children’s families. More than 20 individuals annually participate in our GED program, and the numbers of participants in our ELL programs increase as awareness of the program grows. Many of our parents and past parents volunteer throughout the Literacy Program, teaching others and helping as translators.