CAPTION: Kristin Fowler (far left) and other women who represented Go Red at the Heart of Our Mission awards reception at the Taj Hotel on Sept. 23.

As one of 12 women selected by the American Heart Association to represent the local Go Red For Women campaign, Kristin Fowler of Beacon Hill is sharing her story of life-changing choices to ignite action and inspire others.
Fowler, who joined the American Heart Association movement to raise awareness of heart disease among women of all ages and ethnicities, is now a local spokeswomen, representing the campaign in advertising, on billboards and at events. She decided to make exercise a social occasion by working out with friends and now attributes her healthy attitude and physical fitness to regular gym visits with them.
"It’s easiest to be healthy when you exercise with other people,” said Fowler. “I joined a gym with friends, and they help hold me accountable for my healthy decisions. Right now, one in three women dies of heart disease, but we can choose to beat it, using the tools and support provided by Go Red For Women.”
Fowler was one of more than 200 other women attended the red carpet casting call in Boston at the Shops at the Prudential on Feb. 6.
Women face choices every day. Some choices aren’t important, while others are life changing. Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women in the U.S. – taking the life of one woman almost every minute.
This is preventable, however, if women choose to act.
Making the right choices for their hearts, such as changing eating habits, getting regular exercise and managing cholesterol and blood pressure, is proven to prolong and save lives.
For more information about Go Red For Women in Boston, visit www.americanheart.org/BostonGoesRed.

With a nearly $40,000 federal grant, the Nichols House Museum is undertaking its first interpretive plan that will tell the story of the historic landmark, as well as provide a glimpse into the life of Boston’s upper middle class at the turn of the 20th century.
One of the earliest buildings on Beacon Hill, the Nichols House is a four-story townhouse in the Federal style that was designed by renowned architect Charles Bulfunch in 1804. The building, located at 55 Mt. Vernon St., was established as a historic house museum in 1961 per the will of its last resident, Rose Standish Nichols, a landscape architect and social activist. From 1885 to 1960, the residence was the Nichols’ family home.
In its grant application to the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the self-described “primary source of federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and 17,500 museums,” the Nichols House Museum staff outlines its intention of using the interpretative plan to build on its ongoing oral history of the Nichols family and its collection catalog of the more than 2,000 heirlooms found in the household. (Using IMLS funding, the Nichols House Museum finished the catalog project last year and has since made the entire collection available online at www.nicholshousemuseum.org).
Flavia Cigliano, executive director of the Nichols House Museum, said the interpretation plan would help build storylines that explore the building itself, Bulfinch as an architect and the Nichols clan as being representative of a typical Beacon Hill family in the early 1900s. Another storyline would focus on Mount Vernon Proprietors, a real-estate speculation group founded by Harrison Gray Otis in the late 18th century that developed the south slope of Beacon Hill, including the Nichols House.
To develop the interpretative plan, the Nichols House Museum has hired Nan Wolverton as project consultant. Wolverton recently completed a furnishing plan of the Emily Dickenson Museum in Amherst.
“This project entails reviewing the existing collections of archive materials to see what the strengths are,” Wolverton said. “I want to look at what’s there and tell the whole story of the site.”
Wolverton said she hopes to incorporate how usages of the building and landscaping changed over the time.
As for the timeframe, Cigliano said she expects that the project will begin later this fall and take between 18 months and two years to complete, coming in time for the 50th anniversary of the museum in 2011.
Once finished, the interpretative plan will be incorporated into the guided tours of the building.
“The walking tours will have more anecdotal and factual information that can be tailored to a particular audience,” Cigliano said. “The stories will be richer…and more personal and will fit into the history of this family and the broader context of Boston in the transitional years from the Victorian era to the Progressive era.”
The interpretative plan will also allow for the opportunity to develop an educational program for schools, including the Advent School and the Park Street School.
“Having done all the research, we will be in a position to work with schools and integrate the historical component [of the Nichols House] into their social studies curriculums,” Cigliano said. “There’s a lot we can teach the children about not just Beacon Hill, but also about preservation and architecture.”
In addition, the interpretive plan will help the Nichols House Museum achieve its goal of earning accreditation from the American Association of Museums. The Nichols House Museum has been provisionally accepted to begin the highly competitive accreditation process, which is expected to take two or three years to complete.
Moreover, Cigliano hopes the interpretive plan will help the Nichols House Museum gain more recognition among Beacon Hill residents.
“The allure of Beacon Hill for residents is pride of place,” Cigliano said. “They love living here for its history, architecture and central location in Boston, which were the same motives for the Nichols family.”
Cigliano continued, “Ultimately, we want to make [the Nichols House Museum] a more vibrant part of the Beacon Hill community…and a historic anchor in the neighborhood.”
For more on the Nichols House Museum, visit www.nicholshousemuseum.org.

Beacon Hill resident Remy Stressenger will co-chair the 10th Annual Mass General Hospital for Children (MFHfC) Storybook Ball, to be held at the Westin Waterfront Hotel in Boston on Saturday, Oct. 17.
The Storybook Ball was established in 2000 to promote awareness and raise funds for vital patient service programs and important research initiatives at Mass. General Hospital for Children. Its mission is to provide the highest quality care to the smallest patients, improving the health of the communities that they serve through their acclaimed family-centered approach.
This year’s Storybook Ball them is “The Jungle Book.” It promises to be an enchanting evening featuring scrumptious food, great entertainment, fabulous people, fun activities and simply "The Bare Necessities."
Returning as Ball co-chair for the second consecutive year, Stressenger holds a degree from Ohio Wesleyan University and is the mother of two children – 12-year-old Walker and 9-year-old Maxie.
While serving on the Mass. General Hospital Cancer Center committee Stressenger chaired the “Friends” event for four years. She also remains a board member at both the Hill House and the Falmouth Yacht Club.
Over the last several months, Stressenger and her fellow co-chairs, Brookline resident and MGH Trustee member Colette Phillips, and Chestnut Hill resident Katie Nicholas Ronan, have worked with their committee to ensure this year’s ball will be an unprecedented success.
Other Beacon Hill, Back Bay and Boston residents who served on this year’s Storybook Ball committee include Alli Achtmeyer, Maribeth Brostowski, Kathy Burns, Maura Connolly, Beth Dickerson, Jennifer Donaldson, Courtney Foster, Stephanie Harvey, Mary Hull, Darlene Jordan, Martha Kleinman, Brooke Laughlin, Elizabeth Leatherman, Ilana Leighton, Alyson Lindsey, Beth Madison, Kate Martin, Nikki Nudelman, Jeryl Oristaglio, Carroll Pierce, Audrey Epstein Reny, Kelly Panayotou, Patty Ribakoff, Annagret Sacerdote, Elizabeth Sprague, Paige Sutphin, Kerry Swords, Brenda Warshaw, Hilary Watts and Danielle West.
For more information about the Storybook Ball and ticket information, contact Valerie Wencis, MGH Public Affairs, at 617-726-0274 or vwencis@partners.org.

In the aftermath of a daytime attack on a longtime Beacon Hill resident near the Charles F. Hurley Building in August, City Council President Mike Ross convened a meeting last month that brought representatives from city and state agencies together to discuss possible solutions to public intoxication, aggressive panhandling and other quality-of-life issues that have long plagued the area.
On Aug. 18 at approximately 8 a.m., the victim was walking his dog in the area of the Hurley Building, a state facility at 19 Staniford St. that is home to the Division of Unemployment Assistance, the Erich Lindemann Mental Health Center and other social services programs, when he passed a man on a staircase at the corner of New Chardon and Cambridge streets. “Stop following me,” the victim heard the man say before being struck in the back of the head and rendered unconscious. The victim suffered a broken nose, and treatment from the injury left him with seven staples in the back of his head.
According to State Police, Robert Gaul, 35, of Boston was arrested in connection with the crime and charged with assault and battery several hours after the attack. He appeared in Boston Municipal Court on Sept. 14 for a pre-trial hearing and is due back in court at a future date.
The meeting, which took place at the Piedmont Room in City Hall on Sept. 10, included Ross and City Councilor Sal LaMattina, as well as representatives from the State Police, Boston Police Department and the Bureau of State Buildings, among other agencies.
Carole Cornelison, superintendent of the Bureau of State Buildings, said many ideas were broached during the meeting, ranging from increasing lighting in the area to removing the benches around the building where people congregate.
“We also talked about bringing in agencies to deal with the homeless for intervention and outreach and to help place interested people into housing,” Cornelison said.
State Police spokesman David Procopio said troopers routinely pass by the Hurley Buildings at least two times each during both the 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and the 3 to 11 p.m. shifts and uphold a “zero-tolerance policy” when it comes to public drinking, disorderly conduct and other violations of the State Building rules.
“Also, if troopers see someone who needs medical assistance or can’t be roused, we’ll call an ambulance,” Procopio said. “We feel we’re being proactive in the area, and we’ll continue that, but we’re open to suggestions.”
Sgt. Tom Lema of Boston Police Area A-1 said, “On our end, we’ll increase patrols in and around Cambridge and Bowdoin streets. While the State Police have jurisdiction over the Hurley Building, the city’s officers assist in enforcing the law on the premises.
Meanwhile, Ross attributes many problems in the area to the configuration around the Hurley Building, which consists of a 30-foot-wide sidewalk and a large concrete wall that he said “serves as a blind spot.”
“There’s no reason it can’t be a vibrant, productive corner, rather than a place that people are afraid to walk by,” Ross said. “I fully plan to explore each and every option we discussed with my colleagues in government to turn this place around. It’s an area that needs to be turned around, and there’s an opportunity to learn from this tragic situation.”

At the Wednesday meeting of the Boston City Council, Council President Mike Ross proposed legislation that would allow emergency rooms to refer the city’s homeless to permanent housing programs - a unique approach to help break the cycle of homelessness while saving Massachusetts taxpayers millions of dollars.
“I think we can do this through a joint effort between city and state agencies,” Ross said. “It’s not just the right thing to do from a humane perspective, but it would also save significant sums of money.”
In recommending the hearing order, Ross outlined the positive impact that permanent housing strategies like Housing First can have for the chronically homeless while significantly reducing Medicaid costs and uncompensated care costs for the insured. A Housing First approach to homelessness provides the chronically homeless with independent apartments or shared housing and access to services to prevent them from returning to the streets.
The Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance (MHSA) reports that the average annual Medicaid costs for homeless individuals in the Home & Healthy for Good Housing First program is $26,124 before housing, as compared to $8,500 in annual Medicaid costs for those who are taken off the street and provided housing. The annual overall savings per Home & Healthy for Good participant is $8,900 per person.
Research also shows that while the chronically homeless make up just 10 percent of the overall homeless population, they account for approximately 50 percent of the costs of homeless services.
“Giving emergency rooms the ability to refer the chronically homeless to Housing First programs is responsible public policy,” Ross said. “ERs frequently treat the chronically homeless repeatedly, passing on those bills to MassHealth, and are denied the ability to refer these men and women to programs, which provide long-term help.”
Meanwhile, MHSA President and Executive Director Joe Finn applauded Ross’ initiative.
“We at the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance are very excited by the leadership that Councilor Ross has provided in recognizing the benefits of housing instead of keeping people on the streets,” Finn said. “Providing permanent housing with supportive services—rather than just emergency shelter—to homeless individuals is humane, efficient and cost-effective. Ross is continuing the tradition of innovation in ending homelessness in Boston.”
The proposal was refereed to the city council’s Housing Committee, which is expected to schedule a meeting to discuss the matter.

Thinking outside of the box

We as residents know that the many businesses on Charles and Cambridge Streets offer great dining and wonderful shopping – and all of this with the personal touch. These distinctively Beacon Hill shops, stores and restaurants add immeasurably to living on the Hill.
Not everyone in Boston knows this fact but they should.
The Beacon Hill Business Association is to be commended for taking the initiative by sponsoring an informative evening for the local concierges from the various hotels around Boston on last Thursday night.
It is exactly this type of venue, which brings more people to shop and to eat on Beacon Hill.
In these times, local businesses cannot afford to pass up any revenue. And the concierges are the best point person to give recommendations of where to visit and spend their money to tourists.
We need a healthy business district and walking along Charles Street, the storefronts are rented, whereas on Newbury Street, the number of vacant storefronts are alarming.
From all accounts the event was fun for both the guests and the storeowners.
The event on Thursday was great marketing.
Congratulations on a job well done.

Get ready for a cleanup

The Beacon Hill Civic Association (BHCA) is sponsoring the fall cleanup on October 17. With the leaves coming down and unfortunately with winter snow and ice on the way, now is the time to make sure that we get as much trash up as possible.
Volunteers are needed.
Call the BHCA at 617-722-1922 and find out how you can help.
A clean Beacon Hill is the desired effect for everyone.
A clean Beacon Hill shines as no other neighborhood in Boston.