Saturday, April 20, 2013
Volunteers spent all day Friday and Saturday assembling the new playground behind the Welch School and enjoying the opportunity to create a safe play space for Peabody youngsters.
Two hundred volunteers, including the entire football team at Endicott College, spent all day Friday and Saturday building a new playground at the Welch Elementary School in Peabody, bringing to fruition years of fundraising efforts and planning to finally provide a safe play area for students and the neighborhood. Meanwhile down in Watertown, Boston and the surrounding area, thousands of residents were in lockdown inside their homes for hours on end Friday as hundreds of law enforcement agents hunted for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Peabody Mayor Ted Bettencourt said the construction of the new playground offered a welcome distraction for local residents and a chance to do something positive this weekend as the entire country and the world had …
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William A. Welch Sr. Elementary School
50 Swampscott Ave, Peabody, MA
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Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Now with more than $90,000 committed to installing and maintaining a new playground at the downtown elementary school, construction can begin in the spring.
The Friends of the Welch School Playground received a large Valentine's Day present from the City Council last week, and although there was nothing romantic about it, a few of the parents in the audience looked ready to hug and kiss councilors out of gratitude. The council agreed to transfer $70,000 from Community Preservation funds to the parent's committee to help pay for a new playground at the elementary school, putting a 15-month major fundraising campaign a lot closer to fruition. In reality, the money nearly pays for the entire project, which is now estimated to cost about $101,000. Since November 2011, the playground committee has been raising funds through donations, small grants, restaurant nights, road races and other activities…
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William A. Welch Sr. Elementary School
50 Swampscott Ave, Peabody, MA
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Monday, November 5, 2012
Cast your ballot and get a free flu shot at the same time.
On Tuesday, not only can voters in Ward 2 cast their ballots at the Welch School, they can get a free flu shot as well between the hours of 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. The Health Department, Board of Registrars, Peabody Public Schools and the City Clerk's office are collaborating to turn the school into a "Vote & Vax" site, as a pilot project in Peabody to offer free vaccinations during flu season and in a convenient way for adults. Anyone 18 or older can receive a vaccination on as supplies are available. “Flu season can last from October until May, so now is a great time to get the flu shot to protect you and your loved ones this season,” said Health Department Director Sharon Cameron. “We hope that this Vote and Vax clinic makes it easy and …
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William A. Welch Sr. Elementary School
50 Swampscott Ave, Peabody, MA
/articles/vote-vax-comes-to-peabody
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Wednesday, July 4, 2012
School playground project now qualifies for bigger grant -- $50,000 -- from KaBoom.
It doesn't put the fundraising over the top, and for that matter the committee is still a ways off from its goal, but $15,000 is nothing to scoff at. In fact, the grant prize has opened the door to $50,000. The Friends of the Welch School Playground Committee entered a video in May in the Let's Play Contest sponsored by the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group and KaBoom and made it into the finals, eventually ending within the top five vote-getters online. Each of those five projects received a $15,000 grant. Now the elementary school is eligible to apply for the larger aforementioned grant from KaBoom says School Committee member Beverley Griffin Dunne, whose children attended the Welch. At the last School Committee meeting, Dunne presented a …
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William A. Welch Sr. Elementary School
50 Swampscott Ave, Peabody, MA
/articles/video-contest-pays-off-for-welch
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Friday, June 22, 2012
The future Welch School playground was dedicated to retired teacher Carol Papi on Wednesday.
The sweltering heat didn't stop a sizeable crowd from coming out Wednesday for a noon ceremony to honor longtime Welch School teacher Carol Papi. Papi, 69, just retired after 48 years as a classroom teacher, 38 of them at the Welch School with second-graders. Colleagues, school officials and parents agreed that a fitting honor for the longtime teacher would be to dedicate the future playground at the Welch to her. The project has accordingly been named the Mrs. Carol Papi Playground and a placeholder sign declaring the dedication was unveiled on Wednesday. Mayor Ted Bettencourt, Interim Superintendent Herb Levine, Welch Principal Monique Nappi and teachers' union president Bruce Nelson spoke before a crowd of current students and parents, …
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William A. Welch Sr. Elementary School
50 Swampscott Ave, Peabody, MA
/articles/photos-a-playground-for-papi
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Thursday, June 14, 2012
Longtime Welch School teacher Carol Papi is retiring after nearly five decades.
[Editor's note: We're re-featuring this great story from last year about the life and career of late Peabody native Carol Papi.] Carol Papi, a Peabody native, started teaching the city’s youngsters when she was 21, and now 48 years and about 1,200 students later, she’s finally decided to retire. Papi and 13 other Peabody Public Schools educators who are retiring this year were recognized in a special ceremony Tuesday. “I’m here tonight on a very happy mission…to try to put into perspective Mrs. Papi’s dedication,” said teachers’ union president Bruce Nelson. He noted, smiling, that he and Papi’s niece were juniors together at Peabody High when Papi was already teaching and after a long career of his own, he’s already been retired for …
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Kiley Brothers Memorial School
21 Johnson St, Peabody, MA
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42.519322
-70.932595
William A. Welch Sr. Elementary School
50 Swampscott Ave, Peabody, MA
/articles/papi-retires-after-48-years-with-future-playground-named-for-her
1733435
/locations/9150764
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
The Welch School is one of 10 finalists across the country for one of five grants to help pay for a new school playground. The projects with the most votes get the grants.
If you vote once every day between now and June 22, you can help the Welch School win a grant for a new playground. The Friends of the Welch School Playground have been chipping in for years to raise $90,000 for a new play structure, and this time they're banking on a visual appeal for the necessary support. The playground committee submitted an application to KaBOOM! for the Let's Play 2012 Video Contest and the Welch School is now one of 10 finalists across the nation. The top five videos with the highest vote totals each get a $15,000 grant. The video, filmed by parents, shows six students attempting to play on the school grounds, but frustrated, to say the least, with only a sandy pit left where a dilapidated tot lot used to be until …
42.519322
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William A. Welch Sr. Elementary School
50 Swampscott Ave, Peabody, MA
/articles/welch-school-a-finalist-in-video-contest-for-playground-grant
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Sunday, June 3, 2012
Each class at the Welch School competed amongst themselves for prizes to be awarded following the outdoor activities, although the fun and games were mostly non-competitive in the traditional sense.
Youngsters at the Welch School celebrated the approaching end to the school year and, of course, summer vacation coming up, with their annual field day on Friday. Each class competed amongst themselves for prizes to be awarded following the outdoor activities, although the fun and games were mostly non-competitive in the traditional sense.
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William A. Welch Sr. Elementary School
50 Swampscott Ave, Peabody, MA
/articles/photos-a-grand-day-for-fun
1733435
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Devin
9:42 pm on Saturday, April 20, 2013
Thank you so much to everyone who supported this project. We are thrilled with the end result! more ›