Thank you to Diana, Hwei-Ling, Irv and David for stepping up, waging positive campaigns, and providing good choices for voters.

Thank you to Hwei-Ling and Rob for their service on the Select Board.  I learned so much from both of them, and I very much appreciate the tremendous efforts they made on behalf of Amherst. 

I am grateful for this opportunity to serve, and I thank all who made it possible. 

The polls are open 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. 

Now don’t forget to vote!

Information overload:  Check out the Select Board candidate answers to school-related questions on the ACE site and the very different responses each of us gave to a questionnaire from Amherst Taxpayers for Responsible Change. 

Info overload, part II:  ACTV is rebroadcasting the Chamber of Commerce breakfast forum, the League of Women Voters’ Candidates’ Night forum, the Bangs Center candidates’ forum, and all the candidate interviews on Isaac Ben Ezra’s show, Conversations, multiple times between now and the election.   Different shows are on different channels, so check all the schedules to find the ones that interest you the most. 

And yet:  Despite all this practice at all these venues, I don’t think I’ve nailed my “opening statement” yet.  Read it?  Memorize it?  Wing it?  Flub it.

Photo op:  Have you noticed the new photo quiz on the site?  It takes 20 of the pictures from the photo banner at the top of the page and tests your knowledge of their locations.  Kinda fun.  Kinda humbling.  Give it a shot.

First place:  Don’t know how I’ll place in the balloting, but I do have first place on the ballot.  Can’t hurt, might help. 

Coffee break:  If you haven’t met me yet, and you haven’t learned more than you could ever want to know from ACTV, etc., I’ll be at Black Sheep again on Monday morning from 7:30 to 10:00.  Stop by, grab a cup of coffee, and let’s talk. 

Info overload, part III:  Whole lotta’ links to election info and relevant web sites at Election Central on inAmherst.com. 

Still weird:  It’s a very odd feeling to drive down a street and see signs with your name on them.  It will be even weirder when that O'Keeffe blimp starts hovering overhead on Election Day.  (Kidding!) 

April Fools Day:  Tuesday is Election Day.  What could be more appropriate?  Don’t forget to vote, and please remind all your friends.  Unless they aren’t voting for me, in which case it’s OK if they forget. 

Many thanks:  If you’re on this site, and you’re reading this, it means you’re paying a lot of attention to this election.  Thank you!  We are all better served by more of us knowing and caring about what’s going on, and about whom we elect to represent us.  Whatever choices you make on Tuesday, I thank you for being part of the process.

How did it come to this?

Our rotten financial situation is to blame for this temporary insanity, because people are rightfully worried about their tax bills and protecting the services they most value, but we have to keep some perspective.  If people in town start looking at the schools as a resource drain rather than as an investment (because not only are children our future, but the quality of our schools affects the value of our property, and reflects the values of our community) then the budget could be the least of our problems.  Talk about an Amherst one would not recognize or desire. 

You could say I’m “old school” about our schools.  I believe strongly in the social contract and our collective obligations to one another.  I have consistently voted to support School Committee recommendations at Town Meeting, as well as proposals supporting the fiscal responsibility and revenue growth necessary for our schools and the rest of our community to thrive.  And I want to live among people who take pride in great schools and in what we all contribute to their greatness.  That’s among the reasons I chose to live in Amherst. 

The School Committee has policy authority over the schools, but that doesn’t mean that the Select Board has no role.  The most important thing the Select Board can do to support the schools is to work to ensure that they are adequately funded, and that means addressing our financial crisis.  Addressing that crisis is why I’m running. 

You can learn more about my and the other candidates’ views on our schools, and on the interaction of the Select Board and School Committee on the ACE site, where our responses to such questions are posted. 

Do consider coming by next Monday morning – and tell your friends.  I’ll be at Black Sheep again, 7:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., and I would love to talk with you.

Hope to see you Monday!  Tell your friends!

Two days after I started putting my lawn signs out, Hwei-Ling called me to ask if I would agree not to put them out until mid-March.  Mmmm, a little late.  She is framing the issue of signs as “visual pollution.”

Fair enough.  We all have different campaign concepts and aesthetic preferences.  But it seems to me that if the signs offend your sensibilities, you eschew them – a perfectly rational choice – not limit your use of them.  If you consider them a blight on the landscape, then why is that OK for three weeks but not for six? 

If I consider it obnoxious to campaign by having a truck with a megaphone driving around blaring “Vote for Stephanie!” then I wouldn’t do just a little of that – I’d do none.

But this isn’t really about aesthetics or appropriateness – it’s about politics.  See – I’m learning.

Life is funny.  Politics is funnier.  I’m just soaking it all in.

It was quite the political event, and not just in the Presidential and Gubernatorial spheres.  I saw my fellow Select Board candidates there – Diana Stein, Irv Rhodes and Aaron Hayden.  I also saw the Town Manager and all the current Select Board members, with the exception of Hwei-Ling Greeney – who is both current and a candidate – and who no doubt was busy doing her good work at Not Bread Alone.    

This was my first time seeing Governor Patrick “live.”  I was impressed by how long he spent chatting and shaking hands with people in the crowd afterwards.  He probably has a lot of places he needs to stump for Obama today, but he sure didn’t rush away when he was done speaking.

And have I mentioned our indefatigable State Rep Ellen Story?  She’s everywhere.  In the past couple of weeks, I have seen her at a Chamber Breakfast, the Habitat house dedication, the Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast, the four-towns Regional Schools meeting, and now this.  State Senator Stan Rosenberg attends lots of events also (I saw him at the Town’s 250^th Anniversary Celebration fundraiser, as well as at the Habitat dedication) but Ellen is ubiquitous.  And she has a real gift for remembering people’s names. 

Met some friends for ice skating at the “rink” on Kendrick Park.  I keep seeing DPW guys spraying it down with water in the mornings.  The ice was quite good.  A little bumpy – I guess the zamboni will have to wait for next year’s capital budget.

Here’s Jonathan and me after we nailed our triple-lutz/double-axel combo.  Or something like that.

Warmed up afterwards with a nice dinner at Amherst Brewing Company.  A great Friday night downtown.    

And the Big Brother says that he can’t imagine life without his friend.  The young boy was part of his wedding.   When the “Big” was on vacation, he called the “Little” because he missed him, and he missed being involved with what the child was doing.

They told us that people worry that they don’t have enough time to do this, but the folks from the program said that you schedule the time – a couple hours, once a week – just like you schedule everything else you do, and they said it soon becomes a regular part of your life – and one that you treasure. 

The concept is intimidating – the commitment, the responsibility – but something that really struck me was a sentence in a brochure they gave us:  “Bigs aren’t there to be therapists or surrogate parents; just to be friends.”

How cool is that?  Imagine how big a difference you could make in a kid’s life just by being an attentive, reliable and dedicated friend.  “Improved self-esteem” is cited as one of the major benefits for the children. 

If this piques your interest at all, get in touch with the program’s Director, Renee Moss, at 253-2591.  You will be so impressed by how thoroughly they research and interview the kids and the mentors to ensure a good match.  In fact, Renee said that it would be better for a child to have no match than to get a bad match, because these kids often come from lives with a lot of disappointments.  The efforts that go into making the match, and supporting it – with constant follow-up to make sure it’s working, events and activities to keep things interesting, and generally keeping the “Big” and the “Little” close in the program’s “family” – will really blow you away. 

If you can’t be a “Big,”  there are other ways to help.  Money – always needed! – funds the staff that make and support these matches, and that is a lot of work.  Free tickets to events, activities and venues is a huge help – “Bigs” can’t necessarily afford to fund the fun of this relationship.  There are other needed supplies and ways of helping out that Renee would be happy to share.  Don’t forget the number:  253-2591.  Or check out their web site:  www.bbbshampshirecounty.org.

Sure, there’s wood and nails too, but the real structure of Kathy and Rachel Perry’s new house on Stanley Street is human kindness.

On Sunday, professional and volunteer builders, donors, friends and neighbors gathered for the house’s dedication and the presentation of the key to Kathy.  It has been a long time coming.  Construction began in the fall of 2006, and Kathy and her daughter, who has just turned 13, have put in countless hours helping with its creation – from hammering nails to picking out light fixtures, and every element in between.  This “sweat equity” is among the requirements of those chosen for Habitat houses.

Kathy and Rachel with an embroidery sampler presented to them at the dedication.

I first went to this site more than a year ago, when the house was in its early stages, and I was intending to write an article about it for inAmherst.com.  As I was doing my research and preparation, the Gazette ran an article, and I decided to hold off for a while so that we weren’t both telling variations on the same story at the same time.  Unfortunately, I never got back to my article, but I have loved watching the house “grow” since then. 

The house was designed by Kuhn-Riddle architects and it is extremely energy-efficient, with thick insulation, abundant natural light, and efficient appliances including a propane heating unit that heats the whole house without ductwork, and an on-demand water heater that heats the water as it is needed instead of heating and maintaining stored hot water in a giant tank.

Here are some early-construction images.

A crew pauses to plan what happens next.

Kathy and a volunteer measure twice and cut once.

While the framing was exposed, visitors and volunteers contributed their good wishes…

…including State Rep Ellen Story, who has been to the site on numerous occasions.

… and a wreath.

Kathy and a volunteer take a well-earned coffee break.

And today:  Mount Norwottuck, as viewed from the window of Rachel's new bedroom.

It is also a celebration of the future, with scholarships awarded to students of great promise.  I wish I knew the names of those who won, but I wasn’t taking notes during the presentation.  Their speeches brimmed with initiative, accomplishment and optimism.  The reminder that the young people of today are the leaders of tomorrow – and that as such, we all have so much invested in them – invigorates and gives vital perspective.

UMass interim Chancellor Thomas W. Cole Jr., who knows something about both discrimination and the promise of youth, summed it up perfectly in his keynote address when he said that all of us stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. 

A powerful way to spend a Saturday morning.   

This mural is in the entry of the Middle School.  I couldn’t find attribution of who created it, but it is lovely.

Dr. King was also an alum of Boston University, and on campus there is a sculpture in his honor that always delighted and inspired me.   I’m having trouble finding a good picture of it, but if I do, I’ll add it, or add a link to it.

[Update: Found a good image, see below]

This is the "Free at Last" sculpture in front of Marsh Chapel on the campus of Boston University.

Image © Flickr user wallyg. ]]> tag:www.stephanieokeeffe.org,2008://2.31 2008-01-17T01:56:31Z 2008-01-17T04:54:10Z

Good time and a good turn out at the Chamber’s “Love is…” After 5 event.  Met nice people, had great food – this was quite a spread – fancy passed hors d’oeuvres, an amazing cheese & veggies & dip table, and lots of chocolates and sweets from the various Valentine vendors.  I had a cupcake from Atkins that tasted just like a Twinkie – and that’s a good thing.

]]> So good Valentine’s gift ideas?  Elements Hot Tub & Spas, an evening out by chauffeured limousine from Exclusive Car Service, a facial from Cheryl Nina Salon – do you notice a certain pampering theme here?  Everyone’s displays were lovely – and some were also delicious.  Have you had Mizz Annye’s Barbecue Sauce?  Yum!  And it turns out that she and I are both BU alums. 

I ran into this fellow.  Not sure if I convinced him to vote for me though…

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It’s $5 for Chamber members and $10 for non-members.  Call 253-0700 for more info.

I hope to see you there!