This Month's Features

In 1909, in an effort to gain additional publicity for his popular daily newspaper the Boston Post, owner and publisher Edwin Grozier distributed gold tipped ebony canes to selectmen in 700 New England towns with the request that the canes be presented to the towns’ oldest male residents. The idea was that when the holder of the cane passed away, it would then go to the next oldest resident. Originally only presented to males, the custom was expanded to include women in 1930.

Southborough - Shelley Dropkin is a human resources professional and director of human resources at the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology in Boston. She is also a senior curler who was coach and alternate for the Team USA’s senior women who won bronze medals at the Senior World Championships in January in Sochi, Russia.

Massachusetts has always been home to Marilynn (74) and Sheila (78) Brass, accomplished bakers, cookbook authors, and raconteurs. This dynamic duo, who grew up in Winthrop and now live together in Cambridge, have launched a international book tour for their most recent, and third cookbook, “Baking with the Brass Sisters.”

Community meetings, such as this one in East Boston, are being held throughout the city to gather information on senior residents’ concerns. Photo/submitted By Valerie Franchi,...

Terry Durkin (left) shoots a basket in a game against a team from Maine in the Maine Senior Games held in September. By John Orrell,...

Planning a visit to Poland, where his ancestors had lived, Bernard Janicki went online and tracked down the parish priest in the village where his mother had been born. When he arrived in that small town, the pastor helped him examine church records dating back to the early 20th century.

Watertown – When Bernadette Holbrook was just 57 years old, she was diagnosed with Younger Onset Alzheimer’s; one of a rare 5 percent of people with Alzheimer’s who are diagnosed before their 65th birthday. Her husband, Alan, became a devoted caregiver and a passionate advocate for the Alzheimer’s Association. In 2013, after living with the disease for eight years, Bernadette passed away on May 27 at the age of 65.

On Nov. 1, Honor Flight New England marked its 40th one-day trip to Washington, D.C. Since its first flight in June 2009, trips have been made by 1,361 World War II (WWII) veterans or terminally ill veterans including 34 prisoners of war (POW), 53 women, 20 sets of brothers, and seven husband and wife couples. Each veteran is transported roundtrip free of charge.

Now in its fifth year, Project New Hope, Inc., covers a lot of ground, both in geographical regions and the multiple generations of people it serves. The nonprofit agency was formed in 2011 to provide free weekend retreats to military veterans and their families.

Over the past 30 years, Massachusetts resident Anna Gould has been putting her heart and soul into running Camp Sunshine, a facility that focuses on children with life-threatening illnesses and their families. Gould and her late husband, Dr. Larry Gould, started Camp Sunshine on Sebago Lake in Casco, Maine, in the early 1980s.