Laboure Spring Reception to be held on April 27 Remembering Mel King

Event Chair Kelley O’Shea and her 27-member Committee cordially invite you to attend Laboure’s Annual Spring Reception in the delightfully sited “The Exchange”, 212 Northern Avenue. This year’s gala Spring Reception takes place from 5:30 ‘til 8:30 p.m. on Thursday evening, April 27. Since ticket numbers are limited, you can reserve yours on or before Monday, April 24. They suggest you consider Early Bird Tickets for $100 by Friday, April 14. Tickets thereafter are $125.

The 2023 Jack Shaughnessy Service Award Honoree is Tom Tinlin, a family man and life-long South Bostonian. To mention just a few of Tom’s extraordinarily broad community activities, he’s the Chair of the Board for the Brain Aneurism Foundation, a Board member of Zoo New England, the Treasurer of the Board of the City of Boston Credit Union, and the Auctioneer at countless South Boston fundraising events.

In addition to an outstanding location with views, the Spring Reception evening offers you delicious complimentary hors d’oeuvres and beverages, as well as several truly attractive Live Auction items. These include a Las Vegas getaway, an Attitash Mountain vacation week, PINK and Morgan Wallen concerts at Fenway Park, and a private cooking class with Publico Chef Joel Howard, along with Bruins, Celtics, Red Sox, and Patriots sports experiences, as well as fabulous clubs, courses, and tournaments for golf lovers. Dare we say, “And more”?

Join outstanding Laboure supporters such as the John J. & Mary E. Shaughnessy Trust, HYM Investment Group, Boston Global Investors, and Massport: Purchase tickets online at ccab.org/labourespringreception, or by phoning 617-464-8024.

by Rick Winterson

Mel King died on Tuesday morning, March 28, at 94. He was a bona fide, long serving, highly respected civic leader, unanimously praised by the media in words such as “icon”, “visionary”, and “ahead of his time”. King’s passing has had many sad echoes.

Several remembrances have since taken place. Monday at noon on City Hall Plaza, underneath flags flown at halfmast, there was a wreath-laying ceremony and proclamation in Mel King’s honor. The wreath was vividly colored like a rainbow, symbolizing King’s group of activists he called “The Rainbow Coalition”. Well

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Mel King over a hundred members of Boston’s general public attended. Environmental Chief Reverend White-Hammond opened the ceremony. She said the crowd in attendance reflects the legacy King left behind him. Mayor Wu spoke about her own overwhelming sense of loss when she heard of his death, mentioning his work as an activist, a family man, a poet, and a trailblazer. Eloquently, City Council President Ed Flynn referred to King as a “giant”. He went on to praise King’s activism, saying, “He helped unite a city … through King’s leadership, he brought people together”.

Mayor Wu loudly read the City of Boston proclamation in King’s honor, including his educational achievements and his position as a professor at M.I.T. in urban planning. She then quite visibly signed it. She also proclaimed that Tuesday, April 11, would become “Mel King Day”. Segun Idowu, Boston’s Chief of Economic Opportunity, closed the wreath-laying ceremony by saying, “King will always be recalled in his passing”. On a warmly humorous note, it was claimed that Mel King would be especially remembered because he taught so many people to tie a bowtie as well as he could. A viewing of Mel King followed on Monday evening. Services at the Union United Methodist Church and King’s burial took place on Tuesday morning, the 11th.

A Neighborly Reminder to Walgreens

Potholes are a recurring problem in your parking lot between East Broadway and Third Street. It’s not just a problem with the appearance of your parking lot, it’s also something of a safety hazard – both to autos and to your customers who walk across your lot. We can see that you have done some patchwork in the past. But please catch the repairs up again, now that winter has passed. Your parking lot is an important key feature for shoppers at Walgreens. It deserves the same upkeep as the inside of your pharmacy. Thank you in advance.

by Rick Winterson

Perhaps you don’t need to be told about the epic sports numbers generated by the Boston Bruins in the 2022-2023 season. They ran up a record number of winning games in an NHL regular season – 63 victories after last Sunday’s game. This was quickly followed by win #64 and a record number of game points – 133 as of Tuesday’s game. And this was not quite the full Bruins season. They still have one regular season game left to play tonight, against the Canadiens in Montreal.

In other ways, this is a quiet sports week. News about the Patriots was mostly criticisms of Bill Belichick, including the disagreements he (supposedly) has had with Robert Kraft. Real sports news about football won’t really resume until exhibition games begin in August. The Red Sox return to Boston this

Hearts, Hugs & Hope: A Virtual Alzheimer’s Support Group Offered by Compass on the Bay April 20, 2023 6:00 pm.

This is a virtual event sponsored by Compass on the Bay Assisted Living and Memory Support Community Call 617-268-5450 or email Director of Community Relations

Dean Tricarico at dtricarico@ compassonthebay.com for more information and to register for the virtual meeting.

Sports by the Numbers

weekend. They played the unbeaten 11-0 Rays in Tampa Bay – nothing more needs to be said about that. So let’s do some numerical thinking about other pro sports in Boston.

The Celtics completed their season on Sunday with a very creditable Win/Loss record of 57-25 – a .695 percentage – better than two out of three. This is the 2nd best W-L record in the entire NBA; only the Milwaukee Bucks were better (by two games). The Celts’ first playoff game is at 3:30 on Saturday against the Atlanta Hawks, the seventh seed in the NBA’s Eastern Conference. Note that the Hawks’ regular season record is only 41W41L, a relatively weak .500 percentage.

We anticipate the Celts will be at full strength when the playoffs begin. Their depth this season is remarkable. Their most typical starting team includes Smart, Brown, Tatum, Horford, and Williams III (Robert).

Three other Celts were also frequent starters – Grant Williams, Malcolm Brogdon, and Derrick White. If you watched the Celts’ last two games, after they clinched 2nd in the NBA East, you might have noted that Sam Hauser and Payton Pritchard started. They scored very well. Hauser sank 26 points in both of those final games. Pritchard was good for 22 in the first game and he scored 30 (!) in the second. In addition, he came up with his first triple-double (30-14-11). In other words, the Celts now have five players on their bench who could form a strong starting team if required. Shades of Bill Walton and his talented bench buddies on the 1986 championship Celtics. In addition, durable Derrick White has played in every single Celtics game this season – all 82 of them.

Among the Bruins offensive players, Pastrnak notched a season total of 60 goals on his hat trick in win #63.

That’s great, but let’s look at defense numbers for a bit. Go to the final two columns of the NHL Standings, where you’ll see the Bruins have scored 300 “Goals For” (“GF”) and allowed only 173 “Goals Against” (“GA”), a big difference. Among all of the 32 NHL teams, only the Edmonton Oilers have a slightly higher “GF” at 318. However, the Oilers’ “GA” are a very high 257 –their defensive efforts are much worse than the Bruins. In fact, if you look down the “GA” column in the current standings, you’ll see that only the Bruins are below 200 – far below. The takeaway: the Bruins defense, starting with the goalies, is more responsible for breaking NHL records this season than their offense. Shades of Bobby Orr and the Bruins back in the ‘70s. But no matter what, when you tuned in to recent Bruins games it’s likely you were watching the best professional hockey team that ever played the game!