Paul J. Gannon PC

Creole, and work or have worked in restaurants, as cleaners, as teachers, a priest, and a host of other positions. The program, grant funded by the Ma. Dept of Education will track the student’s continued success as they continue building confidence in language and enter colleges, promotions, and selections of work. Some already have a master’s degree from their country of origin, and many will begin community college.

Beyond individual achievement, the sense of mutual support and pleasure in their success together was on ready display at their ceremony as awards were given and cheers filled the room. Their comments were unforced and generously expressed.

“I like everything. The teachers and the whole program. We learned about cultural things and saw historic sites.”

“We talked about our futures and how we would continue.”

“We went step by step, and the school mirrors the directions we can all take.”

“It will help me with citizenship, and I met and learned about all cultures beyond my own. That helps.”

The specifics of the program are impressive enough, patient teaching through multiple levels, merging techniques that work for all languages of origin to learn English, incorporating culture and history and providing support for next steps and tracking of outcomes. The qualities less quantified are pride in learning English and embracing American culture, passion for education, and a determination on the part of students and staff at all levels to work together for better and more inclusive opportunities. The contributions of the new graduates may well be felt for generations.

Congratulations, graduates, and staff at Laboure!

Continued from Page 1

Bingo

Family Pop and Taylor Swift Hits Musical Bingo, on June 22 is sold out.

Erika McAuliffe and Rebecca Griffing, co-founders of EMRG Events, organized the Game Days for Oxford Properties and Pappas Enterprises. Erika and Rebecca have seen musical bingo before and knew it was fun and family-friendly.

The bingo players got cards with song names on them. The DJ played a clip of each song and if the player’s card had the song, it got crossed off. Since the songs were from the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, and today, the kids needed adult help for the song names.

Everyone had a great time, marking off songs and dancing to the beats.

In addition to the three Game Days, EMRG is scheduling more events for the fall, such as movie nights, a wellness weekend, a dog Halloween festival, and more. “We’ll be activating the space more,” Rebecca said. These events help bring the community together, the duo said, noting the area around the Recreation Station is a beautiful place for the community to hang out.

The Game Day activities featured not only bingo, but also food trucks, a variety of kids games, activities from the Rec Station – the binoculars were quite popular – and trees to climb.

Emerald Davis and her family checked out the Travel through the Decades Bingo. “It’s really nice,” she said. “This is so great.”

Emerald has come by the Rec Station but has never opened it up. This event has changed that.

“It’s nice because I feel like this part of Southie I never spend any time in and I don’t really think of it as Southie.”