Get Ready For Bocce Behind the High School

1) Newsbit of the Day: 

The idea arose as a way to draw more men to the Swampscott Senior Center, something the center has been trying to do for a while.

The idea? Build a bocce court.

Bocce is a game played with balls on a court, often of grass. Players roll or toss balls. The object is to get your ball closest to the target, a smaller ball called a jack.

The Swampscott court will be about 11 feet by 60 feet, said member Myron Stone. Myron hopes a court will be constructed and ready for use by summer.

It will be placed on an existing strip of grass in front of the entrance to the center, located at the back of Swampscott High. The strip will not influence parking or traffic, officials said.

The School Committee voted their approval for the court Wednesday. Committee member Ted Delano introduced the proposal, needed because the court is on school land.

Deb Bogardus, chairman of the Friends of the Swampscott Senior Center, said Marblehead seniors have challenged Swampscott to a match.

The court will be open for students and others to use as well.

2) Town and School Watch: 

Health Director Jeff Vaughan tells us that curbside trash and recycling will be delayed by one day throughout the week (Monday's pick-up, April 15, will be on Tuesday, etc.).

Town Hall will be closed Monday, April 15, for the Patriots Day holiday.

3) Swampscott Scholars: 

A total of 50 Stonehill College students will work with 32 faculty members on a variety of research projects over the coming summer of 2013 and Swampscott native Amisha Divadkar, a sophomore at the College, will work with Monique Myers, Associate Professor of Communication, on A Cross Cultural Comparison of the Roles and Status of Women and Girls in India and China. Their research will aim to compare and contrast the troubling and crippling customs, practices and norms that serve to marginalize women's roles and status in the two most populace countries today, India and China.

Through extensive literary research, Divadkar, a communication major, hopes to uncover, critique and raise awareness about the oppression and abuse of women and girls worldwide. The results of this research project will be presented at a professional conference in the 2013-2014 academic year as well as potential publication to a scholarly journal.

4) Weather Watch: 

Rain before 2 pm, then rain and sleet between 2 pm and 3 pm, then rain after 3 pm. Patchy fog after noon. High near 40. Breezy, with a east wind 17 to 22 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100 percent.

5) School Watch: 

Here are items listed on the School District calendar:

• 07:00AM CLASS OF 2014- BAGEL WORLD
• 02:35PM CLASS OF 2015 - AFTER SCHOOL PIZZA SALE
• 02:40PM SHS DRAMA CLUB - SPRING MUSICAL

• SPAIN TRIP