Westborough's 12-year old boys' soccer team recently competed in the Massachusetts Tournament of Champions held in Lancaster. The tournament is a statewide event featuring twelve boys and twelve girls teams, each a champion of their respective soccer league in the state of Massachusetts.   The boys earned a tournament spot by beating Groton-Dunstable 3-0 in a playoff game to win the Nashoba Valley Youth Soccer League championship. The boys won their first two games of the tournament by beating Pittsfield and Worcester, before falling to Newton United. Overall, the boys placed 5th in the …

  Eight Westborough High School graduating seniors were presented Scholarship Awards during the Rotary Club of Westborough’s Scholarship Luncheon, Wednesday, June 13.  Club president Paul McGrath, pictured on the far left, awarded each a scholarship and a Rotary pen. The winners include and are pictured from left to right: Hajira Shamsi, who plans to attend Northeastern University with a major in international affairs and pre-law Lillian Chen, who is traveling to Clarkson University to study environmental sciences Joshua Saari who will be attending Regis College with aspirations to becoming a…

  In June, the Westborough Community Land Trust (WCLT) marked its 15th anniversary by awarding two $1,000 scholarships to graduating Westborough High School (WHS) seniors. The awards went to the winners of WCLT’s 2012 Earth Day Essay Contest, Jamie Gagliano and Kyle Ashworth, in recognition of their deep appreciation and concern for the natural environment. “We are pleased to mark our 15th anniversary by giving two scholarships instead of one and by increasing the scholarship amount,” said WCLT president John Metzger. “We have expanded our scholarship program as one aspect of our increased …

  Girl Scout Troop 30507 went to western Massachusetts this past weekend to hike the part of the Appalachian Trail that goes over Mount Greylock, the highest point in Massachusetts. Seven members of the troop camped two nights at Clarksburg State Park, and they completed 5.5 miles on June 16. The trek was part of this year’s celebration of 100 years of Girl Scouting. Girl Scouts around the country are hiking parts of the Appalachian Trail.   Information courtesy of the Westborough Girl Scouts.

  Westborough High School's rookie FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) robotics team competed at "Beantown Blitz" at Northeastern University's Matthews Arena on June 2. The Beantown Blitz challenged teams to a “Rebound Rumble.” In the challenge, robots (in teams of three) have to pick up and shoot an 8 inch diameter foam basketball into baskets at three different heights. The Westborough team, known also as Team 4048 or Redshift, placed 20th of 37 teams in the competition. The group was then allied with the fifth place team, moving into the semi-final round …

  The Westborough Public Schools elementary music program was in the spotlight over the past few weeks, as band, orchestra and choral groups showcased their talents for families, friends and teachers. Among the highlights were performances on May 31, June 6 and June 7. Band Musicians Conductors Paul Tomashefsky and Karen Forrest lead the Mill Pond Elementary School grade five and six concert bands in a performance at the school auditorium on May 31. The grade five musicians performed five pieces. Four pieces were featured by the grade six band, including the Liberty March by John Edmonson. …

  Fifth grade students at Mill Pond School walked a portion of the Freedom Trail on Tuesday as part of their study of the Revolutionary War. Including teachers, chaperones and students from four of the 12 fifth grade classes, about 100 people loaded two school buses at the start of school and took a ride to Boston. The buses stopped at the State House in Boston and unloaded into Boston Common. The group was then divided into three tours, each led by a guide dressed in period costume. The guides engaged the groups by sharing stories, jokes and questions of events leading up to the war. The …

  Eighth grade students Sheila Orlando and Christopher LaMountain were awarded the prestigious 13th Annual Middle Level Scholar Leader Awards for Gibbons Middle School. “Our teams of teachers put together a list of student leaders each year to see who would be a good fit for the award,” said Principal Jack Foley. “It was pretty obvious this year.” The award is organized annually by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Middle Level Educators and the New England League of Middle Schools (NELMS). “I was really honored. I appreciated that my teachers thought about me in this way,” LaMountain told …

  A classroom of fourth grade students at Mill Pond School created a milkweed garden that will soon be designated by the state as a butterfly sanctuary. The project was the culmination of a unit of study on Monarch butterflies. “We hatched butterflies,” said Andrew, one of the students of Room 108. “We let them go in the garden.” Led by teacher Sheila Labriola, the class studied the life cycle of Monarch butterflies. The students learned that the butterflies lay eggs under the leaves of milkweed plants. They watched as the eggs developed into caterpillars. “It ate and ate and ate! It got …

  Westborough High School student Amy Haskell is one of 15 high school seniors throughout the northeast who are recipients of the 2012 Custom Computer Specialists Right Start Scholarship. The $1,000 cash award is presented for academic achievement and for standout essays that creatively answer the question: If you were in charge of enhancing education through technology at your school district, what technologies would you implement and why? “Technology has become a vital part of the overall educational experience and the ways that individual districts approach technology varies as much as the…

  Westborough High School students Ben and Elizabeth Anderson are two of six finalists in The 15th Anick Young People’s Performing Arts Festival Concert. The free event takes place at the Marlborough Public Library’s Bigelow Auditorium, 35 West Main St., on Wednesday, May 23 at 6:30 p.m. It is the third concert of the 2011-2012 Yacyshyn Concert Series and it is open to the public. Elizabeth and Ben Anderson have been performing traditional and contemporary Scottish fiddle music together for four years. Elizabeth, 18, studied classical violin and fiddle for ten years. She is a three-time …

Westborough High School was once again the setting for Relay for Life. After a several year hiatus, the event returned because of the efforts of two high school juniors, Anna Skidmore and Catie Raissipour. “My mom has been a survivor for two years. My grandmother survived cancer four times,” said Westborough High School junior Catie Raissipour. “I wanted to do something. I wanted to make a difference.” Catie moved to Westborough in August of 2010, shortly before her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. She noted that despite her mother’s weakened condition during treatments, “she was …

  A bug infestation was reported at Armstrong Elementary School. Dozens of ladybugs, bumblebees, caterpillars, butterflies and others buzzed in the hallways as the second graders dressed in insect costumes to prepare for the production of Goin’ Buggy. “The students look forward to this from the first day of second grade,” said Mara Power, second grade teacher and co-coordinator for this year’s show. “We normally put on the show to wrap up our insect unit each year. But this year we plan to beat the heat by performing the show a few weeks earlier and using it to introduce the unit. The kids …

  Massachusetts’s top two youth volunteers of the year, Rebecca Ackerman, 16, of Westborough and Grace Kirrane, 12, of Fitchburg, were honored in Washington, DC on Sunday, May 6, for their outstanding volunteer service during the presentation of The 2012 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards. The students, along with 100 other top youth volunteers from across the country, received $1,000 awards as well as personal congratulations from New York Giants quarterback and Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning at the 17th annual award ceremony and gala dinner reception, held at the Smithsonian’s National …

  Six students at Hastings Elementary School established a school-wide Animal Appreciation Day, raising over $500 for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to help protect endangered animals. “These girls set an example for other students that you don’t have to be a grown up to make a difference,” said Leigh Becker, school principal. The fundraising idea came from a project in teacher Kristin Robertson’s third grade class. Robertson led her students in a unit on persuasive writing. The girls wrote about protecting endangered animals. During the assignment, the group decided to put their words into …

  On May 5, Westborough Boy Scout Troop 100 will award the rank of Eagle Scout to Erik Brandt. Brandt. The ceremony will take place at 3 p.m. in the Congregational Church on West Main Street. Erik is now recognized as having achieved prestigious scouting awards in both Canada and the United States. In 2008, Erik earned the Chief Scout’s Award, the highest award that can be achieved at the scout level in Scouts Canada. The Brandt family moved from Calgary, Alberta to Westborough in September 2008 and Erik joined Troop 100 in October of that year. As a member of Troop 100, Erik earned 31 merit …

  The Westborough High School Center Stage theater program made a donation to the Pajama Program, a nonprofit organization that provides pajamas and books to children in need. The donation came from a drive the students organized to coincide with their March production of The Pajama Game. They placed collection bins outside of the auditorium during the performances. The donations are now being sent to the Pajama Program. According to the organization’s website, the Pajama Program “works with various agencies to provide new pajamas and books to children in need and children waiting to be …

  Hundreds of new and gently used shoes donated in Westborough are being shipped to needy children in Haiti this week, thanks to 7-year-old Armstrong Elementary School second grader Michael Fisher. “I wanted to do an act of kindness like the elves.” Michael told Westborough Patch, referring to the classic Grimm Brothers fairy tale The Elves and the Shoemaker. Michael read the book as part of a project on fairy tales that his teacher, Mara Power, assigned to his class. The project required each student to read a fairy tale and create a project to go with it. “He told me that he wanted to …

  The cafeteria of Mill Pond School was transformed into a tour of Africa Thursday morning as 94 sixth grade students presented Africa United Day. Each student was dressed as a prominent figure from one of Africa’s 55 countries and showcased his or her research with maps, food, reports and more. “These kids put a lot of hard work into this and it shows,” said Westborough resident Anthony Badway as he was leaving the exhibit. This is the third year for the program presented by the Fireflies Team, a group of four sixth grade classrooms. According to teacher Shannon Barca, the students were …

On Monday, April 9, six Cub Scouts in Westborough Pack 4, Den 3 invited Westborough Patch editor MaryJo Kurtz to speak about communications and reporting. The group met in the basement of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, where Kurtz told the Scouts how to gather information to report a story. She then put them to work. The boys, students at Hastings and Fales elementary schools, were armed with reporter's notebooks and learned the five W's of reporting: Who? What? When? Where? Why? Each boy reported on the jobs of the parents in the room and then interviewed each other about their weekend. "…