BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey hosted a meet-and-greet Thursday at the State House with astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams and local students.
Williams, a retired Navy officer, is from Needham. She is the first woman to fly on a flight test of an orbital spacecraft during the 2024 Boeing Crew Flight Test and recently returned from nine months on board the International Space Station after technical problems stretched out the planned eight-day mission.
She was joined by students from Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School, British International School of Boston Middle School, Boys and Girls Club of Boston students and members of the Science Club for Girls. The gathering was in part to promote careers in science, technology, engineering and math.
"It was great to welcome Suni Williams to the State House and back home to Massachusetts," said Healey. "Her resilience and dedication to service serves as an incredible model for young people across the state, reminding them that their potential is as limitless as outer space. We hope that some of the students who joined us today will be inspired to pursue careers in STEM and truly reach for the stars."
Williams graduated from Needham High School and the U.S. Naval Academy, earning her master of science degree in engineering management from Florida Institute of Technology. An experienced naval pilot, she began her NASA astronaut training in 1998. She has been to the ISS three times, totaled more than 62 hours in spacewalk time and more than 600 days in space, and ran the Boston Marathon in 2007 while on the ISS. Her hometown named its elementary school after her.
"As chair of our STEM Advisory Council, I’m so glad that students across Massachusetts have such an amazing role model in Suni Williams," said Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll. "We thank her for visiting the State House today and sharing her inspirational story with us all."
During the visit, Healey awarded Williams with a Governor's Citation in recognition of her dedicated service to her country and space exploration.
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Main & Mill: A Vibrant New Restaurant on Main Street
By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — You can now enjoy another eatery on Main Street by well-known restaurant siblings Colleen and Sean Taylor.
Their restaurant Main & Mill opened for the first time Tuesday, bringing their vision of creating something vibrant and new to downtown North Adams.
"We have created Main & Mill to be part of our day. It's very seasonal ingredients, thoughtful cooking, beauty, beautiful presentation and dishes. And we really wanted to be part of the community, the downtown area, and start a vibrant area on this end, which has been shuttered for a while," said Colleen.
The building is owned by Ginko on Main Street LLC, which has granted 20 years exclusive possession of the property to Latent Builds as the developer. Jack and Suzy Wadsworth, behind Ginko, are development partners with Karla Rothstein and Salvatore Perry of Latent.
The bank closed in early 2021 and was purchased by Ginko late that year. Plans for the property unveiled three years ago envisioned a restaurant, retail, a park and rooftop bar.
Colleen saw potential and said she initially wanted the building when it first went up for sale. Being good friends with Rothstein and Perry, she helped them design the kitchen and the bar before learning in March that she could lease it as a restaurant space, something she told them would be a great idea.
She said one of the most important things about the restaurant was the collaboration between Rothstein, Perry, and the Wadsworths, who put a lot of time and energy into the building.
"If Sean and I had done it, we would not be able to do what the collaboration supported. The collaboration of the three of us being able to really have that kind of money to put in down here. The design that the architecture firm that Carla and Sal own is stunning," she said. "The time and effort, everyone came together to do this in a really trusting manner."
The two wanted the restaurant to be an all-day venture, so people could eat at any point throughout the day, all week long.
"We wanted it to be open for coffee and socialization in the morning where people can meet, have their cup of coffee, have a quiche, a vegetarian quiche, or croissant or yogurt. Something intentional with their coffee," she said. "Then move into a lunchtime for the downtown business or anybody, and then go into supper, dinner, with drinks later into the evening. So have it really be open all day long, so that there wasn't a void on any particular day."
They also wanted to do something different than the other restaurants they owned.
"We didn't want to mimic any other restaurant in town. We wanted to bring something that was inspiring, something that had some familiar things that people would see, and other things that we would bring to them for them to experience," she said.
As a woman business owner, Colleen said she wanted to bring a female chef into the kitchen.
Colleen brought on Chef Anna DeRose, who she said puts twists on a lot of her dishes.
"So we have a creme brulee, but our creme brulee is topped with marshmallow," she said. "Our creme brulee is like almost two desserts in one. It's a s'mores creme brulee. So you could have a s'mores, and you could have a creme brulee - but when you put both of them together, fireworks go off."
Jake Eberwein showed the committee sections of the nbess.org website, including the resources page, which will be key to keeping residents informed about the study’s findings and collecting information from those residents. click for more
The planes were paper, the buildings cardboard and Main Street was a hallway at Colegrove Park Elementary School, but the setup represented nearly two weeks of creative research and design by the pupils in the public schools' 21st Century Summer Program.
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