May 2023: Honoring Fallen Soldiers, Fire Station Moves Forwards, Seniors Get Ready to Move On

A Bedford Fire Department honor guard marches on Great Road during the Memorial Day parade. Staff photo by Wayne Braverman

TOWN BOARD, COMMITTEE, AND DEPARTMENT NEWS

The Bedford Select Board approved a deal with a Boston based architectural firm, the next step towards the design for a proposed fire station at 139 The Great Road.
S&P Global (formerly Standard & Poor’s) has sustained the town’s AAA rating, one of 75 among the state’s 351 cities and towns.
A Concord-based advocacy group is spearheading a coalition of area organizations in opposition to a massive hangar expansion on the north fringe of Hanscom Field off Hartwell Road in Bedford.

SCHOOL NEWS

This year, 111 Bedford graduating seniors shared in $173,045 of scholarships at the CSF of Bedford Dollars for Scholars 58^th annual scholarship awards presentation.
See photos from the annual Bedford Senior Prom Stroll along Jenks Trail.
Three teams of Bedford students represented Massachusetts in the Destination Imagination Global Finals in Kansas City. The teams earned second, third and fifth place awards, contributing to the most successful showing in the state’s history of participation.
Students from 17 school districts participated in the 12^th annual Tenacity Challenge at Bedford High School. The event including a keynote address by Dr. Kandice Sumner.
Aleksi Dubaquie-Sanchez maintained the title of BHS Poetry Slam champion in the annual event hosted by Jamele Adams and Bedford High School faculty.
Massachusetts Walk, Bike and Roll to School Day was celebrated in Bedford and across the state in May.
Stress-Free Day was started at Davis School in 2017, and continued this year offering a range of activities for students to relax their minds and bodies. Read what happened here.
Bedford’s Energy & Sustainability Committee partnered with the Green Teams at Lt. Job Lane Elementary School and John Glenn Middle School (JGMS) to sponsor an art contest aimed at increasing awareness of the harmful effects of vehicle idling. Eleven students were honored for their posters.

FEATURES

Families and other community members showed their support of the youth while exploring the myriad students’ artwork that was on display at the Bedford Public Schools’ 29th annual K-12 Art Show. Photo by Jenny Stewart

Bedford High School was buzzing with chatter and excitement during the opening of the Bedford Public Schools’ 29^th annual K-12 Art Show. Get the details here.
“I feel tonight I’m loved because this is where my journey of writing started,” author and BHS alum Boyah Farah explained to a crowd last week in the BHS Library. Read more here.
As Neera Tanden accepts another prominent position in the administration of President Joe Biden, she still remembers her formative years growing up in Bedford.
Six months into their premiere, Bonnie and Pearl are still the most popular act at Job Lane School. Bonnie and Pearl are guinea pigs who reside in a spacious cage in the office of Audrey Jackson, first-year school counselor at Lane.
From Civil War in Somalia and a refugee camp in Kenya, Boyah J. Farah landed in Bedford as a young teenager. The library and teachers in Bedford helped inspire Farah to later write an award-winning memoir centered around the racism he went on to experience in the US.
Bedford Explains talks about the various memorials located throughout the town – where they are and whom they honor. Also, check out this repost of a Bedford Citizen article from 2021 with more information about the town’s many war memorials.
Have you ever wondered about that path running in front of Bedford High School? It’s a lovely path between two stone walls. It is tree-lined and is very bucolic. But why is it there? Learn more here.

SPORTS

Seven of the Bedford High School boys’ and girls’ relay teams were medalists at the recent Division 4 relay meet at Pembroke High School.
Noam Toledano, a Bedford High School sophomore, recently returned from the national USA Gymnastics competition in Oklahoma City, where he emerged as eighth-ranked on the pommel horse and 27^th among all male gymnasts in his age group.
The recent 2023 Relay for Life at Bedford High School raised more than $35,000 for the American Cancer Society through generous donors and the effort of dozens of volunteers.

IN OTHER NEWS

Bedford observed Memorial Day with its traditional ceremonies at multiple locations in town honoring those who gave their lives serving. Former Selectman Joe Piantedosi, was selected by fellow Patriotic Holiday Committee members as grand marshal for 2023.
The bridge crossing the Shawsheen River on The Great Road was dedicated posthumously on Saturday, May 27 in honor of decorated Vietnam War veteran Major Barry Seidman, a resident of Bedford for more than 40 years.
The Bedford Holi celebration, organized by the South Asian Association of Bedford, filled E Field with color at the festival celebrating of love, forgiveness, and harmony.
The First Church of Christ, Congregational was filled with the sights, sounds, and smells of good music and delicious food recently as families and friends came to celebrate the church’s ongoing relationship with the Appalachian South Folklife Center.
The First Parish in Bedford Unitarian Universalist announced that Reverend Jamie Hinson-Rieger is the congregation’s new Senior Minister.
Renovation of the town skate park behind the Bedford Town Center is complete. Read the story here.
Bedford Fire Department, Police Department, and DPW all took place in a successful duckling rescue effort on Middlesex Turnpike in May. Read the amazing story here.
“Bedford is more beautiful this spring thanks to the hard work of residents who spent a Sunday in May cleaning up the town,” said Dan Carroll, CEO of Revise energy services and an organizer of the townwide cleanup event. Volunteers filled more than 100 bags of trash from areas around town.
The First Baptist Church of Bedford welcomes its new pastor, Reverend Kevin T. Cunningham, M.Div.