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Holliston Vol. 1 No. 9
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August 1, 2013
Medway Woman Thinks Outside the Box
Fall Fair is Fall Fun Annual Fundraiser for Holliston Senior Support Foundation September 7th BY J.D. O’GARA It’s not just any Fall Fair, and it’s not just any yard sale. The Holliston Senior Center Fall Fair, which always takes place on the Saturday after Labor Day, AT 150 Goulding Street. this year on September 7th, from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m., a slew of other high quality items – not to mention baked goods – for a fraction of what they’d cost at retail. The best part is that all of the proceeds from the fair support the Holliston Senior Support Foundation, which funds health and nutrition programs for elders at the center. “Keeping people safe, healthy and in their homes is a priority of ours,” says Lina Arena-DiRosa, Director of the Holliston Senior Center. Programs include yoga and other exercise classes, chronic disease self-management programs and more. What the Fall Fair supports is the Senior Support Foundation. In the past, the Fall Fair, the only fundraiser the center holds, has raised $10,000 to $12,000 toward this end. “No tax dollars are used to fund any program,” says Arena-DiRosa. “It’s all done through donations, fundraising and grants.” There are no charges to the participants of the programs, says the director, although participants may offer a donation.
“America’s Got Talent” Contestant Goes Far in Competition BY J.D. O’GARA It took Donna Purnell over 30 years to tell her parents about her special talent, one she and her husband had kept secret for years. At age 47, Donna, a hockey Mom, teacher and CCD instructor told her parents and brother that she was escape artist “Alexanderia the Great,” and she’d be performing an escape in her home town of Dedham to raise money for Dedham Athletics. “They really didn’t know what to say,” she laughs. “The only other person on this planet who knew besides me and Bill had been my sister-in-law.”
Getting ready. Ruth Gaudreau, Charlie Coles and Elaine Fischer, volunteers at the Holliston Senior Center, organize donations for the Annual fall Fair. This giant yard sale, which this year will be held September 7th, boasts high quality items, and it’s the Center’s one big fundraiser, raising money for health and nutrition programs.
“We put out a basket for each class,” she says. “People can pay or don’t pay, and we don’t know what their choice is.” “The money goes through the Senior Support Foundation to fund the programs that are the Senior Center, so that we don’t have to go to the town meeting and draw from the town budget for our health and nutrition programs,” says volunteer Char-
Nowadays, “Alexanderia the Great,” of Medway, Mass., has gained national acclaim for her performances in the 2013 NBC show “America’s Got Talent,” making it all the way to the live final competition at Radio City Music Hall.
lie Coles, who says he’s been with the senior center, “forever.” Coles, who jokes that he is known as “Charlie Sombrero,” says that one of the originators of the Fall Fair asked him to help out one year.
“She was my junior prom date,” says Bill Purnell. “I was 16, and she had pool in back-
FAIR
ESCAPE
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