10 | JUNE 11 - 17, 2021 | WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM
CITY VOICES LETTER TO THE EDITOR
WORCESTERIA
DON LANDGREN WORCESTER BUS FARES DEBATE
Request to the Town of Leicester administration to use American Rescue Plan money wisely Margaret Darling My Mom was born in Leicester 1921. It’s 100 years later and the town still has 7 water/sewer districts. It is time to take Leicester out of the dark ages and give us one viable water/sewer district. The time is now and the funds are available, please do not waste this opportunity. The districts are a quasi-private/public entity. The enabling act through the House of Representatives has the final say on so many requested changes. The money from the American Rescue Plan will allow the town to move forward with a single water/sewer system. We won’t get this chance again, please act now. Margaret Darling lives in the Cherry Valley section of Leicester.
FIRST PERSON There is a GoFundME page set up to help 13-year-old Jaden Jaillet in her battle against acute myeloid leukemia. SUBMITTED
Fundraising effort aims to help Leicester girl, 13, battle leukemia Victor D. Infante Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK
It started with what they thought was a stomach ache. Just weeks before, Jaden Jaillet, 13, of Leicester had been in Georgia playing in a tournament with CMASS volleyball. There was no reason to believe that the athletic eighth-grader and straight-A student was sick at all. But according to her aunt, Stacey Novia, what started as a stomach ache led to a trip to urgent care, and by the time that Jaden and her mother, Angela, had returned home,
they already had a message telling them to go to the emergency room. Jaden’s white blood platelets were extremely high. Within 24 hours, they discovered that Jaden had acute myeloid leukemia. “It was like getting hit with a brick wall,” said Novia. Jaden has been undergoing treatment at UMass Medical Center for the past eight weeks, not being allowed to leave her fl oor. “She can’t leave the room,” says Novia, “can’t go outside. Any type of infection, and she’d be seriously ill.” The current plan is to transfer JaSee FUNDRAISER, Page 12
The Library of Disposable Art – The pet’s in the mail David Macpherson Special to Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK
When I was a kid, I think one of the best parts about the comics I picked up at the drugstore were the ads. I was fascinated about the full-page ads for the Sea-Monkeys. I never bought them, because I didn’t want my mail order animals to have human like faces. If I was to judge from what I would get from the picture, I was going to get small humanlike creatures, and I just didn’t think I could handle that. There were also all the ads to teach me how to be big and muscled. I was no longer going to have sand kicked in my face, even if I was cool about it. Or I could not just be buff , but have
the martial arts skills to kill a man with a viper technique. This sounded like a good investment of my fi ve dollars. Recently, I have dived back into these old mags and I linger on these weird little ads. There was one that made me take pause. It was a small one, only a few inches in size, but gigantic in imagination. It read: “Baby Raccoons! One of America’s Favorite Pets! Has always been and still is. Easy to care for. $29.95 with cage. Send cashier’s check or money order along with your phone number and nearest airport. Hialeah Pets. Department 35. Hialeah, Florida.” America’s favorite pet? Really? In what America? And See MONKEYS, Page 12
