Two Scituate mothers are being honored this weekend for helping children with special needs, and a Mattapoisett mother, father, and daughter will hold their first fund-raiser for research to help children with congenital heart defects, after dealing with the disease in their son.
About two years ago, Tracy Johnston and Marynell Henry of Scituate created the nonprofit Community of Resources for Special Education Foundation. On Saturday, they will be honored with the Federation for Children with Special Needs' Community Partnership Award for creating educational programs for special needs kids that bring together the Scituate public schools, the town's recreation department, school faculty, and the community.
Under the leadership of Johnston and Henry, both mothers of sons with autism, the foundation provides lower-cost programs for Scituate's special needs community, helps fund professional development for teachers, and offers programs from after-school social skills and academic support to music therapy and therapeutic horseback riding. The foundation also offers summer camps, seasonal athletics, and clubs tailored to students' interests.
"We didn't know what to expect in the beginning but we were thrilled by how easy it was to collaborate with the school system and the community," Henry said. "Parents of children with special needs and those without are right there with us, every step of the way. We couldn't do it without them."
Kelly Sol Weglowski and her husband, Marc, of Mattapoisett, have started Healing Little Hearts to raise money for research at Boston's Children's Hospital to develop tissue-engineered heart valves that offer children the hope of fewer surgeries. The couple's 2 1/2-year-old son Brady (inset) was born with a congenital heart defect and has had six open-heart surgeries to replace valves as he has grown, Kelly Sol Weglowski said. Valves being researched now would grow with the child.
"Every time he needs an operation, there are risks and a long recovery," she said.
The couple, along with daughter Jillian, started Healing Little Hearts, and its first fund-raising event is scheduled Saturday at the Whaling Museum in New Bedford, with auction items such as sports items signed by Red Sox stars David Ortiz and Kevin Youkilis, and week-long vacations in the Azores and Las Vegas. For information, visit healinglittlehearts.com.
ROW, ROW, ROW YOUR . . . CURRACH? Dress warmly if you want to take in an unusual spectator experience: The Hull Lifesaving Museum's 27th annual signature rowing race scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday at the Windmill Point Boathouse in Hull. Dubbed "The Snow Row," the race covers a 3 3/4-mile triangular course starting at the beach, continuing around Sheep Island, past a day marker at Peddocks Island and back to shore, all within view of the boathouse for the throngs that usually gather to watch.
A Harbor Express high-speed ferry will bring spectators even closer, giving them the chance to see rowers in boats from peapods to Irish currachs to wherries to whitehalls.
GRAMMY FOR AN OSCAR: Oscar Stagnaro of Braintree, a bass player and professor at the Berklee School of Music in Boston, has won a Grammy Award in the Best Latin Jazz Album category for his work on "Funk Tango," by the Paquito D'Rivera Quintet.
HONOR THY PIZZA: Thirty Plymouth North High School National Honor Society students have earned good grades - and pizza, thanks to Tracy Chevrolet Cadillac in Plymouth, which recognized them as "Driven Students" of the month, said Jeff Tracy, dealership president. Beyond the classroom, the students donated many hours to community service, he said, such as providing holiday food baskets to the needy, adopting a family through the Department of Social Services at Christmas, and volunteering at a variety of nonprofit events.
BUSINESS BRIEFS: Java Junction has opened next to the Greenbush commuter rail station in Scituate, and is owned by Ellen Everson of Marshfield. The business caters to the morning commuting crowd, she said, and is open from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. weekdays, and also weekend mornings.
Alba's Bar & Grille in Quincy is moving to a building across the street in spring, the site of the former Quincy Trust. The 10,000-square-foot building was bought by Alba's owner Leo Keka for $1.4 million and will be renovated, including adding a roof-top deck, said Paul Durgin of Conway Commercial, who brokered the deal. Quincy Trust put up the building in 1918, he said.
Dana Parker (inset) of Plymouth, former superintendent of the Silver Lake Regional School District, has been appointed program director at the May Center for Child Development in Randolph, a school serving those with autism and other developmental disabilities.
Southcoast Health Systems, which includes Tobey Hospital in Wareham, has upgraded to 100 percent digital mammography at all nine of its mammography service locations from Fall River to Wareham. Southcoast performs more than 40,000 mammograms a year, Southcoast officials said.
Paul E. Kandarian may be reached at kandarian@globe.com.
