Brookline Police Sergant Bob Murphy shakes hands with Lincoln School Kindergartener, Collins Maguire, 6, during the school’s “Thank a Helper” event in the school’s gym Friday. Photo courtesy the Lincoln School.

By Brock Parker, Town Correspondent

More than two weeks after the Boston Marathon bombings, students at Brookline’s Lincoln School presented thank you letters to emergency workers and other first responders Friday morning.

Students at the Kindergarten through 8th grade school spent the week drafting thank you cards, notes and letters to first responders who helped save the lives of the people injured in the April 15 attack, according to the school.

Brookline Police Officer Keith Lacy greets Lincoln School First Grader Rosemary Cheng, 6, at the school’s “Thank a Helper” event. Photo courtesy the Lincoln School.

The school called the letter writing project “Find a Helper” in reference to the late “Mr. Rogers,” Fred Rogers, who quoted his mother saying that you can always look for and find people helping.

Boston Police Officer Juan Seone, Brookline Police Officer Tim Stephenson, and first graders Felix Destin, 7, Maxima DaSilveira, 7 and Gil Arkin, 7. Photo courtesy the Lincoln School.

Friday morning, representatives from Brookline and Boston police and fire departments, as well as nurses, doctors and others came to the Lincoln School on Kennard Road and received letters from the students.

“We wanted to find a way to address what happened, while also giving our students an opportunity to express their feelings in a positive, constructive way, said Lincoln School Principal Kristen Herbert in a press release Friday. “This hit close to home for many of our students.”

According to the school, parents of Lincoln School students were among the police, fire and emergency medical technicians who responded to the bombing. Several nurses and doctors who treated victims of the attack are also parents of Lincoln School students, and many families of children at the school were close to the victims or were at the finish line at the time of the explosion.

Brock Parker can be reached at brock.globe@gmail.com

By Brock Parker, Town Correspondent

Road closures and traffic delays are expected in Cambridge and Boston and several neighboring communities Sunday as more than 40,000 people are expected to participate in Project Bread’s 20-mile Walk for Hunger.

The walk to raise money for hunger relief and prevention will start Sunday, May 5, at 7 a.m. at the Boston Common, and will lead to several road closures in the area, including the closing of Charles Street between Boylston and Beacon streets between 6 a.m. and 6.p.m. The outbound side of Commonwealth Avenue from Arlington Street through Kenmore Square will be closed from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m., and other streets around the Boston Common and Kenmore Square will also be closed. The route map can be found here and a full list of the street closures and traffic restrictions can be found here.

In Cambridge, Memorial Drive will be closed between Fresh Pond Parkway and Western Avenue from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, and other closures, parking restrictions and traffic delays are expected.

In Brookline, the outbound side of Beacon Street will be closed between St. Mary’s and Carlton streets from 7 a.m. to noon.

In Newton, Exit 17 from I-90 Westbound will be closed from 10 a.m. until the heavy flow of walkers subsides around 2 p.m. and other closures and delays are expected.

In Watertown, Greenough Boulevard will be closed between North Beacon and Arsenal Streets will be closed to vehicles from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

(Matt Rocheleau for Boston.com)

By Matt Rocheleau, Town Correspondent

The temporary extra patrols of well-armed police officers and soldiers in MBTA stations are gone. But the quest to bolster the long-term safety of the public transit system is far from over.

The T still has $80 million in unspent federal homeland security grants, which have been doled to public transportation systems across the country since 2002.

The $60 million in federal grants spent by the T over the past decade has helped make the agency a national leader in the industry of public transit safety.

“The efforts toward security and policing that the MBTA has had in place for a number of years have really been looked at as a benchmark for the industry,” said Greg Hull, director of operations, safety and security for the American Public Transportation Association.

And, when the bombs went off at the Boston Marathon two weeks ago, officials at the MBTA said that, while shocked and devastated like the rest of the city, they were prepared, largely due to the new equipment and training acquired in recent years.

“It was controlled chaos,” said Randy Clarke, senior director of security and emergency management for the MBTA and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.

He described the atmosphere of the T’s central hub for dispatch and communications, or Operations Control Center, as officials scrambled to secure stations and stop some service after the explosions at Copley Square, and then again several day later when the system was shut down during a lengthy manhunt.

“I hate to say we’re used to crises and trained for them, but we are,” Clarke said.

On Monday, two weeks after the Marathon bombings, MBTA officials gave a tour of the control center, which includes some of the transit industry’s most sophisticated technology for daily operations and security.

By Brock Parker, Town Correspondent

Newcomer David Pollak was elected to the Brookline School committee along with incumbents Helen Charlupski and Susan Wolf Ditkoff Tuesday in the town election.

Ditkoff received 4,992 votes to top the ticket in the race for three school committee seats. Charlupski received 4,544 votes, and Pollak secured the third seat with 4,292 votes while fellow challenger Laurence Onie lost with only 1,606 votes, according to unofficial results from the Brookline Town Clerk’s office.

In an uncontested race, Neil Wishinsky was elected to the Board of Selectmen with 5,291 votes and will fill a seat left vacant by Jesse Mermell, who took a job with Gov. Deval Patrick’s administration in January.

In a race for four seats as a trustee for the public library, challenger Puja P. Mehta was elected with 4,142 votes along with incumbents Michael A. Burstein, who received 4,343 votes; Jennifer Rees, who received 4,274 votes; and Judith A. Vanderkay, who received 3,873 votes. Challenger Magdalene Moran received 2,381 votes and failed to win a seat.

Voters also selected a number of Town Meeting representatives in the local election and a full list of the Town Meeting results can be found on the town’s website.
In the special U.S. Senate Primary election Tuesday, Democratic nomination winner Edward Markey received 6,851 votes in Brookline to top challenger Stephen Lynch’s 916 votes. In the Republican Primary, winner Gabriel E. Gomez received the most votes in Brookline with 439 to challenger Michael Sullivan’s 252 votes and Daniel Winslow’s 175 votes.

By Brock Parker, Town Correspondent

A stripper’s chaperone has settled a federal lawsuit against four off-duty Brookline police officers whom he claimed assaulted him at a bachelor party in 2010.

Under the terms of the settlement, the police officers agreed to pay Robert Sonia, of Lynn, an undisclosed amount, said attorneys for both sides Tuesday.

Sonia filed the suit in U.S. District Court in April 2011 saying the four police officers assaulted him before conspiring to concoct a story that would lead to his arrest.

“He’s happy to have it resolved,” said attorney Michael Tumposky who along with John Saliba represented Sonia in the case. “It was a long process for him and he’s happy to put this part of his life behind him.”

Sonia’s suit stemmed from events on March 28, 2010, when Sonia says the officers - Daniel Avila, Brendan Kelliher, David Hill, and Yu Kajita - called Shamrock Entertainment in Lynn to request a stripper. Sonia accompanied the woman, Theresa Soundis, to a Beacon Street apartment at about 4:30 a.m., but the four officers said the bachelor had left the party, and they canceled the entertainment.

Sonia said that after he and Soundis left the apartment and were attempting to drive away from the 1700 block of Beacon Street, the officers attacked him, leaving him with a broken eye socket and broken ribs. The officers said that Sonia had struck Hill first.

The Brookline Police Department initially placed the four officers on paid administrative leave and charged Avila and Kelliher with assault. At the same time, Sonia was charged with assault and battery and threatening to commit a crime, and Soundis was charged with operating to endanger. All of the charges were dropped in June 2010 at the request of all of the parties involved.

But Sonia then filed the federal suit against the four officers and the town of Brookline, saying the town failed to train the officers properly and failed to take disciplinary action against them after they used excessive force. U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton dismissed the claim against the town in September of 2012, saying Sonia’s injury was not caused by a municipal policy, custom, or failure to train the officers properly, according to court records.

The suit against the four officers had been scheduled to go to trial in April, but Tumposky said negotiations that had been underway for a couple of months led to the settlement, which was finalized last Wednesday, April 24. He said the check for the settlement has already been received.

Kenneth Anderson, the attorney representing the four police officers, said the four officers continue to work for the Brookline Police Department and are well-liked and well-respected.

Anderson said each of the officers paid a nominal amount to settle the lawsuit. He said the decision to settle the case was based on risk assessment, but he declined to say how much the officers agreed to pay.

“It wasn’t for a lot of money,” Anderson said.

--brock.globe@gmail.com

By Jonathan Simmons, Guest Columnist

When Eileen Kneeland rides her bike, she looks like many other recreational cyclists: happy, smiling, and rolling along.

But unlike most other recreational cyclists, Eileen has Multiple Sclerosis.

Fourteen years ago, Eileen went to her doctor because she was not feeling well. On a Friday night, she was diagnosed with MS. By Sunday, she struggled to stand up.

It took Eileen a month of rehabilitation at the same hospital where she had worked as a physical therapy assistant before she was able to walk again. For Eileen, a former college athlete, this was a huge adjustment.

“It was hard to face the fact that I could barely get up and roll over.”

For Eileen, being an athlete helped her recover. “My muscle memory relearned things a lot faster. Also, because I had done physical therapy, I knew what I needed to do.”

What Eileen needed to do was not easy. For this long-distance swimmer, a woman who had always been active, just walking around the cul-de-sac where she lived was a challenge.

“When I first got home, I did walks around the circle. I’d measure how far I went by how many mailboxes I passed.”

The first year that she was diagnosed with MS, Eileen volunteered to help out at the MS walk. As her recovery progressed and she got stronger, Eileen was eventually able to do the walk itself.

Most people with a life-changing illness don’t describe themselves as fortunate. But that’s exactly how Eileen sees herself.

“I’m extremely fortunate, but I know I’ve worked hard to recover. I’m also a glass is half-full kind of person. That’s how my father taught me by how he lived, that’s how I’ve always approached life. Plus I have the support of my husband, Dave, a loving family, and great friends.”

Even with all of these supports, Eileen’s recovery has not been easy. For one, she has had several exacerbations of her MS. Fortunately, they have been controlled by changes in her medication.

As Eileen descirbes it, “There are so many options for treatment now if you get MS.” Once again, this glass half-full woman finds the good in whatever comes her way.

Life has changed greatly for Eileen since she was diagnosed with MS 14 years ago. Although she tried to return to her job as a PT assistant, the physical strain was too much. For a time, Eileen worked ran a work-study program at Holy Cross, her alma mater. But when a position doing community outreach for the Worcester D.A.’s office opened up, Eileen was all-in.

Eileen’s new job was an opportunity. It was also a big change, though one that she quickly embraced.

“I didn’t choose to have MS, but I can choose how I deal with it. And that’s what I focus on when I talk with kids about peer pressure and bullying: I talk with them about the fact that they have choices, too.”

Eileen’s life has changed, to be sure, since she was first diagnosed with MS. She no longer skis—she worries she might fall. But instead of focusing on what she can’t do, Eileen found something new that she can do: ride a bike.

Before she got MS, Eileen did not bike that much. Now, it’s a different story. “I love biking: I can go fast, I get to be outside, and it’s something that my husband Dave and I can do together.”

“When I’m on my bike, I don’t feel like I have MS. I feel centered and balanced.”

Eileen wants people to know that MS is not a life sentence, that you can still be active and happy. And because Eileen can still ride, she will do the Bike MS Martha’s Vineyard Ride on May 4th.

“It’s my way of riding for those who can’t ride.”

Centered and balanced, caring and giving: that’s Eileen, both on and off of the bike.

Full Disclosure: I donated to support Eileen’s ride.
More disclosure: it’s not too late to donate to Eileen.

Jonathan Simmons is the author of “Here For The Ride: A Tale of Obsession on Two Wheels.”