2008 Woodie Awards
A chance for city connection
Derek Hawkins and Marc Larocque
Issue date: 9/10/07 Section: News
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With the fall semester underway for most of Boston's colleges, many of the city's off-campus neighborhoods are again feeling the pressure brought by September's influx of students. But a pair of community-oriented events that took place in Fenway and Jamaica Plain this weekend helped ease the tension, bringing students and permanent residents together as neighbors, not nuisances.
On Saturday afternoon, more than 100 Fenway community members gathered in the Fenway Victory Gardens, a seven-acre public garden a half-mile from Northeastern's campus, for FensFest.
An annual celebration of the community and its gardens, residents have put on FenFest for more than 50 years.
Erich Weiss, a sophomore pharmacy major, decided to move off-campus this year and selected the Fenway without knowing any way to connect with the neighborhood.
Walking out of his Queensbury Street apartment Friday, Weiss was invited to the event by Gerry Cooper, a long-time Fenway resident and business owner in the area.
Weiss said he would attend.
"I was wondering if there was a prevalent community here," he said.
The celebration lasted from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday and featured a string trio, which provided a soundtrack of classical music, as well as artists who canvassed the lush landscape. The gardeners served sausage, hamburgers and salad -- and planners of FensFest also supplied veggie burgers for the vegetarians, they said.
"It's really nice to see people in the neighborhood, to get familiar with the faces," Weiss said.
Suzanne Comtois, a long-time resident of Fenway, talked with Weiss and his friends and said she was pleased to see people Weiss's age at the event.
"When I was younger, the older people and younger people didn't get along," Comtois said.
FensFest served as a one-day solution to the generation gap, allowing students to meet their new neighbors in Fenway.
"If only more people knew about it Northeastern and the community could be closer together," said Bonnie Thryselius, president of the Fenway Gardening Society, the non-profit organization that manages the community garden. "It'd be even better if more students had a plot and were gardening."
On Saturday afternoon, more than 100 Fenway community members gathered in the Fenway Victory Gardens, a seven-acre public garden a half-mile from Northeastern's campus, for FensFest.
An annual celebration of the community and its gardens, residents have put on FenFest for more than 50 years.
Erich Weiss, a sophomore pharmacy major, decided to move off-campus this year and selected the Fenway without knowing any way to connect with the neighborhood.
Walking out of his Queensbury Street apartment Friday, Weiss was invited to the event by Gerry Cooper, a long-time Fenway resident and business owner in the area.
Weiss said he would attend.
"I was wondering if there was a prevalent community here," he said.
The celebration lasted from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday and featured a string trio, which provided a soundtrack of classical music, as well as artists who canvassed the lush landscape. The gardeners served sausage, hamburgers and salad -- and planners of FensFest also supplied veggie burgers for the vegetarians, they said.
"It's really nice to see people in the neighborhood, to get familiar with the faces," Weiss said.
Suzanne Comtois, a long-time resident of Fenway, talked with Weiss and his friends and said she was pleased to see people Weiss's age at the event.
"When I was younger, the older people and younger people didn't get along," Comtois said.
FensFest served as a one-day solution to the generation gap, allowing students to meet their new neighbors in Fenway.
"If only more people knew about it Northeastern and the community could be closer together," said Bonnie Thryselius, president of the Fenway Gardening Society, the non-profit organization that manages the community garden. "It'd be even better if more students had a plot and were gardening."
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