Westwood Rotary, WY&FS Honor Five Students With R.A.Y. Award

WESTWOOD, MA - The Rotary Club of Westwood and Westwood Youth & Family Services (WY&FS) proudly announce the recipients of the 2021 Recognize A Youth (R.A.Y.) Award.

Five Westwood students were honored on Monday, October 25 at a ceremony at the Westwood Public Library. The recipients, through their actions, have demonstrated an ethic of caring for others that is essential for the health of our community. This year’s honorees are: Jack Foscaldo, Caroline James, Ryan Kissell, Katie Mullin and Vivienne Woodard.

Jack Foscaldo is a recent graduate of Westwood High School and is currently a freshman at Babson College. He was nominated by Karlene Duffy, faith formation director at Saint Margaret Mary Parish. Throughout his high school years, Foscaldo volunteered his time assisting the parish. In her nomination, Duffy said, “Whenever I need help all I have to do is ask and he comes forward whether it is carrying out 100 chairs for an outdoor event, hanging dozens of lights in the trees surrounding the church, shoveling snow or breaking down after an event.”

He was a member of the Westwood ice hockey and lacrosse teams and a member of the National Honor Society. He also served as a teen mentor for Westwood Youth & Family Services Department's Bullying Prevention Program. Over the last few years, Foscaldo has created two successful businesses on his own. Maple Jack, his maple syrup business, began by taping the maple trees in his backyard. More recently he learned the art of beekeeping and is now producing and selling honey.

Caroline James is an eighth-grader at Thurston Middle School. She was nominated by Westwood resident Laura Horsfall. In her nomination, Horsfall described James “as a thoughtful compassionate girl who loves to read.”

Last year when the pandemic hit and James’s usual activities were canceled, she used her passion for reading to collect books for African Library Project, which establishes libraries in countries like Kenya and Ghana. She collected, sorted and boxed 1,000 books. To raise money for the shipping costs, she hosted Zoom reading sessions for children 1-6 years old, where she would use costumes and props to read stories, play games, and dance. James is a member of the Girl Scouts, the Dance Force Academy in Norwood and the Children’s Choir at St. Timothy’s Parish. At Thurston, she has performed in the school musical and is a member of the Select Chorus.

Ryan Kissell is a 2021 graduate of Westwood High and is currently a freshman at Boston College. He was nominated by Michelle Miller, the town’s veterans’ agent. When Kissell was a junior, he reached to the Veterans’ Services Office about volunteering opportunities and ended up leading two important projects. The first project was raising funds for the USO Phone Card Program, which takes financial donations to purchase phone cards for deployed military members. Michelle noted in her nomination that “these donated phone cards are lifelines to deployed military members and their families. He used the Veterans Office as a resource and sounding board, but he did all the organizing and the work. Kissell led this fundraiser last fall and donated all proceeds to the USO Phone Card program. He timed the project such that the USO would have more phone cards for military members to use during the holidays, a particularly difficult time to be deployed.”

The second project Kissell led was the Memorial Day Grave Decorating last year during the pandemic. During May, there was a limit of 10 people in a single gathering, making decorating quite challenging. Kissell set out a plan so that small groups and families could decorate graves in both cemeteries. He set out timeframes so there would not be large groups in the cemeteries at the same time. The entire process took longer to do safely, but every veteran grave in Westwood was decorated in time for Memorial Day. During his time at Westwood High Kissell was an active member of the Latin Club and co-editor of the “We the People,”a school political magazine. He also authored a “Salute to Troops” series for the Hometown Weekly

Katie Mullin is a senior this year at Westwood High School. Mullin was nominated by WHS Guidance Counselor Caroline Higgins, who knows her from their work on the student-led group, “Let’s Talk About Race, Culture and Ethnicity (LTARaCE). Last school year, Mullin helped organize a day where high school students in LTARaCE went to the middle school and facilitated hour-long sessions on privilege and got the students thinking about bias and racism.

In her nomination, Higgins menntioned how Mullin “was impressive in her commitment to this group and shined as a leader in every way." Besides LTARaCE, Mullin is a member of the high school’s Friendship Club, Westwood Ambassadors, the Fitness Club and the Key Club.

Vivienne Woodard is a junior at Westwood High School. She was nominated by Felicia O’Keefe, the Teen Services Librarian at the Westwood Public Library. Woodard is a frequent volunteer at the library and a member of the library’s Youth Advisory Board.

Once COVID -19 restrictions eased, Woodard single-handedly put weeks of Children's Take and Make crafts together for the library’s littlest patrons. The library staff had been working their way through the alphabet, creating crafts for preschoolers and toddlers based around a different letter each week. Woodard helped package each individual craft since the letter "E." O'Keefe remarked in her nomination that Woodard “comes in with a great attitude and work ethic, she has always been willing to help out with other projects and is always asking, ‘What else can I help with?’ We would not have been able to do this program without her." She is a member of the Westwood Track Team, serves on the Student Council and participates in the high school’s plays and musicals.

At the ceremony, the honorees were celebrated for their accomplishments with their families and those who nominated them.

The Rotary Club of Westwood focuses its service efforts in six areas: promoting peace, fighting disease, providing clean water, saving mothers and children, supporting education, and growing local economies. The club supports the R.A.Y. Awards as a way to encourage and recognize the community service performed by the youth in Westwood. For more information about the Rotary Club of Westwood, please visit www.westwoodrotary.com.

Nominations for the R.A.Y. Award are accepted year-round. For more information on the program and a nomination form please go to the WY&FS page at https://www.townhall.westwood.ma.us/departments/youth-family-services.