Dinner to help pay for double lung transplant
Life-long Andover resident Ashley Dias once again needs a lifesaving double-lung transplant, but the $650,000 cost is overwhelming. Even with health coverage, Dias faces considerable medical expenses related to her transplant. Volunteers are planning a dinner/dance to help.
In 1985, Dias was born with cystic fibrosis. She previously underwent a double-lung transplant in 2001 and a kidney transplant in 2005 using organs donated by members of her family. Her sister, Lindsay, went through similar operations as well.
For the rest of her life, Ashley Dias will need follow-up care and daily anti-rejection medications. The cost of her post-transplant medications can range from $2,000 to $5,000 per month, and they are as critical to her survival as the transplant itself.
Volunteers are planning "Breathe Easy for Ashley," a dinner and dance on Saturday, Feb. 11 from 6:30 to 11:30 p.m. at Andover Country Club, 60 Canterbury St. Tickets are $75 a person and include soup, salad, entré©e, dessert and coffee. A cash bar will be available. The event will include silent and live auctions and many raffles. Auction items include gift certificates to local restaurants, jewelry, sports memorabilia, a stay in a private oceanfront home.
For tickets, visit breatheeasyforashley.org. For more information, contact Deb Murray at murray.ken@verizon.net or 508-954-3219 or Gail Conway at 11mvconway@gmail.com or 978-475-6019.
To make a donation in honor of Dias, mail a tax-deductible gift to the NFT Massachusetts Transplant Fund, 5350 Poplar Ave., Suite 430, Memphis, TN 38119. Be sure to write "in honor of Ashley Dias" in the memo line. Secure donations also can be made online attransplants.org. Donors should click on "Patients We Help" to locate Dias.
Garden club offers flowers for valentines
The Spade and Trowel Garden Club of Andover is asking everyone to show their love with flowers this Valentine's Day. The garden club will sell arrangements of cut flowers, dish gardens, and traditional roses the weekend of Valentine's Day from Saturday, Feb. 11 through Tuesday, Feb. 14, at the Mall at Rockingham Park in Salem, N.H.
AYC seeking gently used jeans for teens
The Andover Youth Council has partnered with Aeropostale and "dosomething.org" to help homeless teens, by collecting gently used jeans through Feb. 9.
Upon completion of the collection, the jeans will be counted and taken to a local Aeropostale store. From there, the store will deliver them to a local homeless shelter.
Jeans can be dropped off in collection boxes in the main foyer of Andover High School and at the Andover Youth Services office, 37 Pearson St.
Approximately one in every three homeless people is under 18 and 1.6 to 1.7 million people under 18 will experience homelessness each year. Eleven out of every 100 runaways are between age 11 and 13, according to AYS.
For more information, contact Tony Lombardi at tlombardi@andoverma.gov or 978-623-8241.
Storytelling slam returning to AHS
Another season of StoriesLive in public high schools is underway by "massmouth," fueled by a grant from Mass Humanities for the second year in a row. Last year's launch of the program saw over 1,110 state high school students become introduced to the art of storytelling through the StoriesLive curriculum and the first ever intra-mural high school story slam, which awarded $5,000 in scholarship funds to five winners. Schools that participated last year included Andover High School, which has signed on again this year after rave reviews from both students and teachers, according to organizers.
StoriesLive is a program tailored to help 11th and 12th grade students learn oral presentation and personal narrative skills that can help them navigate applying to the college or job of their dreams.
Students share meaningful, personal stories in a fun, interactive forum while meeting state standards.
found in the Massachusetts Language Arts Curriculum Frameworks.
"The teachers were really impressed by their student's participation...Our students were very, authentically engaged," Pat Whalen, ELA coordinator at Andover High School, said in a release.
massmouth is a non-profit organization that promotes the art of storytelling through live performance, education, and social media.
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Are you hearing some talk around town that we didn't catch? Let us know by calling 978-475-7000, or by emailing townsman@andovertownsman.com.
Animal welfare group seeks input
CoPAL Inc., a three-year-old organization of local community volunteers, supports the welfare of animals in the Greater Merrimack Valley and North Shore. CoPAL will hold its 2012 Planning Meeting on Monday, Feb. 13 at 7 p.m. in the upstairs conference room of Bulger Animal Hospital, 247 Chickering Road (Route 133), North Andover.
Andover residents are invited to attend and to share with CoPAL concerns and ideas about promoting animal interests at the local level.
