CAPTION: Hill House Executive Director David Beardsley.

Hill House, the independent community center that provides sports, music classes, art classes and community events for more than 1,500 families throughout the city, has begun its annual fundraising Appeal Campaign.
Dana Lewis, chairwoman of the Hill House fundraising committee and a member of the board of directors, said the goal of the campaign is to raise $150,000. The campaign is roughly halfway to its goal.
“It’s been going great,” said Lewis. “The campaign is going well mostly because I think people are appreciative to have the community center right in their neighborhood. We have a very supportive community. We have a committee of about 30 people working not only on the Annual Appeal but Hill House fundraising in general. ”
David Beardsley, executive director of Hill House, said that it costs about $1.2 million to run Hill House each year. Program fees fund approximately 65 to 75 percent of those operating expenses, but the organization relies on support from donors in the community to fund the rest, including program scholarships. Hill House does not receive any city, state, or Federal funding.
Families can join Hill House for $100 per year, but no one is required to participate in the programs at the center. Members pay discounted program fees, and when people register for three or four of the programs in any given year, the discounts generally exceed the cost of membership. Programs are offered for all ages, but mostly for children between the ages of six months and 12 years.
Beardsley said the fundraising campaign is “a really critical element to what we do.”
“The fundraising and the support of the community is what allows us to offer both the volume of programs that we offer and to ensure that they’re at the highest level possible – it’s really what allows us to have such a talented and dedicated staff and such great facilities,” said Beardsley.
Hill House has as its motto, “your backyard in the city.” That backyard is getting bigger as more and more families throughout the city of Boston realize the benefits of having so many activities and sports programs available under one roof. The message of Hill House being a unique, professionally run, non-profit organization in the community is being heard and donors have been responding well to the Annual Appeal.
“It’s really exciting that we’ve seen a big growth in donations across different neighborhoods such as Charlestown, South End, North End, and Chinatown. All those neighborhoods are becoming areas where we have more families participating and where we’re seeing more support to our fundraising efforts.”
Close to 175 people have donated to the campaign to-date. More than 80 people are new donors to the campaign.
At Hill House Beardsley oversees a staff that includes Ian Moorhouse, associate director who manages all of Hill House’s programs; Laurie Backall, marketing and development associate; Liza Roman, finance manager; Ashley Glesser, program associate; Kelsey Bruno, marketing and community relations intern; and Mario Mancia Lopez, custodian.
The sports programs at Hill House are particularly close to Beardsley’s heart. Beardsley played Division 1 college baseball at Harvard University in Cambridge, graduating as a member of the Class of 1988. More than 600 youths participated in Hill House’s soccer program. The Hill House-North End Athletic Association youth baseball league includes among its graduates, Zack Farkes, a catcher in the Boston Red Sox organization.
Dana Lewis said Hill House will continue its Appeal Campaign with a phon-a-thon on Feb. 4 and Feb. 6. The fundraising chairwoman considers Hill House an important part of her family’s life.
“We love Hill House,” said Lewis, a resident of Beacon Hill for 10 years. “It makes it possible to stay in the city because our kids can go there for all sorts of classes and you get a real sense of community. We’re grateful to the community for supporting our efforts. They call Hill House ‘your backyard in the city’ so we’re grateful to everybody for supporting our backyard in the city.”
(People can donate to Hill House through the organization’s website, hillhouseboston.org).

CAPTION: Steven Greenberg, executive director of the Boston Center for the Jewish.

Steven M. Greenberg, executive director of the Boston Center for Jewish Heritage at the Vilna Shul on Phillips Street, couldn’t be happier with the response to the center’s “Boston Jewish Experience: Reconnect to the Tapestry” exhibit that opened in December.
While last month’s wintry weather kept attendance down, those who have walked through the exhibit, located in the museum part of the shul, have been captivated by its extensive look at the Jewish community’s history in Boston and the interactive, multi-media, exhibits that allow people to trace their origin and view historical photographs of area synagogues.
Greenberg said the unique exhibit was designed to inform people about “the Jewish presence in Boston.” Greenberg, along with center board member and museum professional Deborah Feinstein, Brandeis professor Ellen Smith, the Bostonian Society, the Boston Public Library, the West End Museum and other people and organizations helped develop the exhibit.
The exhibit is divided into eight sections: The Way Jews Settled in Boston neighborhoods; the Way They Lived; the Way They Worshiped; the Way They Learned; the Way They Built Community; the Way We Remember; the Way They Moved; and the Way We Are Today.
“There were 115,000 Jews and 50 synagogues in Boston at the height in the 1930s,” said Greenberg. “What this exhibit does is walk someone through that whole Boston Jewish experience in what we call ‘the threads of the tapestry. The tapestry is the experience and the issue is, how do you understand that experience? You pull it apart and look at the threads.’’
According to Greenberg, Boston’s Jews primarily settled in seven neighborhoods, South End, North End, West End, East Boston, Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan.
“The exhibit takes a look at the period from 1850 to 1950, which is a real growth period of Jewish population,” said Greenberg.
In the Way They Lived section, visitors will see that Jews built houses of worships, schools, club, kosher meat markets, bakeries, and stores where they lived. Greenberg said the Way We Are Today section illustrates that “we’re open and proud about being Jews and being proud about Israel.”
Greenberg said one of the most exhibit’s most popular attractions is an information booth where visitors can learn about all aspects of Judaism or do genealogical research. “People can look up their surname and learn about their family history,” said Greenberg. “We wanted to make the exhibit as interactive as possible and as in-depth. We’re working with the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston and once a month, we’ll have a genealogist here.”
Greenberg said about 300 people have walked through the exhibit since it opened in mid-December. “On the day we opened, there was a snowstorm and 12 brave souls came in and viwed the exhibit,” said Greenberg with a smile. “We do give tours but many people like to walk through the exhibit themselves because there’s a lot of information here. People stand in each section and try to get a sense of what it must have been like to have this Jewish community from East Boston all the way to Mattapan. Most visitors have been unaware how extensive the Jewish community in Boston was.”
Greenberg, who grew up in Natick and has a Master’s Degree in Regional Planning from Cornell University, wants residents to come and enjoy the exhibit. He said the Vilna Shul is historic in its own right as “the only building left in Boston that was a synagogue in the immigrant era and still is a synagogue.”
“We want people to come from everywhere to see our exhibit,” said Greenberg, “We feel it’s a good exhibit that covers a lot of ground. We’re very proud of this exhibit. I’ve been told by people who lived through this era that this exhibit represents it, and their community was made up of all the things you’ll see in the exhibit.”
Admission to the exhibit is free. The exhibit is open Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Suffolk University filed its institutional master plan notification form with the city on Friday, despite the objections voiced by the Beacon Hill Civic Association over a lack of detailed information about plans for the 20 Somerset Street building. The filing, however, came with a pledge from university Vice President John Nucci to discuss a non-expansion zone in Beacon Hill.
“While any potential impacts [from 20 Somerset] have been addressed with the Task Force over the last several months, we agree that with the approval of 20 Somerset Street, discussion and negotiation of a non expansion zone is appropriate for the Upper Beacon Hill area,” said Nucci. “Specific details and boundaries should be the product of review by stakeholders with the aim of reaching a mutually beneficial agreement.”
A non-expansion zone could be an important carrot to offer to the neighborhood in light of recent resistance voiced by community groups to Suffolk’s plans. Members of the BHCA objected to the inclusion of the 20 Somerset Street project in the IMPNF because of a lack of details about the potential impact on the neighborhood. Suffolk plans to use address to house its New England School of Art and Design, currently located on Arlington Street in the Back Bay.
“There has been very limited discussion on the impact of a new school at 20 Somerset Street on the neighborhood, and the BHCA position is that the description of the potential impact [in the IMPNF] is inadequate,” said Rob Whitney, the BHCA liaison to the Suffolk Task Force, at a meeting in December. “The neighborhood is already saturated with academic uses.”
Nucci stressed that although the project is included in the IMPNF filed on Friday, a separate project plan has not been submitted, and the IMPNF includes only the intended use for the sight, not details of the project, which will be decided in concert with the community.
Nucci said that he has expanded the public comment period for an additional 30 days, and that he welcomes the opportunity to work with the community.
“We want to be sure that people fully understand that this is a very benign use with limited impacts and we want to be sure they have an opportunity to comment on it,” said Nucci.
In a written statement to the press, Suffolk outlined a number of design principles for the project meant to reduce the potential impact on the community. The principles include a pledge that the height of the new building will not exceed the height of the current structure, that the building use will be solely academic and will not contain any residential, athletic, or student center facilities, and that there will be no increase in shadow impacts on the Garden of Peace, 10 Bowdoin Street or Beacon Hill.